Love & Monsters

Firstly, a word of praise for the link up between Blue Peter and Doctor Who which saw 9 year old William GranthamВ’s design for the Abzorbaloff brought to life by Neill Gorton and worn by the inimitable Peter Kay. This is a wonderful affirmation, if any was needed, that Doctor Who is a childrenВ’s show in which many adults happen to take, shall we say, a passing interest. What a great moment it must have been for William to see his design brought to life.

Secondly, given the right material, there isnВ’t any reason Peter Kay wouldnВ’t make an effective В“villainВ” in the series; his performance as Victor Kennedy is fine. And although the point was almost entirely lost in truly cringeworthy attempts at humour in the exchanges with Elton, Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler demonstrates the negative impact the Doctor has had on her life by taking Rose away; obviously things didnВ’t work out with Howard from the market.

On to the story. Using the В“itВ’s just an offbeat episode and harmless bit of funВ” ploy to justify its inclusion what we have witnessed is an appalling exercise in smut and piss-taking unparalled in the televisual history of the series and not I may add doing justice to the endeavours of a nine year old in creating the monster. Cleverly on RTDВ’s part, the story is largely beyond criticism itself- where do you start- but one or two comments may be relevant before I close. IВ’m not one for conspiracy theories, but watching this made me wonder whether a decision has already been made at the BBC that the show doesnВ’t have a future beyond next season thus handing a licence to RTD to make sure people wonВ’t miss its passing that much. It used to be said that the highest form of torture was to be locked in a cell and forced to listen to Tony Blackburn jokes day in and day out. You can now replace that with watching a DVD of Love and Monsters. I hope the Government are paying attention because here is a seriously effective remedy for soaring crime rates and anti social behaviour. Yes, give them a DVD of this and force them to watch and I guarantee you repentance en masse.

To quote or loosely quote from the excellent RTD story Tooth and Claw. IВ’ll not have it. This is not my world. We are NOT amused.

Fear Her? Fear him- RTD. The man who was so instrumental in the success of Doctor Who 2005 is now turning parts of Doctor Who 2006 into a living nightmare. 0/10