My Series 11 Review: Episode 7
Kerblam!
This episode is a fun little adventure where the Doctor receives a call for help from the intergalactic postal service 'Kerblam!' and heads off with her team to investigate. The story features apparently friendly robots who increasingly appear sinister and creepy, two corporate managers whose intentions are called into question and a the TARDIS team interacting with 3 human workers while pretending to be new recruits in an under cover operation.
It is a simple story on the face of it but has layers of social comment about exploitation of workers, technology replacing humans, terrorism/radicalisation etc. It also has a twist that the robots are not the real villains and the real villain has been reprogramming robots making them kill for him. It is rather a modern twist on classic adventure Robots of Death but understandably isn't a match for that great story.
The villains motives turn out to be an intention to carry out a terrorist act which he believes is an act of necessary rebellion. It is made clear that it is the Kandokan government policies which he is rebelling against and that the Kerblam! Company and its management are not involved directly, they are just being used by the terrorist to carry out his attack. It is reminiscent in theme to RTD era stories like Planet of the Ood or The Long Game.
I do not think this is the most brilliant script or the most well executed episode of this type but it is a good effort. Not as good as Planet of the Ood in my opinion but I would rank it ahead of The Long Game.
Like most other series 11 episodes there are clumsy bits of dialogue, overly talky exposition and scenes that don't quite work such as the conveyor belt scene that I am not keen on, but it is a pretty solid, interesting and entertaining episode.
The deeper themes about terrorism/radicalisation are very serious and cannot be dealt with fully in the short amount of time given in the final scenes, especially in a family show. To jam this into a couple of expositionary scenes leads it to feel a little bit heavy handed but overall it does a decent job of making two points which are that unfair treatment of workers is wrong and that the way to deal with protests and problems is not with violence, particularly indiscriminate terrorist attack. The episode could have definitely been more cleverly structured and subtle at times but it was an admirable effort with plenty of good stuff in it.
There are very dark aspects like murder victims being liquidised and having two characters built up for us to care about who are then killed. I felt these aspects were a bit too easily glossed over.
Julie Hesmondhalgh and Lee Mack are great guest characters and this was enjoyable to watch. It had deeper themes for those who wish to consider them and was well produced. Dialogue, as with most other episodes this series, could be improved but overall the episode was decent quality I think.
Overall: 7/10.
Series 11 Episode Ranking: 6th out of 11.
Kerblam!
This episode is a fun little adventure where the Doctor receives a call for help from the intergalactic postal service 'Kerblam!' and heads off with her team to investigate. The story features apparently friendly robots who increasingly appear sinister and creepy, two corporate managers whose intentions are called into question and a the TARDIS team interacting with 3 human workers while pretending to be new recruits in an under cover operation.
It is a simple story on the face of it but has layers of social comment about exploitation of workers, technology replacing humans, terrorism/radicalisation etc. It also has a twist that the robots are not the real villains and the real villain has been reprogramming robots making them kill for him. It is rather a modern twist on classic adventure Robots of Death but understandably isn't a match for that great story.
The villains motives turn out to be an intention to carry out a terrorist act which he believes is an act of necessary rebellion. It is made clear that it is the Kandokan government policies which he is rebelling against and that the Kerblam! Company and its management are not involved directly, they are just being used by the terrorist to carry out his attack. It is reminiscent in theme to RTD era stories like Planet of the Ood or The Long Game.
I do not think this is the most brilliant script or the most well executed episode of this type but it is a good effort. Not as good as Planet of the Ood in my opinion but I would rank it ahead of The Long Game.
Like most other series 11 episodes there are clumsy bits of dialogue, overly talky exposition and scenes that don't quite work such as the conveyor belt scene that I am not keen on, but it is a pretty solid, interesting and entertaining episode.
The deeper themes about terrorism/radicalisation are very serious and cannot be dealt with fully in the short amount of time given in the final scenes, especially in a family show. To jam this into a couple of expositionary scenes leads it to feel a little bit heavy handed but overall it does a decent job of making two points which are that unfair treatment of workers is wrong and that the way to deal with protests and problems is not with violence, particularly indiscriminate terrorist attack. The episode could have definitely been more cleverly structured and subtle at times but it was an admirable effort with plenty of good stuff in it.
There are very dark aspects like murder victims being liquidised and having two characters built up for us to care about who are then killed. I felt these aspects were a bit too easily glossed over.
Julie Hesmondhalgh and Lee Mack are great guest characters and this was enjoyable to watch. It had deeper themes for those who wish to consider them and was well produced. Dialogue, as with most other episodes this series, could be improved but overall the episode was decent quality I think.
Overall: 7/10.
Series 11 Episode Ranking: 6th out of 11.