5 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 143 minutes. Written by: Barry Letts. Directed by: Phil Clarke. Produced by: Phil Clarke.
THE PLOT:
UNIT is called to investigate after a badly brutalized body is discovered just outside Space World, a new amusement park in London. The Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart determine to go a pre-opening publicity exhibition. Also going is the Doctor's newest friend, journalist Sarah Jane Smith - and her photographer, the inexperienced and thoroughly inept Jeremy Fitzoliver (Richard Pearce).
Space World is owned by the Parakon Corporation, operated by Chairman Freeth (Harold Innocent) and security conscious Vice Chairman Tragan (Peter Miles). They present themselves as simple executives, but it isn't long before the Doctor confirms that they are extra-terrestrials. Freeth admits this, but he insists that they are on Earth for "an ordinary commercial venture," which his corporation has negotiated with Earth's leaders to create a peaceful first contact situation.
It's a convincing enough story... except that even as Freeth tells it to the Doctor and the Brigadier, Tragan takes off for their home planet, with a busily snooping Sarah Jane as an unwitting stowaway!
The Doctor, the Brigadier, and Jeremy pursue in the TARDIS and (eventually) find their way to Parakon, where they're reunited with Sarah at the palace of the President (Maurice Denham). He is a decent enough man, but it's clear that he's grown inattentive in his old age, content to leave the business of government to his son and heir - Freeth.
The President believes that his planet is a paradise, its people enjoying an existence of idle content after the discovery of miracle plant Rapine. His housekeeeper, Onya (Jane Slavin), fills them in on the real state of things. The cultivation of Rapine has made Freeth and the Parakon Corporation very rich, but it has left the planet barren. Under Freeth, the government has become authoritarian, with the people too distracted to care thanks to "Experienced Reality," an enhanced form of VR. If Freeth isn't stopped, then Parakon will die, as will the worlds it has targeted for further Rapine growth - including Earth!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: He is generally unimpressed by Space World, though he observes that it should "make a lot of money" for the corporation. He deplores Parakon's blood sports, comparing them to the "bread and circuses" of the Roman Empire, but he knows that he needs concrete evidence of wrongdoing by Freeth before he can try to talk the President around to his side. Jon Pertwee's voice has, unsurprisingly, aged in the twenty years between his television era and this broadcast, but he remains in generally good form, slipping into his old role like his Doctor might do with a favorite velvet jacket.
Sarah Jane Smith: The early episodes recapture the feel of the Season 11 version of the character, with her eagerly using her press credentials to push her way into Space World and then investigating on her own initiative... something that, predictably, gets her into trouble. Elisabeth Sladen was always good at showing Sarah's fear without undercutting her courage, and that's on display in the character's interactions with the sadistic Tragan.
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: He tries to invoke his authority as the head of UNIT once he realizes that Freeth and Tragan are stonewalling him... only to end up frustrated that Freeth has already gone over his head. He takes his trip to another world far more in stride here than in The Three Doctors, and he gets to show some military competence when planning and leading an attack late in the story.
Jeremy Fitzoliver: Doctor Who has often been innovative, and this story sees Barry Letts beating George Lucas to the punch by four years in introducing the franchise's very own Jar-Jar Binks. Jeremy is stupid, cowardly, and useless, slowing up the group at one point because he gets his shoe stuck in the mud and then a second time when he wraps his foot around a vine. He runs around both the park and the alien world talking like Bertie Wooster's dumber cousin. "I say!... Bit of an oik... absolutely whizzo wicked!" And that's just from the first two episodes. The character's only saving grace is that the regulars seem to also find him annoying, with their exasperation growing across the five episodes.
Freeth: Is characterized as the embodiment of capitalistic excess. Like the rapine plant that has made him rich, Freeth consumes endlessly, giving nothing back. When two youths are killed by Tragan's pet monsters at the start of the story, he orders that Tragan stop the beasts from eating both bodies, because "a corpse could be good publicity." Actor Harold Innocent sinks his teeth rapaciously into the role, playing Freeth as a man who savors every syllable he utters, never using two small words when ten large ones will do.
Tragan: Freeth's sadistic right hand is his opposite. Freeth delights in food, witticisms, and his own cleverness. Tragan's only pleasure comes from inflicting pain. Peter Miles was always great in these sorts of roles, and his harsh, clipped tones instantly tell you the kind of man Tragan is. Letts arguably goes a bit far with the sadism, notably in a scene in which Tragan menaces Sarah Jane, but Miles does make him come across as genuinely dangerous in a way that the more comical Freeth does not.
THOUGHTS:
1993's The Paradise of Death is a full cast, unnarrated radio drama, which makes it something of a precursor to Big Finish's later audio productions. Released in the midst of the Wilderness Years, it was written by Barry Letts and starred the Season 11 team of Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, and Nicholas Courtney - and it proved popular enough for a second story to be commissioned for broadcast in 1996.
I have no doubt that it was wonderful for fans at the time to have a new, professionally produced Doctor Who adventure that was neither a parody nor a charity tie-in. Even so, the story itself is not particularly well regarded, and I have to admit that it's easy to see why.
One issue should be obvious just by reading the plot summary: This story is overstuffed. The initial premise seems to involve nefarious activities lurking behind a family fun fair. Now, I think that idea would end up being a bit stretched if made to fill five episodes - but this story abandons it completely midway through Part Two! By the third episode, the setting has shifted fully to Parakon, a world that seems to be made up entirely of recycled Flash Gordon trappings: blood sports, rebels hiding in a jungle (of course), a primitive tribe whose members ride on giant alien bats. Had the tribe's leader been played by Brian Blessed, I would have about dubbed this a crossover with the 1980 Flash Gordon movie.
The story jumps from each trope to the next, spending no time exploring anything. As a result, Parakon is left feeling entirely generic. I would have liked to have had the characters actually visit one of the places where the Rapine plant was farmed, so that the Doctor could see its devastation firsthand rather than just being told about it by the rebels. The closest we come to seeing anything of Parakon's culture is a few bored youths at a club, and Barry Letts's attempts at political commentary come across as trite and shallow.
On the plus side, precisely because the story never pauses to explore any of its elements, it does zip along. The script may have zero depth, and it may suffer from characters standing around describing things for the listener's benefit - but at least it keeps moving from one bit to the next.
Oh, and it's bizarrely crammed in between The Time Warrior and Invasion of the Dinosaurs, even though those two television stories follow on one from the other, and even though Dinosaurs features the first meeting of the Brigadier and Sarah. There's room for extra adventures between every other pair of stories in Season 11, so I have no clue why Barry Letts chose to shove this serial into literally the only place in the season where it cannot fit!
OVERALL:
The Paradise of Death is passably entertaining, but I couldn't call it a "good" story. It moves along nicely, and I enjoyed hearing Jon Pertwee, Nicholas Courtney, and Elisabeth Sladen in in an extra adventure. I just wish the adventure had offered more than a generic runaround.
Overall Rating: 5/10.
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