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.

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

Oh my God and Jesus as well. How does he keep getting WORSE?!

Tooth & Claw, though not perfect, was a step up. Wishful thinking, it seems, to have hoped that this would be a permanent improvementВ… Come on - Love & Monsters was, well, abysmal.

DonВ’t get me wrong В– I love Doctor Who more than I really care to mention, and I want so much to be able to equally love these new series. In fact, I was kind of a В‘lapsedВ’ fan when the Eccleston run kicked off, and since then IВ’ve been trying to qualify exactly what my thoughts are about the В‘reinventionВ’ of something I love so muchВ… (For my sins though, it has thoroughly restarted my interest in all other things Doctor Who В– spending far too much money on eBay, catching up on Missing and New Adventures I never got round to reading before, etc etcВ…)

So, itВ’s not like IВ’m slagging the revival off just for the hell of it В– yeah, itВ’s not quite how IВ’d ideally like it to be (В‘darkerВ’, more developed/ambiguous plots В– Ghost Light/Fenric styleeeee), bu-utВ… ThereВ’s been a lot of shit, but at the same time enough good stuff (ummВ… The Girl in the Fireplace, The Impossible Planet) to justify continued viewing. I desperately want it all to be honest-to-God AMAZING - but then, an abortion of an episode like Love & Monsters comes along and cruelly dashes all my hopes and dreams. Etc. Ahem.

The annoying thing about bitching about this particular episode is that I know people are going to assume that either/or a) IВ’m so closed-minded that I canВ’t deal with an episode that doesnВ’t obviously fit into an established format from the original series, or feature the Doctor all the way through, or, b) that IВ’m completely heartless and immune to, yВ’know, emotional exchanges and meaningful stuff about friendship, and all that jazzВ… The things this episode was so clearly and so desperately aiming for. Unfortunately, the В‘emotionalВ’ subtext (or should that just be В‘textВ’; there wasnВ’t a lot of sub about it) was so painfully cack-handed and simplistic that it had the effect of simply making me very cross indeed rather than making me empathise with the characters (such as they were). And as for the idea of, if you like, В‘experimentalВ’ approaches to Doctor Who В– yes! By all means! The idea of doing things outside of the archetypes of the original series was a mainstay of some of the best of the Virgin and BBC novel ranges; we know it can work В– by all means transfer that to the series itself!

Unfortunately, a video diary by an emotionally retarted Elton John namesake doesnВ’t cut it. Look - heВ’s a real person! Ooh В– a В‘postmodernВ’ metaphor for Doctor Who fansВ…! No, heВ’s a bit of a tosser, and LINDA never for a moment seemed to consist of real people. Sorry, Russell, but no dice, grandma. (And what the hell was all that ELO padding?!)

The idea of В‘everydayВ’ people whose lives have been touched by the Doctor in some way (as in Rose), is potentially interesting В– that it becomes an insipid and pointless metaphor for В‘the fansВ’ ruins it somewhat. Also wouldВ’ve been nice to have some acknowledgement of the DoctorВ’s different bodies, which couldВ’ve easily been made to fit in, and be intriguing rather than off-putting to the newer viewers if done well (which, considering this was a RTD script is perhaps asking too muchВ…). In fact, with the flashbackВ’s to EltonВ’s childhood I found myself automatically expecting the Doctor he encountered to be the Fourth (which wouldВ’ve made sense in terms of the whole fan thing) В– how hard would it have been to show his feet and his scarf dangling, and dub over an inimitable, В‘Oh, helloВ…В’. (And after the overload in School Reunion, you canВ’t say that kind of continuity reference would be inappropriate or alienatingВ…)

As for the В‘plot,В’ such as it was В– why the fuck is he so proud of the Slitheen that cant even let them lie, and introduces an inhabitant of their twin planet. Or whatever the explanation was. If I were being uncharitable, IВ’d take Davies to task on the gaping holesВ… Oh, wait, I am feeling fairly uncharitable. So, sorry, what was KennedyВ’s motivation againВ…? He wanted toВ… eat the Doctor, oh yes. Ah. Glad to see the art of the intelligent plot isnВ’t dead.

