Love & Monsters (2810/210)

[bella]

Worst. Episode. Ever.
Apart from a few amusing touches I hated it. The only reason I watched until the end was because Marc Warren and Shirley Henderson are two of the UK's most talented actors, it's just not apparent in this episode .
It felt like a cheap knock-off by clumsy untalented hacks, the DW equivelent of Turkish Star Wars.

Feel better now.

[Darkseid]

I know this is wierd, but I am going to end up having a soft spot in my heart for this episode, I just know it. Mostly because, a lot of the story I thought of 20 years ago!

I always thought that there would be a group of people out there, their lives effected by The Doctor. I always thought that somehow they would organize somehow. There is this ghost hunting group here in my local area. They would go out to cemataries late at night and take pictures and such, and they are more organized then it seems most of the people in the Doctor Who Universe with spaceships crashing in Big Ben and all. With the internet where it is, it only seems natural that The Doctor would become sort of an urban legend like Bigfoot and such. It was sort of touched on in the episode 'Rose' with the guy who had the website devoted to The Doctor, but then the show went on its way.

The only problem with this episode is it seems like RTD didn't know if it should be a comedy, a farce, a drama or theatre of the obserd. My thoughts are this;

1) For years ELO was played for montages by nerds, geeks and wierdos. Recently, I have noticed their music played for commercials like Target and such. I am very happy. Always thought ELO was underrated big time. Big fan I am.

2) So there is Elton with his group of misfits. All had their life touch by The Doctor somehow. There was a quick referance made during a montage by one of the women, "While The Doctor has changed, the only thing in common is this blue box". This made me chuckle. If anyone out there has ever read the fantastic book 'Who Killed Kennedy' I found it around those lines as well. I don't care much for Stargate, but I did see the cave drawings with the TARDIS there and all. I first thought maybe it was done by the Tribe of Gum. But, I don't think this was the same type of cave drawings. They looked more Egyption, or Myan. Hard for me to tell.

3) I enjoyed the bit with Elton going through Autons, the ship and Big Ben and then The Christmas Invasion. Nice touch showing a guy whose life was effected by something he almost blanked out when he was three.

4) When the fatman comes down from the elevator and turns on the lights my first thought was, "OH MY GOD!! IT'S VICTOR BUONO!! THEY DUG HIM UP FOR DOCTOR WHO!!!"

5) The fat alien guy reminded me of a cross between Fat ******* and that fat creature/vampire thing from the first Blade movie.

6) The bit at the begining with The Doctor and Rose chasing that beast through the doors was cute for the first two seconds, then it got old. Real quick. I was waiting for Harpo, Zeppo and Groucho to come out.

7) The lack of Doctor and Rose reminds me of a story I once heard of William Hartnell. I want to say it was 'The Time Meddler' where his agent negotiated him an extra week off, so there was an entire episode where he doesn't appear at all, it's just his companions looking for him. I would think that Tennant and Piper must have loved this shoot since they were hardly in it, and yet they probably got paid for it.

8) I liked the character development with Jackie Tyler. Here is a woman, an attractive older woman, who really shows her lonlieness. Her only daughter is gone to god knows where, doing god knows what with an alien in a Time Machine. She was lonely before, but at least had Rose in her life. She isn't getting any younger, and can see, with each passing day, her life going by her. Her life by herself. Her life on her own with no one to love her or to love. This is a terrible feeling. So she meets this young man at a laundry mat, speaks to him, find out he is good at fixing a fuse. Then, for some wierd reason, it seems a fuse goes out in her place once a week. So Elton, being a nice guy, comes by and fixes it for her. Of course Elton has an agenda trying to find Rose and such. But Elton really isn't a bad guy. He is a guy whose life has been turned upside down by this whole Doctor thingy. This we see at the end, when Rose appears out of the TARDIS ready to kick Elton's ass for hurting her mother. Who here wouldn't do that for their mother? Then, of course, Rose realises the truth. Elton was a man who has had great pain in his life, and somehow The Doctor was there when it happened. His mother died. The girl he liked 'died'. He was simply a man trying to find some truth of a mystery, and it went a little too far. I would have liked to have seen a bit where Elton send Jackie some flowers or such, sort of a 'no hard feelings, sorry about everything, I was being manipulated by a fat alien' sort of gesture, but I have a feeling Rose will fill her in on what was going on.

