Paradise Towers vs Delta and the Bannerman

You first.

Paradise Towers is probably the story I remember most fondly from that season. All the components are there, it's just the tone that feels off. Like trying to do The Wire with Clangers. Both are fine, but together, they don't quite work. Here, it feels as though it should look like an Iron Maiden album cover. All punk rock and grunge. Something that Graeme Harper could have made grim and electric.

It's got a lot of really nice ideas. I love the idea of the Seventh Doctor inadvertently becoming the head of a street gang and the conlang of the Kangs ("Ice hot.") is kind of endearing. It's a bit like Shakespeare, how it's said can be more important than what's said. The Caretakers as these 1940s film characters dropped right into an 80s dystopia could've been really good, again, with a different tone. You hear about their regulations, you laugh and then you see how seriously they take them and it becomes a bit frightening in how neurotic they are. Guys wound so tight that a sneeze could set them off. And the thing in the basement, which the Chief Caretaker is feeding people to, that could've been a classic Bob Holmes grotesque.

It's so close.  I think I've mentioned this before, but given a season, it could've easily ended up feeling like The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

In contrast, I can't tell you a word about Delta and the Bannermen. Nothing quite sticks in the head. Kind of ironic really given that it's one of the more serious entries of the season.

I think DATB probably had a bit more merit than all that, but got me there that I'd have to watch it again to tell you why. :-) (And I do seem to dimly recall composing at least one "why Paradise Towers isn't that bad" post before in recent years...)

Oh, and one other thing - there's a scene in The Resurrection of Mars (which I've just come from a re-listen to, and might I add it's BRILLIANT while I'm here) that mirrors one from Delta and the Bannermen. Anyone who's heard/seen these should hopefully know which scene I'm referring to, and Resurrection shows how that sort of thing should be done right, while Delta... just sort of lets it happen without a second thought. If that scene alone had played out differently I reckon Delta... may have given Paradise Towers a run for its money, but it didn't so it doesn't

Its all very well to try and re-appraise something in retrospect, but consider what it was like at the time of first broadcast.

The show had narrowly avoided cancellation and been forced to jettison its lead actor. They had just 4 stories to relaunch the programme with a new actor, and yet we ended up with the worst run of episodes in the series history. This really was the best they could do. It was embarrassing to watch then and i don't feel they are redeemed 31 years on.

The show got a bit better with the likes of Remembrance, Ghost Light & Fenric, but lets not forget that we owe the wilderness years to this period of the show. For a show going out at 7.30 at night, the likes of Greatest Show in the Galaxy and Happiness Patrol were still more tonally suited to 4.00 in the afternoon kids drama. As fans we tend to be generous and defend the show, but to a big proportion of casual viewers of the show, this period of its history was atrocious.

Still haven't actually seen anything of Season 24 lol

I could, but in the spirit of S24, I'm not going to do the obvious.

Haven't seen Paradise Towers since its original transmission. I actually bought Delta, which is awful.

Both are fun. I prefer them to Dragonfire. And prefer all three to Time and the Rani.