Love & Monsters

Do you think ANYONE on the production team is able to turn to RTD and say 'actually, no, Russell- I think it's really bad and quite lazy. What on Earth are you trying to do?'

I just listened to the commentary on this episode. On it RTD chuckles at the absurdity of a steaming bucket being thrown at an alien to attack it and muses on the indignation of fans seeing this and that while the internet is buzzing he'll be in his hot tub. Personally I didn't mind the steaming bucket in the least. I do mind not knowing why it was there or what was going on but then RTD doesn't seem to think anything like plot matters so long as you've got snappy one-liners and soap-opera moments. I don't agree.

This was, in short a complete waste of our time. Yes is was sometimes smirkinlgy funny and quite sweet but so is alot of what's on TV and Dr Who is supposed to be better than that. I'm not just saying that because I count myself as a fan but because the new series have won so many awards, had so many viewers and so many RT covers. It IS better, more interesting and more engaging than most programmes on TV and what Love & Monsters did was, frankly boring.

The metaphor for Dr Who fans is now quite tired and beginning to get boring. Why not include metaphors for the BBC, JNT and Mary Whitehouse and write a plotless character piece about a group of schools kids making a magazine? This was SO trite, banal and pointless- the only vaguely interesting thing was Elton's mother being killed by a Shade escaped from the Howling Halls. But then we al know how good RTD is at thinking up sparkle and dressing without any thought, substance or plot behind it.

Peter Kay is apparently a really good actor aswell as a great comedian. He might be- it may have come across in the episode but to be honest all I could see was reasonable pantomime.

The epsiode was intended as an experiment- a change of format for the show. Good. Fine. Absolutely no problem. The 'Adventuress of Henrietta Street' was a BBC novel with a radically different format, told in the form of fragmented historical documents, heresay and excerpts from prostitutes' diaries. It was also the most engaging, intelligent and exciting Dr Who book I have every read. I have no problem with experimenting with the bounds of the show's format but SURELY if you are going to do something risky and unusual you need a really good REASON to do it? There was nothing here- just some pretty standard TV fair about a group of people enjoying themselves and being taken over by a more coporate/unhappy ethos and then losing friends. It wasn't deep, it wasn't interesting and certainly wasn't worth my time.

It was also a complete spoof. Like the burping bin, the EXCESSIVE farting of the slitheen and the three stooges slaptick at the beginning of the epidose it was a very obvious denial of the world in which the characters live. It's like a boom coming into shot or having canned laughter over the top of the soundtrack. These little quirks and one-liners that pepper RTD's writing are not only pathetic when compared to the comedy and plotting of other writers but also ruin our belief in the world the character's live in- how can we care about Billy's character when we're constantly being made aware of the writer's sense of humour. The kind of ridiculous juxtapositions RTD puts in like the boy-next-door keeping a living paving-stone in his room which whom he has arelationship could probably be carried off by a writer like Paul Magrs- he is outlandish in such a way as create believable worlds with explanations and intelligent themes. Can you imagine the response that the first episode of 2005 would have had if Rose was attacked by and Abzorbaloff in the basement rather than Autons? NO ONE WOULD BE WATCHING.

On a similar theme the Abzorbaloff was terribly realized. The idea the 10y/o kid had is good as far as I can see and despite the Earth-referencing sumo pants and mohican a nice idea for an alien mencace. Contrary to RTD's comments it is perfectly obvious from the drawing that it should have been the size of a double decker bus (a whole body is visible in its forearm) and it should have been see-through... but never mind. Unfortunately it looked like a goblin/orc/gremlin/ogre/troll from any fairy-tale book and NOT like an alien. My point is it looks very much like a human fantasy of a monster - essentially a very ugly human being - rather than something that evolved on a very different work an developed a different culture. Compare this to the Ood who look wonderful and SO believeable. If there was some kind of explanation that the reason we conceive goblins/trolls/bogeymen as looking a bit like Abzorbaloffs etc suchas them actually stalking Bavarian villages in the fifth century and being recorded in our popular consciousness as fairy tale monsters- then suddenly they'd be believable and more frightening. As it is it looks like a fat guy in suit and if I were a 10y/o viewer I'd be insulted.

As I said there were moments that were funny and sweet. But anyone and any TV show can do that- Dr Who needs to have more to it.