History Recap / DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters

[[caption-width-right:350:[[SchmuckBait Here's something for you to ponder:]] [[FridgeHorror they still have a love life.]]]]

[[BizarroEpisode The one where]] [[StylisticSuck a child made the monster,]] [[TakeThat but monkeys made the story.]]

The story relates what happens when the Doctor isn't around to fend off an alien invasion. For the first time it focuses on people on the Doctor's periphery: the ordinary people whose lives are upended by the chaos associated with the Doctor, and who usually never even get an explanation.

* {{Adorkable}}: All of LINDA are endearing Doctor fans.

* IdiotBall: The guy controls the lighting in the place by his voice, insists on not being touched with a disease he gets wrong, and people always stop coming to the group and become unable to be contacted after he talks to them in private. And nobody suspects a thing until a fortunate accident blows the guy's cover.

The one where a child made the monster, [[BizarroEpisode but monkeys made the story]].

''[Bliss groans as the Abzorbaloff sits back down on her face.]''\\

** When Elton tries to find where Bliss went on the Abzorbaloff's body, he gets a muffle...
--->'''Elton:''' I'm sorry, what was that?\\

'''Bliss:''' ''[sheepishly]'' ... I said, you don't want to know.
** When LINDA rallies to pull the Abzorbaloff apart, they all get affirmations... except from Bliss, who muffles again.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[FridgeHorror They still have a love life.]]]]

If Elton wanted the Doctor's attention, he's got it now: the TARDIS materialises near him so that Rose can chew him out for upsetting her mum. All three are just in time to see Victor Kennedy, who is now in his true form: the "Abzorbaloff" (coined by Elton — [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike and the Doctor]] — after a few much sillier names), an alien that absorbs its victims but does not consume them. Now he's out to absorb the Doctor and all his knowledge. Elton defeats the creature, but it's too late to save Ursula, or any of the other members who had been disappearing, but the Doctor can grant her a semblance of continued life as an animated lump of concrete. What's left of her is still quite beautiful, and Elton takes her home in her new form as his loving girlfriend.

'''Elton:''' Great big absorbing creature from outer space, and you're having a go at me?\\

-->'''Rose:''' You upset my mum.\\

-->'''Rose:''' You upset my mum.\\

The one where a child made the monster, [[BizarroEpisode but monkeys made the story.]]

Then Victor Kennedy shows up. The neatly-dressed man (who claims he can't be touched because of his ''"eczeeeema"'') takes over the group and begins to act as its boss, assigning members the task of following up on this lead or that lead. Some of the members don't agree, and they suddenly and mysteriously stop coming -- or, indeed, responding to ''any'' contact from other members -- but Elton is still interested in the Doctor, and stays on. Elton is given a snapshot of the Doctor in the company of an unknown blonde woman, and told to find her. He stumbles across her identity -- Rose Tyler -- fairly quickly, and Victor instructs him to ingratiate himself with Jackie Tyler, Rose's mum. Elton does so, but grows to genuinely like Jackie (who sees him as a very nice piece of ass) and is prepared to tell Victor off... until Jackie finds the photo of the Doctor and Rose, and deduces that he has been using her to get close to the Doctor. Enraged, she orders him out.

If Elton wanted the Doctor's attention, he's got it now: the TARDIS materialises near him so that Rose can chew him out for upsetting her mum. All three are just in time to see Victor Kennedy, who is now in his true form: the "Abzorbaloff" (coined by Elton -- [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike and the Doctor]] -- after a few much sillier names), an alien that absorbs its victims but does not consume them. Now he's out to absorb the Doctor and all his knowledge. Elton defeats the creature, but it's too late to save Ursula, or any of the other members who had been disappearing, but the Doctor can grant her a semblance of continued life as an animated lump of concrete. What's left of her is still quite beautiful, and Elton takes her home in her new form as his loving girlfriend.

** The victims of the Abzorbaloff end up as faces on their body, retaining their identities and consciousness... at first. Eventually, they disappear into the Abzorbaloff's body, and presumably end up in some sort of mental limbo state judging by his claim that to be absorbed is "everlasting peace."
** Ursula is turned into an immortal slab of concrete. She says it's "very peaceful". There's also the WordOfGod-influenced implication that Elton is hallucinating[=/=]wishful-thinking the situation; we never see or hear Ursula on the web-cam.

-->'''Abzorbaloff''': You stupid bast— [melts]
* DeusExMachina: Defied. While The Doctor shows up in time to save Elton, he ultimately does nothing to help and LINDA defeats the creature on their own.

* FantasticRacism: Apparently the Abzorbaloff considers the Slitheen to be 'swine'.

-->'''The Doctor:''' Sweet -- yeah. Passionate -- maybe. But don't ever mistake that for nice.

