S2E10: Love & Monsters

Before re-watching this episode, I had watched a tribute video. This entire episode sort of felt like a tribute video at times, a tribute to the Doctor and to LINDA. It obviously very different from the other episodes, as this was from the video diary of Elton. Rose and the Doctor do play a significant role, but their screen time is very limited.

 

During the opening scenes, I thought that Elton might be a new companion. I was wondering whether he’d just be a bother to have along, like Adam, or if he’d make things a lot more interesting, like Jack. It felt a bit strange when all of a sudden, the point of view suddenly went to Elton’s video camera. It was new, and I haven’t seen a Doctor Who episode that was told from anyone else’s point of view.

 

This episode had been the last episode for the seniors in the class, and indeed, it was the perfect episode to end with even though it isn’t the season finale yet. Rose was the original vessel for the audience to be able to relate, but now we have Elton as Rose is now well-integrated into the show. Elton is the audience, the fan of not just the Doctor, but also of Rose. It was nice to go back and see some of the bits and pieces of the Doctor’s adventures, but from the point of view of a commoner, a man on the street. I wonder if they had planned for this episode long ago, and had shot it alongside those previous episodes? I noticed that they recycled some shots, such as that of the Big Ben being destroyed by the alien ship in “Aliens of London”. I think though, that this episode was a bit early. There’s been less than two series, and there’ve only been two Doctors. It would have been a lot more interesting if they had done this episode in the next series or so. A lot more would have happened. But since they decided to make this a sort of regular thing, then it isn’t so bad to have it now. It’s a nice little recap, and it answers the question of what it would be like had we actually been there when those things had happened.

 

It was nice that this episode wasn’t completely a “tribute”, but it had its own story as well. You don’t even have to watch all of the episodes of Doctor Who to watch this one. Come think of it, it’s not really a tribute to Doctor Who, but more of a tribute to the audience, to the fans of the show. It focuses on one unique “fan” of the Doctor and Rose, and follows him around, not only for his Doctor Who-related escapades, but also for other things that make him him, such as the LINDA bonding sessions and his growing relationship with Ursula (strange as it eventually became). Even the alien of this show is from the audience. There was a contest, a make-your-own-alien sort of thing, and the child who made the absorbaloff won. I don’t know if the producers of the show meant it to be that way, as an audience-tribute sort of thing, or if they just wanted to give the lead actors a break by making others the leads. I suppose Mickey would have been part of this episode, except he was left behind in another dimension. It was nice that they showed Jackie, crazy Jackie with her antics, and how lonely she was. Jackie can be quite annoying, like most mothers are, but she really does love Rose. It was touching how she pushed Elton away despite her loneliness so that she could protect Rose and the Doctor.

S2E10: Love & Monsters

I can’t believe it took me this long to realize: the Doctor has his own leitmotif! And I don’t just mean the “woosh! woosh!” of the TARDIS, I mean the non-worldly sort of angelic voice singing when the TARDIS is there or is near. I rarely encounter leitmotifs in show or films (or maybe I’m just too dense to notice it) so it’s pretty cool that I know this piece of information. The only other use of leitmotif that I know and that I could think of right now is Pokemon’s Team Rocket.

 

Moving on to the actual episode, I’ve got to say, this is one of the best Doctor Who openings yet; a close second to “Tooth and Claw”, I think. It’s quite different from the others. Actually, the whole episode was quite different from most of the episodes because it’s not Doctor-centric per se. I’m thinking it serves as a relief from the usual routine of The Doctor and Rose Saves the Universe.

 

I really like the beginning where he tells the story of his different encounters with alien life forms. It’s like watching the Doctor’s adventures from an ordinary citizen’s point of view. It’s quite interesting to think of the conclusions these ordinary citizens must have without really knowing the story. I personally, knowing what I know by watching the events through Rose’s eyes, think it’s frustrating. I guess this is what Rose must feel when she imagines the day she has to part with the Doctor because she’s already got a taste of the bigger picture, she is removed from blissful ignorance and once you’re out of there, you can never really get back.

 

Another thing I really like about this episode is its format. It’s so weird. During some parts of the whole episode, it’s in some sort of video blog format yet it’s definitely in a TV show. It’s like I’m watching some sort of hybrid of the two! Very interesting. Reminds me of Nickelodeon’s show “iCarly”, where this girl, along with her friends, runs an online web show but the show also orbits around their lives outside it.

