These excerpts from the Doctor Who: Paradise Towers novelization detail a disastrous visit by the Doctor and Mel to a dilapidated, man-made city block that was intended to be a luxury resort. Mel’s anticipation of relaxing by the shimmering pool is immediately shattered when the TARDIS lands in a trash-filled alley, revealing that the complex is now a dangerous slum inhabited by warring youth gangs called the Kangs and sinister, cannibalistic elderly residents known as the Rezzies. The Doctor is soon captured by the heavily bureaucratic Caretakers and mistaken for the legendary creator of the building, the Great Architect. They eventually uncover that the true villain, the psychotic architect Kroagnon, is using rogue Cleaner robots and a borrowed body to purge the entire population of the Towers for ruining his architectural masterpiece. The text concludes as the factions of the Towers must unite under the Doctor’s guidance to set a final trap, necessitating the heroic sacrifice of the self-appointed protector, Pex, to save the remaining residents.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.