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Love & Monsters Review Format Reviewed: TV Review Love & Monsters is a very different and interesting story and is certainly not formulaic in any way. The main aggressor here also has the distinction of being designed by a child from a Blue Peter competition. Witht he interest that the series has generated and the long standing association between Doctor Who and Blue Peter, such a competition was innevitable eventually. The story starts with Elton Pope narrating a video diary of adventures in his own life. There has apparantly been a long association between Elton and the Doctor, back to his childhood where the Doctor appeared in his front room, through the Auton, Slitheen and Sycorax invasions of Earth to more recent events. Elton reveals how he was part of a group investigating strange happenings surrounding the Doctor, and befriends Jackie to gleen information. This ends but a strange man, Victor Kennedy has taken control of their group, from which members have started to disappear. Elton then discovers that Victor is not human, and is in fact the Absorbaloff, an alien from the Slitheens home planets twin, who when he touches people absorbs them into himself. Eventually the Doctor turns up and saves the day, leaving Elton with a semi-concrete present. Love & Monsters is such a departure from everything that has come before it is somewhat unrecognisable as a Doctor Who story. Whilst this maybe worrying at first for old fuddy-duddy's like me, when you manage to dispel your initial fear of change the story is very pleasing. Within a series, if things are too familiar and samey each story, it runs the risk of being dull. Also, Doctor Who has never been scared to innovate or use new techniques, so presenting a story from a random third partys perspective is a bold and welcome move. Also, the documentary style is also an interesting departure for the series, and gives much more scope for a different kind of story telling. The cast for this story is actually quite small, and it gets smaller throughout with the deaths that occur. The Doctor and especially Rose are only really in the episode briefly, and largely in passing, but what David Tennant and Billie Piper do here is up to their usual high standards. There are three prominent members of the guest cast, Peter Kay who plays Victor Kennedy, Marc Warren playing Elton Pope and Shirley Henderson playing Ursula Blake. I was slightly apprehensive about Peter Kay, as is harps back to the oft criticised 80's days of Doctor Who when it became somewhat of a cameo vehicule for tired comedians, Hale and Pace anyone? That said, I like Peter Kay, and he did a decent job here. Warren and Blake do have a good rapport together, but seem to have played the characters as slightly odd people. If this was deliberate it worked well, if not then it didn't. Having been altogether positive about the story so far, I should now reveal what I think are the negative aspects. All the stuff with Elton and Jackie left me a bit cold, and it seemed to be a bit of padding just to shoehorn Camile Coduri into the episode. Secondly, I am not sure the innuendo concerning a potential relationship after the Absorbaloffs intervention between Elton and Ursula is neccessarily a good idea, and it certainly raised eyebrows in my house. Finally, the episode was made needlessly emotive again with the revelations about Eltons mother. It really does seem to me that Russel T Davies is saying if you don't cry it's not worth it. Well I didn't, I am now cringing. Overall, Love & Monsters is a very interesting and different episode of Doctor Who. It is to be greatly applauded that the production team are trying to find different ways to make episodes, and this style was like a breath of fresh air in the series. There is a worrying trend of famous faces getting cameos again, hraping back to the 1980's, but this should stand up fairly well to repeated viewing. Rating:  |