This episode is likely to divide afficionados of Doctor Who into two very different camps. The first group may have been embarassed by this episode because of its overt humour, or infuriated by the lack of Tennant and Piper for much of the episode, (except in flashback), or bemused by the sudden change of mood between the previous two-parter and this episode. After one viewing, I was probably a member of this first group. A long-term viewer of the show (my earliest certain recollection is of Autons breaking shop windows off-camera, and I remember being almost ashamed to watch "Timelash" in my student halls TV lounge), when I spoke to my school pupils on Sunday (I work in a boarding school) I heard nothing but praise from the 16-year-olds so I watched it again with my 10-year old daughter who had gone out for a bike-ride in the middle of the first screening.

I studied the episode rather more closely and with a more open mind and found myself migrating to the second camp, a fan of this episode. My daughter, too, enjoyed it much more. Indeed I felt moved to submit this, my first ever review to Outpost Gallifrey. I should like to defend this episode on a number of grounds.

Firstly: there is room, and always has been room, for comedy in Doctor Who. Donald Cotton proved that with the Myth Makers and the Gunfighters in the '60s. Pertwee knew how to raise a laugh as demonstrated in his dressing up in "The Green Death". Tom Baker became increasingly comedic and there is broad humour in the scripting of classics such as "City of Death" (Exquisite!)

You have to be a very long-term viewer to recall a totally Doctor-free episode. As a means of resting the hard-worked regular cast, it was policy to switch attention from Doctor to Ian or Barbara or Susan. Indeed, the Hartnell era saw the only episode featuring no regulars. I didn't time Tennant's and Piper's absence from the screen but it certainly felt longer than 25 minutes. Might we still have had the ninth Doctor, had this sort of story been offered to Ecclestone (who has cited the exhausting schedule as a reason for quitting after one year).

As for the sudden lightening of the mood from the Satan Pit, I can cite many such changes of mood in drama. In West Side Story, the comedy song "Gee Officer Krupke" takes place after two characters have died at the ends of switchblades. In Jesus Christ Superstar, King Herod sings his ridiculously camp ragtime number after Christ's arrest. The point I'm making is that by changing the mood in what seems to be an inappropriate manner, the composers, and in the case of our programme, RTD, are asking us to enjoy a laugh, but then they have set us up to feel guilty at our complicity in this humour.

As for the programme itself:- Marc Warren was magnificent. We have all known nerdy fans who falsely claim to have a life beyond fandom. I will probably be lynched by fandom for this next comment, but have we found a new companion? This was an amazing parody but very true to life. Similarly the other members of "Linda" are very well delivered. Camille Coduri, as the lonely, desperate housewife, sex-starved Jackie was brilliant.

Now for Peter Kay, outrageous and threatening, camp yet sinister, in human form was again a great comedy act. As the Abzorbaloff, (and I loved the costume and the absorbing effect) I couldn't help but wonder who his role-model was. I suspect the near-nude scene was heavily inspired by Little Britain's favourite health-spa resident. I nearly expected to hear "Call me Bubbles!"

Do I have any criticisms? Well, I do feel sorry for Elton. How on earth is he to forge any meaningful relationships now that he's permanently hitched to a talking flagstone?

Aah, there you are. Thank you for agreeing to meet me at the beach, and I see you've brought binoculars as well, just like I asked. Marvellous.

Now, take a look out there. See that point, just below the horizon, that pinprick of a dot, got three corners, but you can barely make them out? It's a fin. Belongs to a Great White, must be about three miles out.

And turn 45 degrees to your left. Yes, that's right. Look down the shore, he must be about five miles away by now, the wiry gentleman in the long brown coat? Yes, that's him, the Doctor. Look at him, all snug in his deckchair with a banana dacquiri, feet up, and absorbed in his back issues of the Beano for the afternoon.

I think you'll agree, that's about the nearest he'll get to jumping that shark.

I Love Love & Monsters. I do. I really do. It was like being introduced to one of your best friend's new boyfriend/girlfriend in the pub, finding out they are *really* interested in the same sort of things you are, leading to an animated discussion about it for the rest of the night, talking about it in ways you have never done before and wishing last orders could be put back by several days.

