My video on the issue of the BBC's support of Transphobia: ua-cam.com/video/aN4uc0HZrWE/v-deo.html Shaun's 1st video, which includes some additional confirmed information: ua-cam.com/video/b4buJMMiwcg/v-deo.html Shaun’s 2nd video, which follows how the BBC is trying to dodge accountability for all of this: ua-cam.com/video/qfjTG6SVjmQ/v-deo.html Shaun’s recent 3rd video: ua-cam.com/video/fRn1UZ4fhdE/v-deo.html Laura Kate Dale's recent protest speech outside the BBC offices: ua-cam.com/video/hBjGnWkwAjI/v-deo.html
The line about giving the workers two weeks paid leave and shutting down for a month is a great joke worthy of Robert Holmes, it's just that no one involved realised it was a joke.
Head canon: 1) Kerblam man tracking the Doctor through time and space is a parallel of tracking cookies 2) the Kerblam man being able to enter the TARDIS is because the Doctor agreed to the T&Cs without reading them.
Two more issues I have with it: 1) The ongoing pattern in series 11 of our Fam always uncritically siding with the Doctor reaches its zenith here. I thought surely Yaz, who is being characterized as the compassionate companion (especially in the final scene of this same episode) and has now seen the oppressive work environment, would have something to say against the "system that just murdered an innocent worker _isnt_ the problem" speech. Instead, she just quietly stands by while Graham, Ryan and Thirteen all verbally confirm that the crazy terrorist is in fact crazy. Any other era would have our companions call out both sides of the conflict and definitely call out the Doctor. The Doctor can often have his/her head in the clouds in these situations and the companions can be there to ground her/him. _"People have died at the hands of the system, Doctor!"_ A line like that from Yaz would do so much for this climax, even if the script ended up disagreeing with her. I don't understand how there is never a _Fires of Pompeii/Kill the Moon/Vampires of Venice/Thin Ice_ moment where the Doctor is genuinely questioned and criticised by the main cast in this entire season, especially when she is so morally inept. 2) It strikes me as odd that all these horrible work conditions are shown, questioned by the fam, defended by the guest cast using classic workplace propaganda, and then dropped. They are never mentioned again, meaning that the propaganda had the last word. The strawman villain isn't fighting for workers rights, merely for the "right to work" which in this case means more people getting exploited by the big company. This is why I do think that whether intentionally or not, this episode IS pro-Amazon in the worst way possible. The conclusion reached by the end isn't that the work environment needs improvement, but that people need jobs. And having the episode end on the promise that more people will get to work in these awful conditions for a minimum wage feels downright DYSTOPIAN. It would be right at home at the end of a Russel T Davies Torchwood story.
Yaz is a cop tho, so standing by a corrupt system that gets people killed isn't out there tbh. That being said tho, her being a cop I don't remember going anywhere and they seemed to have dropped it later on so she could adventure with the Doctor. If they did have her stand up during Kerblam they could have had a larger arc for her that does go into the police system, but seeing how this was handled I'm not sure how well an episode like that would have turned out.
I think the Doctor's excitement over the Kerblam man could have worked if they gave it some kind of backstory. Even just like, a quick, "Oh I used to love ordering things and seeing them get delivered by the Kerblam man when I was a little boy! It was like a friend popping into give me a present!" Or something. Idk lol
@@charlietownsend2826 Would it really be that surprising? Pre-Time War, Gallifrey was a known planet with a known location, so delivering to it would presumably be feasible.
@@BlueSparxLPs | It’s still made up of a bunch of hyper advanced stuck up pseudo aristocrats who are considered the most advanced beings in the universe by themselves and most civilizations who know of them and most importantly are hell bent on not interfering with the outside world or at least seeming like they aren’t because they’re above it all. And well, depending how far you’re willing to delve into lore, they also might exist outside of regular causality. At the very least, they’re not the type to allow Space Amazon to just pop up Willy Nilly on their home world to deliver archaic trinkets from lesser civilizations to a bunch of people they keep insisting should never interfere with said lesser civilizations. There’s a reason the "Sky Trenches" or whatever they were called were considered unbreachable before the Time War. If you could just have the Kerblam man pop there with god knows what in those packages, they’d have been royally screwed a long time ago.
