Written by Pete McTighe
Directed by Jennifer Perriot
Kerblam Bot: "Delivery fulfilled. And remember, if you want it... Kerblam it!"
Anyone hoping for a week's reprieve of social commentary, well, you're not going to get it here but on the other hand, you will get a story that feels like a Doctor Who story, so that's a turn up for the books, right?
This week, the Doctor, Ryan, Yasmin and Graham end up on Kandoka's Moon as they investigate an outer space version of Amazon in the shape of Kerblam! following the Doctor getting a special delivery from one of their robots and a message calling for help.
Once our TARDIS team end up there, they're split into groups - the Doctor and Ryan are in packing with the rather bubbly Kira Arlo (Claudia Jessie) while Yasmin works with family man Dan (Lee Mack) - the latter ending up a victim of the main threat this week as Graham ends up in maintenance with a young lad named Charlie (Leo Flanagan).
Then there's the head of HR herself, Judy Maddox (Julie Hesmondhalgh) and the boss himself, Jarva Slade (Callum Dixon) and to be fair, I pegged both of them as the ones involved in the workers disappearing and assumed would be the human antagonists of the episode. Jarva in particular was definitely a clever case of misdirect as he seemed the most hostile towards the Doctor and her companions but this episode decided to surprise us with the human baddie this week.
A bit like last week with Manish, Charlie is a human antagonist willing to kill and endanger lives and pass it off as an end to justify the means. Of course his great scheming went wrong when his crush Kira became a victim of killer bubble wrap and Kerblam's own system named Twirly was trying to fight against his actions by summoning the Doctor.
Charlie also bucked the trend by being the first antagonist to actually die this series along with the other Kerblam worker bots as well. While I would've preferred not having a human baddie and an alien villain instead of sinister robots, at least Charlie seemed more conflicted compared to previous humanoid antagonists this series and the robots actually had some menace to them as well. It still doesn't disguise the fact that the show needs to up the ante with the monsters but at least an actual antagonist got a comeuppance this week.
As for the TARDIS crew, there was some great moments here as they all played individual roles in helping to figure out the main mystery and interact with the main guest stars well this week. I do think this was the strongest episode for Ryan in particular since possibly Rosa, though Graham and Yasmin weren't lacking in great moments as well.
- Bit of a Broadchurch reunion this week with Jodie Whittaker (the Doctor), Julie Hesmondhalgh (Judy Maddox) and the voice of Kerblam being Matthew Gravelle as well.
- The episode made strong references to Ryan's dyspraxia and being a warehouse worker and even alluded to Yasmin being a police officer.
- I did smile seeing the Doctor wearing a fez again along with the reference to The Unicorn And The Wasp. Plus, some more Venusian Aikido as well.
- Writer Pete McTighe will be known to some people for being responsible for popular Australian prison drama, Wentworth but he's also worked on Doctor Who content for the Season 19 DVD set as well.
- I'm pretty sure Graham isn't 310 but I did laugh at him telling Charlie that he was though.
- Chronology: Kandoka's Moon in the Kerblam factory in the near future.
Kerblam! in some ways isn't tackling anything new in terms of workforces or consumerism (Planet Of The Ood, anyone?) but it's certainly an engaging episode with some stakes attached and does well with utilising both the main and guest casts this week. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing another script from writer Pete McTighe next series, going by this one alone.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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