DOCTOR 11×7 KERBLAM! Review
Turning the innocuous into the horrific has been a hallmark of Doctor Who for a long stretch of its history. From plastic mannequins and stone statues to bluetooth headsets and TVs, the franchise has tapped into our fears of new technology and haunting near-human figures. ‘Kerblam!’ presents viewers with a new fear – one very likely accompanying the things delivered to your home just in time for the holidays.
When the packing slip for a fez the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) ordered a lifetime – or two! – ago arrives with a cryptic message, Team TARDIS make their way to Kerblam’s headquarters to investigate. Quickly infiltrating the moon-sized warehouse and taking on roles as part of the 10% organic workforce, they uncover the truth of the thinly-veiled Amazon stand in’s work practices. As robot delivery men and “teammates” start to “disappear” some of the living employees, Graham (Bradley Walsh), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Yas (Mandip Gill) start to piece together that there might be some other agenda at work.
There’s a certain “ripped from the headlines” feel to plots for this series. Not that Doctor Who hasn’t had topical episodes in the past, but rather the sheer amount of them and their, dare I say, timeliness, feels like a concerted effort to be on the pulse. That this story hits American air waves just a few days after Amazon announced their split placement of a HQ in New York and Virginia is extra special. In the midst of the hubbub over tax incentives, jobs, protests over placement and more this feels downright prescient.
The episode treads a fairly fine line, critiquing faceless corporations and their dehumanizing policies, while also pointing out that it’s not the systems themselves that are wrong, but the way they are used. The world building for this warehouse is really neat: calling the robot workers who work along with – but also monitor – the humans “teammates” feels leached from modern big box stores. When a worker robot prevents Yas from talking to a colleague, it reminds one of stories about certain retailers “union busting” by enforcing rules that three or more employees talking together on the floor is banned. The group loops parallel modern employee tracking technology to the nth degree. The two human managers we see are nominally in charge, but have no power to fix the situation or even to investigate it is something many working in a dense corporate structure can read as a truism. It’s a well designed pastiche.
The Doctor shines. Her bubbling-over excitement at seeing the Kerblam! Man beam into the TARDIS is infectious. Her disappointment at being told not to climb the conveyor is palpable and adorable. Jodie Whittaker gets to play a good range in this episode. The Doctor has been somewhat of a passive force over the past few episodes, but here she’s far more active and in charge. We also start to see some of her anger as well.
This is perhaps the most balanced that the TARDIS crew have felt, each one had a contribution or part to play and each received good highlight moments. Graham has been the show stealer and he continues to thrive at the small, human moments. The “return” of Ryan’s dyspraxia as a major plot point was a good touch for this episode and gave him a light story arc in the episode. Yas finally seemed to get some equal footing in an episode not expressly focused on her. Her cop work and her intelligence getting some needed play. It’s a well-rounded episode and one that feels focused on the “crowded TARDIS” rather than selecting one featured player.
The Kerblam! Delivery Men and workers are so well designed, a great iconic look that is at once pleasant but off-putting, almost creepy. The authoritative but genial voice of the robots, the system and “Twirly” also plays well into the character of the generic, “faceless” robots. It helps to pave the way for the shift in plot later on.
The episode evokes a feeling of the classic Tom Baker-era serial “The Robots of Death” with an update on “pleasure cruiser servants gone mad.” It also feels the most like an episode from the previous two producers, something of a “traditional” Doctor Who outing. Overt references to both the Matt Smith and David Tennant years link us back to the past without feeling like homework.
In the end, I had a lot of fun with the episode. The last 15 or so minutes see a turn in the focus away from a lampoon of giant corporations to how not to strike back at the company through its customers. It plays interestingly, though it could possibly be misconstrued as pro-corporate, anti-worker. However, it’s perfectly in line with the ethos of Jodie’s Doctor – there are problems with the corporation, but causing misery to those who can’t fix it doesn’t help anyone.
Rating: 8/10
-Brian McNamara