 

The main characters in the story, Elton and the rest of LINDA, were quite fun to watch. At first, they were like some sort of Doctor Who class but then it became a little breakfast club of their own. Thankfully, before it became too cheesy, Victor Kennedy stepped into the scene and resumed the progress of the plot into full throttle. To be honest, I didn’t even consider Kennedy to be the alien (and even until the end, it wasn’t explained how his kind can take human form or why they absorb people) and when eventually he was revealed to be the alien of the day, borrowing the words of Queen Victoria, I wasn’t amused. It was so disgusting. He looked like a fat college dude that had too much to drink. The whole alien thing wasn’t a big deal to the story and so I wasn’t surprised to find his death to be kind of corny.

 

Overall, I liked the episode for its lightness, some sort of break from the heavy story that was “Satan’s Pit”. I especially liked the part where Cougar-Jackie doing the moves on Elton (and with Il Divo in the background to boost!). Their “break-up” scene just got me crying my eyes out in a very not sad way. The lines are so cliché that someone who just turned on the telly at that part would get a totally wrong idea of the whole thing.

 

I thought it was going to be just a really nice, non-Doctor who centered episode but then the ending came and it creeped me out. I don’t even know why they put it there.

S2E10: Love & Monsters

After the very heavy two-parter “The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit”, this campy-ness of this episode is a much welcomed relief. The Scooby Doo-esque “running after each other in a hallway full of doors” intoduction aside, I enjoyed how the story was still about the Doctor but from the perspective of Elton Pope, a third party observer of sorts. This is the first time we meet the character and yet we learn that he had been in the sidelines for some of the Doctor’s adventures with Rose since series one. This new approach applies, in a way, the idea of “the same kind of different” such that we have the basic elements (the Doctor, his companion, and an alien threat) but presented in an entirely different manner.

On one hand, this episode also answered my question about whether there were people out there who noticed the Doctor and decided to research him as Rose did in the pilot. It is impossible to miss an Autoton invasion or a Slitheen ship crashing into Big Ben, so it was good for the show to acknowledge that there must be some people who are curious enough to try and understand the strange occurances that surround the Doctor’s adventures. I know that if a Sycorax fleet was suddenly flying above my house, I would definitely be asking a few questions to try and make sense of what I just saw. In the case of Elton, he was witness to three of these adventures as well as a mysterious meeting with the Doctor as a child.

As I mentioned earlier, this provides a heavy dose of comedy which is well-deserved after the rollercoaster of the last two episodes we watched. There are so many entertaining scenes but my favorites are definitely those between Jackie Tyler and Elton becuase it is just so great because of the awkwardness. As you watch Elton readying himself to sleep with Jackie for the sake of getting information about Rose, you just have to stop and think “Jesus, does this guy really want to know where the Doctor is that badly?” As a fan of Harry Potter, my brain is programmed to search out the actors in everything I see, so I was definitely pleased to see Moaning Myrtle here. It was impossible for me to separate Ursula with Myrtle, however; I kept on imagining that if the latter wasn’t a witch who was killed by the Basilisk and doomed to forever roam the bathrooms of Hogwarts, she would have been Ursuala (and later doomed to live the tragic life of a clay tile).

While it is a light episode, the end gives us a lot to think about especially as the second series wraps up. Elton is still talking to his camera when he discusses how unintentionally destructive the Doctor’s life is to the people around him. He mentions how he himself has only known the man through the information he’s gathered and in brief meetings, but he has lost so much. There is something extremely forboding when he considers Rose and Jackie, and what their fate will be in the end.

