I… I don’t even know what to say about this story.
Whatever reappraisal it’s getting, I still think it’s a thoroughly bizarre and misguided story that had an interesting idea behind it.
Some of the stuff with Jackie is nice but this episode is RTD camp at its most self indulgent.
Also, what did Elton do to that paving slab!
3/10
You know full well what Elton did… 
NuWho’s Krotons!
I know this Episode isn’t held in any high regard and I can totally see why, it’s quite flawed, but.. Similar as to Krotons, I think there are some genuinely great bits in here and some “so bad it’s good” bits.
The domestic part written here in this Episode are great. The whole Idea of “LINDA” is a well-thought idea that is approached with enough care, where it can be fun, but never comes across in a mocking or mean-spirited way, which I appreciate. Jackie is great, perhaps one of RTD’s best Characters we have gotten, she is both great at the comedic bits, and the serious ones.
That said some of its execution can be quite poor at times, some dialogue doesn’t wanna work. And yes, the Abzorbaloff is a bit of a weird choice including here, then again I kinda take this over something more generic. At the very least, it’s not very boring.
Probably one of the ones I rate higher in this Series (not saying much since Series 2 is pretty low in my overall season/series ranking).
Am I the only one who thinks fandom overreacts to that joke? You know it could just mean they kiss (the line says they have ‘love life’ not a ‘sex life’).
I can imagine RTD chortling away as he wrote it - and maybe then regretting it once he saw it on screen - hindsight is 20/20 but I think it is such a tiny thing in a story packed with so much goodness.
The Abzorbaloff - silly? He’s grotesque and horrifying. His victims are still sentient and absorbed in his flesh - what the ■■■■! I can’t help but be reminded of the horror film Society which scarred me as a teenager watching it by myself in my room.
Is Peter Kay right for the role? I don’t think he’s bad but maybe a bit ‘large’ when he is being the monster - but as Victor I think he’s pretty good. Is he a spoof of Ian Levine? Who can say?
But this is a story about fandom. It is a group of people brought together by a shared interest and then discovering they have even more in common and from that true relationships are formed. LINDA are all of us - it’s my friendship group in real life; it’s TARDiS Guide’s community. Those scenes with LINDA hanging out are so lovely and - when you know what’s coming - horribly tragic.
And then along comes Victor and his ‘super-fan’ tendencies. He just wants information. He just wants fandom to be conducted the way he wants it to be conducted because that’s how his obsession works. He sucks all the joy from the group and then literally sucks all the life from the group.
A group of people who found a way of dealing with their own personal tragedies - and way of moving on - have that cruelly taken away - and it’s the Doctor’s fault. Love & Monsters is a tragic tale (in the best possible sense).
That RTD created this story out of a Blue Peter competition is astounding (and it will never stop being funny that no one realised the boy who drew it meant the monster to be gigantic and that he was terribly disappointed when he eventually saw a normal man-sized Peter Kay).
And wrapped around this tragic story are some brilliant comic moments - the Scooby Doo Hoix chase; Jackie Tyler’s flirting; Elton being part of various Doctor Who stories in flashback; the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius, Clom.
Does one silly gag - which is only as filthy as we choose to make it - ruin all that? Not even in the slightest.
I watched this episode in unusual circumstances. It aired on the day of my brother’s stag do and we were all at a party at his house share in Manchester. I didn’t know anyone there except my brother but was made to feel pretty welcome. Time for Doctor Who came and my brother told me to go and watch it if I wanted. I sat on the floor in front of the TV like a kid at Christmas and was joined by one of my brother’s work colleagues (who was clearly a bit of a geek too). I loved the episode although I remember the other guy being a bit nonplussed by it. But I certainly didn’t feel the embarrassment some fans seems to have about this episode existing.
This is a definite 8/10 for me and it only loses a couple of points because of it looking slightly too cheap in places and Rose, as is common in this time in the show, being fairly insufferable.
He basically forces to learn more and more about the doctor devoting all of their time and energy to learning everything there is to about Doctor Who and the only reward they get is some badges no wait hang on a second /j
Awww, sorry! Didn’t mean to miss you out. Thought I’d got everyone! 
