After two weeks of battling dark forces and demons at the outer rim of the universe, Doctor Who takes a break from hardcore horror with a light, silly, and completely rewarding episode. Not since Tom Baker tumbled over his scarf while fighting an egg-headed Sontaran Warrior umpteen-zillion years ago has there been a chuckle-fest quite like “Love & Monsters.”
The Doctor and Rose occupy very little actual screen time in this fine Russell T. Davies script. The lion’s share goes to Elton Pope (Band of Brothers’ Marc Warren), a geeky-sexy, good-hearted bloke whose brain has been slightly on the scrambled side since he found his mother dead when he was a little boy. Not coincidentally, the Doctor was standing over her corpse at the time, having just defeated a shadowy alien menace hiding in the family’s flat. There’s been a lot of that about London lately, and Elton and the Doctor have continued to cross paths during these moments of galactic crisis. (Cases in point: the murderous mannequins in the previous season’s premiere episode, “Rose,” “The Aliens of London,” and the Sycorax invasion that so beautifully introduced David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor in this season’s “The Christmas Invasion.”) Elton’s got issues, all right. He’s an outcast with a mostly harmless, but growing, obsession with the mysterious Doctor.
Elton surfs the Web for info on the Doctor, and connects with a quartet of fellow Who-is-he’ians. They name themselves L.I.N.D.A. — the London Investigation ‘n’ Detective Agency. At first, L.I.N.D.A. does little actual investigating. But with Elton’s addition, the group bonds and enters a brief golden age filled with homey potluck dinners, out-loud readings of one member’s novel-in-progress, and jam sessions of E.L.O. cover tunes. Elton falls in love with tough girl-geek Ursula, while the Doctor falls off their collective radar for the time being.
All of this changes when a gas bag named Victor Kennedy storms into the clubhouse (cue that whistling The X-Files music) and takes control, turning L.I.N.D.A. into a focused, well-oiled machine whose sole mission is to hunt down and capture the Doctor. What Kennedy hasn’t told the club is that under his crisp black suit, he’s really a bloatateous, blobular alien in disguise, resembling Jeffrey Sebelia from Project Runway. He’s hell-bent on devouring the Doctor, but en route to that end, he’ll snack on the unsuspecting L.I.N.D.A. membership, one by one.
“Love & Monsters” is filled with almost as many sight gags as a Benny Hill sketch, including one of those madcap, fast-motion, door-to-door dashes across a hallway from left to right. Elton Pope is absolutely delightful, especially when he’s shown dancing around his bedroom to E.L.O. Given what awaits in the weeks ahead — an all-out attack on London by both the Cybermen and the Daleks, and the death of Rose, which is again foreshadowed by Elton — this lighthearted romp was just what the Doctor ordered.
Next up: The Doctor and Rose travel to 2012 for the London Olympics, but soon discover that they’ve touched down in the Village of the Damned.
Brad says
I’m sorry but this episode was absolutly horrid! That and the “Fear Her” episode have by far been two of the worst episodes of Doctor Who to date.
Kyle Nin says
I’m not sure I can totally agree with that. I’ve seen some “Doctor Who” episodes that are A LOT worse.
Stephen Roberts says
I thought this was a good “throw away” episode.
What I really liked about it was seeing the Doctor’s adventure from the eyes of someone else.
In the beginning when he first runs into the Doctor it was like a pratfall gag. I saw that as Elton’s interpretation of what was likely a very dangerous situation that just didn’t fit his world view, so to him (and therefore us) it seemed absurd with people and strange things running around randomly.
Id like to see this kind of interpretation again but following the Doctor more. It would be interesting to see at first the situation seem absurd, but as the outsider begins to really understand what’s going on the situation becomes more real.
Chris in Indy says
Given what awaits in the weeks ahead …
HEY!! Thanks for the *%&#&* spoilers, which were totally unnecessary!!
Brad says
Kyle: I should have stated it’s the worst of the revived series to date! Sorry about that.
I COULD have accepted this with no problem if it wasn’t for the final scene with the “paving stone” bit. I watched it when it first aired earlier this year, and admittedly though the ep WAS a bit more palatable the second time I watched it last week.
I think Torchwood took the concept and did a bit better with it with their latest episode “Invisible Eugene”
Tom Boucher says
I enjoyed this episode, though I would have preferred she stayed gone instead of being a face on a slab at the end, though that had an attempt at being amusing as well.
Also it drove me nuts and I had to pause it to figure out who Ursula was so I had to pause it and check IMDB. Moaning Myrtle and she talked just like her a few times it was really messing with me.
Overall a rather quirky episode that was a lot of fun. I actually laughed on Monday when I heard ELO playing at a pizza place.
Kyle Nin says
It’s not like “Doctor Who” isn’t kind of corny most of the time anyway. I expect it.
Howard Green says
I’m not crazy about the spoilers but please do the homework. I will not say what DOES happen (you can find that out at the BBC site, Wikipedia, or on a Google on Billie Piper anyway) but yes she leaves the series, no she doesn’t die, and I certainly hope I don’t have to wait 20 years to see her again on the show as we did with Elizabeth Sladen.
Spoilers are bad, false spoilers are even worse.