* InMediasRes: Lampshaded -- Elton deliberately starts the episode with an ActionPrologue.

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] -- Elton describes the TARDIS noise as "the most beautiful sound... ''in the world''."

* NoJustNoReaction: Elton tells the camera that he still has a love-life with Ursula (who is just a head at this point), and gets an embarrassed "let's not go into THAT" from her.

* StandaloneEpisode: This is a LowerDeckEpisode focusing on a one-shot character narrating his experiences involving the Doctor and aliens. The most notable thing about it is that it contains the first appearance of "Saxon", Series 3's ArcWord.

* StrawFan: Of the AffectionateParody variety. Specifically, the human LINDA members are nice, friendly fans who hung out and had fun, while the Abzorbaloff is the FanDumb.
* TakeThat: Fandom is divided on whether the episode is an AffectionateParody and loving tribute to the things that make fandom special, or just a huge TakeThat to its fans. The truth is it's kind of both; the 'good' fans are presented as being slightly geeky and socially awkward but fundamentally decent and good people who come together, make connections, are inspired creatively and even fall in love as a result of their fandom, whereas the 'bad' fans are humourless jobsworths who treat fandom as a joyless ritual, establishing pecking orders and sucking all the life and creativity out of the whole thing for the sake of their own ego-fulfillment. It might not be coincidental that it is sometimes suggested that the Absorbaloff is based on Ian Levine, a well-known fan who [[SmallNameBigEgo arguably represents more than a few of these negative traits]].

* UnreliableNarrator: WordOfGod is that not all of what Elton says in this episode should be taken at face value. Mostly this refers to things like the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' chase seen early in the episode, but some things about the episode make a ''lot'' more sense this way.

* WhatTheHellHero: Elton's life is crumbling around him -- the fun, harmless little group he joined has been corrupted from within, and one-by-one been subjected to a FateWorseThanDeath, including the woman he's only just realized is his dream girl, and he's completely exhausted after being chased through London by a creature that's about to do the same to him -- and Rose and the Doctor choose now, of all times, to tell him off for what, compared to what the Abzorbaloff's been doing, doesn't even register a blip on the Atrocity-o-meter. Elton points it out:

* BreatherEpisode: The episode was made as a reward for a fan who won a competition to design a villain. This is why there isn't much continuity nods, appearances of the Doctor or why the events of the episode weren't referenced by the Doctor in future episodes. The creators were completing a competition agreement and the episode shouldn't be taken as seriously as other episodes.

A silly and (mostly) drama-free episode that focuses on a minor character. "Love & Monsters" was the first example of a "Doctor-lite" episode in the new series: because the lead actors only appear for a few minutes in this episode, they're free to film another one simultaneously.

* MostWonderfulSound: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] -- Elton describes the TARDIS noise as "the most beautiful sound... ''in the world''."

* BodyHorror: The Abzorbaloff's process of absorbing people is both scary and disgusting. There's also a Creator/HarlanEllison-esque [[spoiler:pavement-person]]. Interestingly, the Abzorbaloff was designed by a 9-year-old who won a contest. Watching that episode makes one wonder if the 9-year-old was allowed to watch it.[[note]]He was, and he was disappointed. His design was for the creature to be the size of a double-decker bus.[[/note]]

* TakeThat: The episode is essentially an AffectionateParody of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' fandom. Most of the Doctor's fans are odd and eccentric, but basically sweet and decent people who just watch the show for fun. Victor, however, represents that [[FanDumb smaller but louder, toxic minority]] of the ''Doctor Who'' fandom (and fandoms in general) who ruin it for everyone by making everything a what-if scenario and demanding they take it [[SeriousBusiness too seriously.]]

* BreatherEpisode: After several intense episodes, this one is much lighter.

* TakeThat: The episode is essentially an AffectionateParody of ''Series/DoctorWho'' fandom. Most of the Doctor's fans are odd and eccentric, but basically sweet and decent people. Victor, however, represents that [[FanDumb small toxic minority]] of ''Doctor Who'' fandom (and fandoms in general) who ruin it for everyone by demanding they take it [[SeriousBusiness too seriously.]]

* AndIMustScream: Ursula is turned into an immortal slab of concrete. She says it's "very peaceful". There's also the WordOfGod-influenced implication that Elton is hallucinating[=/=]wishful-thinking the situation; we never see or hear Ursula on the web-cam.

* KarmicDeath: The Abzorbaloff is killed when all of those he's absorbed tear him apart from the inside. Then, for added irony, Elton breaks his cane, cancelling out a limitation field and causing the Abzorbaloff to be ''absorbed'' by the Earth.

The one where a child made the monster, but monkeys made the story.

The one where a child made the monster, but we were yelling YouMonster

The one where a child created the villain. [[TakeThat And monkeys did the rest.]]

The one where a child created the villain, and a team of monkeys did the rest.