Love & Monsters

Hands up if you thought LOVE AND MONSTERS was going to be dreadful? I did, and for some of it I thought I was going to be proved right.......it wasn't great, it wasn't a classic, but it did contain points of interest.

The basic plot centres around a gang of UFO spotters who are following the Doctor- suddenly a real alien bursts into their lives and things go seriously pear shaped. Enter Peter Kay- and exit Peter Kay in a pool of goo. Fundamentally it was a nice idea, the absence of the Doctor and Rose for much of it meaning that the focus was on those who are touched by his presence. Marc Warren performed creditably in the central role, evoking both pathos and comedy when needed. The opening pre-credits scene was suitably dramatic, and Elton's subsequent account of the building up of his cult group convincing, if a bit twee in the music scenes. I didn't need the constant harks back to the band playing. Then Victor Kennedy bursts into things and suddenly they are hunting the Doctor for real. Elton gets freindly with Jackie, but is rumbled, and then the creature begins to destroy it's prey- but just when it all seems to be over.....enter Mr Tennant, back from filming Episode Nine just in time to save the day.

The plot built itself up fairly nicely, and there were some atmospheric moments and nice use of music. Elton's confused loyalties as he spied on Jackie were a nice touch to things, and Jackie's affirmation of her protection of the Doctor and Rose as she susses him out was lovely. And it does make sense that the Doctor would be latched onto by some kind of esoteric nut group somwhere along the line.The Doctor becoming a focus for everything from serious research to artistic expression was interesting as a comment on how people react to a "something" that they follow- after all everything from religion to sport generates such diversity of expression in their adherents, so why not our hero? The links back to the Autons and the Sycorax were neat. It was a nice touch that when the little gang got their dream and met aliens it wasn't what they thought it would be. And yet.....

There were some really silly bits along the way. The opening corridor chase scene just seemed stupid rather than funny, and I struggled a bit with their easy subjection to Victor Kennedy. Maybe it just their slavishness to the idea of finding their dream. Whatever. Kennedy's holding people back for private chats was obviously a ploy to absorb them and the idea was better done in SCHOOL REUNION. I know this was a lighter hearted episode but even so it came across as daft. And the Absorbaloff itself?

It could have been worse. Bless the lad who designed it, because it was a good idea. I loved the idea of the victim's faces talking out of it's body. In a more straightlaced story, played for horror, that could have been really scary. Played on a lighter level it still worked to an extent though. It's disdain for Slitheen was another nice, unobtrusive continuity nod. But would it really be so stupid as to run out into broad daylight? And it was destroyed way too easily, and its dissolution just came across a bit wizard of oz....Oh, and one of its victims was stuck in its backside. So like Cassandra, it talks out of its nethers....this was less offensive than the pathetic stream of burp/fart jokes in ALIENS OF LONDON, but I could have done without it. But children will probably love it.

So, having been a patchwork of good bits and bad bits the whole thing actually ended quite well. Much as I bemoaned the creature's easy end, I liked the aspect of the Doctor thinking out a solution on the spot, seeming to disregard Elton's life but actually having an answer in mind- while Rose looks bemused but trusting. Then we get the recollection as to why the Doctor appeared in Elton's house while he was a child- that was a spooky moment and I think would have made a better story than the one we got. But hey ho..

And so it all wrapped up with Elton's final soliliqy. Interesting, but I was a bit peturbed at meeting the Doctor being seen as a mostly negative experience. We've had a dollop of this this year- Sarah picking up the fragments of her life, Madame de Pompadour waiting for the hero who never returned etc. It's all in context- when you've been travelling you have to come down to earth, and Elton spent a lot of the story on the run. Much as this examination of such issues boosts the Doctor's mystery value and adds a realism to things, does it need to be seen negatively all the time? In SCHOOL REUNION the deflation afterwards was the price of the adventure (probably realistic), here the experience was a destructive touch on a man's life. Yes, Sarah would have found it hard, and Elton was as I've said on the run, but can we see the Doctor leaving a more positive aftermath behind him sometimes? Contrast the ending of the DEADSTONE MEMORIAL novel where after the adventure a disillusioned Hazel McKeown has had her sense of wonder restored to her- some of that would be nice here to counterbalance the negative. After all, he can't always leave bitterness behind him.......

And so we're on episode 10 already! It's been a mixed ride- from the patchy (this episode, NEW EARTH) to the fairly good (SCHOOL REUINION, TOOTH AND CLAW, IDIOT'S LANTERN) to the superb (GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE and the Cybermen and IMPOSSIBLE PLANET two parters). Here's hoping FEAR HER is good and the climax is up to scratch. If we manage to end on a more gripping episode than PARTING OF THE WAYS I'll be surprised, but who knows?