Just cos youВ’ve decided to do a В‘concept pieceВ’ on the importance of friendship (ie, a huge bit of sledgehammer-subtle foreshadowing regarding RoseВ’s potential demise) doesnВ’t mean itВ’s acceptable to completely disregard plot. And as for the final paving slab related revelation (which, surely, robs the entire В‘emotional coreВ’ the story seemed to be trying so hard to develop, of its power?), Jesus ChristВ… Actually, I was thinking, if this was, say, a Paul Magrs story, he could probably take all the, erm, more outlandish elements of this script and make them seem perfectly believable, by creating a world consistent with such things, where they wouldnВ’t seem out of placeВ… The trouble here, I think, is that Davies is trying В– albeit in a very cack-handed way В– to make such implausible events co-exist with a pseudo-В‘realisticВ’ harsh world in which there is pain, unfairness, etcВ… Unfortunately, these two approaches completely diffuse one another. Which is not to say that implausible events (even to the degree of living paving slabs) and emotional content are mutually exclusive; however, this episode was so much of a mess that nothing whatsoever gelled. I guess it must be a fine line between having the talent to make such a balancing act work, and just thinking you do. (DonВ’t even get me started on the Scooby-Doo running around at the beginningВ… It wasnВ’t funny and it sure as shit wasnВ’t clever.)

I think my problem with DaviesВ’ scripts, and this lighter approach to Doctor Who is that when I discovered the NAs at about 12, I suddenly realised everything that Doctor Who could be and what it could achieve, and as such, IВ’m still a stickler for a more serious approachВ… (Which is not to say that IВ’m not partial to silliness, so donВ’t think IВ’m completely humourless. (Aargh. Actually, when people say that, they mostly are, arenВ’t they? Bollocks.) IВ’m a fan of Barbarella, for GodВ’s sake! (В“DECRUCIFY THE ANGEL OR IВ’LL MELT YOUR FACE!!!!В”, indeed!))

So, yeah. The thing is, despite that, I tend to find myself watching things like (get me!) Kuroneko, or Six Feet Under, or The New World, or even Fanny & Alexander (things which arenВ’t necessarily of even broadly the same genre (or genres) of Doctor Who), and thinking, Sorry, WHY exactly canВ’t it be this good?!. I guess if those are the sort of standards IВ’m hoping for, IВ’m going to be pretty thoroughly disappointedВ…. But I just think, when youВ’re dealing with a programme, and key concepts, which can do literally anything - fit into any genre, go anywhere - if this is the best non-typical format the current production crew can come up with, then weВ’re in pretty dire straights.



PS Not looking forward to the season finaleВ… Can you imagine how tediously maudlin and wannabe В‘meaningfulВ’ and emotional itВ’s going to be if Rose does cop it? ChristВ…

Forget The Girl in the Fireplace, this is the most daring, the most different episode we have had this year. It is also one of the best for what has turned out to be a very strong year of Doctor Who, which should be indicative of its quality.

I have been thinking for a while that despite being beautifully filmed, exciting, imaginative and enjoyable the past five or six episodes have lacked something that season one had in abundanceВ…it was only when I watched Love and Monsters that I realised what that was. Whilst people have criticized his work hugely since he started on the series (compared to the other writers), season two has lacked good old Russell T. Its become a very serious, sombre, sensible drama seriesВ…what RTD brings to the show is a sense of fun and adventure which is as essential as those other ingredients. When I look back to series one it is not FatherВ’s Day which I can re-watch again and again to spot great lines, wonderful set pieces and overall qualityВ…itВ’s the End of the World, World War Three, Boom Town and Bad Wolf. RTD disguises his intelligent writing behind his ability to entertain but if you scratch the surface of many of his episodes and you can find genuine emotion, fantastic ideas and compelling drama.

Love and Monsters is Russell T Davies on form after a stretch of episodes away so he can refresh his work, it capitalises his strengths from his previous episodes and accelerates them. Brilliantly, compare this with Tooth and Claw and see just how versatile this mans work is. This episode contains an embarrassment of riches that highlights just how generic and worthless so much of todayВ’s TV schedule is.

a) I absolutely adored Elton. What a fabulous character. Not a nerdy sort but one that nerds can really relate to. Mark Warren pitched his performance just right because there was the risk that Elton could come across as geeky and soppy but he pulls of the sentimental scenes with a great deal of charm that makes your heart melt. This really is the everyman on the street caught up in amazing adventures, looking for love, friendship and answers about a man who has featured so prominently in his life. When all the doe eyes, infiltration and awe are over and done with my favourite Elton moment is in the very last scene where he sums up life more beautifully than I can ever remember. It is promoting the Doctor Who ethic in the most positive of ways.

