Oh, Crap.
Americans, don’t bother wasting valuable electrons downloading tonight’s episode.
There’s a theory that, in order to maintain the karmic balance, for everything that’s really good, something else has to really suck.
If the recent two-parter “The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit” was one of the best, showing what the classic Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker years might have been like given a budget, then “Love and Monsters” is that episode that restores the balance.
It’s so bad I very nearly switched off halfway through. If I’d wanted to sit through a cheesy soap opera I’d watch rubbish like Neighbours. Most of the episode is a lame joke at the expense of Dr Who fans. The Doctor himself is reduced to a very minor cameo role. Peter Kay (who I personally cannot stand at the best of times) is smugly irritating as the stupid villain. He’s in the Jar Jar Binks league.
I really, really hope this stinker is a one-off, and doesn’t represent the moment when the whole thing jumps the shark.
I thought it was a great concept, anyway, and very much liked the idea of making the Doctor a secondary character – as an experiment. I strongly disagree with the view that it was a ‘stinker’ (and almost all of your other comments!), but share the hope that it was a one-off.
I don’t think it was complete rubbish but it was more like a standard drama. I think the ‘monster’ looked like a child’s drawing and in fact it was. It was desined by a 9 year old. I think Peter Kay is generally quite funny but he was crap in this, particularly as the ‘monster’.
Too late, downloaded it last night.
Time to find out if I think the electrons were wasted…
–T.J.
Good God. I made it about fifteen minutes in and gave up on it. I don’t think I’ll be confused jumping right into next week’s episode.
Somebody get Davies to this side of the pond and into Betty Ford, quick…
–T.J.
(Note: This post does not represent a serious implication that Russell T. Davies uses illegal narcotics. The views expressed in this post do not neccesarily represent those of Tim Hall, Kalyr.com, Kylyr.com’s hosting services, T.J. Swoboda’s employer, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft or Elvis’ spleen.)
I gave up on Dr Who in the middle of the last series. It simply did not feel right for the Doctor to have a romance with Rose.
There were some good ideas, and I’m told the last Dalek encounter of that serious was good, but I don’t have time to watch TV on the off chance that an episode might be a good one.
A shame, but life is too short for anything but the best.
NRT and Chris:
What I hated about this episode was the lightweight tone, rather than the ‘outsider view’. It felt like a rather generic sitcom-cum-soap, the sort of program I usually make a point of avoiding. What’s really pissed me off is that it felt like they’d played bait-and-switch on me.
The TV schedules are wall-to-wall full of formulaic soaps and sitcoms, and quality SF is sufficiently rate to make each show an event.
It’s as it Porcupine Tree made an album that sounded exactly like Coldplay….
T.J:
Are you sure Elvis’ spleen can’t be blamed?
Michael:
I can put up with the supposed romantic sub-plot when there’s enough good stuff in there to make up for it, and most of the New Who has been worth watching. There have only been a small percentage of weak episodes – the filler episode “Boom Town” was the only real dud in the last series, and nothing else has plumbed the same depths as “Love and Monsters”
You can all shut up. It was really good fun.
No it wasn’t. It was complete pants, and you know it….
You people take this whole thing far too seriously you know. The Love & Monsters episode is a light relief before next weeks’ return to the fray and then all hell breaks loose for the final two-parter, but regardless; L&M is a thoughtfully scripted – for humanity as well as laughs – outsider view, and made a welcome change from the regular fare.
On another board someone suggested that the Doctor should be unconcious a la Xmas Invasion and Rose should be trapped somewhere, and the Scooby Doo gang or whatever you want to call them should be the only ones who could rescue them, a volte face in the cast roles if you like. I can see why these individuals have never been called upin to write scripts; how utterly tedious!
This episode works on so many levels, none of which are wanted or expected by your average Whoboy since they fall outside their shallow and tightly defined sci-fi bounds; the humanity behind the lead chap’s search for the Doctor (his mother’s death), the innocence of the Scooby gang, the crapness of the band, the idea of people actually having fun….it’s a fantastic episode, but most Dr Who fans who will feel the need to post are not broad enough in their outlook to appreciate it.
A lot of the appeal in this ep was in thinking about it, not being spoon fed CGI and not having obvious plots stuck down your throat. The Ecclestone Dalek 2-parter that closed the last series was exactly that – frighteningly obvious – but jolly good fun to boot. This was way left field, with an iffy monster with some good comic lines in there, but stands up well on its’ own. Maybe not as a bog standard Who episode, but then it was hardly bog-standard was it? I’d suggest yu should check your judging yardstick is appropriate for judging this episode.
Ah well, enough.
Cheers
Supercollider
(been watching Who for 30 years, every ep in DivX/VHS/DVD, original or telesnap recon)
Oh come on! Boom Town was a genuine, excellent Doctor Who episode, with suspense, lots of the Doctor, slitheen, emotion, alien gadgets… A real masterpiece. Love & Monsters, however, was a marmite experiment into a new or at least dfferant style of Doctor Who episode. I however completely agree that it was a point blanc waste of electrons. Peter Kay was unfunny, the bad guy was – I never thought I could say this truthfully – drawn by a nine year old and the episode was a painfully cheesy soap opera. And right after The Satan Pit, for goodness sake!
>>none of which are wanted or expected by your average Whoboy since they fall outside their shallow and tightly defined sci-fi bounds<<
You know, ‘Supercollider’, you were halfway towards making a coherent argument until you threw in that ad-hominem.
