Wednesday 19 September 2012

666 Paradise Towers Part Three

EPISODE: Paradise Towers Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 666
STORY NUMBER: 150
TRANSMITTED: Monday 19 October 1987
WRITER: Stephen Wyatt
DIRECTOR: Nicholas Mallett
SCRIPT EDITOR: Andrew Cartmel
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Paradise Towers

The Doctor buys the Kangs escape time by surrendering to the Caretakers. Tabby is attacked by waste disposal and pulled into it. Mel is saved by Pex bursting through the door again but then Tilda is also a grabbed by a robot arm coming out the waste disposal. Mel finds a map to get her to the swimming pool to meet the Doctor but the plan has nothing for the basement and warns against going there. The Doctor is taken to the Chief Caretaker who interrogates him to see if he is the Great Architect as he suspects. The Doctor accuses the Chief Caretaker of ordering the cleaners to attack people. They are interrupted by the Deputy Chief Caretaker with story of the Oldsters death. Mel and Pex are trapped by a cleaner in a lift. The Doctor is rescued by the Red Kangs. Maddy, Tabby & Tilda's neighbour & friend, tells the Chief Caretaker that the rezzies are frightened and he warns her not to alarm people, bribing her with Tabby and Tilly's now empty flat. The Doctor watches the Paradise Towers prospectus and remembers where he's heard the name of the Great Architect, Kroagnon, before. With the lift trapped in the basement Mel and Pex hear a voice saying that soon that it will be free. The Doctor thinks that the Kangs parents generation trapped Kroagnon in the basement. The Chief Caretaker is taken to the basement by a cleaner. Pex gets the lift working allowing he & Mel to escape. The Red Kangs tell The Doctor about a secret elevator to the basement but the Blue Kangs arrive. The Doctor convinces The Kangs to work together as the Deputy Chief Caretaker realises that his Chief is missing. Mel finally reaches the swimming pool at the top of Paradise Towers. The Chief Caretaker is taken to the basement where what is hiding there tells him that he wants the Chief's body to live in and declares that it is Kroagnon. The Doctor and Kangs overhear this but are ambushed by cleaning robots.

A bit on a packed episode that with incident coming thick and fast. Good stuff.

Tabby & Tilda have previously referred to having "like minded friends". What they appear to be into is Cannibalism, solving any food shortage they might have, but if you suspect that there might be more to it than that you're right! We see them referred to as Rezzies here for the first time. Obviously short for resident thinks Fourteen Year old Philip completely missing the point that it took Cartmel's book to spell out for him!

The Cleaning robots: what's the point of the drill and circular saw on the front? Surely a hoover or dustpan would be better? They're obvious Dalek wanabees (see also: Mechanoids, Chumblies, Quarks, the L1 Robot) but I do like the shots of them trundling along towing a trailer which has someone's limb hanging out the back of it!

Believe it or not there is some location work done in this story. All the pool scenes were recorded at Elmswell House in Chalfont St Giles. At the time it was owned by an Iraqi Millionaire and up for sale. Nobody was living there, so no heating was on and when the filming was done the pool was freezing cold!

No comments:

Post a Comment