I think it could have also worked just as well if the Doctor was amused by the novelty of it finding her! “Did you see that? This thing entered into my ship! This thing has done something the likes of Ghengis Khan and The Time Controller couldn’t even dream of, all to deliver me a parcel!” “But, Doctor, isn’t that bad? Doesn’t that mean your, uh, security system, the whole ‘impenetrable Time Machine’ bit, has a workaround you didn’t know about?” “Well, yeah, if you want to focus on the negatives, sure. Still, it’s something I can fix later and I’d much rather have a mailman than a Cyberman entering into the console room!”
@@charlietownsend2826Considering it somehow went to deliver to the Doctor in the time vortex, I'm guessing that Kerblam is supposed to be some extreme far future human corporation that can time travel, so I guess it would be possible However, I agree, I feel like the idea of the Kerblam man traveling through vast distances in time and literally being present in the Doctor's childhood would feel super weird
I will never get over them saying "Yeah, we have to have 10% human workers, who are paid for pennies, because otherwise they can't pay enough to live". And rather than the solution being "we should realize people shouldn't need to pay to live, especially when robots can do everything". Instead the solution is "oh don't worry, we'll let more people work for pennies to barely pay for their lives". Edit: lol this comment made 20 seconds before you said the same thing
If kerblam isn't framed as a good place to work then it's a bit baffling that the ending where even more people will now work for them is portrayed as a net positive.
It occurred to me that the Kerblam Man getting aboard the usually impenetrable TARDIS in a situation that should be especially impossible could, with some tweaking, be seen as a satire on Amazon asking for the keys to your house to better deliver you things.
I think the fundamental flaw is that writers didn't realize that in this setting people/worker unions wouldn't start a movement of getting 10% meaningless job for human, if anything they should push all jobs be automated so everyone don't have to work. They head stucked in our real life situation they didn't put themselves in that position.
I agree that kerblam isn't shown to be a great place to work, but it isn't shown to be inherently worse than any other future job. The workers in 42 didn't love their work but, hey, gotta work. Amazon has literally worked people to death and then made their coworkers work around their bodies. If this is an Amazon discussion they pulled their punches on Amazon and dialed up the 'insanity' and 'anti-technology' of people who oppose it.
I know this is probably accidental, but I just wanna say that when something shows the negative consequences for something doesn't mean it can't be pro thing propaganda. You can have far right propaganda that tells their soldiers to their face that they will go out there and most likely die a gruesome and horrifying death. And that's because you don't have to convince people that a thing is nice, or humane, or even that it's great at what it's trying to do. Propaganda's goal is convincing the people consuming it that the thing is necessary. It showing that working at a amazon warehouse is soul crushing and cruel doesn't mean that it is inherently against Amazon. A pro Amazon story could acknowledge that but then side step it by pointing put that the alternative is a world where on line deliveries are so much more expensive and disorganized. It can side step it by convincing people that the misery is a necessary cost for modernity.
Has there ever been another episode that has had such a fantastic opening 2/3 before bungling its ending as badly as this one? The only other one I can think of is "The Power of Three", and that one can at least be chalked up to behind-the-scenes difficulties
Maybe hell bent, which imo had a fantastic opening half ish then went downhill from the moment the doctor saves clara. and yup the power of three is so fun until Chibnall remembers he needs to actually resolve it. One of my favourite set ups to a doctor who episode tho
In retrospect its kind of a shame we didn't get some kind of follow up to Kerblam where the Doctor goes back & sees for all the promises, things didn't actually improve at the Kerblam warehouse after the incident in this episode, & in some ways got worse. like maybe some of the Kablam men replaced by "organic" employees were repurposed to "monitor" organic employees to ensure they are always working, monitoring their toilet breaks, etc. Kind of like how Planet of the Ood followed up the issues with the Ood in The Impossible Planet/Satan Pit.
Honestly given the criticisms this episode got and the fact that the writer of this episode came back for Series 12, I’m shocked they didn’t do this idea. Would’ve been a hell of a lot better than Praxeus.
