4 episodes. Approx. 118 minutes. Written by: P. J. Hammond, Andy Lane. Directed by: Barnaby Edwards. Produced by: David Richardson.
THE PLOT
After a turbulent visit with one old friend, The Doctor decides to visit another: Professor Albrecht Thompson, an economist who lives on the ticker-tape covered world of Targos Delta. He and Peri arrive to find that the professor has been gone for months. He took a shuttle to Paradise 5, an exclusive holiday resort on a space station orbiting a gorgeous if uninhabitable volcanic world... and never returned home.
The Doctor arranges for Peri to go undercover as a hostess on Paradise 5, to gather information from the staff while he sneaks onto the station to search on his own. Both find their curiosity piqued by the "Paradise Machine," which promises the ultimate in relaxation by working directly on the human brain. But Gabriel (Alex Macqueen) and Michael (James D'Arcy), who run the station, can't help but notice Peri's many questions... And in the station's underbelly, the Doctor encounters the Cherubs, a mute slave race that write a warning to him:
"Beware the Elohim!"
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: When Peri surreptitiously delivers his meal, he savors both the fine food and the chance to show off a bit by observing that his delicious "devils on horseback" are perfectly appropriate to Paradise, given that devils are fallen angels. He spends most of the story's first half on the sidelines, exploring the station with a very relaxed manner. After a direct encounter with the wraith-like Elohim, his entire manner becomes more focused, and he becomes intent upon examining the Paradise Machine.
Peri: Unusual for a Sixth Doctor story, the Doctor spends the first half on the sidelines while Peri does most of the active investigating. This is probably because this was originally planned as the introductory story for Mel, and writer P. J. Hammond knew that the audience would need a chance to see the new character in action. Credit to Andy Lane's excellent audio adaptation: It is completely invisible that this story was originally intended for a different companion. Peri gets a particularly good scene in Episode Two, reflecting with one of the doomed vacationers about how she went from being an "A" student with enormous ambition to serving drinks in a space resort. She doesn't sound bitter as she talks about this - just aware that her life has not gone in the direction she had hoped for.
THOUGHTS
Paradise 5 was one of several submissions for The Trial of a Timelord season, for the slot that was ultimately occupied by Terror of the Vervoids. With a story by Sapphire & Steel creator P. J. Hammond, it was championed by script editor Eric Saward, but deemed unsuitable by producer John Nathan Turner. I mention this is the interests of fairness. I tend to be more sympathetic toward JNT than toward Saward, but this is one case where Saward was right and JNT was wrong. I actually do rather like Terror of the Vervoids - but this would have been a far more interesting serial, and a vastly better introduction for Mel.
Fortunately, unlike The Hollows of Time, this serial is well-suited to audio. The bulk of the action takes place in the confines of a space station. The geography of the station is easy to visualize, and the different sound designs for the guest areas "front stage" versus the employee areas "back stage" make it very clear when we've cut from one area to the other. Visually descriptive dialogue is spare, allowing the sounds and characters' reactions to draw out the listeners' imaginations. Like The Hollows of Time, it's a visual story: Wraith-like monsters haunt a space station which orbits and looks out over a violently volcanic world. Unlike The Hollows of Time, we are trusted to hold those visuals in our own minds, rather than having them described for us to the last detail.
As the title indicates, a lot of this story is meant to evoke the imagery of heaven and hell. This "Paradise" overlooks a beautiful yet violently destructive inferno, allowing those in Paradise to look down on the fires of hell. The station is run by Gabriel and Michael - angels, but who are portrayed here as sociopaths. Another guest character is a man named Winterbourne (Richard Earl), left scarred and deluded after being rejected by the Paradise Machine. He frantically tells the Doctor that he saw the "serpent" within the machine, and now he is left to wander the Purgatory of the station's underbelly, imagining himself to be constantly waiting for a promised release (an interview, in this case) which will never come.
The story is very well-paced, and each new episode reveals a little bit more about Paradise 5's true purpose. It's obvious very early on that Gabriel and Michael are up to no good, and that the Paradise Machine is the mechanism by which they commit their evil deeds. But the "how" and "why" of it are withheld, with little nuggets of information dropped at regular intervals. A particularly nasty twist involves the true nature of the Cherubs, and the tag has an effective melancholy note to it.
The relationship between the Sixth Doctor and Peri is particularly well-written here. They bicker, but we regularly see that these are two people who care about each other. Peri may snap at him right after she encounters the Elohim for the first time, but she also pauses to ask if he's all right after he's left shaken by the true nature of the Paradise Machine. He may be happy enough to push her into a situation in which she is undercover as a servant, but he comes rushing to her when she is in danger. This is actually is the characterization we saw on television - but the balance is better struck here, so that we can always see the warmth beneath the bickering.
In short, an excellent story. It would have been a fine addition to the Trial season had it been made at the time - but it's probably better in this form, freed of the limits of that season's very tight budget and even more critically freed of the intrusive "Trial" framework.
Overall Rating: 9/10.
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Next Television Story: Trial of a Timelord - The Mysterious Planet (not yet reviewed)
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