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...

I just want to say how absolutely В‘funВ’ that episode was. Completely left-field and a total change of pace and most importantly Russell T Davies demonstrating how important the flexibility of the format is in its ability to accommodate entirely different modes of storytelling within one series.

This was a В‘Doctor WhoВ’ story from a new perspective. This is the adventures of the Doctor and Rose told from the view of the outsider В– not just Elton, Ursula and the gang but also, quite crucially, from JackieВ’s point of view. Look at what this whole experience does to Jackie for starters and you will begin to understand what this episode is about. Camille Coduri was quite marvellous in showing us a parent so cut off from her own child that she desperately reaches out for relationships that are destined to fail and she is completely self-aware that they will. Her seduction and rejection of Elton was credible and touching. Her maternal protection of Rose and the Doctor shows us that she isnВ’t just some В‘cockney EastendВ’ cipher. This is a woman in pain, frightened and alone and, finally, able to comprehend just what happens to human lives when they come into contact with the Doctor. IВ’m glad Russell gave us this as it really does add layers to the character and fixes her place in the narrative once and for all. And it is done with so much love for the character that it is cleverly poignant.

From the outset let me say that this would not work without the brilliant central performance of Marc Warren as Elton. A smashing tour de force that took us from a kind of grinning understanding of his need to meet like minded people to the sad revelation about his childhood and the death of his mother. Funny, often breathlessly exhilarating, often sexy, and then deeply touching. The majority of the performance being played out via a webcam was a fantastic device that immediately provided a one to one relationship with the viewer. How many television shows in prime time would face the viewer and tell their story so directly? And how many lead characters end up in a relationship with a paving slab?

The editing also must be praised as this is an integral mechanism that enables this first person narrative to work so well. It also justifies some of the more risible elements in the episode. Looking at the opening В‘comedy chaseВ’ it could be seen as rather silly and farcical. But the viewer must understand that we are seeing events through someone elseВ’s eyes whilst Russell T Davies is also turning the whole В‘corridor chase with monstersВ’ trope, so indicative of В‘classicВ’ Doctor Who, on its head in a surreal, slightly mocking, homage.

We could approach the whole episode as a complete love-letter to the series and its fans. The LINDA organisation is fandom. A fandom not governed by rules, a fandom that not only understands its primary function ( e.g. enjoying Doctor Who as a group/connecting with other humans who know about the Doctor) but also by dint of that association socialising, eating together, forming a band as secondary functions. These В‘fansВ’ enjoy themselves. And then uber-fan Victor Kennedy arrives and suddenly there are rules, goals, expectations thrust upon the group. The original group lose sight of why they got together in the first place. Victor Kennedy is a creature with no complexes. He is absent of complexes and where they are repressed, life is vacuous, lonely and empty. The complexes that make us human are about our centres of feeling, they are the inner source of relating to other people and making contact with the outside world. Victor Kennedy is about stifling those desires.

LINDA was a group of normal people who were aware of slightly extraordinary things going on in the world around them. This emphasis is important because if they are representative of fandom then what Russell is saying, and which is neatly summed up by EltonВ’s final speech, is that these people understand that the world is exciting, different and challenging and that their mutual quest for the Doctor is instrumental but not exclusive in their realisation of this. Is he saying В‘fansВ’ have got lives too?

When we recognise these complexes and feelings we often transform them into helpful archetypal figures (Mr. Skinner seems to be doing a lecture on the Doctor as an archetypal figure in the episode) and the archetypal figure helps the individual to fulfil his/her potential. Hence, not only is the Doctor a figure around which individuals can articulate their complexes (Bridget grieving about a child lost to drugs) the Doctor also explains to Elton about his presence at the death of EltonВ’s mother and thus allows him to properly grieve and move on and close that expectation in favour of some other life affirming action.

The strength of a group is also apparent when the absorbed members of LINDA make one final effort to vanquish the Abzorbaloff. They are representative of that continuous tension between social disintegration and dissolution, the tension between your distinction from society as an individual and your relation to the human race as a whole. Without that effort to group together, the victims of the Abzorbaloff are just simply the by-product of a self-destructive urge where no one individual has managed to make a stand. Is Victor Kennedy representative of another kind of 'fan' of the Doctor?

