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Revision as of 20:16, 9 November 2023
The Paradise of Death was a BBC Radio drama first broadcast in 1993. It was the third audio drama produced for radio, following Exploration Earth and Slipback, and the first publicly released[1] audio drama to feature Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. This made him the earliest actor to portray the Doctor that also lent his voice to an audio serial. However, he would only perform one more audio story in his lifetime.
The story introduced new companion Jeremy Fitzoliver, played by Richard Pearce. The story also featured a number of actors who also played different characters in the TV series, including Maurice Denham, Trevor Martin, Philip Anthony, Peter Miles and Harold Innocent.
Publisher's summary
When a horrific and inexplicable death occurs at Space World, a new theme park on Hampstead Heath, UNIT is called in to investigate. The Third Doctor is highly suspicious. Just who controls the Parakon Corporation, the shadowy organisation behind the running of the park? What is "Experienced Reality" and what are the limits of its awesome powers?
Plot
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
- Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
- The Brigadier - Nicholas Courtney
- Freeth - Harold Innocent
- Tragan - Peter Miles
- President - Maurice Denham
- Jeremy Fitzoliver - Richard Pearce
- Crestin / Bill / Radio Voice / Ambulance Man / Man - Andrew Wincott
- Nobby / Kitson / Wilkins / Soldier - Dominic Letts
- Grebber / Reporter - Brian Hall
- Clorinda / Sec. Gen. of the U.N. - Jillie Meers
- General Commanding Unit - John Hardwood
- Odun / Patrol Leader - John Fleming
- Captain Waldo Rudley - Jonathan Tafler
- Onya - Jane Slavin
- Greckle - Emma Myant
- Rasco Heldal - Michael Onslow
- Medan / Hunter - David Holt
- Echolocation Operator / Lexhan - Julian Rhind-Tutt
- Kaido / Guard 2 / Ungar / Custodian of Data Store / Jenhegger - Trevor Martin
- Yallett / Officer of the Day - Philip Anthony
Crew
- Writer - Barry Letts
- Director - Phil Clarke
- Incidental Music - Peter Howell
- Technical Presentation - John Whitehall
- Production Assistant - Dawn Ellis
- Studio Managers - Alison Carter, Colin Guthrie
- Producer - Phil Clarke
Worldbuilding
- The Doctor takes Bessie to the press coverage of Space World.
- The Doctor used to ride skimmers on Gallifrey during his childhood with his friends, which are likened to bicycles, and says he is several hundred years older than Sarah and Jeremy.
- Sarah and the Brigadier meet for the first time.
- Freeth notes that, whilst being on Earth, he is part of an ethnic minority.
- The Brigadier mocks the Doctor's use of the phrase "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow". The Doctor says that it would sound like nonsense to a classical subatomic physicist.
Notes
- The Paradise of Death puts a different spin on the opening moments of the television story Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Television viewers may have thought the opening moments of Dinosaurs directly followed the closing scene of The Time Warrior, but The Paradise of Death suggests otherwise, depicting the first meeting of the Brigadier and Sarah Jane Smith.
- A novelisation by Barry Letts was published in 1994. It was the final release in the (original) long-running Target Books novelisation series.
Continuity
- The Doctor mentions travelling to Atlantis and that the TARDIS got stuck inside the Master's TARDIS and was on the verge of a time ram. (TV: The Time Monster)
- The Doctor speaks of his and Sarah's recent encounter with Irongron. (TV: The Time Warrior)
- The Doctor survives a fall of 200 feet. His fourth incarnation would later regenerate into his fifth incarnation due to falling from a great height off the Pharos Project. (TV: Logopolis)
- The Brigadier asks the Doctor about the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. (TV: Day of the Daleks)
- The Doctor sings a Venusian lullaby with less success than he had with Aggedor. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
Releases
- The Paradise of Death was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 5 in 1993.
- It was released on double cassette in September 1993.
- It was released on CD on 6 March 2000.
- It was re-released as part of The BBC Radio Episodes box set on 6 June 2011.
- It is now available for sale as a download on iTunes.
- It was released on Vinyl by Demon Records, along with The Ghosts of N-Space, on 28 February 2020.
Cassette release
CD release
The BBC Radio Episodes release (box)
The BBC Radio Episodes release (CD)
Revised cover with the 2018 logo
Vinyl Record release
External links
- The Paradise of Death at Chrissie's Transcripts Site
- The Paradise of Death at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for The Paradise of Death at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
Footnotes
- ↑ Glorious Goodwood (1974) starred Pertwee as the Third Doctor and Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, but was not given any wide public release until 2005.
