Paradise Towers Part Four

The one where Kroagnon possesses the body of the Chief Caretaker...

The mind of Kroagnon, which has been trapped in the basement all this time in the form of a pair of glowing neon eyes, transfers into the body of the Chief Caretaker by way of corpo-electroscopy. This is a cue for Richard Briers to turn in one of the worst - if not the worst - performances of his long, distinguished and admirable career as he decides to opt for silly rather than scary.

Physically, he plays Kroagnon quite accurately, as a man who hasn't been inside a living body for a very long time, and has to learn to move and walk and talk afresh. He looks like the living dead, struggling with his motor skills. However, it's the stupid voice he uses which spoils everything, some weird attempt at a Germanic accent delivered with a rumbling drawl, his glassy eyes rolling all the while. It's truly embarrassing to watch, both for the viewer and for Briers. The BAFTA-nominee decided to go over the top because that was the best way to portray a megalomaniac, he believed. He was wrong, because his performance utterly ruins the atmosphere of the story, and to any casual viewer flicking through the channels, it must have seemed like they were tuning into some pre-school drama on CBBC.

Paradise Towers Part Three

The one where two flesh-eating grannies are dragged into the waste disposal...

Just that one sentence above makes it sound like Paradise Towers is peak Season 22 material, and the fact Tabby and Tilda are cannibals and cook human flesh on their gas stove is the sort of thing that I found a bit strong in The Two Doctors. But it feels much more light-hearted here, more pantomime-esque, even though it's being treated quite seriously. It's difficult to make something seem horrific with two old grannies dressed in lavender and pearls.

There's a dark comedy to it all though. It's in the way Tabby enthusiastically grinds pepper into her pot, in Tilda's "see if you can spot the basil!", and the comical strangulated face Elizabeth Spriggs pulls as she's dragged into the waste disposal. Seeing what's happened to her friend, Tilda's mood darkens and she sets about the screaming Mel with a (very floppy) carving knife. Luckily, Pex smashes through the door again to come to the rescue, even if he doesn't realise there's a real life emergency taking place!

Paradise Towers Part Two

The one where Mel is attacked by flesh-eating pensioners with toasting forks...

At the start of the episode we are reminded what Paradise Towers looks like on the outside: a gleaming glassy edifice and a far cry from the dingy interiors we're witnessing. It should have been made to look rundown on the outside as well as the inside, perhaps with smashed windows or wallscrawl. It makes me wonder what is on the outside though, and why everyone stays indoors. Could it be the mysterious war the in-betweens went off to wage?

Now paired with Pex, Mel wanders around the corridors of Paradise Towers with very little direction. She's trying to find the swimming pool on the roof, where she agreed she'd meet the Doctor if they got split up, but struggles to make progress. Along the way she witnesses Pex vandalise a lamp, and meets the Blue Kangs, who fill her in on exactly why Pex seems to be the only in-between around.

Paradise Towers Part One

The one where the Doctor and Mel visit a paradise resort that has seen better days...

The story begins with what would be a cracking cold open (aka pre-titles sequence), but which is spoilt in the edit. This is a common failing of the McCoy era, with so many episodes chopped up into little scenes to make it seem pacier, but actually it interrupts the flow of a sequence or the developing atmosphere. Here we have a terrified young girl running away from what I presume is a gang of tearaways in some dystopian future, and there's a telling clue as to what's going on in the form of the graffiti. This girl is eventually murdered by an unseen force, but the mood is spoiled by shoving a light-hearted and brightly lit TARDIS scene in the middle.

These TARDIS scenes - which will become ever rarer in the McCoy era - are rather lovely though, as they show the Doctor and Mel in a revealing light: she is excited about visiting a paradise resort and languishing in the swimming pool, he is more keen on adventure and exploration. Season 24 is determined to take Doctor Who back to basics. "Are you ready?" the Doctor asks his beaming friend. "Ready! I can't wait!" If that's not the centrepiece of a 21st century-style season trailer, I don't know what is.