S2E10: Love & Monsters

I loved the episode Love & Monsters so much, that I still laugh at the jokes after watching it three times. I would go far as to say that this episode is the most entertaining and different Doctor Who episode that I have watched in a while. I even liked it more than the emotional The Girl in the Fireplace. What makes it more interesting is the fact that the Doctor and Rose are not that involved at all in the story. The story revolves around a guy named Elton Pope, who has a big obsession over the Doctor, ever since he saw him in his house when he was just a little child. Elton eventually discovers that there are other people quite like him and they decide to form a small group called LINDA (London Investigation N’ Detective Agency.) The crew almost loses sight of their purpose of hunting down the Doctor when Victor Kennedy comes out of nowhere and orders a more formal hunt for the Doctor. Little does the gang know that Victor Kennedy is actually a big, green, blob called the Abzorbaloff, which is able to absorb anything (even anyone for that matter) to become a part of him with a single touch. A rather silly monster, compared to the other villains that Rose and the Doctor faced in their previous adventures. But as silly as the Abzorbaloff seems, almost everybody in LINDA find themselves inside its disgusting, green belly.

One might immediately assume that this episode is so light and carefree that it does not talk about anything significant and acts as one of those fillers in-between the great two-parters of the story. But if you give this episode a second or third watch you may realize that Love & Monsters is more than just a filler episode. First of all, it explores the idea of Doctor Who fandom. It is a good thing that LINDA is composed of different people brought together with the task of finding more about the Doctor as well as his travels (one of them is amusingly Moaning Myrtle from the Harry Potter films!), and not the stereotypical group of nerds who spends their time in front of the computer. This diversity makes the episode more ‘human’ and relatable.

It is in this episode where we see hints of despair and loneliness on Jackie’s part. Not only did she lose her husband, her daughter has chosen to abandon her normal life and go to the ends of the universe with the Doctor. She is portrayed in this episode as a tragic and pitiful figure who desperately feels the need of company that she immediately clings on to Elton, who showed her so much kindness. Betrayal is added to the mix of Jackie’s emotional pool as she discovers that Elton was just being nice to get to Rose that would lead him to the Doctor.

The episode also had a bit of nostalgia in it, as it showcased past adventures of Rose and the Doctor and how it became a part of Elton’s life. The episode had snippets of the moving plastic mannequins of Rose, the fake spaceship of the Slitheens from the Aliens of London/World War Three two-parter and the Sycorax’s spaceship from The Christmas Invasion. I think the show used this episode as a way to show how all these strange events affect an outsider, and not a companion. Usually in an episode, the Doctor shows the companion all these strange events and the companion just tries to absorb it all, with his or her mouth wide open. Love & Monsters take this same experience, but replaces the companion with someone living a normal life. In fact, Elton’s life is similar to Reinette’s in The Girl in the Fireplace. He has basically known the Doctor his whole life, ever since his mother died. And like the life of Reinette’s the Doctor just pops in and out of his in the form of Elton’s encounters with alien life forms and his affiliation with LINDA.

I cannot stress enough how much I loved this episode.  I love it for the very fact that it is so different from all the other Doctor Who episodes. Although it had a silly villain, I choose to overlook this element because Love & Monsters is able to compensate the Abzorbaloff by giving off so much more.

S2E10: Love & Monsters

I think for us seniors, this episode is the perfect way to end this class. It served as a sort of sneak peek as to who the Doctor really is, and what would happen to Rose in the next episodes after it. When I watched this, I was so disappointed at how few the Doctor and Rose’s scenes were. But then again, seldom do we have a non-Doctor, non-companion main character for a Doctor Who episode, so it was also a tad bit interesting.

The entire episode touched mostly on themes of the the vlogging culture, fandom/club culture, and love, so I’ll be talking about those.

First off, our main guy Elton seemed like a vlogger to me, although I’m not a hundred percent certain about this. A vlogger is someone who “blogs” or talks about his/her interests, but instead of writing them down, he records himself talking in front of a camera. I wanted to talk about this because in our time (2012), vlogs are no longer rare. Because the medium of these vlogs is the internet, and the internet can be accessed mostly through the computer, we see that the computer here acts as some sort of television. Only, in Elton’s case, he’s no longer the audience or the recipient. By vlogging, he delivers his message as if he owns a television station himself.

This episode also touches on the fandom culture, subtle it may be. At first, this group of curious people who wanted to know more of the Doctor went to their group meetings just to satisfy their curiosity. They wanted to know: Doctor Who? But as they met regularly and they came to know each other more, their group became more than just a fan club. They became friends. Elton went on about how he enjoyed what they had, all the cooking and the jamming—the friendships that were formed, in short.

