Review - Love & Monsters

The Doctor and Rose are virtually absent in the first of the now traditional "Doctor Light" episodes, Love & Monsters.

Season 2, Episode 10 - Love & Monsters

This episode is an odd one. The concept is actually quite sound, giving us some insight into those people The Doctor has touched and how they cope after he's gone. Not everyone is as impacted by him as companions are, but an impact he surely has. How does one go on after finding out there are aliens out there? Apparently one forms a support group.

When Elton Pope has a run in with The Doctor, he begins to realise many events in his life are somehow connected to this strange man and his blue box, including the mysterious death of his mother. Seeking out others with similar stories, he comes to form the hideously named London Investigation 'N' Detective Agency (LINDA) to find some answers. After a while the group focuses more on their friendship than finding The Doctor. It is at this point that the mysterious Victor Kennedy arrives to refocus their efforts.

Stylish and in no way shifty.

As Victor teaches the group new skills and gives them access to useful information to aid in their task, members start to disappear. Victor explains it away and everyone seems fairly quick to accept his stories. In fact, they seem to accept him into their midst far too readily. I'm a bit iffy about that bit. I try to explain it away to myself that these people are maybe not all the sharpest tools in the shed.

Elton is put to work getting close to Jackie Tyler in hopes of finding out more about Rose and The Doctor. Victor  reveals that Rose's Torchwood files were corrupted by a Bad Wolf virus, neatly explaining why they don't recognise her in the next story, and referencing two different season arc stories. In fact, this episode also contains the first reference to Mr Saxon, meaning it actually mentions three season arcs.

He's reading a story about a Crack in the Universe at Lake Silencio on Trenzalore

In the end, it is Elton's blunderous attempts at getting close to Jackie that save his life, with The Doctor and Rose showing up in the nick of time in order for Rose to give him a telling off. Victor, now revealed to be an... *sigh* ... Abzorbaloff, having absorbed the rest of LINDA, is attacking Elton when they arrive, and sets about trying to absorb The Doctor. The absorbed members of LINDA rebel against the Abzorbaloff, holding it's body back and giving away the secret of its defeat.

As the creature melts away, The Doctor sets up the ruination of the whole episode by saving the face of Elton's girlfriend Ursula on a paving stone. This in itself is not a huge issue, but someone decided it was a good idea to make a blow-job joke at this point. Totally unnecessary In-Who-Endo, especially considering the whole episode has its roots in competition on a kids TV show. If there's some sick-minded individual out there who wants to imagine what Elton and Ursula do for sexy-times, let them work it out for themselves. Nothing needed to be said about it. Without that line, this episode would have been interesting if slightly unremarkable. The fact that it is one of the last things we are left with drags this down so much it's not even funny.

5/10

Can we fix it?

A lot has been said about the fact that the monster for this episode was designed by a kid. In my opinion, the concept of the Abzorbaloff (if not it's name) is quite a sound one. It's actually quite scary to think of being absorbed into another creature and to maintain sentience for some time stuck on it's skin. No, I'm all for the monster here, although perhaps with a name change. 

Many people complain about the lack of Doctor and Rose, but again, this concept is sound. As I said, it's interesting to think about the people whose lives The Doctor touches as he whirls on through. We got a taste of it in the Season 1 opener Rose and seeing more of it is never a bad thing.

I think what irks me about this episode as a whole is the general unquestioning nature of the members of LINDA and the fact that Victor also begins absorbing them far too early. It's not really clear how frequently he needs to "feed", but I'd have thought he'd keep the LINDA members around as long as they were useful.

With this in mind, I'd have a little more dissent amongst the investigators before they started disappearing. Perhaps have one or two unrelated people go missing before that. A janitor, for example. The group could flag the disappearances with Victor, who offers to investigate them himself while the others stay on The Doctor. One of the group does some digging on the disappearances and takes this info to Victor who asks if they've shared it with the rest of the group. When they say they haven't, they then become the first of LINDA to be absorbed. Things start getting harder for the group and private complaints are met with more disappearances. This would then culminate in the mass walkout.

If we also remove that horrendous bit of sexual innuendo at the end, then I think all the loose ends would be tied up.