A
I
Ra
Ax
Of
All
Fall
Lap
Pat
Tor
Tar
Pit
Or
Us
Sofa
Orac
Rot
Tap
Rustic
Focus
Acari (as in ticks and mites)
Oh, what the heck. I’ve started so I might as well carry on:
Corporators
Coaxial
Calculators
Capitulars
Capitals
Factorials
Calorifics
Trifocal
Axial
Axis
Crux
See what you’ve started now, @deltaandthebannermen? 
I love that you got this word!
Seemed appropriate, especially given Blake 7 was mentioned in another thread.
Started out doing the absolute easiest to get words, but found myself looking for more complicated ones later. And very much missing the letter ‘e’.
Dunno who that was? 
Underrated and I think a pretty solid episode. The sort of study of the Doctor Who fandom was interesting. It’s very much a story about how Doctor Who brings people together, and how certain people who perhaps take it too seriously can make it become toxic and drive people away. I think it does this kind of meta idea better than say The Greatest Show in the Galaxy which almost seems to be trying to insult its own fans (now there’s a story I don’t like as much as so many seem to).
Elton is a likeable character, even if he’s not perfect. He makes his mistakes, but at the end of the day he’s not a bad guy and just wants to find out what happened to his mother and why the Doctor was there. LINDA is fun, each member kind of seeming to be a different kind of fan. Like Bliss is the artsy kind, Mr. Skinner the fanfiction writer, I could see someone like Elton making arrangements of Murray Gold’s, or Dudley Simpson’s music or something. Jackie Tyler at her absolute best in this as well. She will always protect her daughter, and we also get to see how she gets by on her own when Rose is gone. It’s this level of character writing that makes me wonder what’s happened to RTD between 2010 and now, because I don’t see it anymore.
I think if anything brings this down, it’s the abzorbaloff. Sure, I get that it was designed by a kid in a contest, but I think it definitely could have been realized better. Victor Kennedy was actually a decent bad guy, really fit with the themes of the story, but once we get his true form it’s all gone, he’s just a silly green thing with a loincloth. I guess LINDA coming together one final time to beat him works thematically. Ian Levine is not stronger than the whole tribe. And yes, the joke at the end was dumb. It’s just a bad joke, but not episode ruiningly so.
And Elton is right. You can’t beat a bit of ELO. 7/10 (3.5/5 stars)
I’m one of those who always saw this episode as one of the weakest in New Who.
And then I rewatched it. And I was blown away.
It’s not nearly as bad as I remember (and perceived fan wisdom claims). I enjoyed it, actually.
Love & Monsters = 7/10
The Doctor-lite nature allows this one to step out of the established formula and tell a meta-level narrative about Doctor Who fans. Elton is likeable, and he loves ELO; who could hate someone who loves ELO? They make great music. All the stuff with Jackie is superb, and I love how RTD takes the opportunity to show us how those left behind feel about their loved ones travelling with the Doctor! Victor Kay is the Joseph Furst of the revival: utterly over the top but effective until he turns to that nightmare-inducing monster designed by a kid. Shirley Henderson, who I only knew as Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter while growing up, is good as well. There’s a lot of good comedy (the Clom joke, for instance, or the Scooby Doo bit), but the script occasionally feels like a parody of the show, which annoys me slightly.
I didn’t remember the heartbreaking connection between Elton and the Doctor, while I cannot forget the stone slab gag ending, which just makes my eyes roll.
By the way, I had to google L.I.N.D.A. to find out if there’s a real club called that, and it turns out that there is! It stands for “Lindas Involved in Network Development Association,” and the description reads:
IF your first name is Linda or Lynda (pronunced L IH N-d uh), you have arrived!!! This Club is for … YOU!.!.!
I wonder if Lynda With a Y is a member?
This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, I love it and also think it’s the most pointless thing ever
I love that this episode gives us some insight into random bystanders, I often wonder how the average experience in the doctor who universe is. Also getting to explore Jackie more! I think this episode has really strong characters and relationships between them. The monster is a bit too odd for my taste though
Hey, there’s a lot worse in the world of Doctor Who.
4/10
Haha. You said “Boob” in Danish
One of the worst episodes of all time. I loathe it.