When outsiders look at fandoms of, say, KPop, they only see girls and boys who are too passionate and too crazy for the KPop culture. What they don’t see are the friendships that grow and are built overtime. Understandable, of course, because we tend to downgrade these friendships, as if they’re just born out of necessity for companionship. Little do we know that, maybe, just like in LINDA, true friendships do begin even in the most uncommon of places.

This episode also touched on love in so many levels: unspoken love (the Doctor and Rose’s), unconditional love (Elton and Ursula’s) and conditional love (Elton and Jackie’s). It’s very rare that Doctor Who tackles this issue head-on, so I really appreciated that the series remained faithful to the human experience. I mean, these past few weeks that we’ve been watching this show in class, we’ve seen how it tackled so many issues of humanity, but not love. Never love. And if you ask me, I think love is the most humane feeling of all. I’m glad it was the last hoorah for the seniors.

Lastly, the scene I liked the most in this episode is that last one, when Elton was speaking of his realizations after meeting the Doctor:

Elton Pope: You know, Stephen King said once, he said: “Salvation and damnation are the same thing.” And I never knew what he meant. But I do now.’Coz the Doctor might be wonderful, but thinking back, I was having such a special time, just for a bit. I had this nice little gang, and they were destroyed. It’s not his fault. Maybe that’s what happens if you touch the Doctor. Even for a second. I keep thinking of Rose and Jackie, and how much longer before  they pay the price…

You know when you’re a kid, they tell you is all: grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid and that’s it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. So much darker, and so much madder. And so much better.

I couldn’t have said those words any better. And these quotes from Elton, I think, is the reason why I’m glad my Doctor Who class ended with this episode. With all the leaving and the preparation for the future that the graduating batch has to finally face, these are words of comfort. Especially that last one.

And maybe, sticking longer with the Doctor is not so much of a bad idea as Elton puts it. 🙂

S2E10: Love & Monsters

It would be foolish to not address the most obvious difference that sets this episode apart from the others. This episode is told from the point of view of an ordinary person that has encountered the Doctor in one way or the other. It details how the Doctor can actually affect the lives of ordinary people and how they hope to actually encounter him and find the answers they have been looking for. It focuses on the Doctor can unknowingly affect the lives of people around him.

Admittedly I have watched this before it was shown in class and my first impressions was meh. It’s okay. Nothing really special. I could probably attribute these kinds of reactions to me not really one hundred percent focused on watching that episode. But after watching this in class, wherein I didn’t really have any other kind of distraction to take away my attention from the episode.

My favorite thing about this episode would be LINDA’S golden age how united by a common goal they were and even though at the golden age their focus shifted from the Doctor and into their own inter-personal relationships, I still found that this was a nice and natural flow of what could have happened. I really liked this idea, as I understand that a lot of relationships actually start like this. A common interest that would help each person get to know other people more. It was actually “cute” how they actually formed a band after spending time together and getting to know each other better. It was actually saddening that the Abzorbaloff had to inject itself into the story.

Speaking of the Abzorbaloff, I found it odd that he didn’t have a name for himself. That the character himself had to rely on the protagonist and other characters to name him actually being glad after being a name such as Abzorbaloff. I have to say that this observation is deeply connected to the discussions in class that the series itself has an obsession-like tendency on the subject of naming.  This part really confused me as for I hold onto the belief that naming someone somehow gives you power over them, not literal but metaphorical power. Letting his enemies name him, well, isn’t he eventually giving power to his enemies by that logic? As I said, I didn’t really get that part, it did manage to put in a lot of laughs so maybe that part was simply for the laugh track.

I found it funny how flirtatious the Tyler’s could be. Jackie Tyler being a cougar and actively stalking her prey, Elton, was for me a real barrel of laughs and possibly one of this episode’s highlights. It made sense too that Rose would protect her mother in one way or the other after finding out that Elton had inadvertently hurt her.  It was odd though as the Doctor stood there against the Abzorbaloff but still I found it odd in a good way as it basically showed how futile it would be to try and predict what the Doctor is going to do next.