10 Things I Loved about Love & Monsters were:

a) The Doctor and Rose trying to defeat a member of the group who won this year's Eurovision for Finland with different coloured buckets of water.

b) Klepto from 'Making Out' playing on a school piano in an ELO tribute session.

c) BBC4 showing an archive ELO concert an hour or so after Doctor Who finished, but not daring to admit there was a connection (bet there was).

d) Jackie Tyler missing Mickey and flashing her dirty under-trollies in the launderette.

e) Peter Kay chucking in a few Brian Potter ad-libs ('Avanti!')

f) Giving new viewers the chance to reminisce about past episodes (Rose, Aliens of That London, The Christmas Invasion) in a far more satisfactory fashion than showing old clips painted red in a Cyberscope.

g) The Abzorbaloff speaking like an old rip from Bolton who's too late for the first house at Mecca Bingo.

h) Ursula keeping her glasses on after being absorbed.

i) Disproving the age-old theory that relationships between a red-blooded male and a paving slab are impossible/unseemly.

j) It confirms that Doctor Who is just the most super-fun programme ever.

Do you know, I've always thought lists are a very lazy way to review things, but I didn't want to faze any casual surfers out there with an impenetrably huge block of text about how much I Love Love & Monsters.

I hope hard-core fans don't get all prissy and precious about this epsiode. There was so much warmth in there, and a clever little display of how much this series is scratched into the conscience of the British public. So far, only Sarah Jane's 'proper goodbye' tops it for me this series.

Unless of course, the rumours about the Christmas special being called 'The Santa Pit' are true. That'd be untoppable.

Well, what DO you say about an episode that really doesn't much feature the Doctor or Rose, and whose villain is a monster who came from a Create-A-Monster contest won by a nine-year-old?

First off, you say that it was a bit of an experiment. Not really a filler episode, per se, but not one that's really relevant to the overall storyline (such as it is), despite the Torchwood references and the deeeeep foreshadowing to something that we pretty much all know is going to happen anyway because for the second year in a row BBC couldn't keep their big yaps shut. Yeah, the Doctor and Rose kinda take a backseat in this one, but then again, how many New Adventures did this happen in? Speaking of the NAs, did anyone else notice that one of the centerpiece motiffs in this story, Elton seeing the Doctor as a young lad, was kinda sorta lifted from Damaged Goods? Yeah, thought so. Anyway. The motley crew known as LINDA. Less fan geeks than UFO abduction survivors, I reckon. The idea of a support group formed around people who've encountered the Doctor has been seen in numerous fanfics, although usually it's with former companions as its members (at least the ones I've seen). Hmm, makes ye wonder for a tick whether or not a cameo from Liz Sladen wouldn't have been too out of place, but I digress. Although that would've been something. "I saw him when I was child." "There's always this police box." Then we get Sarah Jane popping in with "Oh yeah, big as houses the thing is. Did I mention I used to shag like jackrabbits, I mean, er, TRAVEL, yeah, travel with him?" Ah well, another comedy gold moment missed. That's what you have me for. You know come to think of it, didn't it strike anyone else as a bit odd that everyone in this support group save one has ever encountered the Tennant Doctor? I mean, Bridget was the only one who even mentioned the vague possibility of there being other Doctors. Ummmm and what about that website that Mickey used to maintain? Oh, wait, and wasn't Eccleston only on the front page of a major newspaper and on live worldwide TV once? Gosh, can't countenance that anyone's ever seen HIM, now, can we. Bit of an annoyance, that, really. Nice one, RTD. Jackie was White Trash, more or less, but hey, what do you expect. Oh, yes, and the Abzorbaloff. Yes, it was created by a nine-year-old. Very cute, especially since the winners of a previous competition on Blue Peter way back when never actually got to see their creations actually on the show, but then, well, sorry if anyone out there happens to be one of those past winners, but they looked gawdawful. Even by William Hartnell era standards. Meanwhile, in today's day and age, we actually get to see said monster on the show, and he's basically a mixture of Fat Bastard and that really obese bad guy we saw on an episode of Monk once, played by some comedian I've never heard of, which means something to most British viewers I reckon but means less than a thimbleful of jackshit to me. Making it come from the sister planet to the Slitheen was, well, a bit of a copout, really. And...that's it. I really can't think of much more to say. The monster really means that little to me in the grand scheme of things. I mean, when the Doctor couldn't even be bothered to fight him, what does that tell you? And the music. Good GAWD was it the worst. ELO? Foreign language versions of "Unbreak My Heart?" That one song that caused John Belushi to destroy a guitar in Animal House? You've GOT to be kidding me. Same rule applies to that Scooby-Doo chase at the beginning. Good Lord. But in the end? Elton did have a fascinating story. Being visited by the Doctor as a lad. Being an eyewitness to the Auton attack in "Rose," the spaceship crash from "Aliens of London" and the Sycorax incursion, kinda gave him a bit more of a perspective. A bit tragic, too, with some of the worst repression of memory I've ever seen if he can remember the Doctor but blocked out his appearance being tied to his mother dying. The true love of his life is a cement block (I don't even wanna touch the "love life" comment there), and he's seen a bunch of death and destruction because of the Doctor, directly or (mostly) indirectly. Makes you wonder how long his sanity CAN hold. So, yeah, it has flaws, it's not RTD's best script, but I liked it OK. Basically. Or something.

