Written by: Russell T Davies
Directed by: Dan Zeff
I am not a fan of this episode. It starts off feeling like a clip show, develops into something of a comedy episode with ok jokes, before ending on some dark drama. The direction kind of feels all over the place - found footage, clip show, musical, or traditional episode. And I’m not sure who Elton was actually recording his video for. Is it his own therapy? Breaking the 4th wall? Or is he intending to share it online?
The ultimate message of this episode is that the doctor is dangerous, and being around him is dangerous. The takeaway seems intended to set up the fact that there are consequences and that not everything turns out alright in the end for the doctor. This doesn’t add anything to the series as we’ve already seen this happen plenty of times.
I did enjoy Peter Kay as the monster, he carries this over the top energy that sells him as the kind of man who could just walk in to a place and take charge. All the existing Linda members feel real and grounded, and there’s some good acting. Seeing the whole group grow from the conspiracy minded folk that we saw one instance of in the very first episode of the DW reboot to this community that makes art and music is really nice. The domestic aspect of Jackie’s life sans Rose was nice to see, and if there’s one big takeaway from this episode that means anything, it’s her becoming a bit more three dimensional.
I won’t comment on the conclusion, because the conclusion is stupid. Overall, I think this episode failed for me mostly from the direction and lack of a clear justification for the plot.
Random extra thoughts:
- The doctor has to deal with a shadow in elton’s house. Shadows like in the library?
- Jackie’s flirting is awkward and cringy but by the end I think it was actually a good choice for her character
- The absorbaloff is a silly monster, and seeing it run around some back alleys in its underwear is peak silly. Perhaps if this had been a purely comedic episode, with the scooby doo homage at the start, it might have worked better
“I like ‘Love & Monsters’” might be the most unpopular unpopular opinion of all time, but…dammit, I like “Love & Monsters.” You know, mostly.
It might actually be the most RTD episode of all time, for better or worse.
It’s silly. I think the comedy works quite well, through a combination of the writing and the casting. I feel like RTD has a real knack for making the supporting characters of a story seem like real people, rather than plot devices. Every single member of LInDA seems like a living, breathing person to me, and I care about this band of weirdos almost immediately. Even Victor Kennedy has a slimy charisma to him. Marc Warren plays Elton perfectly as a dopey doofus stumbling through life. The madcap farce of it all works incredibly well for me.
It’s tragic. The episode is packed with ideas about found family, and about not realizing what you have until you’ve lost it. The evolution of LInDA from a group of people with a single goal to a tight gang of friends, which is then disrupted by a newcomer with bad intentions, is great to watch play out. Elton stumbling through it all, realizing too late that he’s become a villain in his manipulation of Jackie Tyler is great, too. The members of LInDA are eliminated one by one in a classicly bloodthirsty RTD fashion. It toys with the idea of people who touch the Doctor getting burned in general, and lays the groundwork for Rose’s impending doom in particular. In the process, it gives Rose perhaps her finest moment to date, turning from furious to sympathetic as she begins to understand some of what Elton has experienced.
And then it’s almost entirely undermined by the terrible decision to have Ursula…survive, I guess? And then tack on a pretty gross joke at the end.
Cut out the last three or four minutes, and I think we’d have a classic on our hands. In the end, it can be nothing more than a guilty pleasure.
The characters are definitely the stand-out of this episode. It’s interesting as RTD explores the idea of fans-in-the-plot in the recent episode “Lux”, but it was done a lot better here. The Linda portions of the episode are far better than I remember them.
I’ve said it before, other fandoms would kill for an entire episode that is THIS positive about the idea of being in a fandom. Because that’s what LInDA are, a Doctor fanclub, and a wholesome one at that, nobody is obsessed with the search for the Doctor and they do other stuff too - very unlike common depictions of fans.
BRB renaming the instance
Well, you can’t beat a bit of ELO.