Or it ended wih an offcreen change that that wasnt the problem and we follow a peson that lived there and noew they hhave automated space communism because the system too, I dont kno introdic a character from ther in a story that could talk about it casually at the side.
It was implied that the previous Sonics starting with 11's had a psychic display that anyone using the Sonic could see, I assume it took the look of holograms around the Sonic.
This is kind of the inherent problem with any form of mass media attempting to criticize capitalism, when those same media outlets are themselves also part of the capitalist system. Sure they might be able to critique the most egregious excesses of hyper capitalism, but they are rarely ever going to critique the basic foundational tenants of capitalism. That's the entire reason the Doctor says systems aren't the problem, but rather people who abuse those systems are. It's the same reason why in other stories the solution to a greedy executive is to replace them when a more beneficent one, without ever asking the question whether we even need any executives in the first place.
@@christopherbennett5858: it might be a public company, but it's finances are still tied to an otherwise capitalist economy. Also, popular shows like Doctor Who get marked elsewhere and the BBC makes money off licensing it, not to mention all the merchandising as well.
But in stories where there aren't robots who can do jobs instead like there are in this one, aren't executives necessary? Doesn't someone need to manage the company and doesn't a pre-automation setting need companies to provide jobs? I agree that capitalism sucks, but I don't see what we can replace it with as long as people still need or want things that only other people can make. Am I missing something?
@@adamdavis1648: that comes down to another question capitalist media is loath to address, the question of who should own the means of production. Under a capitalist system the answer is always an executive class to whom all the laborers are subservient. I'm probably not well versed enough to explain the full details of the alternatives, however, such system might be one in where, for example, everyone who works at a factory shares equal ownership, where there are no salaries, but rather everyone shares equally the profits for the work they contribute. Under such a system, sure there would probably need to be "executives" of sorts, to manage finances, supplies, shipping, and other assorted paperwork, but such positions would be appointed democratically by the workforce, and so held accountable by that workforce.
Relating back to my own dyspraxia - what Ryan said about taking a while to learn things physically, that represents my experience perfectly. It’s hard to do little things like that, especially with my hands but after having done it over and over, it’s no problem. I would have died on the conveyor belt however…
Aha I'm so glad someone finally said the whole contradiction of the jobs that aren't needed in this episode. Episode almost pushing a Luddite message in that sense. So weird
I think the problems arise because this episode is not primarily about capitalism or even big business. It is essentially a classic detective story. Who is the villain? It is even laid out like a classic detective story. As in any classic detective story a major clue is given very near the beginning. Why did the intelligence give the doctor the role of janitor? To put her in direct proximity to the villain. She however rejects this role (otherwise the story would soon be over). The Kerblam environment is merely smoke and mirrors to divert us from the solution to the mystery. This is why there appears to be conflicting ideas. Discussing the story's political ideas is akin to discussing train timetables in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
I like the energy and the overall idea of the episode so i can still enjoy it occasionally, but yeah…. Definitely a lot of contradictions that end up leaving me feel… muddled. I guess that’s the best word for it. Just wanted to ask…. How’s your blood pressure? During your editing rants i thought for sure that you were going to pop a blood vessel or something.
The strangest thing about how the problem being jobs aren't needed any more because everything can be automated is the Doctor actually kind of brings this up at one point, asking why people are doing jobs that could easily be done by machines. And then it gets ignored by everyone and never brought up again even by the Doctor...
Just because the framing of the work enviroment is bad doesnt mean the story is criticising it. As is, it just goes "these working conditions are bad. And theres nothing wrong with that, be thankful, more people should be working under these conditions." Throught the story there is only 1 character that criticizes the system and. Well. You broke down the "People are the problem, people like you." Line yourself.
I have been binging Doctor Who to try catch up (I fell off somewhere at the beginning of Capaldi) and your reviews is basically what has been keeping me going through this season... Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Can't wait to catch up with the rest of your take twos ☺️
I'm so glad you brought up the two weeks pay thing. When I first watched the episode, I was confused. Thinking I had misheard the line, because no one reacts to it?!? Ultimately, much like the instances with Ryan in this episode. The 13th run can be summed up predominantly by two words: Repetitive exposition. At times it is so obnoxious I think it almost sounds like pitches to Big Finish. Except it is at a level far beneath them.