b) The humour is pitched at just the right level. I laughed out loud several times during this episode and I cannot remember the last time I did that with any other show. To provoke real laughter you have genuinely appeal to somebodyВ’s sensibilities and that takes real talentВ…seeing the Doctor and Rose and that horrid saliva dripping creature chasing around that warehouse from EltonВ’s point of view is pure, excellent slapstick. And Billie PiperВ’s OTT war cry as she comes running with the water is genius! Not only that though, you have that great scene where Jackie seduces Elton by splashing wine down his top and telling him to take it off, him saying it is nothing and her chucking the whole glass at him! Pure brilliance and Camille Coduri plays the slutty seductress with total conviction. Then everytime Peter Kay opened his trap in the costume of the Absorbalof I could hardly keep a straight face. A big fat, green, hideous, face covered monster with a Mohican and a northern accent. It has to be seen to be believed. His reaction to being called a Slitheen is fab. And finally the extremely rude suggestion that paving slab Ursula have a sexual relationship caused spontaneous laughter from Simon and I that didnВ’t subside for several minutes. You work it out.

c) Seeing the invasions in Rose, Aliens of London and The Christmas Invasion from EltonВ’s POV was such a clever idea. Doctor Who is usually always told from the POV of the regulars so to see the reactions of somebody who was not involved in the adventure at all is fascinating. I loved the scene where his bedroom window exploded.

d) Jackie has not been used very effectively this year and this just goes to remind you what she can bring to the series. Seeing her just getting on with normal life should be tedious but she is such a fun character even that is wonderful. Watching her do exactly what Elton needs for him to infiltrate her home is hilarious (she is such a tart!) but the episode then turns on its head and shows her at home pondering on the fate of her daughter. The scene where she confronts Elton after finding the photograph of Rose in his pocket is very powerful and probably the best moment in the episode because you can see the pain she feels at being left behind, being least important person in RoseВ’s life and how fiercely protective she is of both Rose and the Doctor these days. Startlingly played by both actors, this is great drama.

e) You have to applaud how В‘not Doctor WhoВ’ this episode is and if you were turned off because of that I suggest you take a cold shower and go and watch Underworld and find out that В‘normal Doctor WhoВ’ is not always the better option. Scenes of friends getting together, eating, singing and getting off on each others company are joyousВ…romances, flirting, a man pulling off his shirt to jump into bed with a womanВ…this is bold, proud and different!

f) The framing device of Elton talking directly into his camera is very effective and a great way for us to get close to him. The episode is like a huge jigsaw of narrative styles; starting in the middle (because it has a big monster in it and makes an exciting start!), whizzing through that bit in fast forward when we reach it, cutting to Elton dancing around in happy moments and hiding his face during harder scenes, even to the point where he has to turn the camera off because it is too hard to talk, introducing the characters with brief snippets and those moments slotting in later, flashback sequencesВ…it is a fascinatingly constructed piece of writing. I wouldnВ’t know how to begin writing this but then I donВ’t have RTDВ’s job and lets all be thankful for that. Narration is just one of the ways this episode is groundbreaking.

But most gigglesomely brilliant of allВ…

g)В…is how Russell T Davies manages to once again prove how vital the Doctor is. It isnВ’t a patronising love up where everybody says how wonderful he isВ…because Elton concludes that even touching the Doctor for a moment means you will be hurt in some wayВ…but it does prove how important it is that the Doctor fights these monsters so that ordinary people like Elton can go about their business of living. It is that same feeling of status he was given in Rose in CliveВ’s shed, that suggestion that people are following his adventures and are thrilled by them. He is our protector and our friend. When Elton runs away from him when the Doctor says, В“DonВ’t I know you?В” I think that would be most of our reaction. Seeing the Doctor standing over Elton as a child as the camera pans over to his dead mother in the shadows is a shockingly thoughtful moment.

There are more wonderful thins about this episode but I would be here all day. The witty lines, the fantastic score, the strong direction, the clever FXВ…these all combine to make the list above possible.

Love and Monsters is one of the most unusual Doctor Who episode ever aired. I thought it was bloody brilliant and donВ’t want Russell T to disappear from the seasons for such a long time again.

BADWAS, ours was called. Brighton Area Doctor Who Appreciation Society. Not, I admit, as snappy as LINDA, but also not as feminine so I think on the whole I probably prefer ours, even if it does lack originality. You canВ’t blame me for that though В– they started up in 1983, before I was even born. TheyВ’re still going, down there in Sussex, although since I moved away I obviously donВ’t get to the meetings as much any more.

No women in our group. Well, aside from the occasional mother or girlfriend reluctantly hanging around the home of whoever happened to be hosting it that month, or perhaps dragged along to the annual summer barbecue. Yes, we did barbecues. And Christmas parties. Even hosted a couple of mini-conventions, one with Mary Tamm and one with Elisabeth Sladen. Nice ladies. Neither of them flashed their knickers at us.