The ending was really weird for me, as it showed how Ursula basically became living pavement, although I found it slightly funny, especially in how it was presented, I also found it it a bit uncomfortable. What does this say about the quality of life of Ursula, yes she’s alive but wouldn’t it have been better in the long run if she was left alone instead of being imprisoned in a square piece of pavement. I just found it really, really discomforting. I didn’t really like this part. Generally this episode was very light in its content and its presentation was superb. It also showed a very interesting side of the Who-niverse that is seldom shown in the usual episodes of adventures by the Doctor and Rose.

S2E10: Love & Monsters

This by far is my favourite episode in the entire series.

The episode was very light not just because it was funny but because you barely saw the Doctor or Rose. The episode instead took the point of view of a bystander. Now this I found interesting because I have always wondered what people might be thinking whenever they hear “the most beautiful sound in the universe” or the TARDIS coming in. We are introduced to a group of Doctor hunters which is reminiscent of the very first episode of season 1 “Rose” where we are introduced to a man who devoted his time looking at old pictures where the Doctor was seen and all that jazz. One of the characters, Shirley, by the way also appeared in the Harry Potter franchise as Moaning Myrtle. What is it with these brits appearing in the same string of shows over and over again?

The production value of this episode was adorable, what with the Scooby-doo-esque chase scene and the home made video feel of it all. This episode was a kind of inside joke for regular viewers because it had so many references to the past episodes like Henrik’s department store dummies, the Slitheens’ ship during the “Aliens of London” episode, the Sycorax ship from the Christmas special, Jackie’s acknowledgement of Mickey being gone since the “Age of Steel” episode, Rose’s Torchwood files being corrupted by a kind of “Bad Wolf” virus, the alien from the twin planet of the Slitheens’ which is called Klom.

The episode is kind of ironic in a sense because we are sort of distanced from the Doctor and brought even closer to the series because we see the Doctor through the eyes of a fan, albeit a different kind of fan from the avid television viewer. It becomes a kind of gathering of Doctor followers who are mostly quirky characters as if it was a commentary on the kind of fandom the show has. One of the things I am reminded about is one of the first things mentioned in the beginning that wherever trouble is, the Doctor is there. Or visa versa. I don’t actually remember. And we are introduced to the idea that the trouble is not just for the TARDIS dwellers but for the people who get sucked into his world as well – his fans.

Elton pursues the Doctor because he remembers the Doctor from his child as a man who appeared in his living room. We find that later on it is because the Doctor was pursuing an elemental shade which had unfortunately killed his mother. We also find that all of his companions in LINDA had disintegrated with the Abzorbaloff except for his love Shirley and he says it’s a romantic albeit unconventional relationship, and we put it next to the kind of relationship the fans have with the Doctor: its romantic, although a little unconventional. He closes with the line one can have a conventional life, but the world is so much darker, madder. Like how Rose in the final episodes of Season 1 refused to go back to the way her life used to be and in the same way fans are never really the same when you go through the Doctor Who series.

S2E10: Love & Monsters

This episode was by far the most unique one I have watched this semester. The irony in that is that the entire series is unique and each episode stands out in its own way. However, what makes this episode different with how the story was told. The story is told from the point of view from an ordinary person who apparently has had an encounter with the Doctor.

What I have concluded from watching this episode was it was more focused on the people who have been affected by the Doctor without the Doctor not even knowing it. It makes complete sense though since it is impossible for the Doctor not making a ripple after every adventure.

It seems that the Doctor’ effect on people causes them to obsess, in a similar way Rose Tyler is so attached to the Doctor. He actually reminds me of Jesus, a sort of living messiah whose effect on people is so powerful.  Going back to the episode, it is interesting to see the story told from a different point of view. The Doctor and Rose were practically invisible throughout the episode and yet their presence is still there.

To be honest though, despite the episode being quite unique, it was a bit dragging as compared to the earlier episode. The lack of the presence of the Doctor in the majority of the episode slowed things down considerably. In my opinion, this episode is also one of the least serious because of a number of reasons. The episode reveals that Rose Tyler’s flirtatious nature did come from somewhere, and that was from Jackie Tyler. Jackie Tyler was simply hilarious in the episode in her conquest to get it on with Elton. She definitely was a cougar on the prowl. Another entertaining factor that is actually quite disturbing was how the alien would consume their victims. It was entertaining to see the faces of the victim still talking and in the end, fight back against the alien. However, it really did not make any sense to me at all on how they were actually successful in killing the alien.

