Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Paradise Towers

You are exploring the Discontinuity Index, a place where any details or rumours about unreleased stories are forbidden.
Please discuss only those whole stories which have already been released, and obey our spoiler policy.

This page is for discussing the ways in which Paradise Towers doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

Remember, this is a forum, so civil discussion is encouraged. However, please do not sign your posts. Also, keep all posts about the same continuity error under the same bullet point. You can add a new point by typing:

* This is point one.
::This is a counter-argument to point one.
:::This is a counter-argument to the counter-argument above
* This is point two.
::Explanation of point two.
::Further discussion and query of point two.

... and so on. 

• Why didn't the architect just take the caretaker's body earlier?

Note that Kroagnon's speech becomes more and more lucid as the story progresses, starting out with vague statements such as "Hungry!" and becoming fully capable of conversation just before he takes the Chief Caretaker's body. Presumably his mind needed time to gain in strength (possibly somehow making use of the corpses taken by the cleaners) before it could be transplanted into the Chief Caretaker.

• The caretaker's moustache doubles in size after being posessed by Kroagnon

Perhaps this is a side-effect

• How do the Rezzies that Mel meets get their door repaired every time Pex kicks it down? It seems unlikely the Caretakers would replace a door so easily, since it's already replaced by the second time Mel comes back to their flat.

Maybe there's a rule about repairing Rezzies' doors in the rulebook.

• Why does everyone act as though Pex is the only one who can help the Doctor at the climax? He has time to run over to where the others are standing doing nothing and then run back again!

He's not exactly the only one, but he is the closest one, it's his fault the Doctor is currently in danger at that moment (he brought Kroagnon there before everything was ready because he was afraid) and he's also the only one who's been puffing himself up about being Paradise Towers' big hero all story. So he's in a better position to help, he has amends to make and he has a lot of unearned self-aggrandising that he's failed to live up to. This is a character moment more than a plot moment, strictly speaking; all story, Pex has been talking a big talk about what a hero he is, only to cravenly turn coward and save himself whenever he's actually been called upon to help someone in a dangerous situation where he could genuinely get hurt. Now, he's once again in a situation where he can either help someone else regardless of the danger to himself, or spinelessly run away at that other person's expense. And once again Mel is there to see him make this choice, and he's disappointed her twice before. It has to be Pex because this is the climax of Pex's character arc; for once, he has to live up to his boasting and do the heroic thing rather than run away and let someone else sort it out.

• If the population of Paradise Towers consists entirely of people who were left there while the adults went to fight in a war, does that mean they took all the old men and young boys with to fight as well? Their policy can't be gender based either since they took the adult women.

This one's easy; the old men and young boys eventually became the Caretakers! Presumably things happen something like this: the elderly and the too-young are shipped to Paradise Towers while the able-bodied go off to fight. To keep everyone busy, the males are assigned to be the building caretakers and security force, while the females are assigned to housework duties (one can also assume that the society that built Paradise Towers was also somewhat patriarchal in nature). Over time, as things fall apart, they get forgotten about and everyone starts going a bit mad, these roles become the cult-like divisions in society that we meet when the Doctor and Mel show up; the Caretakers conscript any young boys who grow up in the tower into their ranks, the housewives become the Rezzies, and the young girls, somehow abandoned by or rejecting both, become the Kangs.

• If Pex did actually survive, why not just reveal himself rather than leave a cryptic graffiti message (assuming it was him who wrote it)? Surely unless he leaves Paradise Towers he'll eventually be spotted anyway. And if it wasn't him who wrote the message, why would somebody else write it?

Pex didn't survive. The message is intended to communicate that Pex "lives" metaphorically, in the sense that his sacrifice has enabled the surviving residents of Paradise Towers to "put Paradise Towers to rights" and build a better society in his name, free from the malign influence of Kroagnon and his servants. Essentially, Pex "lives" in spirit.