| LOVE & MONSTERS by Russell T Davies |
| Story 19 Synopsis: One night, when he was a young boy, Elton Pope met a stranger in his house. Many years later, he found out that the stranger was the Doctor, a mysterious stranger, who leaves his mark on people he meets. In order to try and share experiences, he made contact with Ursula, who lived locally and shared his interest. Soon, there were five of them, meeting regularly to discuss sightings of the Doctor. They called themselves LInDA, and began to develop as people, sharing art, music and literature. But one day, they met Victor Kennedy, who wanted to track down the Doctor. He gave LInDA a co-ordinated focus, and thus Elton managed to track down Rose's mother, Jackie. But after initially trying to seduce him, she found out that all he wanted was to find the Doctor. Meanwhile, the members of LInDA were disappearing one by one, and Elton decided it was Victor's fault. He and Ursula soon discovered the truth - Victor was an absorbing alien, who had swallowed the other members of the group, and wanted to absorb the Doctor. It absorbed Ursula, and then chased Elton. Just as Elton looked doomed, the TARDIS arrived, Rose angry at how Elton had upset Jackie. Ursula encouraged the other victims to separate, and Victor was absorbed into the ground. The Doctor explained to Elton that the night they met, Elton's mother had been killed by an alien. He made amends by partially recovering Victor's last victim, Ursula, now a paving slab with a face. Elton seemed happy, but rueful about his quest to find the Doctor. And concerned for what might happen to Rose and Jackie. |
| Review:- It all began with Blue Peter. Doctor Who has a long and storied association with the BBC's premier kids show, and in 2005, as part of the general cross-promotion to make the relaunched Dr Who a success, a competition was devised. Kids were encouraged to draw a monster, and the winning entry would then turn up in the series! Quite an astonishing prize, really. The Absorbaloff was chosen, and RTD himself generously took on the task of writing the story. Sadly, it has turned out to be incredibly dreadful. RTD has decided to use the monster as part of an experimental episode, with nearly all the action seen from an outsider's perspective, and though the Doctor and Rose are mentioned a lot, they don't appear in the action until briefly near the end. In one way, that's a good thing. What we have is a noticeably strong guest cast, from Marc Warren all the way down to a brief line for Bella Emberg. Warren's character, Elton, makes friends with other people interested in the mysterious Doctor. This is evidently meant to be a parody of DW's own fans. Here, they manage to grow as people and find real friendships, and even love. Until... Peter Kay apparently got this gig by writing a letter of appreciation to RTD, asking for a part. Well, it worked for Christopher Eccleston. Kay here plays suspicious Victor Kennedy, who changes the focus of Elton's group, for his own nefarious ends. Kay is fine as an actor, and brings a tragicomedy to Victor and his "ec-zeema". The slow disappearance of the group is a subtle way to show Victor's baleful influence... and that's before we get to the real reason... The appearance of the Absorbaloff is the best of a bad job. In essence, the character should be brilliant, an effective exploration of the real fear of being subsumed. However, it's played for laughs. Which rather ruins any attempt at suspense. The creature is also connected with the Slitheen (and it's probably not surprising that a child entered the competition inspired by the big monsters from the last series, and that RTD selected it), which doesn't help its case. And after a short chase with Elton, it's swiftly defeated. The Doctor and Rose hardly appear, and what little they do is poor. Rose is just a whiner, who puts her mother above all rational reaction, whilst the Doctor has to casually explain that Elton saw him as a child the night Elton's mother died. Which is a bad enough cliche, but here seems completely cheap and nasty. Then, as a coup de grace, the Doctor sort-of-saves the last victim: Elton's girlfriend, Ursula, who is merely a paving slab with a face. This then leads to a tasteless piece of humour which has rightly received much complaint. There are other faults. Elton narrates the story as through a video camera - but who for? Since Ursula is alive, he can't be short of company. Then there is his brief flirtation with Jackie Tyler. She leads him on, he naively lets her, and then she turns against him when she realises he only wants to get to Rose. Camille Coduri hasn't impressed at all in any of her episodes, and although this episode is touted as her big moment, she's still awful. But maybe that's the script, too. Arguably the worst thing is that this episode was deliberately meant to be a time/money-saver. Like Boom Town. And the story here is, like that, utterly awful. What a coincidence. Not the worst story ever screened, but very close. |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |