Last week, we witnessed the start of the great divide in 1940s India/Pakistan and Was introduced to more of Yaz’s family, this week however we encounter an amazon type futuristic company called ‘Kerblam!’
Spoilers ahead.
1. The little things.
We start this episode with our time team gathered around the large TARDIS console, with the Doctor trying to escape from a fast moving light, following the time vehicle. To which point, she then realizes what the thing is and lets it ‘materialize’ inside the TARDIS. As the light boards the TARDIS, it changes into a robot postman, to which the Doctor immediately knows what it is, it’s a Kerblam Robert postmen. Once the post has given her the parcel and zoomed off, she opens it and produces a fez, which is of course a throw back to the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) who loved wearing a fez. On the invoice for the fez, it says help me. The Doctor, being someone who doesn’t say no to helping out, is encouraged by Yaz, Ryan and Graham to go investigate.
This for me was great, for me a love a little interaction in the TARDIS before an adventure and if course, the Doctor wearing a fez, remembering her past self was also great, Chris Chibnall, The executive producer and head writer doesn’t want to much connection between this season and the ones that come before it but I felt that this little touch of nostalgia was needed.
2. Pick it, Pack it, Kerblam it!
We then arrive on Kerblam, a moon that has a warehouse factory built on it. The group wonder how to get in unnoticed, when Ryan states it’s like his work at home, to which point the Doctor says, they will go undercover to find out who sent the Doctor the ‘help me’ message.
On entering Kerblam, we encounter the head of Human Resources, or head of the ‘organics,’ Judy Maddox (Julie Hesmondhalgh), who is coaxed into employing our time team, with some psychic paper and sonic waving. After all the notes are filled we then bump into warehouse ‘organic’ worker Dan Cooper (Lee Mack), the team are then sent to their designated worker sections, being tagged with their section leg braces, the Doctor and Ryan are sent to parcel packing, Yaz is sent to item retrieval and Graham, poor Graham is sent to do maintenance.
I really liked the into to this episode and the way everything set itself up, the use of the psychic paper, yet another nod to previous Doctors, plus everything was straight forward. They also introduced scary postman robots that I’ll get to in part 4.
3. The sorters, the pickers and the cleaner.
After our team have been given their job roles we see the Doctor and Ryan at their station, we are introduced to another charatcer by the name of Kira (Claudia Jessie), who is another organic in the large almost completely robot work force. This is where the Doctor and Ryan start to asks questions to Kira if she has any colleagues that have gone missing or needed any help. We also see Yaz team up with Dan at the picking stations, she also asks if he has experienced any strange going on. Dan however says that he just gets on with his job, and does it for his daughter’s education. Yaz then gets a notification from the system stating she needs to pick up something in a remote part of the factory, to which Dan says that people have been going missing from that part of the warehouse so he better find the item. Yaz however follows him.
We then see Graham, being told by the robot helpers, what he has to do. He is incredibly bored until Charlie (Leo Flanagan), the only other maintenance worker, shows up and starts interacting with Graham, to his relief.
Again in case I’m repeating myself, I found this really good, we saw the Doctor do some work and confront the warehouse manager, Jarva Slade (Callum Dixon), taking him on talking about a good manager should be respectful of his workers and then the workers will be respectful back, plus the little character moments weren’t over the top and it carried the story well rather than getting in the way.
Continued below4. An autonomous future?
Throughout the beginning of this episode there is a sense of being watched, there is mostly always a robot worker or postman in the room with our characters, even when Dan and Yaz are having a new chat, a robot worker is there ready to interrupt and make sure they don’t talk and leave socializing to break time. After Dan has taken Yaz’s delivery scanner and gone to find the old item in the derelict part of the warehouse, he is confronted by a robot postman, Yaz who is following hears his screams and runs to investigate, only to find Dan’s necklace, which was given to him by his daughter and a broken scanner. She is then confronted too by more robot postmen, she runs away to find the Doctor.
We also see a break in where everyone meets each other and they talk about how bad everything is getting within the warehouse and the disappearances, including Dan, the Doctor then decides to get to the bottom of things. We also have a very sweet interaction between Charlie and Kira who clearly like each other, followed by Graham giving Charlie a pep talk, Graham is a character who is getting better and better with each episode.
This is where things start to heat up, the Doctor suspects Jarva of being behind the disappearances of staff, so the Doctor, Yaz and Ryan confront Jarva and Judy. Both of them declare their innocence which the Doctor is skeptical of so the Doctor decides to hid in a side cabinet and wait for Jarva and Judy to leave, once they have they go back to Jarva’s office to find that he has been keeping records of the disappearances, there is a massive power outage and then Judy arrives back, the tags that where put on them telling her where they are. The Doctor then gives her an ultimatum, they are there to help, that them do it.
I think Jodie Whittaker has found her Doctor now, she came across as more in control and authoritative in this episode. When they hid in the side closet, we also get another reference to the Tenth Doctor’s era with a mention of a giant wasp, which showed up in Season 4, “The Unicorn and the Wasp.”
5. The system is in need of help.
We release that what is wrong is the system itself, Kerblam is calling the Doctor for help, so Graham helps them find an old prototype of the deliver-bots and an old map of the grounds. The system has been tampered with, we then see Kira being taken by the robots. We find out that she’s been taken to the dispatch section of the warehouse, where it’s all autonomous. Ryan then takes Yaz and Charlie to go rescue Kira, this really shows Ryan’s slow, yet steady character development, taking charge, we have what I can only describe as a Toy Story 3 conveyer moment with the three until they get to the bottom, where they find Kira in an enclosed room, where she has been given a gift by Kerblam, earlier she stated she only got one gift in her life so this is a big deal for her. She opens it to find there’s only bubble wrap, she goes to squeeze it and Charlie screams, she then explodes.
We then catch up with the Doctor, Graham, Judy, and the prototype Kerblam, Yaz and Ryan tell the Doctor Kira is dead only to find the remains (slime) of the people who have disappeared, the Doctor lights up the room only to find the room is filled with thousands of deliver-bots, holding boxes with exploding bubble wrap. This is when Charlie, the maintenance man unveils it’s his exploding bubble wrap. He wants justice for the human workforce which is only ten percent of Kerblam’s workforce. He presses a button on a countdown timer for the transmitters to send the deliver-bots to their selected delivery addresses. The Doctor quickly thinks of a plan and uses a head of a deliver-bot and reroutes the delivery address for the parcels to their location.
She gives Charlie a change to retreat back to where they are as he has joined all the about to explode deliver-bots. Charlie however doesn’t move, the Doctor has no choice but to transport everyone out of the exploding radius, without Charlie who dies.
Continued belowWe then see Judy and Jarva explain to the Doctor that they will hire more people and close the warehouse for weeks as they get things back to normal. She then offers our time team roles in management, which they all gratefully decline. Heading off to the TARDIS.
Back in the TARDIS, Yaz asks the Doctor if she can take Dan’s necklace back to his daughter, which the Doctor agrees.
In conclusion, as I’ve said I really enjoyed this episode and I feel Jodie has found her Doctor, more grounded and in control, also I think Graham is a gem and he should be wrapped in protective wrap (not bubble wrap). Yaz and Ryan are becoming independent and taking control, I think this TARDIS team are shaping up to be one of the classics.
Next week we will visit the Witch Trials in “The Witchfinders.”
