Love & Monsters (Doctor Who)
| 179 - Love & Monsters | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cast | |||
| Production | |||
| Directed by | Dan Zeff | ||
| Written by | Russell T Davies | ||
| Script editor | Simon Winstone | ||
| Produced by | Phil Collinson | ||
| Executive producer(s) | Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner | ||
| Production code | Series 2, Episode 10 | ||
| Series | Series 2 (2006) | ||
| Running time | 45 mins | ||
| First broadcast | 17 June, 2006 | ||
| Chronology | |||
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Love & Monsters is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on 17 June 2006.
Synopsis
An ordinary man named Elton Pope becomes obsessed with the Tenth Doctor, Rose and their strange blue box, joining a group of like-minded people in hopes of finding him. But when the mysterious Victor Kennedy (The Absorbaloff) joins the group, the fun soon stops and Elton discovers a darker side to his hobby.
Plot
A young man, Elton Pope, runs towards a deserted group of factories, stopping as he sees a police box standing incongruously near them. He is about to touch it when he hears a cries coming in from inside the buildings. He quickly enters, and sees a glowing door at the end of the corridor. He opens it, and a slavering alien lunges towards him...
It turns out that Elton is in his room, narrating the story of his life and encounters with alien lifeforms into a video camera. The creature is distracted when the Doctor suddenly appears from the doorway, dangling a piece of raw meat. He tells Elton to run, just as Rose runs past Elton, throwing a blue bucket of liquid at the alien. However, this serves only to enrage it, and the Doctor points out that he instructed her to throw the "not-blue" bucket. As Elton watches, the alien chases the Doctor and Rose around, until Rose comes up with a red bucket and chases it instead. The Doctor stops running and stares at Elton, seeming to recognise him. Elton runs out of the factory, hearing the sound of the TARDIS dematerialise.
Elton notes that it was not the first time he met the Doctor, nor the last. He shows another clip, this one taken by his friend Ursula Blake. As they shoot his former family home, he describes how he first met the Doctor one night when he was three or four years old. He was awakened in the middle of the night and he went downstairs, finding the Doctor in his living room, looking just as he is now. He tells Ursula that he does not know why the Doctor was there.
Back in his room, Elton describes to the camera how his ordinary life was transformed, first when he was in the thick of the Auton attack on London two years previously, then twelve months after that when a spaceship crashed into the Thames. Last Christmas Day, he saw the Sycorax ship above London.
The Christmas invasion prompts Elton's search for information, until he comes across Ursula's blog, where he sees a picture of the Tenth Doctor. He meets up with Ursula, who introduces him to other people who are studying the Doctor: Bridget, Bliss and Mr Skinner. They begin to meet up beneath an old library, exchanging stories and theories about the Doctor. Elton coins a name for the group: the London Investigators 'N' Detective Agency, or LINDA.
However, over time, the group starts to be become more of a social group. Bridget starts cooking for them, Skinner reads excerpts from his novel-in-progress, and they even form a band. It is at this point that Victor Kennedy, a fat, flamboyant man arrives and takes over the group. Kennedy refuses to let anyone touch him, claiming he has an extreme case of eczema (which he oddly pronounces as "eck-zeema"), and tells them they have lost focus of their purpose. He shows them a video clip of the Doctor and Rose leaving in the TARDIS, and Elton recognises the sound: it was that sound that woke him up the night he first saw the Doctor.
Kennedy begins to train them in surveillance and investigative techniques, giving them information he has somehow obtained from Torchwood files and allocating tasks to each one of them. After the first meeting, he asks to have a private word with Bliss, and the others leave, not hearing her scream. At the next meeting, Kennedy tells the others that Bliss has left the group to get married.
One day, they receive news of a police box sighting in Woolwich, which is why Elton was running for the factories earlier. When he returns to the group, Kennedy is furious at Elton for letting the Doctor get away and nearly strikes him with his cane. Ursula, however, comes to Elton's defence and threatens to smack Kennedy if he does so. Kennedy backs off, and outlines their next step: to find the Doctor's companion. The Torchwood files on her are lacking; the evidence having been corrupted by the Bad Wolf virus.
