Love & Monsters

After last week's amazing epic and frankly superb episodes what were you doing?

Telling your friends how great Doctor who was after all these years?

Convincing them to watch on Saturday night?

Telling them that they were wrong about Doctor who?

You needn't have bothered.

Because if they tunned in to watch this weeks episode I can only imagine that they wont be tuning in again. Ok that is a bit overly harsh, as a comedy episode it works well. As a spoof of doctor who it's funny but please put this show on BBC 2 so I can watch a real episode of Doctor Who on BBC 1.

The problem with changing writers every other week is that the tone of the episodes changes so dramatically. We have moved from two episodes of heavy drama with no comedy to an episode dripping with it. In some ways its nice to have a comedy episode after such a dramatic 2 parter but in the same way it feels disjointed as the story line could have been building towards the final episodes to come. And then to further confuse matters the show is carried by a character that people did not tune in to watch.

Now I bet this episode cut down on Billie and David's filming schedule and it was probably pretty cheap to shoot but so much more could have been made of it. Some of the writing on the series is starting to feel lazy just because its a kids show it doesn't mean that it doesn't have to make sense or have a decent plot.

The best thing about this episode were the jokes. Peter Kay was on good form and the one liners were cutting and well delivered, some I was surprised to hear in a pre 9 pm show. Some great comedy about how he finally tracks down Jackie Tyler did make me smile and several other clever moments: One of the voices sounded muffled and I thought it can't be there but oh yes it was! The return of the Sleveen, or at least their sister planet, very funny, very clever but one too many jokes and somehow the show doesn't feel real any more. And that is the problem with the comedy, good as it was, it ends up making Doctor Who feel more like pantomime than drama.

The main actors pulled off a doctorless episode well and I really was beginning to care about them just before they got sucked into Peter Kay's waist coat. But to not include your best to actors, your most dramatic characters what a waste! It's like trying to play table tennis with your hands tied behind your back: you could do it but you're gonna look damn silly trying.

Best moments:

The opening sequence
Most of Peter Kay
The most easy detective work since “who stole Ronald McDonald's hamburgers.”
The Doctor confronts Peter Kay

The worst moments

Seduction Jackie Tyler style
Peter Kay running down the street in a big green fat suit and a black thong?. Frightening for all the wrong reasons.
That montage band sequence What? Why? Were you even interested?
The ending.

Like watching the friends spin off Joey, funny but you kept wondering what the other characters were doing. I kept thinking “what is the doctor doing?” “Is it some kind of cunning plan?” Perhaps its all building up to why the doctor was in his house that night. But no it wasn't and no it didn't. And when the doctor finally turns up he doesn't seem to do any thing other than standard defeat the monster tactic no. 3 pretend you aren't bothered about the hostages. Defeating the Peter Kay monster was poorly explained and so disappointing but at least he went out with a squelch. And did he swear? I know It was cut short but not short enough because it really sounded like he did. This is a show for kids!

The best thing I can say is it was funny and in places very funny. It felt like one of the big finish Christmas productions but following last weeks effort it just seems like a completely different show.

If there was one rule this show broke it was “show don't tell the audience” because voice over included, this did a lot of telling.

I'd give this episode 4/5 for being a comedy episode and 2/5 for being an episode of Doctor Who

Oh and don't get me started about that “we have some kind of love life” line!!!