Saturday, 7 March 2015

(661) Paradise Towers - Part 4

The final episode of this story again starts off with that stupid shot of the tower. I do wonder why they went to the trouble of setting this on another planet because it could easily have been set on earth in the future. To be honest that is just a minor problem with a story that starts off slightly frustrating before becoming more frustrating and that frustration receding a bit in this episode.

I had forgotten that Richard Briers isn’t killed by because he becomes the body for the monster. I didn’t think I would like the new Chief Caretaker would be any fun but after a while I sort of got use to it. I think that it was a mistake for this to happen but writer Stephen Wyatt has admitted that this is one of the things wrong with it. The performance that Richard Briers gives is something that I have enjoyed but in this episode he sort of goes into zombie mode and that is disappointing. It’s not often that someone of Briers’ calibre comes into Doctor Who but he did very well and was the best thing about this serial.
Mel seems to have forgotten about the troubles because she starts the episode by taking a swim and within seconds is attacked by a yellow thing and also has the double misfortune of being stuck with Pex. Despite this being the episode where Pex shows us he is a hero and even when he has given his life pushing the Chief Caretaker to the explosives. To be honest I just wasn’t fussed about the loss of the character.

A good portion of the episode takes place in the pool. The Rezzies (Maddy), The Red and Blue Kangs, Pex, Mel and The Doctor have a good scene where they all seem to join forces to fight the Chief Caretaker. This is the first time that people have worked together to try and defeat someone. It feels like a plan is forming and its actually building up to something. There have been several groups yet there has been no real connection between them. Also I found the introduction of the Rezzies in the pool scene to be rather ill thought out because there must be more than three rezzies in Paradise Towers.
I am really glad that I this serial is over. Admittedly this episode is by far the serial so far but to be honest its too little too late. There was pace, there was some drama and more importantly there was something to like. Watching one of the documentaries on the DVD, writer Stephen Wyatt revealed that he wrote the final three episodes in two weeks which shows in episodes two and three but the necessity to tie things up means that we don’t have people meandering around. Paradise Towers will be remembered for wasted opportunities and just want to move on.

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