L is for... LInDA

A group of individuals who came together through their shared fascination with the Doctor. 

A young man named Elton Pope had encountered the Doctor as a child, on the day his mother was killed, and he had become obsessed with meeting him again. He came across the blog by a woman named Ursula Blake, who was reporting on the events of Christmas Day 2006 - the Sycorax attack - and who had come upon the Doctor in Trafalgar Square.

He contacted her and she introduced him to her friends - Mr Skinner, Bridget and Bliss.

They decided to formalise their group and Elton suggested the name LInDA - "London Investigations 'n' Detective Agency". They met in the basement of a shut-down library every week.

Over time, they dwelt less on the Doctor and more on socialising, even starting their own band. Elton was inspired in this by his love of the Electric Light Orchestra. Mr Skinner was writing a noir-ish detective novel, Bliss was a budding sculptress, and Bridget revealed how she had initially travelled down to London to find her missing daughter.

One day a man named Victor Kennedy arrived, and he attempted to get them to focus on finding the Doctor once more. He put a stop to their socialising during their meetings and tried to make them more professional in their activities. One by one, the members stopped attending. Kennedy had excuses for this, but Elton and Ursula discovered that he was actually an alien Abzorbaloff, and had attacked and absorbed their friends into his body. Ursula was also absorbed but the creature was stopped when the group members joined forces to tear him apart, and he was himself absorbed into the earth.

Ursula was saved by the Doctor within a paving slab, and she continued to live with Elton.

Played by: Marc Warren (Elton), Shirley Henderson (Ursula), Simon Greenall (Mr Skinner), Moya Brady (Brigit) and Kathryn Drysdale (Bliss).

Appearances: Love & Monsters (2006).

• Russell T Davies based the group on Doctor Who fans he had encountered. Many came together through their love of the programme, but their friendship transcended it. There were a few, however, who were so obsessed that they could talk of nothing else and became annoyed when the conversation went into other areas. This was the inspiration for obsessive kill-joy Victor Kennedy. It has been claimed that one fan in particular lay behind Victor - Ian Levine, who had acted as unofficial continuity adviser for much of the JNT era.
• RTD had previously used the name in the children's magazine programme Why Don't You...?, when the 'L' had stood for 'Liverpool'.
• Elton claims to have been inspired to use 'n' by Chaka Demus 'n' Pliers - but they are actually Chaka Demus & Pliers.
• Simon Greenall was best known for his recurring role with Alan Partridge.
• Kathryn Drysdale was one of the main cast members of Two Pints of Lager..., which used to be on a constant repeat loop on BBC 3.
• Moya Brady has worked with Russell T Davies more recently - having featured in It's A Sin.
• Marc Warren was introduced as the new principal villain in The Three Musketeers when Peter Capaldi left to become the Twelfth Doctor.
• Elton was considered for a return on two occasions - as one of the 'Children of Time' in The Stolen Earth / Journey's End, and as one of those visited by the Tenth Doctor during his "farewell tour" in The End of Time Part II.