The episode showed some sparks of genius and some fantastic acting but it simply was not Doctor Who.

Amongst the shambling story of everyday folk lies a romantic tale of love and monsters as indicated by the title. Peter Kay is not the only monster on display here as the team of “Who spotters” are drawn together through, loneliness and loss, as well as a need for community and common cause.

Marc Warren carries the story (helped most noticeably Shirley Henderson), easily breaking the camera barrier a trait which has worked well for him in the past in the BBC drama the “Hustle”. The use of a video diary to capture his banter and tell the story initially works well, but as the episode unfolds it becomes obvious that this is his (Elton’s) story and not really Doctor Who.

When you reach the fifteen minute point and the Doctor has barely been seen, you start to get the feeling that the cast, have had a hiatus while the bag is carried by others. In fact throughout the entire episode you sit waiting for the Doctor to appear which distracts from the story itself. I think David Tennant spent more time on screen during the Children in need episode than he did here.

Stalwart Camille Coduri puts in a good turn as Jackie Tyler, injecting both humor and pathos into her well established character, while Russell T Davies does what he does best, giving new characters depth. Kathryn Drysdale (Bliss) has a very short screen time but is every bit a member of “LINDA” and even Bella Emberg makes a brief but purposeful cameo. The much hyped appearance of Peter Kay is gloriously camp and climaxes with his character Victor/ Absorbaloff running down the street chasing Elton. Kay was definitely the villain of the piece, but lacked the screen presence to epitomize bad as Simon Pegg did in season one.

Overall this could have made a good “Torchwood” story, offering a Doctor cameo, but really is not what we tune in for on a Saturday night.

"Mister blue sky please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long
Where did we go wrong?" (ELO "Mr Blue Sky")

This episode is not "The Doctor Show". It is however "Doctor Who" a series based around a question. A mystery. In many ways, "Love & Monsters" has been done before. Its old hat. Specifically the first 25 min episode of the entire series "An Unearthly Child" where two school teachers become enamored about the mystery surounding an unusual girl in their class, leading to a mysterious old man in a junkyard. "Doctor Who?"

Its also been done before with "Rose" where a young shop girl meets a stange man in the middle of the night, who blows up her workplace. Both of these stories begin with outsiders confronting the central question that is the basis of the show. Both the school teachers, and Rose are us. The viewer that has been invited into discovering and unraveling the mystery. In the case of "Love & Monsters" The journey is Elton's and his group of friends that come together to work towards this end. Even the 'monster' is us to some degree.. the viewer that knows more about the show than the rest, and ruins the fun for those that are finding simple enjoyment in the fun of the mystery. For Elton, much as all of us, we met the Doctor when we were a child.. in our living room. And like Elton, we have all become enamored with the Doctor and the mystery and questions that surround him and his world.

The episode itself, is told in a broken narrative style, fraimed by Elton's video diaries, and flashbacks. Elton himself is a squeaky, endearing character.. but one whose identifiable traits are not his hights, but rather his faults. His frailty as a human. He dances in his apt when no one is looking, he is confused by love when it is staring him right in the face, he hides from secret pain.. and in the end, he just wants to make sense of it all. This mystery that has been in his life. "Doctor Who?"

