Love and Monsters

"His name is the Doctor... that's all anyone knows."

Writer: Russell T Davies

Format: TV

Broadcast: 17 June 2006

Series: 2.10

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Rose

Synopsis

An ordinary man called Elton becomes obsessed with the Doctor and Rose and their mysterious blue box. When his investigations lead him to the attentions of the enigmatic Victor Kennedy, this harmless hobby suddenly plunges Elton into a world of living nightmares.

Verdict

Love and Monsters was not a very good episode in all honesty. I was not looking forward to rewatching this episode and whilst that negative thoughts prior to revisiting it probably didn't help, this one is just a bit rubbish, isn't it? Even Gemma agreed with me and we share our thoughts on the rating which is actually a pretty rare occurrence as I can sometimes be a little more complimentary than her. But this one just isn't for us. The obvious issue is the absence of the Doctor and Rose and whilst they have a lot of fun at the start with the scene chasing the Hoix and the good decision in directing with the corridor running, their absence after this is felt so much. I'm not a fan of Elton in the slightest so the whole episode being his story and the video footage from his perspective was not something I enjoyed to say the least. I mentioned to Gemma as we watched that I think this episode could actually work well if the central character was actually someone we know and had an emotional attachment to, or at least prior knowledge. I suggested that Clive from Rose would have been good because he was an intriguing character in that series opener, but with Elton I just did not care about him. The recreation of the events of Rose, Aliens of London and The Christmas Invasion were good but the constant shifting back to the video camera was frankly annoying. It's a shame really because I think the idea of an episode about the Doctor rather than featuring him is good and could work well, but the elements combining here just didn't work. I wasn't a fan of LINDA and I think the abbreviation and what it stands for is just naff to be honest. Learning of how that organisation grew and their knowledge of the Doctor was decent, but then they just shifted to having a laugh and singing the Electrical Light Orchestra which just didn't bother me at all. I mean, I have nothing against that but it had no place in a Doctor Who episode for me! I didn't think Ursula was a very good character and with Elton I couldn't help but find her annoying as well. Not exactly what you want from a lead character for the episode! I'm going to skip ahead to the ending now as I had never clocked something Gemma mentioned to be halfway through and that's the implication of oral sex between Ursula and Elton! I couldn't remember any implication but when Gemma pointed out the blowjob inference that comes at the end I was mightily intrigued and I couldn't actually believe that it happened! It was so bad that it had me laughing. The same could be said of the Abzorbaloff because I thought Victor Kennedy actually made a decent villain with his nature, but then you see what he really is and it's just ridiculous. I mean, I know the design was from a child as part of a Blue Peter competition but it just isn't good. The concept could work but the faces are just weird and the attempted humour of talking whilst being sat on and absorbed in the creature's behind was just bad. And don't get me started on Ursula still having glasses! Madness. Jackie is definitely the highlight of the episode as she is a lot of fun and the way she enacted the four-points of getting ingratiated into life was wonderful. You can't help but feel sorry for her by the end and Rose coming to have a go at Elton despite the green blob standing there was very good. The ending with the Linda members pulling him apart is comical and as a whole I was just glad it was over! Overall, not my favourite episode to say the least. 

Rating: 4/10