What I perhaps never realised until last night was quite how archetypal the whole Doctor Who local fan group thing is / was. Yes, we even had a member who travelled a ridiculously long distance В– from Northampton, I think В– down to the south coast to see us each month. Phil Collinson was, I believe, a member of a local group in Leeds, and I wouldnВ’t put it past Russell T Davies himself to have been a member of some Swansea local group in his youth, given how accurately and affectionately the whole thing was sent up in Love & Monsters.

Which is I think why I enjoyed the episode so much В– because it was an affectionate look at a type of people and a type of group I have fond memories of myself, written by somebody who you know really understands fandom. I have no idea how new fandom will have taken to it В– now that you donВ’t ever have to leave your house to have an active social life engaging with other fans via the interweb, does the idea of a local fan group have any meaning or appeal for them? I donВ’t know. But for us old-timers, there was surely a feeing that this was written for, and a little celebration of, us and out world.

Obviously most of us who identified with the episode would have seen ourselves in the Elton Pope role, played excellently by Marc Warren. (Who was an uncredited extra in Battlefield, dontchaknow). Yes, heВ’s a much better-looking and rather romanticised version of your average Doctor Who fan, but I certainly saw a degree of myself in him and surely I canВ’t have been alone in this? Even the musical obsession with a certain band was spot-on, although in my case it was Queen I was heavily into as a teenager and used to dance around my bedroom listening to.

But itВ’s more than that, though. The central tragedy of EltonВ’s life is that he had this image of the Doctor seared into his memory from one night so many years ago, one moment he is desperate to get back to and have explained. ThatВ’s why heВ’s so desperate to see the Doctor again, and becomes so nostalgic when he hears the sound of the TARDIS engines. ItВ’s a metaphor for the tragedy of the fan existence В– in some ways, we keep watching this show purely because we want to get back and recapture that first moment of magic, when we were four or five or however old and this mysterious, scary old show grabbed us and terrified us and drew us in and burned those formative memories into our own minds. So we keep watching, keep searching for the Doctor and for all those years hoped heВ’d come back because we thought it would take us back to how we were and how we felt then, that perfect time in our memories.

But, as has been well-documented through the ages, you can never go back. As The IdiotВ’s Lantern pointed out, thatВ’s the tragedy of the human condition, and itВ’s what makes Elton such a sad and lonely figure, even if he does finally end up with a happy ending of sorts.

So as an excuse to hang this treatise of fandom and the fan condition upon В– which really in the end is just another facet of the overall human condition В– the episode didnВ’t really need much of a plot as an excuse to go through it all. It still had one though, and a rather nice little one with a great villain В– say what you like about stunt casting and what have you, but I thought Peter Kay was excellent, probably more so as the Abzorbaloff than as his human alter-ego, Victor Kennedy.

The Abzorbaloff itself is a frightening concept, and you can see why it was picked as the winner of the Blue Peter design-a-monster competition. The idea of being dragged into and absorbed by this creature, still being alive and slowly digested as your face sticks out of its foul body, is a genuinely creepy and disturbing one, and I can easily imagine that it gave some of the younger members of the audience some sleepless nights.

The most upsetting part of the whole Abzorbaloff business was seeing poor old Ursula sucked inside. Shirley Henderson closely matched Peter Kay and Marc Warren in the В‘best guest star of the episodeВ’ stakes, and doubtless instantly became the image of the Doctor Who fanВ’s ideal fantasy girlfriend, if youВ’re into that sort of thing. Before she became a paving slab, of course. This was one aspect of the episode that I didnВ’t quite take to В– I thought the fact that the Doctor was able to resurrect her with his В‘magic wandВ’ as Elton put it rather cheated the whole drama and tragedy of the piece, and even though she seemed quite happy with her lot IВ’m not really sure an eternity of being a head on a paving slab is anything much to look forward to.

I know some peopleВ’s blood would probably have boiled if told that there was an episode of Doctor Who coming in which the most prominent of the regular or semi-regular characters would be not the Doctor, or Rose, nor even Mickey, but the Powell EstateВ’s own Jackie Tyler. IВ’m not the worldВ’s biggest fan of Jackie myself by any means, but I donВ’t dislike her as much as some and she was pretty good here when given a rare chance to step into centre stage. It was interesting to see a little of what goes on in her life when sheВ’s not with the Doctor and Rose or being caught up in the midst of the latest alien invasion, and her rather sad and pathetic little flirtation with Elton, added to some steel when she found out what he was actually up to, was a nice opportunity to highlight the depth her character isnВ’t often allowed to show. Given that it was announced this week that Rose is leaving at the end of the season, we could well not see Jackie again beyond series two either, so I was glad she got a chance to step into the limelight and shine before we possibly say goodbye. Strange that after only two years a whole era of the show that began back in March 2005 appears to be coming to an end.

