Bonnie Langford being attacked by a robot in a swimming pool. Richard Briers turns into a zombie. Cannibalistic old ladies. Theres a bit of something for everyone in this four part Sylvester McCoy story his second as the Seventh Doctor from 1987.
As the accompanying Horror on the High Rise making of feature on the disc confirms, however, there are lots of great ideas here which as so often on the classic series dont really come off. The inner city dystopia of Paradise Towers, for example, is a fractured and factional futuristic society entirely confined to a single tower block. Peopled by street-wise girl gangs known as the Kangs, warriors known as the Pex and malevolent Caretakers, it was partly inspired by Terry Gilliams Brazil and the works of JG Ballard. But trust me, the reality isnt as good as this description makes it sound.
Richard Briers is a case in point. As the leader of the sinister Caretakers he begins by delivering a well judged performance apparently an intriguing combination of his character from the sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles and Adolf Hitler which successfully fuses humour and menace. Later on, however, when his character becomes a zombie, Briers uncharacteristically goes ridiculously over the top. It might be the worst performance of his life.
The elderly Briers cheerily comes close to admitting this on the accompanying making of, the highlight of an extras package which is actually slightly below the usual high Doctor Who DVD standard. The audio commentary, for example, doesnt include McCoy or anyone particularly high profile, unless you count Keeping Up Appearances supporting actress Judy Cornwell as high profile. The Girls! Girls! Girls! feature about assistants in the 80s is presented by onetime assistant Peter Purves and has a nice IT Crowd computer style opening. But its ultimately just a fairly dull conversation between three assistants Sophie Aldred, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton. None of whom are in this story anyway. The Casting Sylvester featurette too is much duller than it sounds too.
Ultimately, with McCoys Doctor still finding his feet (the story was written before he was cast) this is certainly interesting rather than actually good.
Overall Verdict: A bewildering concoction of intriguing sci-fi ideas which doesnt really work, largely because, as usual in later classic Who, the BBC only seem to have spent about £200 making it.
Special Features:
Audio Commentary with actress Judy Cornwell, writer Stephen Wyatt, special sounds supervisor Dick Mills and moderated by Composer Mark Ayres.
Horror on the High Rise Feature
Deleted and Extended Scenes
Continuity continuity announcements from the storys original transmission.
Girls! Girls! Girls! The Eighties Featurette
Casting Sylvester Featurette
Photo Gallery Coming Soon a trailer for a forthcoming DVD release.
Radio Times Listings in Adobe PDF format.
Programme subtitles.
Subtitle Production Notes.
Reviewer: Chris Hallam