Elton's life has intersected events in Doctor Who in many ways.. the Auton invasion from "Rose", the Slitheen ship crashing, the Sycorax threat from Christmas day, and most importantly when he was a small child on one fateful day. We then branch out into the other core characters that make up this drama. Ursula.. the mousey yet forthright geeky girl. Mr Skinner, Bridget and Bliss. Bless Bliss, they used to say. They form a collective group of friends, that eventualy brings much needed joy into their lives. These disparate characters have all come together for the mystery, and end up having fun and enriching each other. Then enters Victor Kennedy.. and from there it is all downhill for them. Hes the typical archetype of the bully who spoils the fun. Obsessive, dominearing, and joyless. A funny but telling line of his is the exclaimation "I dont like to be touched physicaly, OR metaphoricaly."

Jackie Tyler gets a chance to shine in this story as a character. Her interaction with Elton runs the gamut of her character in such a way, that it adds layers and depth on a already much interesting and humorous character. The other remaining regulars Rose and the Doctor, do get some choice moments, but most of these are played for comedy. Which between last story and the end of the season coming up will shine as a welcome bit of our heros just really enjoying themselves in their oddball life of traveling and defeating great evils. And the way the Doctor delivers "ELTON!!! Fetch A SPAAADE!!!" is absoultly hysterical in its urgancy.

In "Love & Monsters" the physical presence of the Doctor isn't around for much of the story. However, the impact of his character is. He is completly central to this story, and in many ways more than stories that he has ample screen time. And as far as the past goes, we have "Mission to the Unknown" a one episode story that doesnt even have the slightest hint or impact of the character of the Doctor, as well as various episodes in stories in the first three seasons where the actor playing the Doctor, has taken some time off and isn't seen much. Locked in a cell and unseen, made invisible by a god-like entity, ect. Or even in the case of "The Massacre" Where the Doctor is only in the beginning and the end of the 4 part story, and the actor who plays him does another seperate role as the villian of the piece. Or "Kinda" where Nyssa sleeps right though an entire story, or "The Invasion" where Zoe is off screen for some of the first half, and Jamie is off screen for much of the end. So historically moving the Doctor (and companions) on and off screen has little impact on the show overall, as it not "The Doctor Show", Or 'The Marc Cory Show" or even "The Rose Show". It is forever "Doctor Who".. a show that asks a question. Sometimes the Doctor is the one facing the question (such as last week's "Satan Pit") or in the case of this old formula, using an outsider to peer into this world and try and make sense of it.

Other sci-fi shows that have used a similar forumla of the outsider looking in (some with even the same broken narrative structure) are X-Files "Jose Chung's From Outer Space", Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "The Zeppo" and "the Storyteller", Babylon 5's "A View From The Gallery", DS9's "In The Cards" and Star Trek: TNG's "Lower Decks".

Production-wise, this episode starts a new trend as far as the New Series, in the fact that due to having a 14th "Christmas Episode" in the shooting schedual, less time has been afforded to the principal actors. The trade off to having an additional 60 mins of New Who each year, is that one of the remaining 13 will have to be 'regular actor'lite. So for those who cry foul at this concept, just consider it an additional 45 mins each year in the Doctor Who Universe, rather than loosing one of the 13 primary series episodes. The fictional universe of WHO, is so much richer because of this new production decision. And will be next year as well.

So, in the end "Love & Monsters" is a cute, harmless episode with squeeky characters. It may not seem that central to the overall fictional universe that is this show, however it is quite simply what is at the heart of all of it. Us, the common person, the viewer, the one who confronts the mystery of "Doctor who?" and of the great mysteries of the universe. Elton and Ursula join the ranks with Ian and Barbara, Chang Lee, Rose, and everyone else that has blundered into the fascinating yet dangerous world of the Doctor and has the bravery to confront the mystery of it all. And like them will be forever changed by it.

The story has a lot of heart, humor and warmth. And characters that are almost impossible not to fall in love with. All of them, the most adorable three-legged puppies you have ever seen. After 45 minutes you have found you have really come to know them, and feel for them.

Is "Love & Monsters" to be considered "The Doctor Show"? Never. It is however, "Doctor Who". The exploration of mystery both external and internal. And above all.. what to make of the answers that are found. And in a smaller way, its about "Love"... and "Monsters". Which as a fandom, as viewers, and as people.. are us. The episode may be a harmless one, but its wealth of meaning and warmth are priceless.

As the Doctor said of the common man, "Two in the morning. Street corner. Taxi ride home. Ive never had a life like that." Its the common man thats most important. Be it school teachers in a junkyard, a shop girl in a basement, or Elton dancing around to ELO. In his underwear.. Awkwardly.

