History Recap / DoctorWhoS24E2ParadiseTowers

** The idea of a massive housing project being so ill-designed that it turns its residents into warring tribes had previously appeared in the J.G. Ballard novel ''High Rise''.

This was the first script commissioned by Andrew Cartmel, having inherited the previous episode from his predecessors, and contains the first hints of his new vision for the show.

** The Kangs' elaborate "how do you do" ritual, which looks like a ShoutOut to the video to Adam and the Ants' [[http://vimeo.com/77658143 "Prince Charming"]]. The Red Kangs teach it to the Doctor. However, they refuse to extend the welcome to Mel (a female) until she picks a color to join. Mel, sensibly, does not identify with any color.

* WholePlotReference: Stephen Wyatt based his story in part on the J. G. Ballard novel ''High-Rise'', which depicts a luxury apartment building which descends into savagery.

* ''{{Novelization}}'': The episode's writer, Stephen Wyatt wrote the novelization.

The one with the killer swimming pool. And the one where Andrew Cartmel properly takes charge and 80s ''Doctor Who'' gets interesting again. [[GrowingTheBeard It's all uphill from here.]]

* TakeThat: Kroagnon is a satire of architects who seemed to design elaborate projects that thought of and took into account everything ''except'' the people who were actually supposed to live in and use them, a spate of whom had arisen throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

The one with the killer swimming pool. And the one where 80s ''Doctor Who'' gets interesting again.

The one with the killer swimming pool.

The Doctor and Mel decide to go and visit a famous housing project (because it has a nice pool), but it turns out that all of the fit adults left years before to fight a war. The block has devolved into a bizarre sort of anarchy, inhabited by color-themed all-female youth gangs called "Kangs" who use crazy terminology, rampaging janitor robots, cannibalistic old women, rule-obsessed security guys led by a guy who looks suspiciously like UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, a lone quixotic draft-dodger, and the disembodied mind of the block's AxCrazy architect.

* WholePlotReference: Stephen Wyatt was inspired by ''Literature/HighRise''.

* WorldOfActionGirls: The Kangs are all female and despite not being malevolent (they claim not to kill people and it's implied their behaviour is some sort of ritualised game) are armed and show a great deal more bravery than the coward Pex. Even when Mel has a brief DamselInDistress moment in the swimming pool, she has to ''borrow his gun'' to shoot the robot trying to kill her.

* InformedAttribute: The swimming pool of Paradise Towers is supposed to be so beautiful that it's practically a work of art in and of itself. When we finally see it, it doesn't look any more impressive than the kind of swimming pool you might find in a mid-range travel motel.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: The titular condominium has crumbled into a Comics/JudgeDredd-style {{Dystopia}} AfterTheEnd, though some still put on a cheery facade.

* ReversePsychology: Notice how the Doctor, when making up his rule about the caretakers standing down and basically letting him escape, spends a lot of time protesting to them about how the rule is absolutely absurd and he doesn't actually expect them to obey it... before reminding them that it's still in the rulebook.