Changes: Love & Monsters (TV story)

Love & Monsters was the tenth episode of Series 2 of the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who. It was the first episode since Mission to the Unknown that focused entirely on a character other than the Doctor. It was also the only episode to be told in the first person. It included important development of the character of Jackie Tyler, the first mention of Harold Saxon and an explanation for why Torchwood could not use Rose Tyler to track the Doctor.

From a production standpoint, it included a monster created by a child for a Blue Peter competition. It was the first story in the programme's history written specifically to be recorded at the same time as another story — a process called "double banking". By minimising the appearances of the Doctor and his companion, the production team recorded fourteen episodes in the same time that it took to make thirteen. Russell T Davies was sufficiently pleased with the results that the concept — dubbed a "Doctor-lite episode" — would be a regular feature of each subsequent season.

Synopsis

An ordinary man becomes obsessed with the Doctor and Rose, and uncovers a world of living nightmares.

Plot

An awestruck young man sheepishly approaches the Doctor's TARDIS to find the Tenth Doctor and Rose tackling a Hoix in a warehouse. The Doctor asks the man if they have ever met before. He panics and runs away.

The young man, a typical Londoner by the name of Elton Pope (not to be confused with the rock singer), narrates his story via his video camera. He introduces himself and tells how, when only three or four years old, he came downstairs one night to find a strange man in his house: the Doctor. Elton was caught up in the massacre by the Autons. A year later he watched as an alien ship crashed into Big Ben. Following another alien invasion last Christmas Day, Elton looks for information on the strange goings-on and finds a photo of the Doctor, looking exactly as he did all those years ago. He meets Ursula Blake, who posted the photo on "My Invasion Blog" and believes his story about the Doctor. Ursula introduces Elton to her friends Bliss, Bridget Sinclair and Mr. Colin Skinner. they have all heard of the Doctor and meet regularly to discuss their findings. Despite the name Elton coins for them (London Investigation 'n' Detective Agency, or LINDA), they soon become more of a social group, helping each other through their problems and enjoying each other's company.

That all changes with the arrival of Victor Kennedy, an evidently wealthy gentleman who doesn't touch people because of a skin condition. He also wishes to find the Doctor. He takes over LINDA, forcing the members to work harder. Bliss vanishes. Elton tracks down the Doctor and then panics and runs away.

Love & Monsters — Elton recording to his camera

Victor is furious, but decides to change plans: they will look for Rose. Elton locates Rose's mum Jackie with surprising ease. He visits her often, supposedly to do odd jobs but really because Jackie finds him attractive. One night Jackie tries to seduce Elton, but a phone call from Rose brings her to her senses. Elton feels ashamed of using her and realises that he loves Ursula. When Jackie finds a photo of Rose in Elton's jacket she rounds on him and tells him to leave. She says bitterly that no one has any interest in her.

Elton tells Victor he's ruined LINDA and that the three remaining members are leaving, noting that Bridget has gone, just like Bliss. He asks Ursula out to dinner, but Mr. Skinner stays behind as Victor offers to help him find Bridget. Ursula forgets her phone.

When they return for it they find Mr. Skinner has disappeared and Victor has transformed into a corpulent green alien - the Abzorbaloff, as Elton calls it. The Abzorbaloff reveals he's absorbed Mr. Skinner. He is now on its belly. Bridget has been absorbed into his back. Elton asks where Bliss is. The sound of Bliss straining to say something comes from within the Abzorbaloff who takes his weight off one of his buttocks, allowing her to tell Elton, amidst the rumble of flatulence, that he doesn't want to know. The Abzorbaloff wants to find the Doctor for the ultimate feast.

Ursula grabs the Abzorbaloff's cane and threatens to beat him with it unless he returns the LINDA members to their former states. The Abzorbaloff seems genuinely terrified and begs for mercy. Ursula hesitates, which proves fatal as the Abzorbaloff grabs hold of her arm. A single touch is all that is needed for a victim to be absorbed,. Elton watches in horror as Ursula is fused into the Absorbaloff's body, her face ending up on his chest. Elton begs for Ursula to be returned, but the Abzorbaloff says that her original form is gone forever. He taunts Elton about the feelings Ursula had for him, which the Abzorbaloff now has access to. Ursula can also access the Abzorbaloff's thoughts. She yells for Elton to flee. He's next to be absorbed.

Elton runs, the creature chasing after him, until the TARDIS appears. An angry Rose has come to confront Elton about upsetting her mother, while the Doctor questions the Abzorbaloff about his home planet (which turns out to be Clom, the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius). The Abzorbaloff tells them of his scheme to lure in the Doctor to absorb him for "a delicious feast". Before he can consume Elton or the Doctor, the absorbed members of LINDA distract him. Ursula tells Elton to snap its cane. This destroys the limitation field that maintained its integrity. The Abzorbaloff dissolves into liquid and seeps into the ground along with the people absorbed by it.

