Love & Monsters

Ah, Russell. So close. So very close.

Since it relaunched, Doctor Who ahs been accused of taking the Buffy route in order to find success. Having been a massive Buffy fan myself, I saw this as no bad thing, although I would certainly say the show has plowed its own furrow much more than he detractors claim. 'Love and Monsters' is the most Buffy-esque direction the show has taken so far, in that it breaks the format completely. It's bound to annoy many fans and quite possibly bore many of the children who have become the Doctor's new fanbase.

Yet it oh-so-nearly works.

I liked last season's 'Boom Town'. It wasn't flashy, but it was a lovely character piece mostly overlooked due to many people's hatred of the Slitheen (which I share). Where 'Boom Town' was initially called 'Dining with Monsters', 'Love and Monsters' (this season's equivalent) could very easily have been called 'Collateral Damage'. An examination of what happens to those left behind when the Doctor leaves, it was massively touching in places. The loneliness of the LINDA members, Elton's quiet, ignored little life forever damaged by an early encounter with the Dcotor and, most importantly, Jackie's feelings of abandonment communicated themselves beautifully. All the while, the story was kept interesting by punchy direction and a deliberately down-to-earth, mundane style. Nods to previous earthbound stories 'Rose, 'Aliens of London' and 'The Christmas Invasion' gave the story a lovely sense of continuity.

What could have been an interesting little change-of-pace, however, is badly damaged at times by Davies' oft-criticised determination to wedge pop culture references and cringeworthy camp into the proceedings. Elton's love of ELO (with its accompnaying scenes of dancing and amateur band action) were almost as horrific as the Abzorbaloff's panto-esque adoption of a Bolton accent in its natural form. The idea of the creature is a truly hideous one and more could have been made of this. Instead, we were forced to watch as Peter Kay chased Elton around an alley in a cheap-looking, cheesy chase sequence that would have looked bad in the Sylvester McCoy era.

It's the cheap cheeriness that really lets this episode down. With such potential for a story exmaining the lot of those left behind and ignored by the Doctor, preyed-upon by a creature who wants to absorb them out of the world completely, we could have had a low-key, inexpensive piece of foreshadowing for what could well be Rose's final fate. But RTD, for all his brilliance and imagination, is incapable of avoiding the trap of cheap humour and yet another bloody reference to the Slitheen. The constant references to the reviled things goes against the epic feeling the show should be nurturing, making the universe seem confined to the Powell estate and Raxico-bleeding-fallopatorius.

I adored parts of this story, I really did. It just makes me all the more frustrated that Davies, who excels at writing about the darker side of the human character, doesn't quite have the courage of his convictions to make 'Love and Monsters' what it should be.

That said, the episode was interesting enough to garner a strong reaction from me, which still puts it ahead of 'New Earth' and 'The Idiot's Lantern' this season.

Next week, our last one-off before the finale and an interesting-looking threat in suburbia. Hopefully this week's modern-day setting won't detract from the story due to their close scheduling.