Peter Kay as Victor/the Abzorbaloff pitched this about right. I feared it would end up as another В‘Ken DoddВ’ but found the performance worked well. The prosthetics veered between being really quite excellent, particularly the articulation of the faces on the body, to being В‘rubber suit of the weekВ’. However, I do think that there was an inherent playfulness in the episode that actually acknowledged that this was В‘rubber suit of the weekВ’ because in the past thatВ’s what Doctor Who was perceived as. My view was that Davies was taking this and playing with our perceptions a bit. KayВ’s performance helped sell this idea and there were some genuinely laugh out loud moments. Was Davies saying that we all know this is an actor in a rubber suit but actually itВ’s symbolic and has some interesting things to say about our perceptions?

Musically, I thought the use of ELO was inspired and the re-use of certain motifs by Murray Gold was also welcomed. The remounting of the Auton attack and the Christmas Invasion from EltonВ’s point of view were also very amusing and served as another way of bringing the viewer into his world view. It would be churlish to quibble about the re-use of sequences from previous episodes to flesh this out. Only the Aliens In London flashbask depended more or less on existing footage.

A daring episode, not entirely successful, but not the disaster some were predicting. In fact, it has probably a lot more to say about the Doctor and his world, Rose and JackieВ’s world, and the implications when those collide, than many other episodes in this series as a whole. And EltonВ’s prediction about the fate of Rose and Jackie is a subext so very clearly underlined by the events of this episode too.

So, Doctor Who does 'different'. Russell T Davies certainly isn't afraid to take the series in new directions. It's almost as if being forced to use the Blue Peter competition-spawned Abzorbaloff gave him permission to tear up the new series rule book. He gives the Doctor and Rose near walk-on parts. He chooses to have one-off central character Elton Pope narrate the story (and provide 'video diary' style addresses to camera). He also dispenses with traditional linear storytelling, throwing in flashbacks, flashforwards, speeded-up sequences, and even a brief appearance from Elton John. All of which feels wonderfully fresh and fun.

Marc Warren's performance as Elton Pope is a winning one, and he's ably supported by Shirley Henderson as Ursula Blake, who both turn their shy, geeky Doctor fans into warm, three-dimensional characters. Camille Coduri is given space to shine as Jackie Tyler, and the story gives us a whole new take on her life, going 'a bit mad' while her daughter swans off with the Doctor. The other LINDA members, too, though peripheral, come across as likeable individuals, thanks to Davies' skill at swiftly painting 'real' people - 'I don't know why we call him Mr Skinner', 'Bless Bliss', etc. And the scenes of the group becoming friends and finally forming the band brought a real smile to my face. It's just a shame that neither the band, nor my smile, could last until the end of the episode.

Davies, though a clever writer in many ways, seems determined to take what was going quite well, and generally screw it up. His lovable characters are casually discarded, which might have been okay in a grittier tale, but just seems thoughtless here. He changes tone from comic to tragic to gross-out with the sensitivity of a learner driver crunching gears. This leaves the final scenes where Elton recalls his mother's death completely lacking the emotional weight they were clearly intended to have.

But Peter Kay is good fun, both as Victor Kennedy and the Abzorbaloff - there may not be a more ridiculously funny moment this series than when his blubbery green form half-runs, half-wobbles after Elton. Shame the story resolution was so rubbish. Okay, you could argue that a story like this one doesn't really demand anything great in the plot department, but it feels like Davies just dashed off the first few crazy thoughts that came into his head. The Abzorbaloff absorbs people (for food, we presume), but they can (almost) pull him apart? Oh, and if you snap his walking cane in half it'll break his 'energy field' (or something) and he'll dissolve into a puddle, absorbed by the earth (or something). And then there's Ursula the Paving Slab... Well, ten out of ten for sneaking in a thinly-veiled fellatio reference well before the 9pm watershed, but it wasn't a funny idea, it was an embarrassing one.

Overall then, an interesting and engaging first half, more-or-less ruined by the second half. And, is it just me, or are things generally going a bit wrong this season? Whether its awkward shifts in tone (see above and also New Earth), missed opportunities (see School Reunion) or weak story resolutions (see, well, most of them, but especially The Age of Steel and The Satan Pit), Doctor Who is fast losing its 'must-see TV' crown. I really hope that the remaining three episodes can pull something out of the bag. But the teaser for next week's Fear Her didn't look too inspiring (the preview on the SFX web site is unusually negative as well), which just leaves the Army of Ghosts/Doomsday two-parter. And, though I'm willing (and hopeful) to be surprised, it's written by Russell T Davies (so I'm expecting a massive deus ex machina at the end); it features guest appearances from Derek Acorah, Trisha Goddard and Barbara Windsor (ah...); and the 'surprise' departure of Rose is already well known. Time will tell, I suppose. And at least the much-praised Battlestar Galactica makes its Freeview debut on Thursday...

