 This story was the second to feature Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and features many special guest appearances, including famed actor Richard Briers and actresses Brenda Bruce, Elizabeth Spriggs and Judy Cornwell.
As well as playing the part of the Chief Caretaker Richard Briers provided the voice of Kroagnon. He though was not credited for this. Richard Briers is more famous for playing the part of Tom Good in the classic comedy The Good Life. He later appeared, as Henry Parker, in the Torchwood episode "A Day in the Death".
Brenda Bruce (who played the part of Tilda), Elizabeth Spriggs (who played the part of Tabby) and Judy Cornwell (who played the part of Maddy) have all appeared in a large number of television shows, before and after appearing in this story, playing many different characters. Elizabeth Spriggs later appeared as the Fat Lady in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone while Judy Cornwell went on to play the part of Daisy in the classic comedy Keeping up Appearances.
Clive Merrison, who played the part of the Deputy Chief, previously played Jim Callum in the 1967 Second Doctor story "The Tomb of the Cybermen".
Julie Brennon, who played Fire Escape, was at the time married to Mark Strickson, who played the Fifth Doctor’s companion Vislor Turlough.
Nisha Nayar, an un-credited extra playing one of the Red Kangs, later appeared in a more substantial speaking part as the Female Programmer in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways". This made her the second performer to appear in both the original run and the revived series of Doctor Who.
The writer chosen for this story was a young writer called Stephen Wyatt - whose work to date had mainly been in the theatre, but had recently been commissioned to write a dark comedy entitled Claws for BBC Radio. This was Stephen Wyatt’s first of two Doctor stories. His second being "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" in 1987.
By the time Stephen Wyatt had submitted a storyline Andrew Cartmel had joined the production office as the new Script Editor (after Eric Saward had left halfway through the previous season leaving Producer John Nathan-Turner to carry out these additional duties until a replacement Script Editor could be found). Andrew Cartmel however, was unimpressed by Stephen Wyatt’s offering. Andrew Cartmel was familiar with Claws, however, and suggested that Stephen Wyatt develop something more along those lines.
With the assistance of Andrew Cartmel, Stephen Wyatt based his revised storyline on the JG Ballard novel "High-Rise" - which is a parable on middle-class existence about a skyscraper whose tenants descend into pseudo-tribal warfare - as inspiration.
Like Pip and Jane Baker, who wrote the preceding story "Time and The Rani", Stephen Wyatt was, at first, burdened by the fact that Sylvester McCoy had not yet been cast as the Seventh Doctor. Fortunately, when this announcement finally did come, Stephen Wyatt had already seen some of Sylvester McCoy’s theatrical performances, which aided him in writing for the new Doctor.
The director assigned to this story was Nicholas Mallett, who had previously handled "The Mysterious Planet" - the title that has been given to the first four episodes of The Trial of a Time Lord, the season-long storyline that constituted Season Twenty Three.
The role of Pex, originally envisioned by Stephen Wyatt, was as a muscle-bound moron to parody the popular American hero of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo. However, when it proved difficult to locate a British actor, of the appropriate age and build, John Nathan-Turner suggested that this concept should completely be turned on its head, by casting a small, slender actor who was clearly not the physical specimen Pex made himself out to be. With this in mind, the part of Pex went to actor Howard Cooke.
Because Andrew Cartmel was uncertain about the absence of a traditional Doctor Who ‘monster’ in Stephen Wyatt’s scripts the role of the cleaning robots was added along with a mutated creature living in the swimming pool. Due to concerns as to how effectively this could be accomplished, the mutated creature was changed to an aquatic version of the cleaners.
The pool scenes were filmed at Elmswell House in Buckinghamshire and Bonnie Langford was stunt doubled in the pool by Ellie Bertram.
By the time this story was recorded John Nathan-Turner had essentially abandoned his 1980 decree that all incidental music was to be composed in-house by the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop. Therefore freelance musician David Snell was commissioned to provide the score for this story. David Snell’s composition however, was deemed to be too dull and repetitive and so was rejected. Instead Keff McCullough, who had provided the score for "Time and The Rani", was hired at the last minute to put together a replacement score.
It is revealed that the TARDIS swimming pool was leaking and had been jettisoned. It was last seen in the 1978 Fourth Doctor story "The Invasion of Time".
As well as the supposedly fantastic swimming pool in Paradise Towers there is, according to The Doctor, also a spectacular pool on the planet Griophos, although it is for the exclusive use of the Gulmeri, flesh eating octopi.
The Doctor informs Melanie that Paradise Towers was designed by Kroagnon, otherwise known as the Great Architect, who won many awards in the 21st century. Kroagnon was also responsible for Golden Dream Park, The Bridge of Perpetual Motion and Miracle City.
The caretakers’ unusual salute is formed by raising the horizontal palms of their hands to rest on their top lips.
The Doctor is heard describing an antique phone as a splendid piece of ‘audioarchitectonicalmetrasynchosity’.
The Doctor is once again called an ‘Old One’ by locals, as he was in the 1986 Sixth Doctor story "The Mysterious Planet".
The TARDIS is seen covered in graffiti again in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Aliens of London/World War Three".
Unusually this story suffered one edit after its original BBC transmission. BBC1 Controller Michael Grade decided afterwards that a scene in episode three, which a thrown knife becomes embedded into the wall of Tilda and Tabby’s apartment, was too violent, despite the absence of any complaints from the public. Therefore this episode was re-edited to remove the ‘offending’ sequence for the purpose of repeats and international sales.
A novelisation of this story, written by Stephen Wyatt, was published by Target Books in December 1988. This novelisation reveals that the Blue Kang Leader is named Drinking Fountain.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Stephen Wyatt.
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(Position = 152 out of 159)
(Position = 193 out of 200)
(Position = 230 out of 241)
