The success of this weekend’s Doctor Who story, “Blink“, has led to a number of comparisons with last season’s “doctor-light”[1] story, “Love and Monsters“. And I really don’t know why “Love and Monsters” comes off so badly in the comparison. It’s true that “Blink” is right up there as one of the best Doctor Who stories ever, but I don’t understand why “Love and Monsters” has a reputation as one of the worst. “Love and Monsters” was one of the funniest Doctor Who stories ever. Ok, so Peter Kay overacted massively and the Azorbaloff monster was a pretty stupid idea. But that wasn’t really what the story was about. The story was about Elton and his group of misfit friends trying to track down everything they can about the Doctor.
One of the main criticisms that I remember from last year was that the Doctor wasn’t in it enough. But that same criticism can be levelled at “Blink”. And no-one seems to dislike “Blink” – so I can’t see how that criticism can be at all valid.
The cast is very strong and the writing is great. If you’re one of the deluded fools who think it’s rubbish, then I strongly recommend that you watch it again. It’s not as good as “Blink”, but it’s certainly one of my favourite episodes of the recent series of Doctor Who.
[1] A story that the Doctor only appears in briefly.