Quinton Reviews has a video about Mr Peanut where mascots hide the horror of what the corporation does. The nesquick bunny not nestle the water futures company. Maybe the kerblam man is similar?
Your identification of the problem with why people need to work is spot on. You should look into the comic book series, Magnus Robot Fighter. This comic addresses the problems that arise after humans no longer need to work because robots can do all the work.
I feel like this episode would have been better with two major changes. Change 1) The Doctor was excited to see the kerblam man but quickly realized it was from a capitalistic version of kerblam. Change 2) The AI actually recognized it no longer needed capitalism at all. The first change would allow the Doctor to comment on the benefits of automation but the problems of capitalism. The second change would actually allow the AI to be a more heroic character in the story.
To anyone worked up about this episode as Vera here or me, just go watch The Sun Makers with Tom Baker. I really hope we get an episode addressing capitalism done right soon. God knows we need it.
re Kerblam delivery, it reminded me of Greatest Show in the Galaxy, in which the TARDIS couldn't even stop spambots from gaining access. And the Doctor might have passed on TARDIS access when placing the delivery.
Kerblam would have made it to be one of my all time favourite dr who episodes...But then the ending happened. And I have never loathed an episode more.
On paper the plot is well-structured and clever, including the twist that Charlie is the villain - it’s a swerve that makes sense in hindsight, note that the system was trying to put the Doctor with him and she unwittingly obstructs that because she doesn’t WANT the janitorial job. But the framing has very unfortunate implications in execution, and coupled with Kira’s death (which IS a desperation move to try and stop Charlie only to galvanise him further) contradicting the benevolence of the system… yeah.
I totally agree with u about it missing the mark on the commentary it’s trying to make cause 4 years after the episode aired I just got that the episode is actually a commentary on automating the workforce which I’m my opinion is a failure to make the commentary coherent enough for it to be understood so it doesn’t take 4 years to be understood or be taking wrongly as a defense of companies like Amazon
Just to highlight how bad this episode's understanding of economics is, if hardly anybody has jobs then who has the spare income to buy products from Kerblam in the first place? Companies like Amazon can only survive as long as it has paying customers. If for arguments sake you can get items from Kerblam without having to pay money then why would you even need a job?
Presumably the populace is racking up massive debt that’s keeping the economy afloat for now but will eventually crash in on itself. You know, same as we have.
I used to call this episode "Karb!and", probably because I tuned out before the weird confused messaging stuff happened. It's more interesting that I first thought, if just because of it's failures.
13 being initially excited about the Kerblam man made sense to me. It's true that a lot of previous Doctors have taken issue with modern technology and conveniences, but it's often for very hollow reasons. (What, exactly, is the problem with Blogging? Why, exactly, does The Doctor position themself as anti-blogging? It's just a thing that humans do and that they happened to decide that they don't like. There's no moral point to their dislike of blogging, they're just a crotchety old timelord.) 13 cast off a lot of that unnecessary negativity and was more willing to embrace the fun of a silly robot showing up to deliver a present without immediately jumping to cynicism that may or may not have been deserved. It's regrettable that they didn't allow her to bring her cynicism back once it was clearly deserved, but the initial setup of "13 loves silly human technological conveniences, actually" worked for me. It also made sense to me that the robot could enter the tardis since she, presumably, had given it access when placing the order. (Well, or 11 had...)
Has anyone else thought that Charlie's plan is kinda similar to the Unabomber's? Mailing bombs to people in an effort to halt the advancement of technology.
