Love & Monsters

HmmmВ… This episode reminds me of the Deep Purple album Stormbringer. Nice to see the team trying something different from the norm, but did it really work? Yes and no.

IВ’m sure in the end itВ’ll come down to what the public at large think as to whether or not oddball episodes like this crop up again. Personally I think itВ’s great to see the production team confident enough to try a stunt of this nature. Personal experience and real life have been major aspects of this revitalised new Doctor Who since Rose, and it is certainly justifiable to bring facing the effects of the DoctorВ’s activities on other В‘normalВ’ people outside the realm of fan fiction and into the mainstream series. However, great as that idea is, and successful as the video diary-method was for maintaining the focus away from the Doctor and Rose, it was the real life aspect that failed for me.

LINDA was a set-up that most of the adult audience, IВ’m sure, could associate with or accept В– particularly as the focus on the Doctor waned and they became more of a general social group. The episode lost credibility, though, when Victor Kennedy took control. At that point the episode began to feel like a poor attempt at a League of Gentlemen-style show. Unquestioning obedience from these normal people, no real concern when they start disappearing. If there was some mind control in operation then that would have been fine. But no, these apparently normal every day people begin behaving in an unnatural way and bang! - there goes the grip on reality.

On the City of Death DVD new series writer Steven Moffat states that when monsters and villains are not played as a serious threat what a cardinal sin that is for Doctor Who. The production team had gone on record as saying that Peter Kay was not being brought in as a comedy turn, but as a proper actor playing a proper role. Why then was the Abzorbaloff allowed to be played as a figure of fun? There was a threat there, but it ended up being concealed behind ridiculousness and so it became a joke. In Confidential, we are told that you couldnВ’t possibly have Peter Kay on an episode without it being obvious who he was and using him to full effect В– a thinly veiled admission that he was allowed to do what he wanted and everyone thought it was clever and hilarious.

It was hilarious В– but it shouldnВ’t have been in the way it was. There have always been great comic moments in Doctor Who В– particularly in Russell T DaviesВ’ re-invention of it - and I appreciate that after quite a harrowing two-parter itВ’s good to have something more light-hearted. Love and Monsters should have been whimsical, different, but it ended up sending itself up and at that point it stopped being good Doctor Who.

I could cope with the Abzorbaloff, but what really tipped the scales for me against this episode was Ursula ending up trapped in a paving slab. That was utterly ridiculous. I laughed at the (assumed!) rude gag about the love life at the end, but it was almost as if sheВ’d been left like that just for that. Nothing IВ’ve seen in Doctor Who since it returned has led me to believe that the Doctor would consider leaving a living, feeling Human Being like that when it wasnВ’t a self-inflicted punishment.

On a more positive note, Marc WarrenВ’s Elton Pope was interesting and alluring enough to keep the viewer focussed on him throughout, and I did feel for him when he was trying to fend off Jackie and when he realised he did actually like Ursula a lot. He could have been a terrible geek, but he was played with an open honesty that just made him an average guy and not a figure of fun.

This was probably Jackie TylerВ’s best episode ever and it was refreshing to be amused rather than annoyed by her. Maybe seeing her out of context, so to speak, is something that should have happened a while ago? Her loneliness and her support of Rose and the Doctor was great to see.

Peter KayВ’s performance as Victor Kennedy was excellent too. The eczema gag was a peach and his grandiose style was both compelling and repulsive (hence the League of Gentleman feel). ItВ’s a shame the Shakespearean clowning ham took over when he was transformed.

Overall, then, this episode didnВ’t quite work for me В– although there were aspects of it that I thought were excellent. But, as long as it doesnВ’t harm the series as a whole, I canВ’t see any major problems with being flexible and adventurous with the format in this way.