9) I liked Elton. I wouldn't mind seeing him in the future.

10) The whole bit with the people's faces in the monster was way too corny to be taken seriously. The girl with the glasses, the girl on the beasts butt. Just plain stupid.

11) I didn't know the Sonic Screwdriver could bring melted people back to life as a brick? Wow, there's a new one!!

All in all, I didn't care for it, but I know there are parts I liked. I will say I didn't dislike it as much as that just stupidly terrible Cybermen episodes.

I don't know if I am looking forward to next weeks or not. 2012 Olympics sound good, but I didn't see a villian that really seemed like a threat.

[Matt G]

OK...

1. Well first the teaser chase scene was dodgy.

2. And then there's Peter Kay dragging out all possible cliches.

3. And then there's the fact that this was a generally pointless ep.

4. OK...the forming of the community was cool...but still...

Chances are my nephew enjoyed it. I considered it New Who's first cackfest though.

[Jonzey]

Well I enjoyed it. It was different, but the Doctor is always going on about how curious and inquisitive humans are- and I think this ep was meant to show that. I also thought all the characters (even though they were mostly one-off ones) were nicely developed. Didn't like the alien though- human form he was ok, but alien form he was just another bad alien.

[beale947]

I felt really sorry for Elton at the end, because he lost everything, because of the doctor, but i expect him to end up working at torchwood or something. But i felt so sorry for him, and all the doctor could do was to give him part of his girlfriend back.

[Kaloo]

I thought it was pretty entertaining(the things like the 'Scooby Doo scene, I took as Elton exagerating) until the Alien guy came... I mean, how the hell do they NOT notice the screaming from inside of the.... wherever they were. It seemed fairly happy go lucky, until he came.

I'd give it a Something low out of somthing high

[Willow'sCat]

Well I liked it, I like it when shows do this. The X-files did a great episode kind of the same with Scully, and Buffy did one and well... I liked it so there.

I loved Jackie in this.

[Hanmer]

The teaser chase scene was my favourite bit. And the fast Rose ignored the Peter Kay Monster to shout at Elton.. Classic...

[bella]

1) For years ELO was played for montages by nerds, geeks and wierdos. Recently, I have noticed their music played for commercials like Target and such. I am very happy. Always thought ELO was underrated big time. Big fan I am.

Have you seen the Marks and spencer ads with the models dancing around to that same song? I briefly wondered if it was some sort of parody and Erin O'Connor was going to turn up in M&S underwear!

[P-90_177]

Comic book guy voice: Worst Episode ever!!!

[yaaayoubetcha]

apparently i'm in the minority in that I liked it.

normally i'd expect something like this from Trek, as it was cheesy, but it was good cheesy to me.

I loved the scooby doo homage at the beginning and really love Moaning Myrtle. She's actually quite cute apparently, when not a ghost.

Grooved to ELO whenever they played it.

Loved the X-Files-esque music.

I think this ep is the most obviously not classic Who and I think that's why there's a lot of complaints.

I don't feel that every ep has to have a point in a grander arc as that was never the point. Now I wouldn't want to see an 'outsider perspective' ep every season or anything like that, but as a one off I think it was pretty good. I giggled, I chair danced and I related to all the pop culture references.

The only thing that grated on me was once the alien's true form was revealed, all i could think was Fat Bassturd from the Austin Powers movies. Dead Sexy!!!

[ShadowMaat]

The Scooby Doo thing rocked.

I did like the ep, but compared to something like, say, [i]Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'[i] from X-Files, it pales in comparison.

Now, if Darin Morgan had written L&M... the mind boggles at the possibilities.

[Jonzey]

All I know is I wouldn't want to live out my life as a paving stone.



For one thing, you'd have people walk all over you!

[IMForeman]

I enjoyed it. Yes, the Absorbaloff was a bit rubbish, but I loved the story of Elton, and I think Mark Warren, Shirley Henderson, and Camille Codouri all put in really stellar performances in this quirky, offbeat episode.

[spaceman1701]

What the hell was that. That was easily the worst episode I have ever seen. Did anyone understand that episode. How about the freak telling the story and his woman who is a rock(at the end). Wow!!!!!!