Finally, the most jaw dropping part of all is when the Doctor was able to save Elton’s love interest, Ursula. I laughed out loud when I saw her as a piece of pavement. It was undoubtedly hilarious.

In the end, though, was it really a happy ending for Elton? I mean, yes, he was able to save Ursula and the saying is true that love can surpass all boundaries but, a piece of pavement? Seriously?

Despite the craziness of this episode, I could say that this was a great way to end my semester with Com 108.2 I never would have though that I would enjoy the series so much and I will definitely be looking for this series in Metrowalk or Greenhills soon. I entered the semester being in doubt on how this silly show could be so popular and I leave the class so engrossed and attached to the show. The appeal of the Doctor is definitely strong.

S2E10: Love & Monsters

I distinctly remember a class discussion about how television shows need to surprise us constantly—especially for an established show like Doctor Who. We have some “clichés” set up for us in the show: the Ron Grainer & Delia Derbyshire-composed theme tune that plays over the opening billboard with the TARDIS travelling through the Time Vortex, our watching behavior itself (for us: Thursday mornings, 2 episodes each), and then the Doctor and his companion themselves. However, we’ve also had our share of subtle surprises in our experience of the show, some of them regarding genre hybridity; we talk about Doctor Who as a British cult science fiction show, and then get a lot of different forms of horror and a dash of romance. Love & Monsters surprises rather in a pleasantly disconcerting way: it’s Doctor-lite, so to speak, and it’s told in the first person.

When the titular character is out of the picture, it interrupts our comfort, jolts us to confront this rather pleasant surprise. British media scholar Roger Silverstone (2002) talked about the safety in the cliché in the context of crisis news reporting, but allow me to borrow the term liberally, exaggeratingly and out of context—just to show what the impact of “surprises” in the media can be, “Interruption… itself is catastrophic for those whose ontological security in some small measure requires them to be engaged in the continuous narratives of daily mediation.” Consider how formulas work for television. I had a conversation once with a local television director, and he told me about how risks are hard to pull off here in the country, because the audience is used to formulas. Thus, a bit of formula remains in this episode, but at least not the one we’re used to in Doctor Who

Love & Monsters is a feel-good episode, despite the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)-loving, The Lion King composer-named, Elton Pope in the limelight. I’ve personally have only watched showrunner Russell T. Davies’ writing in Doctor Who, so I find it surprising that an episode of this kind would come from him. It’s distinctly British rom-com and almost feels like Love Actually or Bridget Jones’ Diary, but with an allegory to cult fandom through LINDA—and quite possibly, the show’s Whovian fan base itself.

Chameleon Circuit or just a band of fans covering ELO music?

The first time I watched this, it was just okay; but I appreciate it now with a new perspective as a part of the fan community. First, on the subject of how “names are very important,” I see parallels between the “Whovians” and “LINDA” There’s the meetups, though we personally do this in cyberspace (i.e. Facebook). Fan art and fan fiction will always be there—with all the loopiness and imagination. There’s a little equivalent to a Trock (Time Lord Rock) band when Elton and the rest of LINDA play some ELO. There’s also a bit of intimate relationships going on, especially between Elton and Ursula, (It’s Shirley Henderson, who played Moaning Myrtle from the Harry Potter films and Jude from Bridget Jones’s Diary!) and to an extent, between Elton and Jackie Tyler (Il Divo’s cover of “Unbreak My Heart,” “Regresa a Mi,” is also downright funny). The episode itself is an instance of participatory fandom, with the Abzorbaloff being a submission to Blue Peter (I find the fact that the creature is a relative of the Raxacoricofallapatorians, who come from the planet Clom hilarious).

Such details point to the idea that fandom is also about community and not just a stringent obsession to textual details. Though discourse among the community members is central, it is not only about that, and this is why I find Victor Kennedy’s intervention unnerving, “You’ve forgotten your purpose in life. You, with your band… and your cakes… and your blubbing and all the while he still exists—the Doctor.” This kind of ties up with a theme in the previous episode: its treatment of faith and reason. Fandom is a sort of belief, and it requires us to jump in first in order to rationalize. Imagination is the basis of faith, and so is the case with fandom: love is its basis—not necessarily of the text itself only, but also among the community.