10 Doctor Who Episodes That Took Risks And Failed
7. Stunt Casting For Charity
To be very fair, stunt casting, as a rule, is not an issue in
Doctor Who. Actors who both had and would go on to have (which we realise doesn’t
qualify as stunt casting at the time but still) have truly paid off –
Carey Mulligan, Lenny Henry, Stephen Fry and Lee Evans were all brilliant
additions, on their varying levels of celebrity.
Peter Kay’s name is conspicuously absent here, thus leading to this entry. Love and Monsters was a script borne from good intentions, including an alien designed by a child for a competition. The Absorbaloff is about as intimidating as the name suggests, though it is not purely this creature’s fault that the episode lands here.
The entire affair feels like it should have been a Special for Children in Need. There is nothing wrong with this – Time Crash is as valid an episode like any other – yet it does feel slightly off. It would serve as the first Doctor-lyte episode, though thankfully it didn’t kill the idea. The next episode that that theme was Blink.
Having Peter Kay appear could and should have been a way to
introduce side-splitting comedy, with his natural humour easily outmatching
Tennant’s or Piper’s. Instead, it’s gone down in the history as that time Kay
got dressed up like snot and a man had an affair with a paving slab.