Paradise Towers

Paradise Towers
Type:	Residential building
Appearance:	Paradise Towers

You may be looking for the television story.

Paradise Towers was a residential building complex in the 21st century.

History

Early history

Paradise Towers was designed by Kroagnon and had won several architectual awards. The motto of Paradise Towers was "build high for happiness". As with many of his earlier projects, Kroagnon refused to leave once his work was done, nor let people move in. Some of the residents imprisoned him in the basement, aware he would kill everyone in the buildings should he escape. The cleaners – robots, designed to keep Paradise Towers clean – stayed active.

When war broke out, the young and the old were transported to Paradise Towers, while those in between went off to fight and never returned. The caretakers were exempt from this military service and stayed at their jobs. Pex avoided the war by hiding aboard one of the ships headed for Paradise Towers.

The residents of Paradise Towers began to diversify. The young girls became known as Kangs and were themselves grouped into Red Kangs, Blue Kangs and Yellow Kangs. The old women became known as Rezzies — a distortion of the word resident; many of them turned to cannibalism, eating Kangs and Caretakers. The Caretakers themselves tried to control Paradise Towers and keep it clean. The cleaners were feared by all the groups, though the Chief Caretaker secretly used them to feed Kroagnon by killing people in Paradise Towers and taking the bodies to him.

Defeat of Kroagnon

Mel examines a plan of Paradise Towers. (TV: Paradise Towers)

The Seventh Doctor and Melanie Bush visited Paradise Towers and met the Red Kangs. They took a liking to the Doctor, but were unsure about Mel. An attack by the Caretakers resulted in them getting separated. Mel found herself with two Rezzies, Tilda and Tabby, while the Doctor was taken prisoner by the Caretakers.

The Doctor quickly escaped his captors by tricking them with their own rulebook and Mel decided to head for "the pool in the sky" with Pex for company, as that was where she had agreed to meet the Doctor. The Cleaners tried to re-capture the Doctor. They sent a team to break into the Red Kang brainquarters, where he was hiding. They took him to the Chief, who interrogated him.

Meanwhile, Mel again joined Tilda and Tabby, but they took her as a prisoner to eat her. Before they could do so, a cleaner dragged them both through a waste disposal unit and killed them. From there, Mel and Pex made their way to a lift. They were trapped in it by the cleaners who pressed the buttons up and down the shaft so it didn't stop. Eventually, Pex foxed the lift and they arrived on Floor 304 — the top floor of Paradise Towers — and settled down to wait for the Doctor. Mel decided to take a swim in the pool and found herself under attack from a water-bound cleaner. She destroyed it with Pex's gun.

The Doctor was rescued by the Red Kangs and they returned to the brainquarters. The Blue Kangs entered and proclaimed victory over the Reds for breaking into their base. The Doctor convinced them to work together against Kroagnon and they headed for the basement.

Kroagnon needed a body into which he could place his mind through corpoelectroscopy. He chose the Chief for this and took control of his body by forcing him into a special chamber in the basement. The Doctor witnessed this and was attacked by a cleaner. He was pulled free by the Kangs and they fled. Kroagnon had the cleaners gas each floor of Paradise Towers in turn, steadily making their way upwards.

Pex sacrifices himself to kill Kroagnon. (TV: Paradise Towers)

The Doctor took the Kangs to Floor 304 and they allied themselves with Pex, the Rezzie and Caretakers, who had also been forced upwards. With a combined effort, the Kangs and Rezzies destroyed several cleaners. The Rezzies trapped them with tablecloths while the Kangs destroyed them with explosives.

To deal with Kroagnon, the Doctor asked Pex to lure him from the Chief Caretaker's office where he had based himself. Pex was to lead him slowly to a designated area where they would spring a trap on him.

Pex was fearful of Kroagnon, and led him to the location too quickly. The Doctor tried to push Kroagnon down a life shaft, but wasn't strong enough. Kroagnon began throttling the Doctor and smashing him against a wall. Pex took a lit stick of explosive and jumped into the lift shaft, taking Kroagnon with him. The resulting explosion presumably killed them both.

The united factions of Paradise Towers held a ceremony in his honour. The Kangs gave the Doctor a red and blue scarf to denote him as an honourary Kang. As the TARDIS dematerialised, a wallscrawl behind it said, "Pex lives". (TV: Paradise Towers)