I've just skipped this (and Fear Her) in our rewatch. I fully subscribe to the "unreliable narrator" concept, that this is Elton telling the story from his incredibly unreliable viewpoint. From that view the bits I found very cringeworthy (the "playing together in a band" bit in the montage) for exxample, fit very well with his wish-fulfilment. Still, the monster is crap in a way even most classic Who didn't plumb (IMHO) and I think Blink got the idea of a Doctor and companion-less episode much better.