The Doctor explains to the distraught Elton that on the night they first met, he was hunting a living shadow which had escaped its home dimension. He caught it, but not before it had killed Elton's mother.

Elton muses that meeting the Doctor is fraught with danger, but that he did save Elton one last time: with the sonic screwdriver, he restored Ursula partially. She now exists as a face in one of the paving stones where the Abzorbaloff had melted. The pair have found some happiness despite their ordeal, and Elton comments that he now knows the meaning of Stephen King's quote: "Salvation and damnation are the same". However he ends on a positive note, saying that the world isn't all it seems - it is better.

Cast

Elton Pope - Marc Warren
The Doctor - David Tennant
Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
Ursula Blake - Shirley Henderson
Jackie Tyler — Camille Coduri
Victor Kennedy — Peter Kay
Mr Skinner — Simon Greenall
Bridget — Moya Brady
Bliss — Kathryn Drysdale
The Hoix — Paul Kasey
Mrs Croot — Bella Emberg
Auton - Natalie Danks-Smith (uncredited; archival footage)
Elton John - Himself (uncredited; archival footage)

Crew

Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner


Written by Russell T Davies	Produced by Phil Collinson	Directed by Dan Zeff	Director of Photography Rory Taylor	Production Designer Edward Thomas	Visual Effects The Mill

Make-up Designer Sheelagh Wells	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Louise Page	Edited by Alan Levy	Special Effects Any Effects
Original theme music by Ron Grainer • With thanks to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales Abzorbaloff created by William Grantham

General production staff

Script department

Script Editor - Simon Winstone

Camera and lighting department

1st Assistant Director - Susie Liggat
2nd Assistant Director - Simon Morris
3rd Assistant Director - Sarah Davies
Continuity - Sarah Hayward
Focus Puller - Steve Rees
Grip - Dai Hopkins
Boom Operators - James Drummond, Bryn Thomas
Gaffer - Peter Chester
Best Boy - John Best
Electricians - Gavin Walters, Tony Hughes, Wayne Mansell

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Stunt Co-ordinator - Bill Davey

Casting

Casting Associate - Andy Brierley

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Visual FX Producer - Will Cohen
Visual FX Supervisor - Dave Houghton
SFX Co-ordinator - Ben Ashmore
SFX Supervisors - Paul Kelly, Mike Crowley
SFX Technicians - Danny Hargreaves, Richard Magrin
3D Artists - Nick Webber, Chris Petts
2D Artists - Sandra Roach, Russell Horth
Colourist - Mick Vincent

Sound

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

William Grantham, the creator of the Abzorbaloff, was not a professional. Instead, he was the 9-year-old winner of the 2006 Blue Peter design-a-monster competition. On the commentary which accompanied the episode, producer Phil Collinson said Grantham was disappointed with the small stature of the finished monster. He claimed Grantham said, "It was meant to be as big as a double-decker bus." Some doubt has since been cast on this story by Grantham himself. In the BBC DVD documentary, Who Peter, an older Grantham expressed no misgivings about the creature's realisation, but rather claimed to have been "stunned" because the monster had been so well-realised by Millennium FX.

References

Culture

Johnny Franzetta is a character in Colin's novel.
Jackie plays "Regresa A Mi" while she flirts with Elton.

Planets

Abzorbaloff is from Clom, the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius.

Locations

The Doctor refers to the living Shadow that killed Elton's mother as from the "Howling Halls".
LINDA used to meet under the library on Maccateer Street.
Mr Skinner found a sighting of the TARDIS in Woolwich.

Businesses

Elton once worked for the haulage company Rita Logistics.
Elton first meets Jackie in the Wash Inn laundrette.

Real world

Elton mentions that he really likes Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra.
Victory Kennedy reads a copy of The Daily Telegraph.
Elton quotes Stephen King.

Diseases and illnesses

Victory Kennedy claims to suffer from eczema.

Foods and beverages

Jackie makes Elton a cup of tea.
Jackie gives Elton a glass of wine.
Elton buys pizza to eat with Jackie.

Story notes

The working title for this episode was I Love The Doctor and was created as a comic strip.
This episode contains each of the first four series' story arcs: Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Mr. Saxon and missing planet Clom.
There are references to Rose, Aliens of London and The Christmas Invasion, with new footage showing Elton's point of view of those events.
In the episode commentary, Russell T Davies notes that in an early draft, Elton had been witness to more events in Doctor Who history: in this draft, Elton's third birthday party was evacuated because of the "Shoreditch Incident", his mother was killed by a plastic daffodil, and Elton also witnessed the Loch Ness Monster rising from the Thames. Davies had also considered making the viewpoint character of the story a woman.
This is the first attempt at a 'Doctor-lite' episode; in these episodes, the Doctor's appearances are restricted to only a few select scenes, in order to allow two episodes of the series to be filmed at the same time; this scheduling was introduced with the 2006 season in order to allow production of a 14th episode, a Christmas special, in the same time it takes to produce 13 regular episodes. This would become an annual tradition henceforth, with a "companion-lite" episode, Midnight, being introduced during the 2008 season.
Radio Times credits Peter Kay as 'Victor Kennedy/Abzorbaloff', while the on-screen credit reads 'Victor Kennedy'.