В“Doctor Where,В” as Peter Kay said on Tonight With Jonathan Ross, just about sums this one up. This is an episode that is really gonna court controversy and divide opinion. Personally, I thought it was a good solid forty-five minutes of televisionВ… but it was more romcom than Doctor Who. Actually, it reminded me very much of the madcap В‘comedyВ’ episodes of The X-Files. Once or twice a season theyВ’d try something like this, and sometimes IВ’d be a hit and sometime itВ’d be bloody awful. В“Love & MonstersВ” is far from bloody awful. ItВ’s a charming little episode that I have to say I enjoyed, but after watching it I did feel like IВ’d been robbed of my weekВ’s В‘properВ’ Doctor Who.

For the first time since it came back last year, Doctor Who takes time to wallow in the events of the new series, rehashing the events of old episodes. WeВ’re not talking В“Another Simpsons Clip ShowВ” bad, but much of the episode does have a recycled feel. The reduced role Tennant and Piper play in the episode is also a bone of contention, but then again in the sixties Hartnell and Troughton (as well as all their companions) would often get a bump on the head or kidnapped at the end of one episode only to reappear about three weeks later! And who remembers the infamous В“Mission To The UnknownВ”? All the regular cast missed that one! Of course, this is a different age with different standards, but if anything, В“Love & MonstersВ” only goes to show just how versatile the showВ’s format is. Moreover, this episode has two big pros that outweigh all the cons В– firstly, it is beautifully written by the man, the legend, Russell T. Davies (no mean feat considering the В‘shopping listВ’ he had to work with) and secondly, it has one hell of a cast.

Of course, the media latched onto Peter KayВ’s role in the episode straight away, but really it is Marc WarrenВ’s show. The whole episode is told as homemade documentary by Elton Pope (Warren) who is a fairly normal bloke, a bit geeky, a bit soft, who just so happens to have had his life touched by the Doctor. His friends at В‘LINDAВ’ (donВ’t ask me to remember what it stands for!) are all a pretty likeable bunch В– Shirley HendersonВ’s Ursula Blake is a nice little character, and I particularly liked В‘MichaelВ’ from IВ’m Alan Partridge as Mr. Skinner. Davies certainly knows how to take the piss out of fans with their meetings and conventions!

So what is Peter Kay like? Worth all the hype? IВ’m probably a bit biased because IВ’m such a big fan of the man, but I thought he was very good. As the human Victor Kennedy he played it completely straight, without even his trademark northern accent, and he came across as genuinely sinister! Thankfully, his comic talents werenВ’t wasted and as soon as he became the Abzorbaloff, the voice, the wise cracks; everything just fell into place. В“Clom!В” В– absolute genius! What a prize young William Grantham won! Not only to you get to see your own monster in Doctor Who, heВ’s played by Peter Kay!

В“I keep thinking of Rose and Jackie. How much longer before they pay the price?В”

Camille Coduri is also given a chance to shine here - in В“Love & MonstersВ” sheВ’s at her absolute best. I absolutely love RoseВ’s Mum; sheВ’s absolutely brilliant. You really feel for Jackie in this story; she comes across as a really lonely woman - one moment desperately trying to have her wicked way with Elton, the next showing us her more vulnerable side as she gets a call from Rose.

However, I can see why a lot of people wonВ’t like this episode. When the Doctor and Rose eventually do turn up, the Doctor doesnВ’t really do much В– itВ’s В‘LINDAВ’ that truly saves the day. At the end of the day itВ’s for everybody to make their own minds up, but I think the light-hearted romp that is В“Love & MonstersВ” will prove to be a welcome bit of comic relief, sandwiched between last weekВ’s thrilling dance with the Devil and the climactic end to the season that is now only a few short weeks away. There is so much humour packed in there - Jackie pre-empting all EltonВ’s В‘stepsВ’; В“Clom!В”; the first woman Elton shows his picture of Rose to knowing her whole life story В– its certainly good entertainment. I wouldnВ’t encourage your children to dwell on the love life that Elton eluded to between himself and UrsulaВ’s stone head, but other than that В“Love & MonstersВ” is a solid little bit of family entertainment. IВ’m just a little bit gutted I couldnВ’t spot Barney in his red hat.