This episode definitely is frustrating because it has some great moments with the doctor and companions and some great energy and fun stuff, but the messaging is not properly thought through which just means it doesn't become the amazing episode it could've been
Oh how I love this review! Yes, I was also totally there for the vibe, one of the best 13th, maybe the best, as far as crazy out there Who fun & some good writing, plus nice twist. Kerblam Man was also scary cool. (Oh, Chibnall didn’t write this one? Interesting.) But, but, I was instantly pretty depressed/annoyed at the time by the complete miss re the social/moral issues. (As usual logistics bothered me way less than they generally bother you, tho your logic points are always good & well-taken 😉) Not concerned about the Doctor enjoying Kerblam, but the overall message in the end was truly truly problematic. A mess and a miss. Sadly. You are so right. Thanks for your incisive critique, as always. PS Pointless work is deadening, been there. Best money I ever made (at the time) was a long-ago paralegal job that truly made no difference to any human, ever. Godawful. Digging ditches has way more meaning to society than that stupid job did.
I'm a thirteen's era stan, but I can't with Kerblam!, I just can't. The message is too f*ck up for me not to skip it when I do a rewatch (even though Yaz has great scenes in it and I really love her character).
I thought the twist was interesting. It's an idea I want to see more of in fiction. We're deluged with stories about A.I.'s becoming advanced and eventually deciding to kill us all. I want to see more stories about wherein becoming more advanced, an A.I. becomes better able to understand humanity and becomes more empathic towards them, rather than the usual nonsense about deciding that we're all monsters and we need to die.
I can get behind the idea of what the twist is meant to be. The problem is that the show SAYS that the AI has become empathetic but that is NOT demonstrated in its actions. At all. It willingly sacrifices a completely innocent person in a last ditch attempt to change Charlie's mind, and it clearly doesn't care about the work environment that these people are in even a little bit. It only cares when somebody is taking actions that endanger the system itself. It's not empathy, it's self preservation.
I wonder if the makers of the show are looking to the future and the predicted financial issues for the BBC and this episode was the first step towards trying to get friendly with Amazon to maybe get picked up by them and getting a bigger production budget... 🤔Seems unlikely and don't see this episode helping if that was the case. Just an interesting theory.
To be fair to oxygen, I think in that scenario the last bit of capitalism that was left was the space bit. Once word gets out how bad the conditions were, they squash the last of it.
Woof. The ending of this episode is appallingly bad. I was really on board up until Charlie was revealed as the villain. The system isn’t bad, it’s individuals who take advantage of the system who are bad? Okay, but what allowed those individuals gain power? Why are corporations allowed so much power? Could it be that the system is flawed? No? The system is actually based? Lol okay. Also, so radicals (Charlie) who are trying to break down the system are the problem? I mean, granted Charlie is a terrorist, but…oh man. This is rough.
Although, Thirteen defending the system and claiming that it has a conscience is kind of foreshadowed, since earlier in the episode she says "some of my best friends are robots."
This episode HURTS me. I don't care about Amazon, I have issues with the Doctor murdering the guy. She sets the robots to blow up with him inside. "If he didn't want to die, he should have left the bombs I triggered" is kinda psychotic behavior. It also hurts me how she destroys countless objects from people around the galaxy. Why? I get it's her master plan to sabotage Kerblam with thousands of angry customers, but I'm sad about the objects. She could have disabled the robots, but she went OUT OF HER WAY to destroy countless item and kill the guy. Charlie is nuts and she sets off bombs in the room he is in. Why?. A dumb decision that only shows Chibnal's go to technique of killing off characters when he doesn't know what to do with them any more.
I honestly don't think her behavior is any harsher than the kind of thing 10 pulled on the regular where he'd give one warning and then sabotage their plan and blow everything up (see The Next Doctor, The Runaway Bride, or if you really want to see the dark side: The Family of Blood).
@@CouncilofGeeks Maybe I just have a bad case of subconscious anti-chibnal or anti13 bias. Being more harsh to them than I am to 10. I have to work on that. Sorry. I love Jodie and Chibnal is fine, but sometimes I just go ugh. Usually for really obscure things. 13's "no killing rule" is all over the place, but you're right, 10 also had similar moments.
@@HotDogTimeMachine385 I get it. It’s an easy trap to fall into, where if your overall experience isn’t great you dwell on things you’d be more forgiving of in other circumstances.
@@CouncilofGeeks Interesting point. People do have a nostalgia filter on some RTD aspects. Whether he meant 10 to be morally questionable... well yes, I think so, how well executed is debatable.