Ratings

6.7 million, 15th-highest-watched episode of any programme for the week

Myths and Rumours

The Hoix heavily resembled a Sycorax, leading it to be mistaken for one in the "next time..." trailer.
Mrs Croot could be the mother of Billy Croot, whom Jackie said had asked her out in Aliens of London.

Filming locations

Love and Monsters was written specifically to be shot mostly on location, so that another unit could be simultaneously filming another episode in studio. Consequently it has one of the highest location counts in the history of Doctor Who.

Adam Street Car Park, Cardiff — The scenes with the Doctor, Rose, Elton and the Abzorbaloff
Burnell Street, Newport — Scenes near the warehouses in the teaser
Frederick Street, The Hayes, Cardiff
Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University
Hayes Island, Cardiff — Elton in the flashback to Rose
Helen Place, Splott, Cardiff — Elton spots Jackie Tyler in the street
Heol Pentwyn, Cardiff — Elton's childhood home
Jacob's Antique Centre, West Canal Wharf, Cardiff — LINDA headquarters interiors
Llandaff Fields, Llandaff, Cardiff — Elton and Ursula's initial meeting
Maeifa Shopping Centre, Llanedeyrn, Cardiff — Elton finds Jackie shopping
Newport Docks Impounding Station, Newport — The Doctor and Rose's initial scenes with a Hoix
The Port of Cardiff, Cargo Road, Cardiff Docks — Elton finds the TARDIS in the teaser
St. David's Market, St. David's Hall, Cardiff — Elton finds Jackie shopping again
St. Peter's Sports and Social Club, Minster Road, Cardiff — scenes with "young Elton"
Wash Inn, Broadway, Splott, Cardiff — Laundry scenes with Jackie and Elton
West Canal Wharf, Cardiff — Brief sequence of Elton running from Abzorbaloff, just prior to Doctor's arrival
West Wharf Road, Cardiff — LINDA headquarters exteriors

Studio work was completed in one day at Unit Q2, Imperial Park, Imperial Way, Newport

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

Colin Skinner's voice is muffled even though he is only concealed behind a newspaper.
When Elton flashes forward to the clip of Victor Kennedy, the clip is horizontally inverted.
When Victor Kennedy makes his introduction, walking off from the elevator and introducing himself, a female crew member can be seen in the doorway behind his right shoulder as the lights come on.

Continuity

Elton was present during the events of TV: Rose, Aliens of London, and The Christmas Invasion.
Just before his demise, the Abzorbaloff angrily yells "You stupid bast..." at Elton, mirroring the Slitheen's final words of "Oh, boll..." prior to the destruction of 10 Downing Street.
Elton tells the Abzorbaloff to "Give her back to me!" regarding Ursula, the same words used by the Doctor to Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17 when she took over Rose's body in TV: New Earth
Kennedy mentions that the Bad Wolf virus affected the Torchwood files on the Doctor. The Ninth Doctor gave the Bad Wolf virus to Mickey Smith. (TV: World War Three)

Home video releases

Bbcdvd-ns-2-4 — Series 2 Volume 4 DVD Cover

Released as part of a vanilla along with The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit.
It was later released in the series 2 boxset.

@@ Line 335: / Line 335: @@
 == Story notes ==
 * The working title for this episode was ''I Love The Doctor'' and was created as a comic strip.
-* This episode contains each of the first four series' story arcs: Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Mr. Saxon and (soon to be) missing planet ([[Clom]]).
+* This episode contains each of the first four series' story arcs: Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Mr. Saxon and missing planet [[Clom]].
 * There are references to ''[[Rose (TV story)|Rose]]'', ''[[Aliens of London]]'' and ''[[The Christmas Invasion]]'', with new footage showing Elton's point of view of those events.
 * In the episode commentary, Russell T Davies notes that in an early draft, Elton had been witness to more events in ''Doctor Who'' history: in this draft, Elton's third birthday party was evacuated because of the [[Shoreditch Incident|"Shoreditch Incident]]", his mother was killed by a [[Terror of the Autons|plastic daffodil]], and Elton also witnessed [[Terror of the Zygons|the Loch Ness Monster rising from the Thames]]. Davies had also considered making the viewpoint character of the story a woman.

Tardis