The Abzorbaloff is a monster designed by nine-year-old William Grantham of Colchester, Essex for a "Design a Doctor Who Monster" competition held by Blue Peter.
The competition was announced in July 2005, and received 43,920 entries. These were judged by Blue Peter editor Richard Marson, presenter Gethin Jones, Doctor Who producer Russell T Davies and Tenth Doctor David Tennant. The first prize for the competition was to have the monster appear in an episode of Doctor Who. Tennant announced the winner on Blue Peter on 17 August 2005. Conditions of the competition meant that the monster had to be able to be made from prosthetics and not require CGI.
Russell T Davies revealed on the Doctor Who Confidential episode "New World of Who" that Grantham imagined the Abzorbaloff to be the size of a double-decker bus, so was initially disappointed to see the final size of his creation. However, Grantham's design had not included size specifications (though the remains of the monster's victims on and within his body hinted at his being huge) and a larger size would not have fit the criteria of the competition unless the monster were superimposed on footage later on a larger scale. Ultimately, CGI was used for some shots of the talking faces on the Abzorbaloff.
Appearing in the episode "Love & Monsters", the Abzorbaloff, played by Peter Kay, was a creature that absorbed other living beings into his body with a simple touch. In doing so, the Abzorbaloff made his victims part of himself, adding their memories and knowledge to his own. The victims retain their identity and consciousness for at least several weeks after absorption, during which time their faces can be seen embedded in his flesh, but eventually, those too are eliminated as they are fully absorbed. During this period, however, the absorption process works both ways – in becoming part of the Abzorbaloff, they are able to access his thoughts, just as he is able to access theirs. To restrain his absorption ability, the Abzorbaloff requires the use of a "limitation field", which limits absorption to physical contact. The Abzorbaloff hails from Clom, the sister planet to Raxacoricofallapatorius, homeworld of the criminal Slitheen clan. Despite a passing resemblance to them, the Abzorbaloff spoke of the Raxacoricofallapatorians with contempt.
Seeking to absorb the Doctor and his hundreds of years of experience, the Abzorbaloff adopted a human disguise as Victor Kennedy, his limitation field generated by the ornate cane he wielded. Taking charge of "LINDA" (London Investigation 'N' Detective Agency), a small group of ordinary people who followed the exploits of the Doctor, the Abzorbaloff steadily absorbed their numbers one by one, until only Elton Pope remained. Pursuing Pope through the back streets of London, the Abzorbaloff was confronted by the Doctor, who stirred the absorbed victims to fight against the monster. Pulling the Abzorbaloff's body in different directions, the victims made him drop his cane, which Elton snapped in two, destroying the limitation field and causing the Abzorbaloff's absorption power to run out of control. His body collapsed into liquid and was itself absorbed by the Earth.
"Abzorbaloff" is not the actual name of the species, but was coined independently by Elton Pope and the Doctor. The monster was seen to approve of the term, however. Other names thrown at him by the Doctor and Elton included "Abzorbatron", "Abzorbaling", "Abzorbatrix" and "Abzorbaclon".
The Doctor Who website refers to Slitheen distant cousins by the name of "Absorvalovian Rebels" in one of Captain Jack's Monster Files.