Doctor Who: 10 Years Of The Tenth Doctor: Love & Monsters



It's ten years since David Tennant's first series of Doctor Who was first broadcast in the UK. To celebrate we take a look back in time...


Love & Monsters
First Broadcast on 17th June 2006. Running Time: 45 Minutes. Viewing Figures: 6.66 million.
Written By Russell T Davies.
Directed By Dan Zeff.
Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner.
David-Tennant.com Rating: 7/10




Synopsis:
An ordinary man called Elton becomes obsessed with the Doctor and Rose and their mysterious blue box. His harmless hobby suddenly plunges him into a living nightmare.

 Extras: Promotional Photos | Screen Caps | Videos | Articles




Production Notes:


The Abzorbaloff, the monster from this episode, was designed by the then 9 year old William Grantham  for a "Design a Doctor Who Monster" competition held by children's TV show Blue Peter. The winning prize was to have your monster appear in an episode of Doctor Who.
Russell T Davies cast the comedian and actor Peter Kay in the role as the Abzorbaloff after receiving a 'fan' letter from Kay praising the revival of the series.
The episode doesn't feature much of the Doctor and Rose Tyler, David Tennant and Billie Piper, as it was shot alongside The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit. This was done to accommodate the filming of the Christmas Special which had increased the series' episode count from 13 to 14.
The episode was filmed in Cardiff in locations including The Hayes, Llandaff Fields and West Canal Wharf.
Victor Kennedy is seen looking through the files of Torchwood. He looks for Rose Tyler but finds her file strangely empty as it has been corrupted by the Bad Wolf virus.
We also see our first mention of Harold Saxon, when a Daily Telegraph headline 'Saxon Leads Polls With 64%" is shown.
LINDA stands for London Investigation 'N' Detective Agency. Russell T Davies had previously used the acronym on his children's TV series Why Don't You, although the 'L' stood for Liverpool and not London then.
The creature that Elton sees with the Doctor and Rose Tyler at the start of the episode is called the Hoix. Russell T  Davies says in the commentary that the name was only chosen after the episode was shot and they needed a name for the title credits.

The working title of this episode was I Love The Doctor.


The Friends: 
Elton Pope was just 4 years old when he found his mother dead and the Doctor standing over her body. The Doctor had been trying to track a Living Shadow which had escaped the Howling Halls. The Shadow had killed Elton's mother, but Elton's memories of exactly what had happened remained blurred and confused for many years. However as Elton found himself in the same shopping centre as Jackie Tyler during the Auton invasion, saw a Slitheen ship smash through Big Ben and had his windows blown in by a passing Sycorax ship, he developed an interest in aliens. He found a blog on the internet, 'My Invasion Blog' set up by Ursula Blake to record alien invasions and joined a group of like minded people searching for the Doctor. They called themselves LINDA and before long they became close friends. Elton grew especially close to Ursula and started to fall in love with her. After LINDA was infiltrated by the Abzorbaloff, posing as Victor Kennedy, Elton was forced to track down Jackie Tyler and ingratiate himself with her to try and find out information about her daughter Rose. He pretended to have a romantic interest in Jackie and hurt her when she discovered his true motivation.
Rebelling against Victor, Elton ended up as the only surviving member of LINDA, although Ursula lived on as a face embedded in a paving slab and stayed living with Elton. 
When Elton finally meets the Doctor it gives him the closure he needs over his mother's tragic death and he is able to carry on living his life...

The Foe:
The Abzorbaloff hails from the planet Clom, twin world to Raxacoricofallapatorius. Disguised as human, Victor Kennedy, he absorbs people in to his flesh for food, whilst searching for the Doctor so he can steal his TARDIS. He carried a silver topped cla w shaped cane, which was actually a limitation-field creator that kept him compressed after he had absorbed the humans. 
When Elton Pope brole the cane, his final four victims, Ursula, Colin, Bridget and Bliss, fought back. The Abzorbaloff  died as he exploded and his remains were in turn absorbed in to the by the ground.
When the Tenth Doctor later meets up with Davros he taunts him about how many people have died trying to help him over the years and the Doctor recalls the victims of the Abzorbaloff...


Quotes:

  • The Doctor: You're not from Raxacoricofallapatorius, are you? 
  • Victor Kennedy: No, I'm not! They're swine! I spit on them! I was born on their twin planet. 
  • The Doctor: Really? What's the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius? 
  • Victor Kennedy: Clom. 

  • Rose Tyler: You upset my mum. 
  • Elton Pope: Right. Big absorbing alien over there and you're having a go at me? 
  • Rose Tyler: No one upsets my mum! 

  • Elton Pope: When you're a kid, they tell you it's 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. It's so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better. 

Facts:

  • The first of what have come to be known as 'Doctor-lite' episodes, Love & Monsters was filmed at the same time as The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit. This process is known as 'double banking'. Other 'Doctor-lite' episodes include Blink and Turn Left. 
  • As well as L.I.N.D.A., Clive Finch ran a one-man quest to find out more about the Doctor from his shed in the episode Rose. Blasts From The Past As well as a small amount of reused footage, scenes from Rose, Aliens Of London and The Christmas Invasion were restaged to include Elton Pope. 
  • Millingdale Ice Cream, a meaningless red herring website created as a spin-off from the main Doctor Who site unintentionally became part of the episode when the Art and Graphics department decided it would be fun to use the fictitious company in adverts and posters. 
  • The copy of The Daily Telegraph that the Abzorbaloff is reading has the headline "Saxon leads polls with 64 per cent" - the first mention of the Master's new alter-ego. 
  •  Clom is the sister planet of the Slitheen homeworld Raxacoricofallapatorius. 
  • The Abzorbaloff was designed by nine-year-old William Grantham for a "Design a Doctor Who Monster" competition held by Blue Peter. Apparently, he'd intended it should be the size of a bus! 
  • The Hoix, a stunning monster allegedly thrown together at the last minute by the Millennium FX team, is later seen briefly in the Torchwood episode Exit Wounds.
  • The episode originally had the working title of I Love the Doctor.  
  • The Electric Light Orchestra tracks featured in this episode are: Mr. Blue Sky, Don't Bring Me Down, and Turn to Stone.

Cast:
  • David Tennant - The Doctor
  • Billie Piper - Rose Tyler
  • Camille Coduri - Jackie Tyler
  • Peter Kay – Victor Kennedy/The Abzorbaloff
  • Marc Warren - Elton Pope
  • Shirley Henderson – Ursula Blake
  • Simon Greenall – Mr Skinner
  • Moya Brady – Bridget
  • Kathryn Drysdale – Bliss
  • Paul Kasey – The Hoix
  • Bella Emberg – Mrs Croot
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