"Mister blue, you did it right
But soon comes mister night creepin' over
Now his hand is on your shoulder
Never mind I'll remember you this
I'll remember you this way" (ELO "Mr Blue Sky")

After the dark fable delights of 'Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit' which is currently a pole position contender for the best of this hit and miss season, I was hoping we were on a roll with the series but……

In respect of the current offering 'Love and Monsters', I honestly have to comment that I have never had to sit through approximately 50 minutes of pure diarrhoea as I had to with this travesty.

What the bloody hell were the team thinking of? Are Russell T. Davies et al, trying to lose viewers? If not they really are going the best way about it in churning out the maximum in dire. This has to be the contender for the worst example of 'Who' drama in the entirety of the 'New Who' stable, not just Tennants' tenure.

The acting was so wooden I anticipated a shower of splinters in some of the sequences. The lead character Elton was portrayed as weak and uninteresting, did we care what happened to him and the bunch of raggedy- rawny misfits – NO!

I wish Peter Kays creation absorbed the bloody lot in the first few minutes and had the Doctor and Rose trying to get them back, which would've been better but in no way could polish this turd.

I loved the monster and seeing Peter Kay in his element, it is a crying shame that they were both wasted. If I had been the kid that designed the monster and seen it used in such a terrible way I would've cried and held my head in my hands.

The acting 'ability' (and I use this term loosely) of Marc Warren and Shirley Henderson may have shone in a third rate amateur dramatics burlesque but definitely has no place in such a show that has the potential of being such of a high calibre. Were they picked off of the streets?

At times this travesty of a tale bordered on Brian Rix farce and should have been titled 'Whoops there goes my Bloomers!' This mortifying attempt at 'slapstick' or should that be 'sh*tstick' humour was agonisingly apparent when the Doctor and Rose are pursuing an alien with a bucket of 'Martian eradicator' this whole sorry state of affairs came across as simply pitiable.

Words fail me how this ever got passed script stages (may have something to with the producer writing this abortion), the same could be said of New Earth and the dire Cyberman escapade (the writer commented his fond nostalgia/inspiration went back to 'Silver Nemesis' - I anticipated this two parter was going to be potentially bol*ocks due to the inspiration so wasn't let down that much) but they were 'classics' in comparison to this. It made Sylvester McCoy's era look like a Belle Époque in the science fiction dramas' history – and believe me for those not in the know- that's' really saying something !!!!!

The humour (?) was not funny, just pathetic; the characters were as weak as water and tried half heartedly to boost up such an incongruous piece of slapdash; commonly known to us all as a 'script'. With toe curlingly embarrassing situations littered throughout, I shook my head in sheer disbelief at how a show such as this had sunk so low.

The whole sorry saga demonstrated how not to do 'Who' and quite frankly showed a complete lack of respect for a show now termed as an 'institution'.

Experiment with new ways – yes sure, but for Pete's' sakes do it well! In a show like this it has to be of a high calibre, what was demonstrated was completely the antithesis.

I am wondering now if when Tenant and Piper were approached with this script they were relieved to find out they weren't in it long. I would be ashamed to be associated with it in all honesty.

I still feel Tennant thinks he is Casanova in a brown suit, he still , in my opinion, hasn't 'cemented' or stamped his mark on the pivotal role and I feel won't do until the script writers do him justice and as long as T. Davies churns out this crap it'll be a long time coming.

Why is this series so different from Ecclestons'? Where is the dark, foreboding atmosphere that added so much mystery in 2005's season. They had the balance almost perfect last year – what's' going wrong?

This has really made me, my friends, my colleagues at work and their children (plenty of age groups and cross sections!!!!) start to turn their backs on a show that was such an exciting Saturday night pizza & beer 'ritual'.

I am getting to the stage where I don't care if I miss it or not - last year Saturdays at 7 p.m were sacrosanct not just for me but it seemed for just about almost everyone. This show seems to be dieing or lacking in an essential ingredient that just simply isn't there.

I really do feel if ideas aren't 'bucked up' then Love and Monsters could be the first death nail for the show.

Mr. T Davies please stick to producing and writing overrated history revisionist outings, leave it to the experts dear - those who know how to write an exciting yarn and respect Doctor Who a damn sight more than you have displayed this year so far. Can't Mark Gatiss produce from Season 3 onwards and give you a much needed (by the seem of things) break?