Doctor Who #1030: The Genuine Article

"For the love of monsters, what have you done?!"

TECHNICAL SPECS: Released on YouTube 14 February 2020.

IN THIS ONE... The Abzorbaloff's dad tries to get revenge on the Tenth Doctor.

REVIEW: Primitive but not unpleasant Flash animation produced for the Love & Monsters watch party, it creates a rematch between Ten and the Abzorbaloff, or rather, his son. It's mostly about verbal sparring, and Elliott Crossley is so good at doing Tennant's voice, I thought it was the genuine article. John Culshaw also does a pretty good Peter Kay too. The banter has a few good jokes and Tennish moments - about the original Abzorbaloff being self-absorbed, or the reference to the party-watched episode. But since it is a talky, the music could have been lower down in the mix. Not always easy to understand. I guess, in a way that makes it part of the RTD era. Cough, cough.

This first encounter ends in a deus ex machina as another monster, the Krakalord, comes out its cell, presumably to help Abzorbaloff Sr., but instead takes revenge on HIM. This creates a second encounter for the Doctor to solve before the awkward-looking critter makes its own bid at invading Earth. The story behind the story is that the Krakalord was the winner of a monster design competition held by the Lockdown initiative (seeing as the Abzorbaloff was ALSO a fan design). It's basically a black bug (which made me think it was the creature from Turn Left, initially) with a big orange mantis exoskeleton. I'm sure it was fun for a kid to see their design come to life even in this limited way, and I do like the idea behind it. No word on whether the Abzorbaloff's now-adult designer got mad his design STILL isn't kaiju-sized (to me, a missed opportunity - if you're gonna bring in the daddy anyway...).

At the end there, another creature makes a cameo. Is it the runner-up? I thought at first it might be one of the ones from the Troughton era (especially since that Blue Peter contest never led to a monster actually appearing in canon), but I don't think it. Another missed opportunity.

REWATCHABILITY: Medium - A fun idea to pit contest winners against one another.