Armed with photographs of Rose and Elton's identification of her London accent, the group search the city for her. Elton manages to find someone who recognises Rose, and in turn is pointed towards Jackie Tyler. Meeting Jackie in a laundrette, he soon becomes friends with her, becoming her personal handyman. Kennedy is delighted at the progress, and at that meeting, asks Bridget for a private word. The others, once again, do not hear her scream.
Eventually, one evening, Jackie tries to seduce Elton, but a phone call from Rose interrupts the mood. However, Elton comes to a few realisations: he genuinely likes Jackie, and he has romantic feelings for Ursula. He offers to cheer Jackie up by getting a pizza for them, but when he returns, Jackie confronts him. She has found the photograph of Rose in his coat and realises that he was using her to get to Rose and the Doctor. Elton tries to explain, but Jackie, hurt and betrayed, says that she will protect the two of them until the end of her life, and tells him to leave her alone.
Kennedy blames Elton yet again, and Elton has had enough. He tells Kennedy that it has all gone wrong and they are all leaving. Kennedy asks Skinner to stay behind. As Elton and Ursula walk out, she realises she has left her mobile phone in the meeting room. When they return, however, Skinner is nowhere to be found, and Kennedy has transformed into a bloated, greenish alien creature, with the faces of the former LINDA members grotesquely merged with his body. Elton dubs Kennedy an "Abzorbaloff".
The consciousnesses of Skinner, Bridget and Bliss are still present in the Abzorbaloff's body. The creature reveals that his intention is to absorb the Doctor and his knowledge as well. Ursula demands that the Abzorbaloff give his victims back, but he absorbs her instead. Ursula's face appears on the monster's chest. Elton begs him to let Ursula go, but the Abzorbaloff tells him that the process is irreversible. Able to read the creature's thoughts, Ursula tells Elton to run, as she reads in the Abzorbaloff's thoughts that he is next.
Elton runs, the Abzorbaloff eventually cornering him in a blind alley. Just as the monster is about to touch Elton, the TARDIS materialises, and the Doctor and Rose step out. Rose, however, is here for Elton, demanding to know why he upset her mother. The Abzorbaloff threatens to absorb Elton if the Doctor does not submit to him. From his research, he knows the Doctor will not let an innocent man die. The Doctor tells the monster not to mistake his "sweet" and "passionate" nature for being nice, and says he can do what he wants — but the others may have something to say about that.
The absorbed LINDA members realise that together, they can affect the Abzorbaloff's body. They pull together, and Ursula tells Elton to break Kennedy's cane. He does so, and the Abzorbaloff cries out in agony, dissolving into a gooey puddle. The Doctor explains that the cane created a limitation field; without it, the Abzorbaloff himself is being absorbed by the Earth. As Elton watches, the last remnant of Ursula says good-bye as she too is absorbed into the pavement.
Rose comforts the distraught Elton. The Doctor finally reveals why he was in Elton's house all those years ago. An elemental shade that had escaped from the Howling Ones had taken residence in the house, and the Doctor stopped it. Unfortunately, he was too late to save Elton's mother, who was killed.
Speaking into the camera, Elton notes that the Doctor might be wonderful, but things get destroyed when he touches them, even for a second. He wonders about Jackie, and Rose, and when they will pay the price. However, the Doctor did one last favour for Elton: with his sonic screwdriver, he managed a partial reconstruction of Ursula. She is now reduced to a talking face in a slab of pavement, but that does not matter to Elton, as he loves her.
Concluding his story, Elton muses about the expectations of ordinary life: getting a job, getting married, getting a house, having children. But the real world is much stranger than that; it is so much darker, madder, and so much better.
Cast
- The Doctor — David Tennant
- Rose Tyler — Billie Piper
- Jackie Tyler — Camille Coduri
- Victor Kennedy — Peter Kay
- Elton Pope — Marc Warren
- Ursula Blake — Shirley Henderson
- Mr Skinner — Simon Greenall
- Bridget — Moya Brady
- Bliss — Kathryn Drysdale
- The Hoix — Paul Kasey
- Mrs Croot — Bella Emberg
Notes
- According to Doctor Who Magazine #370, this episode had the working title of I Love the Doctor.
