Doctor Who: 15 Most Disastrous Stories Of All-Time

7. Love And Monsters

Ironically I have no love for 'Love and Monsters'. Like 'The Space Pirates' the regulars aren't in the story much to make things bearable. The weight is put on Jackie Tyler's shoulders to give some sense of continuity with the main series. In a fairly impressive piece of guest miscasting Marc Warren plays Elton Pope who has been obsessed by the Doctor since he was a boy. The part doesn't really play to Warren's strengths, it would have been more interesting to see a skeptical and flawed lad have his eyes opened to the bigger world around him. As written, the already fawning Elton, a personification of fandom, doesn't have much room for development. Finally, the big problem with this story is how contrived it is, written around the inclusion of the Abzorbaloff. This was a creation of a ten year old as part of 'Blue Peter's' design a monster competition. While the concept has some weight, its realization resembled a great big hairy bogie. Added to that, it was hammed up by Peter Kay with a bizarre amalgamation of performance choices. The episode as a whole is a car crash of not bad ideas but ultimately add up to less than the individual parts. Also there is the dodgy relationship with a paving slab gag.