The Happiness Patrol

"The Happiness Patrol" is one of the most remarkable Doctor Who stories ever, as it remains all things to everyone. Looking back, my memories of this story at the time blur with those of "Paradise Towers" - I suppose because of the aesthetic similarities: both are studio-bound, dark and brooding with theatrical bordering on bad performances and heavily cartoon-esque design. Nevertheless, it's an odd association to make because they are two of the most different stories in the entire canon, let alone just in the McCoy era.

As with "The Horns of Nimon", this was a story stupid enough to try and mimic bad sets (or, in the Season 17 case, bad costumes). Of course, in both instances the program became what it was trying to parody because it didn't have enough money to do it properly - so whatever "The Happiness Patrol" has to say about cheapness, it now forever looks underfunded. Forum Square and the surrounding alleyways aren't SUPPOSED to be within a big underground complex, these are streets. It SHOULD all be on location, although I'm not sure how diverting this would be. A better nod is the reference to off-screen falling factories, a perfect example of not needing to see something to feel its effect.

The people populating this script, from Helen A and her bright wig to the surrealism of the Kandy Kitchen, are all fake, as was the point. It's such a poignant and bloody true point to make that it remains the stories' (and possibly the era's) best contribution to Doctor Who - still relevant and still pretty powerful today. Forcibly upbeat music, things painted bright colours, tacky jokes and sweets are all evil's which still pervade our world. Have you seen the adverts between kids TV programs lately? Or, more specifically, the ones aimed at little girls? You don't need to, they haven't changed in twenty years. Everything is pink, glossy and "cute", in short things that are supposed to make you happy but instead make you feel sick. As the Doctor put it, "do these things make you happy?"

There is much just praise given to the infamous rooftop scene with the two snipers, even though McCoy now seems to be unnecessarily over-egging the pudding, and it's not even a real rooftop. I don't care if it re-states the Doctor's origins or whatever, it's just a nice scene. And we could even look at the story as having something to say about Doctor Who in general - like "Snakedance" this one looks ludicrous, but it has a heart. If you can get over the Doctor's awful singing, you have the lovely scene where Susan Q reflects on the exact moment she gave up hope - "one day I woke up and I couldn't go on any longer. Smiling, and pretending to be something I'm not". It's one in the eye for anyone who's ever felt unashamedly, joyously happy being a bit miserable for a while. And it's even better than the rooftop scene.

So not like "Paradise Towers" at all then. If anything, and given Bonnie Langford's theatre school acting, "Paradise Towers" is everything "The Happiness Patrol" is pretending to be - but without any sense of irony, especially at the end where everyone lives happily ever after (even Pex might have survived, if you take the final shot literally). No one in "The Happiness Patrol" lives happily, in fact the story can only finish when one person cries. The problem is that, as they found to their cost when trying to mimic a fake-looking city, there will always be a part of you that dislikes "The Happiness Patrol" because it looks naff, has a comical villain and lots of people in silly wigs. Even though we KNOW what they were getting at. You just have to remember that it's all about the soul.