I know my original posting was a rant, written immediately after watching the thing. But I still think it was extremely poor episode.
The two things that really killed “Love and Monsters” for me.
(1) The pacing was waaaay too slow; it seemed as though most of the first 25 minutes could have been edited down to about five without any significant loss; little or nothing of significance actually happened. (Yes I know there are whole genres that revolve around the insignificant details of the lives of ordinary people, but SF is not one of them. I won’t accept the label “fanboy” for stating that). Anyone that missed the opening credits could easily have assumed that they were watching a new (and rather mediocre) sitcom.
(2) Peter Kay’s stupid comedy monster. Dr Who may have had stupid monsters before (remember the Candyman?), and all of them have received the rasperries they richly deserved. That shouldn’t be an excuse for any more of them.
The frustrating thing is the concept behind the episode *could* have worked very well if they’d tightened up the pacing a lot, and replaced Peter Kay with a much stronger villain. It would even have been a good moment to reintroduce an old enemy (although one poster here would sneer at that as “an obvious plot forced down your throat”)
Love Who, detested this episode. I would agree that this episode is not worth downloading, much less watching.
What did this episode accomplish that couldn’t have been accomplished through a few-second cell phone dialogue between Rose and her distraught mother?
Seems like this episode was made simply for the sake of being “different.”
Personally I think this episode was poorly written, if they were looking for an outsiders take why settle on simply one character, why not give us more from the others in the group?
There seemed so little coherency to the episode, as though they were confused about what it was they were really attempting to convey, as though they switched messages mid stream several times, and then back again to the original intent somewhere towards the end.
This episode was ill conceived for a couple of different reasons.
1. It doesn’t progress the franchise or storyline . What did this episode accomplish for the Who Story? I asked that already but it bears repeating.
2. What is the syndication value of this episode? How many people would want to watch this episode again, much less the first go round? If the US Science Fiction channel airs this episode it’s likely because they negotiated a contract for the series, but I doubt they show it more than once IF they ever choose to show it.
This episode is simply just not commercially viable, and for that reason alone it should never have been made, since it steals money away from the production of genuine Who, while simultaneously reducing the long term commercial prospects of Who, and I would argue TV Science Fiction as a whole. For example I would prefer SciFi “NOT” show this episode since it will definitely impact their financial bottom line, which impacts my Science Fiction TV prospects.
As it is that channel has become the airing ground for Grade – C monster movies retread every other month. It’s become almost unwatchable with the exception of Sci-Fi Friday nights. This episode would contribute to that unwatchability factor, and I would prefer they spend their limited budget on something that would bring in money. Frankly even the most mediocre episode of Battlestar, SG-1, or Atlantis would tar the crap out of this episode in terms of draw, and ad sell rate.
This blog entry was well conceived and though it won’t impact future DrWho downloads what does do is give an early indication of the impact of the episode, at a time when it’s still fresh on the producer’s mind. Hopefully we won’t see too many more of these types of episodes.
I’d hate to think this episode would be cited as the first indication of when this incarnation of Who Bit the Shark, but have the sneaking suspicion it will, if it hasn’t already.
To all those who seem to be missing the point, this was a special doctor who episode for kids as the result of a competition to design a monster. This also explains the role of Peter Kay within the episode. OK, so it wasn’t very good, and I agree that that using the doctor himself so sparingly was a huge mistake, but you should still try to admire the atempt they made on tailoring this episode to the smaller audiences that watch this magnificent programme. And at least they tried to make it a little more interesting for the adult viewers by putting in a potential threat to the doctor at the end.
As has been said before, just because a nine year old designed the monster doesn’t mean a nine year old had to write the script.
loved the episode
guess its a love or hate episode
this is my fav*Love & Monsters* of the season so far
and im a old dr who fan
p.s oh and dr who was about fun too or have you forgotten?
>>and dr who was about fun too or have you forgotten?
The opposite of “serious” is not “fun”. The opposite of “serious” is “silly”. The opposite of “fun” is “boring”. This episode was neither Serious nor Fun. It *was* both Boring and Silly.
kinda funny that this episode about a bunch of people overly preoccupied with the doctor is getting such a reaction from a bunch of people overly preoccupied with….
you guessed it!
just thought it was kinda funny.
to be fair, i also much prefer episodes like the satan pit 2 parter, but found this to be an interesting departure from the run of the mill episode. TV shows have to experiment to stay fresh, and it’s nice to have a bit of variety now and again.
and yes the villain harked back to the days of rubber-suit monsters, but if there’s any show that references and draws on it’s own long history it’s dr. who. i think the show’s writers meant it as a playful tongue-in-cheek throwback, and it’s kinda fun when you see it in that light.
Who-ee Baby,
Couldn’t agree more.
The dorks are probably unhappy because this particular episode makes fun of other dorks.
I don’t really know who Peter Kay is, although I did detest that sh@te song he had in the charts a few years ago, but he was very funny in this.
The Torchwood guy was good too.
I was hoping though he would hook up with Rose’s mum. She looked quite MILFlicious in the episode. I suppose things like that only happen in Torchwood.
I am currently in America and download the episodes when they go up. Hadn’t got round to this one until today. But why the fark should the BBC pander to what Yanks think anyway?
Now go back to your Dungeons and Dragons and singing ELO songs or whatever this episode says you people do.