Paradise 5

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Hollows of Time

Surprisingly, I quite liked this one. It feels the most "modern" to me out of this first set of lost stories. I think had this been made it would be one of the better-remembered stories of Colin Baker's tenure. I have fairly little to say about the story, it's not something we haven't seen before. A resort designed to kidnap and collect victims for it's own evil plans is pretty standard Who.

I do like how a good chunk of this story focuses on Peri, rather than the Doctor, with him appearing every now and then as he snoops around the space station. It gives us some nice insight into Peri who has up until now remained quite generic. I think Colin Baker gives a great performance here, his disgust at the actions of both the Elohim and the resort staff was a highlight of this story.

It's nice to see the Doctor genuinely affected by the things that happen on his travels, especially in an era where he would mostly shrug things off. Overall, I didn't expect to enjoy this one nearly as much as I did. I'm hoping that the rest of these stories maintain the same quality.

Next Story: Point of Entry

👍🏼7.0 = GOOD!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

MASTER, IS THAT YOU?

It’s off to another alien planet in The Lost Stories range, this time to once again take a holiday and once again check up on one of the Doctor’s old friends. The range is beginning to repeat itself! Of course, the setup is the same old as well: the Doctor's friend has gone missing, and the Doctor and Peri decide to go undercover to a place called Paradise 5 to investigate.

Targos Delta proves to be another world that feels futuristic and alien to us. It’s seemingly highly developed and perfect, only to slowly reveal the cracks and problems under the surface.

This release changes things up a bit as we go back to the traditional 4 x 25-minute format rather than the 2 x 45-minute format of the previous four releases. Part 1 is a rather slow setup, where Peri gets a tour of Paradise 5 while Sixie lurks around in the shadows.

Part 2 doesn’t do much more than continue developing the ongoing mystery to slowly build tension, but the well-realised atmosphere helps to move things along.

The second half finally delivers on the build-up as we begin to realise the extent of the threat that is the Elohim. We also learn about the Paradise Machine and Gabriel’s sinister plans, which raises the stakes considerably.

Part 3 delivers a really good cliffhanger twist, which I didn't see coming. Part 4 brings the Doctor, Peri, Gabriel, and Michael together in a great way, where we finally learn about the evil plan and the stakes at play.

This release features a pretty solid guest cast. Alex Macqueen, better known to us as the Big Finish Master, plays Gabriel with a characteristic flair and makes him a very engaging character. The one and only James D’Arcy plays Michael, and it’s a delight to listen to him.

The Cherubs are quite cute creatures, but also creepy (sort of like the baby in The Holy Terror). I wish we'd gotten even more with them!