@@CouncilofGeeks I think the issue is that the show at least calls out the 10th Doctor for those actions. Here, nobody ever points it out, so it's like the show is allowing her to get away with that. Donna points out that the Doctor goes too far in the Runaway Bride, and the framing of The Family of Blood is suitably tragic so as to give weight to the terrible punishment the Doctor metes out. Here, everyone just leaves on their merry way, completely happy, with no attention drawn to what she did. The issue isn't necessarily the moral ambiguity; it's more so that the ambiguity is caused by bad writing rather than actual intention accompanied by commentary. That said, the 10th Doctor did get on my nerves sometimes with his "Angelic Savior" Complex. When I heard things like "I'm the ultimate authority. It stops with me" and "He's like ice and fire", I'd always roll my eyes. The 10th Doctor's run was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but at least RTD didn't overlook such blatant moral inconsistencies the way Chibnall has been doing.
I tend to judge dr who eps based on the monsters. The kerblam men had weeping angel and Vasta Narada energy and i was totally there for it. And as I recalled, The Doc let the bot in. Also... who said bots can't have vortex manipulators built in.
i think the issue is that kerblam wasn't criticizing capitalism in the first place? it felt more like it was criticizing unions and protests movements, aggressive or not, rather than actual issues with big corporations to sum things up, it was taking a "liberal" approach, not a "socialist" approach as it did in the past, with for instance, oxygen.
A sequel which had explored the world of Kandoka or followed up on some of the issues, similar to Long Game and Bad Wolf, may have helped, but without it the ending let's Kerblam down.
Never warmed to this episode: the ending is horrendous, the deaths felt cheap, the script is all over the place and worst of all the Doctor comes over as naive and plain stupid (I can see why people gave up on the series!). It's a terrible waste of a great idea (ghost in the capitalist machine).
It's possible that the reason for the Kerblam! Man's ability to both follow and enter the TARDIS is due to the fact the Master had already destroyed Gallifrey at this point, leaving other time travel possibilities for others. Interestingly, Lee Mack's Dan wouldn't have been considered on borrowed time by most UK viewers, as he's a popular comedian and actor, most famous for the sitcom Not Going Out, but also for his appearances on panel shows like QI, 8 Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown and, most prominently, Would I Lie to You? In short, his character's death would have been a bit of a shock; it certainly was to me. On the subject "the system", I feel it stems from the philosophy that an idea isn't responsible for those who hold it. As such, the system is being abused by those who control it, either consciously or otherwise. A corollary of that is Charlie's campaign of destruction. He and he alone is responsible for the idea he holds. If anything, his needless sacrifice at the end demonstrates his, as you say, strawman position. In conclusion, Kerblam! strikes me as being as anti-capitalist as Oxygen, but using more recognisable ideas than paying for the air that you breathe. It's also my least-favourite of the Series 11 episodes, precisely because it feels like something we've had before; it's a bit too Doctor Who-y, if that makes sense.
You pretty much summed up how I felt about the episode after I watched it a second time, yeah. I think the premise and beginning of the episode have a lot of potential for a fun story and have an opportunity to really say something meaningful. It feels less like a malicious intent to demonize the lower working class in the face of oppressive capitalism, and more like a social / economic reform story that they wrote the setup for, then kinda stopped thinking about what the message they wanted to get across actually was. It feels like maybe the crew had too much fun fleshing out the setting (if there is such thing as "too fun" worldbuilding), and didn't dedicate much attention to the dynamic of oppressor vs. oppressed, as well as missing the opportunity to make an insightful point about automation. Took er jerbs, them Kerblam Men did.
Ok i think its a good episode but even charlie could havge worked, if you still make the management antagonistic and complicit in the oppressive conditions. Still do, make her ambivalent if it has to be, but not good. Also charlies motivation. His enemy should never have been any worker cause, but paranoia because of AIs an the kablam system. The robots, h just really is nuts about robot. That people exist. And its not an accidental stawman.
