Paradise Towers

"A Visitor?  Well it must be a long time since the Tower saw any of those."

Built towards the end of the twenty-first century, Paradise Towers is a massive housing block stretching up towards the sky.  With its beautiful decor, smart apartments, fantastic facilities and high standards of maintenance, it is hardly surprising that the architect, Kroagnon, won many professional awards.  Mel wants to go swimming and as the TARDIS pool has been jettisoned due to a leak, Paradise Towers seems to fit the bill.   However, when she and the Doctor arrive, instead of the bright squares and charming cloisters the brochure promised, they find dark, rat-infested corridors full of uncontrollable cleaning machines, undisciplined street gangs and over-worked and belligerent caretakers, some of whom are disappearing in mysterious circumstances.

What has caused such terrible decay?  How could such a perfect accommodation become so run down and dangerous?  And why do street-wise Kangs, apathetic caretakers, sinister Rezzies and Pex-the self-appointed warrior who puts the world of Paradise Towers to rights-all fear whatever terrible force dwells in the basement?   Only the unpredictable Chief Caretaker knows what is down there-and the real secret behind the disappearances…

• "Paradise Towers" had many things going for it in the beginning, not least of all the talented Richard Briers (playing the Chief Caretaker).  Unfortunately, this season of Doctor Who really didn't gel together until the next story "Delta and the Bannermen."

• Watch for the continuing degradation of the character of Mel into a screaming and increasingly annoying companion.

• One outstanding moment from this story is the cliffhanger to episode 2.  In the final moments of this episode two grandmotherly residents of Paradise Towers coax Mel into their apartment only to tie her up and prepare her not for dinner, but as dinner.