Arnold
CibbuanoLove and Monsters
September 18th 2006 10:19
The Abzorbaloff
What can I say about last week's Doctor Who episode? I'm not entirely sure what to think of it... half of me enjoyed it and loved it's fun attitude and willingness to break new ground in Doctor Who, the other half of me hated it for being a tremendous pile of self-serving arsery!
This episode of the series focuses on one Elton Pope... a man obsessed with finding out who the Doctor is. He joins up with some other questing lonely people and they form a club dedicated to studying the Doctor. The club becomes their social life, until one day a strange man named Victor Kennedy shows up, demanding to use the club as a team to help him track down the elusive Doctor. It all goes kind of pear-shaped from here.
I liked the use of ELO in the soundtrack and this episode was a much-needed dose of fun after the evil-heavy two-parter 'The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit'. However, it's painfully clear that the club Elton and his friends form is a transparent representation of Doctor Who fandom... some people are probably okay with this, but I didn't really like this almost-breaking of the fourth wall. I felt that it threatened to break the magic of the show, rather than the opposite effect that the production team probably intended. Also, it sucked that the Doctor featured so little, and his actions at the end (in regards to the character Ursula) seemed a bit callous and frivolous.
The alien featured in this episode (pictured at top of page), the Abzorbaloff, was the winning design of a competition in the UK where children were invited to design a Doctor Who monster. It could've been a lot worse... but then again, it could've been a lot better. There's so much in the episode that divides my opinion on it! I can't say it's the worst episode of Doctor Who ever, as I enjoyed it a lot more than, say, 'Planet of Giants' or 'Delta and the Bannermen'. But I can't say it's the best either... I'd probably rank this among the three worst episodes of the current season of Doctor Who. I think it's just a bit too silly for me. I'd love for the production team to continue trying new ideas like this but - hey - better luck next time.
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