Elton Pope

Elton Pope was a transport manager who did retail logistics for a "modest little haulage company" in London. He was a fan of Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra.

Elton encountered the Tenth Doctor several times, first at the age of three or four, when he was awoken by the sound of the Doctor's TARDIS materialising. He went downstairs to find his mother dead in the corner of his lounge and the Doctor standing in the middle of the room. The Doctor said that his mother had been killed. He later explained to Elton that she had been killed by an Elemental Shade which had escaped from the Howling Halls.

After the series of alien invasions and other similar events leading up to 2007, such as the Auton invasion two years prior, the Slitheen ship destroying Big Ben, 12 months later and the Sycorax arriving on Christmas Day, Elton co-founded a group called LINDA with four others who were interested in the Doctor. He began recording a video diary in which he recalled his life up to that point and his subsequent, LINDA-related adventures. The group eventually got distracted from their original purpose and did things including novel readings, forming a band and "blubbing". In March of 2007, Victor Kennedy — in reality the Abzorbaloff — infiltrated LINDA so that, unknown to the rest of LINDA, he could absorb the Doctor. Elton tried reaching the Doctor through Jackie Tyler, the mother of the Doctor's companion, Rose Tyler. After meeting Jackie, she continually invited Elton over to her flat, ostensibly to do odd jobs like fixing fuses, but actually so that she could seduce him. When Rose rang her, Jackie came to her senses and realised what she was doing. Elton tried making up with Jackie by ordering a pizza, but Jackie discovered a photograph of Rose in his jacket. Jackie was severely upset that he was initially using her and forced Elton to leave.

Realising that he had feelings for the LINDA member Ursula Blake, Elton stormed off from Kennedy, not caring about "step 5" in finding the Doctor, but was forced to return when Ursula realised she had forgotten her mobile phone. There, he discovered Kennedy's true form, a green alien from Clom Elton dubbed "Abzorbaloff", who had absorbed all the other members, and then did the same to Ursula. After being cornered by the Abzorbaloff, the TARDIS arrived, distracting the alien. Rose told off Elton for upsetting her mum. The Abzorbaloff tried threatening Elton's life so he could take over the TARDIS, but the Doctor refused. He told Kennedy that the members of LINDA who had been absorbed would have had something to say about absorbing Elton. They pulled at the Abzorbaloff's stomach, causing him to drop his cane. Elton broke the cane, which contained a limitation field that was preventing the ground from absorbing the Abzorbaloff. Though the Doctor couldn't save the others' lives, he managed to bring back the consciousness of Ursula (as she was the Abzorbaloff's most recent victim), but stuck as a face on a paving slab. Elton became Ursula's caregiver, with the two subsequently engaging in an unusual relationship. (TV: Love & Monsters)

Behind the scenes

 * According to Russell T Davies' The Writer's Tale, in the original pitch for The Stolen Earth, Elton would have featured in the story (during the Doctor Who: Lockdown! re-watch of the episode in April 2020 RTD expanded on his by revealing that Elton would have been the creator of the Sub-Wave Network before deciding to use Harriet Jones instead). As well as that, as recorded in The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter, Russell T Davies briefly considered including Elton and Ursula among those visited by the Tenth Doctor during his farewell tour in The End of Time.
 * In a deleted scene from Love & Monsters, it was said that Elton was born in 1973.
 * Elton serves a similar function to Marc Cory in Mission to the Unknown and Sally Sparrow in Blink, in that he's a one-off guest character who serves as the protagonist of the story.