Back in 2006, a Doctor Who episode aired called “Love and Monsters.” It follows a character named Elton as he forms a group of investigators set on figuring out who the mysterious Doctor is, grows to become good friends with them, and forms an ELO cover band with them. However, things take a turn for the worse when an evil alien threat uses them to locate the Doctor for him and start taking out the members of this group one by one.

I didn’t start watching Doctor Who until a handful of years after this episode originally came out. When I got to this episode, I found myself incredibly invested in this new character of Elton, the potential mystery behind finding out more about the Doctor, and seeing more of Jackie Tyler’s emotional journey. I enjoyed the heart behind Elton going from a loner to befriending this new group and bonding over ELO music. I overall had a lot of fun with the episode and even thought of it as one of my all time favorites from the series.

To my surprise, though, I began discovering that the “Love and Monsters” episode is pretty commonly disliked. In fact, it’s heavily considered to be one of the worst episodes Doctor Who has to offer.

There are a handful of reasons why folks aren’t too keen on this episode. One is that the Doctor is barely in it. While that’s a fair criticism, it made the story feel unique. Despite the Doctor having very little screen time, the story is about him. It was actually quite interesting to see the Doctor’s deeds and their impact from the outside looking in. Focusing on random everyday people shed some light on how much they’re impacted by his adventures as well. On top of that, there are other episodes that barely feature the Doctor that are considered some of the best of the series, like “Blink.”

Another complaint about “Love and Monsters” is that the alien antagonist is too silly. The alien, known as the Abzorbaloff, had the ability to absorb his victims’ bodies, along with their memories and consciousnesses, into himself by touching them. He’s first introduced in his human disguise so that he could bamboozle Elton and his friends. He’s menacing and proves to be a legitimate threat. That being said, he is rather silly. The alien makeup does resemble that of Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers films, he does do some gross gestures with his tongue, and overall gives off rather weird vibes.

Is the villain being silly a bad thing though? For people like myself who are fans of weird, dark, sci fi comedies like The Mighty Boosh, the villain being so bizarre and so ridiculous is actually quite fun. The Abzobaloff was also designed by a 9 year-old kid who won a competition to design a Doctor Who monster, so of course it’s silly. It’s also pretty cool that such a big-name show brought a kid’s monster design to life.

Another common criticism of the episode is that the ending, while presented as a happy one, is actually not happy at all. In fact, it’s actually rather dark. To that, I say “so what?” There are plenty of Doctor Who episodes that end somberly. The series is filled with death, goodbyes, and losses. There are, of course,a fair share of happy endings as well. There’s a pretty even mixture throughout. The ending being dark doesn’t make it bad by any means. For this particular episode, those who are lost are grieved for and those who do live celebrate their new outlooks on life. As a series, one of Doctor Who’s central themes is to celebrate life, and this fits that in a way.

The only other common complaint I see made about the episode is that people don’t like the rude or absurd humor. Obviously, everyone is allowed to have their own tastes when it comes to humor, but it’s kind of a treat for those who do like this style of comedy. Fans of South Park are sure to get a few laughs out of it. The humor also doesn’t really change the story, which actually is quite intriguing.

I think I enjoy this episode so much because it’s so different from any other episode of the series. It has its mysterious and serious moments, but it’s also incredibly goofy. By focusing on a group of never-before-seen characters trying to learn about the Doctor, the viewer finds themselves wanting to know more about him too. This wacky adventure doesn’t affect the series or the canon overall. It doesn’t change, add to, or retcon anything, and there are no plot holes created because of it. It just sort of exists to be a more “out-there” comedic episode to take a break from the high stakes of other episodes. It’s sort of similar to the handful of comedic episodes that The X-Files has, making it both unique and a lot of fun.

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