Love & Monsters

-We even have a love life...
-Elton!

Love & Monsters was the first true Doctor-lite episode. Because of scheduling constraints, an episode needed to be filmed at the same time as another episode. The Doctor-lite (and companion-lite) was the concept that was developed, allowing for most of an episode to be shot separate and then just have the Doctor and Rose film their scenes in a day at the end. It's a good concept and it worked fairly well in future episodes, but in this one, it fell a bit short.

My complaint with this episode was not that the Doctor and Rose were not in it. Far from it in fact. I rather enjoyed watching a band of misfits who had brief touches with the Doctor form first into a truth hunting society and then into a group of genuine friends. Perhaps not the most dynamic of people, but they were still entertaining in their own silly way.

No, my problem was with the monster: the Abzorbaloff. I didn't really buy his ability to just enter and manipulate the group back into the Doctor hunting society. I also didn't like his very haphazard way of absorbing their group one at a time and the rest just being oblivious to it all. Doctor Who often forces the audience to make leaps of faith or suspend disbelief to tell a story, but we are generally not asked to believe that people are that stupid. I'm not that stupid and watching someone blunder about is more frustrating than entertaining.

There is also the over-the-top performance of the Abzorbaloff himself. I'm sure Peter Kay was attempting to be funny, but the nature of his performance just because farcical and took me another step out of the story.

There is also have the half-ass ending of the story. Elton is being chased after discovering the secret of the Abzorbaloff, but then the Doctor and Rose just turn up so Rose can berate Elton for upsetting her mother. The Abzorbaloff is distracted by the Doctor's arrival which allows Elton to perform the deus ex machina of breaking the cane and destroying the monster. The Doctor gives a semi-happy ending by preserving Ursula in a slab of stone that apparently still allows her to interact with and give Elton a blow job on occasion. This is unsatisfying on just about all levels and a rather crass way to end an episode.

If you could separate an episode, I'd say the period before the arrival of the Abzorbaloff would be an average or slightly above average score. The characters are entertaining and the quirks they possess make for a fun little comedy. But the drag down that comes in the latter portion destroys any good will I had for the story. It is only that first part that keeps me from just going directly to zero on this one.

Overall personal score: 1 out of 5