The Problem The Abzorbaloff. Most of the episode is a fond nod to Doctor Whos fandom and it has quite a sweet love story at its heart but the Abzorbaloff is what throws it all out of the window. Using a monster designed by a nine-year old for a Blue Peter competition is risky at the best of times, but taking a monster the size of a bus (the original concept) and turning it into a human-sized relative of the Slitheen played by a very hammy Peter Kay kills it completely. How To Fix It A new monster. Plain and simple. Love And Monsters had potential as an unremarkable bit of fluff and friendly nod to the fandom but it needed a decent monster to round it off. The episode already has two ready-made and set up throughout the episode: the Hoix shown at the beginning and the Elemental Shade that killed Eltons mother. Make one of those the monster as the latter would add more of personal angle to it for Elton rather than using the kind of silly bug-eyed monster that Sydney Newman wanted to avoid fifty-one years ago. Oh and ditch the Scooby-Doo-style sequence at the start with the Hoix and that god-awful blowjob gag at the end. Both are seriously out of place for Doctor Who.
JG Moore is a writer and filmmaker from the south of England. He also works as an editor and VFX artist, and has a BA in Media Production from the University Of Winchester.