- Russell T. Davies notes in the commentary for the episode that the name "the Hoix" was invented only after the episode was shot and a name was needed for the credits.
- Elton ends the first part of his story with "Oh boy!" just before the opening credits, in a similar way that Dr. Sam Beckett said this once he had discovered who he had leaped into in Quantum Leap.
- Elton John appears in a video clip on Elton Pope's video diary.
- The scene where Elton watches the Doctor and Rose flee from the Hoix involves them running around in a gag usually seen in cartoon series such as Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo. Later in the episode, Elton remembers the band playing an ELO song perfectly. In the commentary it is noted his memory may not be entirely reliable.
- This episode is set two years after Rose and new footage of the Auton attack is seen here featuring Elton Pope. New footage featuring the Slitheens' fake ship from Aliens of London and the Sycorax ship from The Christmas Invasion is also included in this episode, again shown through Elton's experience of these events.
- During the Auton attack scene, the logo of Henrik's department store can be seen both on Elton's shopping bags and on the taxi which almost runs him over. Henrik's was the department store at which Rose used to work, which was destroyed at the beginning of Rose.
- The idea that some people in the Doctor Who universe follow the Doctor's real adventures in a similar manner to the programme's fans was hinted at with the character of Clive in Rose. It was also used in the Virgin New Adventures novel Return of the Living Dad by Kate Orman.
- LINDA is a nod to Davies's years on Why Don't You...?, where he had the Liverpool Investigation 'n' Detective Agency.
- Elton, a fan of Jeff Lynne and his Electric Light Orchestra, dances to ELO's "Mr Blue Sky", which is later used as incidental music. LINDA also perform ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down".
- Totally Doctor Who presenter Barney Harwood appears as an extra in this episode wearing a red hat.
- Russell T. Davies cast Peter Kay in the role of Victor Kennedy after Kay wrote a fan letter to him in praise of the new series. Kay was originally to play Elton Pope, but he felt that the role was too similar to roles he had played in the past, such as Eric Gartside in Coronation Street. Consequently, he got back in contact with Davies and asked if he could stretch himself as an actor and play the villain, hence his casting as Victor Kennedy/the Abzorbaloff. Peter Kay and Simon Greenall previously worked together on an Alan Partridge sketch, as part of Comic Relief in 2001.
- Kennedy uses an Apple PowerBook G4 to display clips of the Doctor and Rose.
- Actress Bella Emberg previously had uncredited roles in the Third Doctor serials Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Time Warrior.
- Jackie informs Elton that her friend Mickey is gone, a reference to his departure in The Age of Steel.
- Jackie plays Il Divo's Spanish cover of "Unbreak My Heart" when she is trying to seduce Elton.
- The Abzorbaloff was created by nine-year-old William Grantham of Colchester, Essex, who won a "Design a Doctor Who Monster" competition held by the children's television programme Blue Peter. The prize was to have his creation appear in an episode of Doctor Who. Conditions of the competition meant that the monster had to be able to be made from prosthetics and not require CGI.
- Russell T. Davies revealed on Doctor Who Confidential that William Grantham imagined the Abzorbaloff to be the size of a double-decker bus, so was initially disappointed to see the final size of his creation. However, his design had not included size specifications and a larger size would not have fit the criteria of the competition (the monster had to be made from prosthetics), unless the monster wassuperimposed on footage later on a larger scale. Ultimately, CGI was used for the talking faces on the Abzorbaloff.
- The Abzorbaloff originates from the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius, home of the Slitheen: Klom. Rose spots the resemblance. The Abzorbaloff says he spits on the Raxacoricofallapatorians.
- The Doctor once again says, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," this time to Elton, regarding his inability to save his mother. The words have been used before in the 2006 series, including New Earth, The Age of Steel, The Idiot's Lantern (by Mr. Magpie), and The Impossible Planet.
- Elton's musing as to how long before Jackie or Rose will pay the price for their association with the Doctor's dangerous lifestyle recalls the Beast's prediction that Rose will "very soon die in battle" in The Satan Pit.
- The overnight viewing figures for this episode's original broadcast were 6.2 million, a 38.3% audience share and the highest rated programme of the day.
- According to Doctor Who Magazine #366, this episode will be released along with The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit as a basic DVD with no special features.