Doctor Who, however, will never come to an end in all of its many and varied forms, no matter what happens to the television series itself. It survives because it has people like Elton, people like Russell T Davies and people like us keeping it alive and loved, and we love it not simply for the memories it gives us but for the life and the friends it introduces us to that we might not otherwise have had. WeВ’ve had celebrations of all kinds of aspects of Doctor Who, old and new, in the new series to date, so it was rather charming and touching that we got an episode that was basically a celebration of fandom.

As I think IВ’ve said before about other episodes that went in other directions В– which perhaps goes to show how wonderfully varied this series has been В– you wouldnВ’t want Doctor Who to be like this every week. But as a one-off I thought it more than earned its place in the run, and justified its existence, as if it ever needed to. Long live the В‘infinitely variable formatВ’ we so love and also apparently despise. Long live us!

Well, where to begin? Love & Monsters was the first proper Non-Doctor Doctor Who story since the teaser episode to the Daleks Master Plan way back in the sixties. I know there may be a lot of criticism about doing this, but I believe it had to be done now, simply because RTD and his team have the luxury to do it that productions crews in the past and productions crews in the future have not had and may not have. It's an interesting idea to take an episode from the perspective of a "fan" (sic) and its an approach that builds on the whole pathos of the lives the Doctor changes just by appearing in their lives one day. We've seen it happen to Mickey and Jackie (more of whom later), and now to the assorted members of LINDA.

Centre-stage in this episode was Marc Warren, a wonderfully capable actor better known in Hustle. He was entirely believeable as sad loner Elton Pope and almost single-handedly carried the story on its shoulders. Elton is somebody we all could know or could have known, most likely from university days, from which the character never seemed to have escaped. It is also entirely believeable such a man should set up a group of UFO - spotters, themselves lonely and in need of something in their lives. I think felt sadder for the ruination of the budding romance between Bridget and Mr Skinner than I did for Elton and Ursula. When Victor Kennedy shows up and "the golden age ended", you can't help but feel sorry for the bunch of losers.

The scenes between Elton and Jackie were top-notch. It was good to see Jackie in her own right and not under the shadow of the Doctor and Rose for once, and only fair to Camille Coduri who has made the woman entirely believable. As Rose is to depart in three episodes time, I am glad that she gets her chance to shine in what may be her swansong (although, I sense Pete might be returning in Army of Ghosts for anyone who's read the synopsis). Her wantoness had my Dad and I in creases and, hey, we got to see Marc Warren bend over and topless so this one ain't complaining. The resolution of Ursula Blake now existing as a paving slab was a bit of an odd one, and as the joke about them having a love life, I don't know which is worse - that it was included or the fact I thought about it a second before he said it. Do you think when they row, she accuses him of walking all over her? Boom- boom.

Peter Kay's performance was nothing short of theatrical as Victor Kennedy and typically humourous as the Abzorbaloff. Despite the cartoonishness of the character, it struck me as to what a good actor the man is as I found myself disliking him for being such a bully to the members of LINDA. I predict a good secondary career in the future for this man. Should he ever get bored of comedy, great things beckon. When Peter Kay isnt being Peter Kay, he's believable. As a result, I question as to why the Abzorbaloff had to be Northern at all. I think it detracted from the scenes greatly and wobbled on the line of the golden rule - Always play it straight. Once you start playing Doctor Who for laughs, it becomes ridiculous and destroys it. Still, it was a damn good idea for a monster and well done to the nine-year old who designed him. I still would have loved to have seen more of the monster in the warehouse. I found it all the more engaging.

So, a brave experiment on all counts and one that was largely pulled off with a few minor let-downs. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, that's for sure. Of course, at the time or writing, everyone's mind is on Billie's departure. A few subtle hints have been worked in already, including the Beast in the Satan Pit saying she will die in battle and Elton Pope in L&M saying death won't be too far off poor Jackie and Rose, and of course all those Torchwood references. I have a suspicion that Rose won't be killed off at all, but will turn in Bad Wolf again, perhaps permanently. I could be wrong, but just three weeks to go before the end of Series 2, starting betting now...