Every now and then there is a Doctor Who episode that you do not have to rewatch to remember what you think of it, this is one of those cases. Next week is also one of those cases, mostly due to the feeling of anger. The same will happen again with glee for “Smith and Jones.” Really, fans of Who whom are also cretins will think I am mad, but my sanity has nothing to do with “Love & Monsters.” It is a brilliant example of Who doing something different. Though it might be a bit crap, where it glimmers in the light, it shines like a diamond.

“Love & Monsters,” I love it. It is hope, wonder, crap scooby-doo based Who, and all the lovely things. Right, that is enough nattering on about loving it, why? It is simple really: ELO, Danny Blue (Ok, Marc Warren), and just a lovely warm-hearted story of love… and monsters. Particularly monsters that come from a planet twinned with Raxacoricofallapatorius, Clom. Yes, let us get those gripes out the way already, I do not like Peter Kay. He is the Michael McIntyre of the early to mid-2000s. All his comedy has to do with pointing at everyday objects and screwing his face up about them. He’s a bit like Seinfeld, but I actually like something Kay has done.

Of course, Kay’s Victor Kennedy/The Abzorbaloff is a bit too much of a Saturday morning cartoon villain, so it does not really have much of an impact. The character design was done by a nine-year-old that won a competition. As you can expect, it is… Well, what you’d expect. The concept of the alien itself is interesting enough, but he is never the focus. Yes, there are monsters, but the story for the most part, sticks with the life of Marc Warren’s character. Elton Pope is a single guy that is caught up in another antic of The Doctor’s. He finds a support group of people who have experienced the same, and the monster is the B-plot.

Before the term “vlog” had become commonplace, Elton was recording little clips of himself in his bedroom via a webcam while getting very excited about a man. That just sounds like pornography, but we will not talk about what “JackieTylerXXX” has been uploading to the internet. The story of the happenstance of the episode is really told through several flashbacks through Elton’s vlogs, intermingled with him talking to the camera and dancing about his room to ELO like an absolute legend!

His interaction with The Doctor leads him to stand at the end of a corridor watching one of those Scooby-Doo chase sequences. You know the one with all the editing, where characters run through doors or down other corridors and pop out in odd places chasing each other. Yeah, it is not good. Mind you it is not the worst thing the episode has going for it, we will get to Elton paving the way for a new love life in a minute. What does not help is that the Hoix, the monster from the Scooby-doo sequence, is close in design to Series 12 monster of the week, The Dreg.

Though, it was not the first time he had met The Doctor, as the creepy space alien was just standing in his living room when he was just a kid. He, much like Rose in “Rose,” went looking all over the internet for blogs and such, finding one by someone called Ursula Blake. The actress for Ursula is someone you would notice her by her ghostly, child-like voice. We will not spoil something good with too much talk of something that which can get right in the bin; but Shirley Henderson, better known as “Moaning Myrtle,” is Elton’s new best mate. Well, her and three other weirdos before Kennedy ruins that.

“Love & Monsters” is not the perfect so-called Doctor Who-lite episode, with one reason being that Martha isn’t in it. However, for all its faults, you cannot hate an episode with a soundtrack from Electric Light Orchestra. I will make that law, along with banning contractions. Joking about “Jubilee” aside, “Love & Monsters” was a wholly different and personal way of telling the story of a character’s interactions with The Doctor. We are used to seeing the companions natter on about how great he is with his time travel and all this. Elton is just enchanted with the man and the woosh of his ship’s engines.

Yes, the Abzorbaloff is just stupid. You are watching a kid’s show you weirdos; it is not going to be a naked sea monster from The Witcher 3. An alien that touches people and absorbs them into itself is both sci-fi and terrifying for small children, I like that. I do not care for their faces being all over his body, and thus, he is sitting on one of them. That is churlish. Then again, the entire episode is a bit churlish with divided opinions. Those that disliked it are just wrong.

While looking up the image of what “JackieTylerXXX” had been up to that I will not be linking to, I found some saying this episode added nothing to Who. This episode is the tester for what would become one of the greatest episodes of sci-fi. An episode that introduced one of the most horrifying monsters in sci-fi as well. I will bet money most of them liked “Blink.” Did it add to the Who canon? A little bit, but it provided the show with a new format on which to base the episode itself. I love “Love & Monsters” and I love ELO just as Elton enjoys his… slab woman.

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Doctor Who "Love & Monsters"

0.00

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• ELO.
• Marc Warren is a joy of the camp episode.

Cons

• Elton paving himself a new sex life is weird.
• Saturday morning cartoon antics.