Name:
Abzorbaloff
Main Aliases:
Victor Kennedy
Species:
Abzorbalovian
Place of Origin:
Clom
Father:
Abzorbaloff
First Seen In:
TARDISode 10
Appearances:
Love & Monsters
The Timeless Children
The Genuine Article
Main Actor:
Peter Kay
Other Actors:
Dean Harris
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The “Abzorbaloff” was the name given by both the Tenth Doctor and Elton Pope to an Abzorbalovian (Monster File: Slitheen) who disguised himself as a human under the alias Victor Kennedy.
He could absorb his victims’ bodies, along with their memories and consciousnesses, into himself at a simple touch.
ORIGIN
Clom, the creature’s home planet, was the twin planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius. Despite a passing resemblance to them, he spoke of the Raxacoricofallapatorians with contempt — calling them “swine”. (Love & Monsters)
LINDA
By 2007, the Abzorbaloff lived the lifestyle of a wealthy human gentleman named Victor Kennedy. His personal items, a laptop and a briefcase, were branded VK. (Love & Monsters) When he discovered The Doctor’s picture on LINDA’s website, (TARDISode 10) Kennedy recruited them to locate The Doctor with the aid of Torchwood files that he had somehow obtained.
Feigning a common interest in this mystery figure, the Abzorbaloff picked off members of LINDA one by one, feasting on them until he could acquire his real quarry. He planned to absorb The Doctor’s memories and knowledge. He was defeated when the remnants of the absorbed members of LINDA rallied together to pull him apart from inside. When Elton Pope broke his cane, the limitation field within it was destroyed. The Abzorbaloff’s absorption ability went out of control, and his body collapsed into a gooey puddle and seeped into the ground. (Love & Monsters)
LEGACY
Two years following the Abzorbaloff’s untimely death, his father sought revenge against the Tenth Doctor, using the Krakanord to kill him. The Krakanord turned against him however, killing him on the spot with its acid blaster. (The Genuine Article)
Whilst trapped in the Matrix, the Thirteenth Doctor remembered, amongst many others, the Abzorbaloff in order to break out of the computer system. (The Timeless Children)
ABILITIES
The physical absorption process was begun by a simple touch and was irreversible. Once fused into Victor’s body, the faces of his victims would stretch out and could be seen embedded anywhere in his flesh (from his buttocks to his shoulders) and retained their identities and consciousnesses for several weeks at least. They could access the creature’s own thoughts. Even after that time, remains of their faces were still visible and one appeared to have some movement in its lips. Victor also required the use of a limitation field, disguised as part of Kennedy’s cane or the cane itself, to keep his absorption ability in check.
It would also seem that Victor possessed some kind of ability or technology that allowed him to change his appearance as he was able to take on the form of Victor Kennedy. (Love & Monsters)
BEHIND THE SCENES
The name and basic design for the Abzorbaloff came from a drawing by then nine-year-old William Grantham, an entrant to a Blue Peter competition to design a monster for Doctor Who. The on-screen Abzorbaloff remained mostly faithful to the drawing, with only a few changes. The drawing had depicted the Abzorbaloff as about the size of a building, rather than the human size it was depicted as in the episode.
Dean Harris played Victor Kennedy in TARDISode 10. Only his hands were shown. (DWMSE 14)
On wide shots of the Abzorbaloff, the human faces on the body rubber; whenever one of the faces talks, there is either a CGI render of the actor’s face over the rubber face or a close-up on it, with the actor’s actual faces in green makeup.
As part of the “Insane Invasions” feature of Doctor Who Adventures, DWA 20 humourously contemplated a scenario in which the Abzorbaloff and the Wire, while attempting to invade the same planet, tried to absorb each other in a tug of war. Ultimately, the Abzorbaloff succeeds in absorbing the Wire, resulting in his stomach sporting a television screen with the Wire’s image. In a clear reference to the Teletubbies, the Abzorbaloff exclaims “Eh-oh!” and is said to be getting his own show on CBeebies.
A occasional feature in Doctor Who children’s magazines were games which depicted the Abzorbaloff absorbing several Doctor Who characters or aliens, who were to be identified by the reader.
In DWA 9’s “TASTES LIKE CHICKEN”, the Abzorbaloff is depicted as having absorbed Captain Jack Harkness, Chloe Webber (incorrectly identified as Mickey Smith), Yvonne Hartman and “Lynda with a Y”.
In DWBIT 22’s “ABZORB-A-LOT OF MONSTERS”, the Abzorbaloff is depicted as having absorbed a Slitheen, an Ood, a Krillitane and Mrs Pakoo.
In DWA 138’s “TUMMY TROUBLE”, the Abzorbaloff is depicted as having absorbed, in addition to Ursula Blake and Colin Skinner, Luke Rattigan, the Tenth Doctor, Mercy Hartigan, Donna Noble and Sarah Jane Smith.
In Kate Gordon’s 2017 novel Twenty-five Memories of Viggo MacDuff, Jed moans to Connie Chase that the Beezus-juice “smells like the fart of an Abzorbaloff”, a reference to the scene from Love & Monsters in which the Abzorbaloff farts on Bliss’s absorbed face.
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