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"Love & Monsters" is the tenth episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC One on 17 June 2006. It was written by executive producer and lead writer Russell T Davies and directed by Dan Zeff. The episode is set in London. In the episode, a human called Elton Pope (Marc Warren) joins a group of people who have a shared interest in the alien time traveller the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and his ship the TARDIS. The group is joined and taken over by Victor Kennedy (Peter Kay), an alien who has a darker interest in the Doctor and seeks to absorb his physical body and knowledge. Due to the addition of a Christmas special in the production schedule, an episode had to be "double banked" (shot at the same time as another episode This was a production necessity because the Christmas special had increased the number of episodes to produce from 13 to 14. As such, the production was "double banked" with "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" so Tennant and Piper could film those episodes while another unit worked on "Love & Monsters". As such, executive producer and writer Russell T Davies had to come up with a story that had a good reason to keep the Doctor and Rose out. Davies described the episode, "It's an experimental script. Not so experimental that people will run away screaming from Saturday night BBC1, because you can experiment too much. People still want a bit of a monster and a bit of a thrill and a bit of the Doctor, so it still delivers as normal Doctor Who. But just as you think you know everything this programme can do, this puts a little bit of spin on it." The acronym "LINDA" was previously used on the British children's television programme Why Don't You?, which featured the "Liverpool Investigation 'N' Detective Agency". Russell T Davies worked on the series for some years. Davies wanted Elton to be a "normal guy" and not geeky with a "funny voice". Davies said of the monster, "I thought the Abzorbaloff was brilliant. It touches people, absorbs them and their face actually appears in the body — terrifying." According to producer Phil Collinson, Grantham was disappointed with the rendering of the monster because he had envisaged it being "the size of a double decker bus", The creature that Elton sees at the start of the episode is credited as the "Hoix". Davies notes in the commentary that the name was invented only after the episode was shot and a name was needed for the credits. The episode features the songs "Mr. Blue Sky", "Don't Bring Me Down", and "Turn to Stone" by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), Elton's favourite band. Overnight ratings for the UK were 6.22 million, a 38.3% audience share. Its final audience figure was 6.66 million, making it the 15th most watched programme of the week. The episode gained an Appreciation Index score of 76. This episode was released on a basic DVD together with "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" on 7 August 2006. It was then rereleased as part of the Complete Second Series boxset on 20 November 2006. "Love & Monsters" is noted for having a divided reception. Nick Setchfield of SFX rated the episode 4.5 out of 5, noting how it "finally gives Doctor Who a whole new vocabulary as a television programme." He wrote, "This may be Russell T Davies's smartest, funniest script. It's certainly the warmest, and somehow it feels like the most personal." While Setchfield was not a fan of Kay, he found his performance in this episode funny. IGN's Ahsan Haque gave the episode a score of 9.5 out of 10, particularly praising the dialogue. However, he felt that some of the sadder aspects "seemed out of place in what should have been a purely light hearted comedic episode". Slant Magazine reviewer Ross Ruediger was positive towards "Love & Monsters", saying that "there's no reason the series can't do something this quirky and beautiful when an inspired mind conjures up such a scenario." Ruediger commented on the truths of meeting other fans on the Internet and praised the depth of Jackie's character. In 2011, SFX named "Love & Monsters" as one of the best Sci Fi TV Mockumentaries, saying that it worked as an example of the genre and was not too bad on rewatch. The article noted that criticisms of the episode ranged from "Kay's overacting and the silly Slitheen esque monster to annoyance at how, well, lame the members of LINDA are." Arnold T Blumburg of Now Playing gave the episode a grade of D−. He was positive towards the first 30 minutes, which he described as a "touching little tale" with interesting characters, but called the final 10 minutes "juvenile attack on the audience's intelligence and emotions" that ruined the episode with "a laughable monster and offensive humor at exactly the wrong moment". Digital Spy's Dek Hogan criticised Kay's performance, calling the Abzorbaloff "a marvellous idea and it's a pity his creativity was absorbed by a turn from a visiting comedian". In a review of the series, Stephen Brook of The Guardian stated that he "hated" the episode, describing it as a "parody of Doctor Who fans". The scene where Elton says he and Ursula have "a bit of a love life" was criticised by some commentators, who felt that the resultant implication of having oral sex with a paving slab was unsuitable for Doctor Whos large family audience; others, however, dismissed this dialogue as a harmless joke that children would not understand. "Love & Monsters" was placed in 153rd position in Doctor Who Magazine Mighty 200 reader survey in 2009, which ranked every Doctor Who story to that point in order of preference.