YMMV / Doctor Who S28 E10 "Love & Monsters"

• Adorkable: All of LINDA are endearing Doctor fans.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Elton Pope - despite several references to LINDA and Clom in later episodes seemingly contradicting this, it is commonly believed that Elton is insane, and is imagining the events of this episode (perhaps in order to deal with his mother's death).
  • Alternately, the events happened (mostly) as described, but Elton's mind was completely shattered after witnessing Ursula's death and he's simply talking to an empty paving slab, since only he ever sees her, while the camera recording him only sees the slab from behind (although the episode itself directly contradicts this interpretation, as Ursula is clearly heard on camera at the end of the episode just before the paving slab is revealed).
  • The funny thing is that this is a rare episode where this trope isn't so much YMMV as deliberately invoked. We know the scenes with the camera HUD overlaid actually happened. Elton filmed them, we're looking at the footage as captured. We also know that at least one of the scenes, right near the top of the episode, with the Hoix and the bucket, definitely didn't happen as broadcast because it was patently ludicrous. The cards are on the table right from the start that this is a potentially unreliable account of what actually happened, but it never quite takes a side on how much was real and how much was in Elton's head.
• Angst? What Angst?: Ursula doesn't seem too bothered by being reduced to a face on a slab of concrete.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: This is a decent story and a very personal one, and critics loved it. But most fans loathe it because it's an Out-of-Genre Experience to what the series has ever done before or since - a Lower-Deck Episode episode barely featuring the Doctor or the companion, and an allegory about obnoxious fans who don't know how to have a good time watching a show with their friends, with some really Campy Black Comedy, a controversial comedian in a fat suit, a love story between two peculiar-looking nerds that has an Esoteric Happy Ending and a quirky directorial style influenced by vlogging. The more cerebral sphere of fandom loves it, but the people who were just there for the Doctor having adventures got neither of those things.
• Base-Breaking Character: The Abzorbaloff: Hilariously absurd villain or most shameful monster in Sci-Fi history? Keep in mind that it was designed by an 8-year old for a contest hosted by the BBC, though even here some would argue that a small boy had a great idea (as according to him the creature was meant to be the size of a bus) which RTD proceeded to monumentally screw up!
• Critical Dissonance: Professional reviewers loved this episode, but the fanbase does not.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: One of the many reasons this episode is maligned. Ursula living in a slab of concrete is not seen as a cruel fate in the story, even though it's hardly any different from her being part of the Abzorbaloff's body, or the fate of Borusa back in "The Five Doctors," both of which were presented as a Fate Worse than Death. And what will happen to her when Elton grows old and dies, or if something bad happens to him, or even if their relationship turns sour or he meets someone else?
• Fanon Discontinuity: Those who dislike this episode pretend it never happened. The framing device certainly makes this easier, with some concluding that Elton is either making the whole thing up, or his mind snapped and resulted in him giving a severely messed-up account of the events. Hell, it's even implied even the show itself doesn't seem to acknowledge it, with only the Fifth Doctor mentioning them to Tenth. The only praise the episode gets is Jackie's Character Development.
• Narm: An alien that absorbs people and whose body is made up of their heads. This probably could have been genuinely scary (heck, it's only one or two steps removed from the Thing), but on an even lower than usual budget for the show, the Denser and Wackier approach that Russell T Davies often favoured, and Peter Kay's stupendously Large Ham performance, the final result isn't too scary at all.
• Special Effects Failure: The Abzorbaloff looks rather stupid when finally seen. Also, the episode starts off with a Scooby-Doo-style hallway chase which uses jump cuts to create the effect, but the jump cuts are very obvious and distracting because the water on the floor visibly moves each time.
• Squick:
  • Where did Bliss' face end up on the Abzorbaloff? You Do NOT Want to Know, shouted as the Abzorbaloff lifts his bum up and farts before he promptly sits back down.
  • Ursula's fate. Summed up best by Nash:
  Even if some life is better than none, they had to go that extra bit and inform us that our protagonist regularly sticks his dick into an immortal disembodied head! Charming!
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Diamanda Hagan suggested an alternative ending - no Doctor.
  Rather than surrender to the monster, Mister Teatime should fight back. Work out the cane is the monster's weakness and break it, losing the woman he loves in a tragic end. But also discovering that he doesn't need to meet the Doctor. In defeating an alien menace, he's just as good as the Doctor and using some random absorbing crap getting on his hand, he can feel his friends with him for the rest of his life. He can move on, or not, it's his choice. Yeah, we wouldn't have the Doctor appear, but they could have made it in a way that the Doctor's essence permeates the whole show. That his shadow metaphorically looms over everything. Kick-Ass 2 did this with Big Daddy in the first one. He's not in the film at all, but there are pictures of him, people talk about him, he influences people's decisions, he's in the film, but he's not in the film, and that's what they should have done with the Doctor here...And if you needed to have the Doctor in this episode, you could have had an epilogue years later when Elton meets up with the Doctor by chance and mentions that he saw him once when his mother died years earlier. The Doctor realises that he's not done that yet and promises that the kid version of him will be okay. And the Doctor leaves and Mister Teatime doesn't even glance back at the TARDIS as it leaves, because he doesn't need to.

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