@@CouncilofGeeks my bpd-ish brain gets pretty stressed trying to process the statement in question, but thx for responding all the same. It's helpful to understand where u r coming from when u say that.
By this time in the 11th season, I was just hoping for an episode that would remind me why I like the show in the first place. And "Kerblam!" fit the bill for me. Very good use of the companions, interesting story, some really funny moments. If the story is a little wonky, so be it. I enjoyed it because it was fun.
*The systems aren't the problem. How people use and exploit the system, that's the problem.* That was an 'Aha' moment of what the episode was trying to get at (I have that quote as a screensaver along with many quotes that I made). the Kerblam man is not the only thing that appeared in the TARDIS. I remember an advertisement robot like the Kerblam man in The Greatest Show In The Galaxy, although if it was in space or the time vortex is unknown.
In this video you seem very anti-capitalist (or at the very least critical of capitalism in its current form), the reason I bring that up is beacuse I remember an older video of yours where you call yourself a capitalist. Have you changed your mind on capitalism? If so, what made you do it?
Why does The Doctor liking a mascot = liking the company it’s a mascot for for so many people? I’m not a fan of Energizer (I have no feelings about the company at all; couldn’t even tell you if they’re still in business off the top of my head), but if a giant Energizer Bunny showed up at my door I’d probably get a kick out of it out of sheer nostalgia, if nothing else. I get hating Amazon and capitalism generally, but the mascot is a mascot, and like VW said: it’s a good design.
I am a massive of Lee Mack so I am always going to be a fan of the episode and the fact I don't watch shows to overanalyse every single thing that happens in an episode
My video on the issue of the BBC's support of Transphobia: ua-cam.com/video/aN4uc0HZrWE/v-deo.html
Shaun's 1st video, which includes some additional confirmed information: ua-cam.com/video/b4buJMMiwcg/v-deo.html
Shaun’s 2nd video, which follows how the BBC is trying to dodge accountability for all of this: ua-cam.com/video/qfjTG6SVjmQ/v-deo.html
Shaun’s recent 3rd video: ua-cam.com/video/fRn1UZ4fhdE/v-deo.html
Laura Kate Dale's recent protest speech outside the BBC offices: ua-cam.com/video/hBjGnWkwAjI/v-deo.html
The line about giving the workers two weeks paid leave and shutting down for a month is a great joke worthy of Robert Holmes, it's just that no one involved realised it was a joke.
Head canon:
1) Kerblam man tracking the Doctor through time and space is a parallel of tracking cookies
2) the Kerblam man being able to enter the TARDIS is because the Doctor agreed to the T&Cs without reading them.
Or maybe the TARDIS let it in because she knew it wasn't a threat or knew it needed help
"The Doctor agreed to the T&Cs without reading them" is so in character I love it!
The Doctor threw the T&C into a supernova after disagreeing with them.
Two more issues I have with it:
1) The ongoing pattern in series 11 of our Fam always uncritically siding with the Doctor reaches its zenith here. I thought surely Yaz, who is being characterized as the compassionate companion (especially in the final scene of this same episode) and has now seen the oppressive work environment, would have something to say against the "system that just murdered an innocent worker _isnt_ the problem" speech. Instead, she just quietly stands by while Graham, Ryan and Thirteen all verbally confirm that the crazy terrorist is in fact crazy.
Any other era would have our companions call out both sides of the conflict and definitely call out the Doctor. The Doctor can often have his/her head in the clouds in these situations and the companions can be there to ground her/him.
_"People have died at the hands of the system, Doctor!"_ A line like that from Yaz would do so much for this climax, even if the script ended up disagreeing with her. I don't understand how there is never a _Fires of Pompeii/Kill the Moon/Vampires of Venice/Thin Ice_ moment where the Doctor is genuinely questioned and criticised by the main cast in this entire season, especially when she is so morally inept.
2) It strikes me as odd that all these horrible work conditions are shown, questioned by the fam, defended by the guest cast using classic workplace propaganda, and then dropped. They are never mentioned again, meaning that the propaganda had the last word. The strawman villain isn't fighting for workers rights, merely for the "right to work" which in this case means more people getting exploited by the big company. This is why I do think that whether intentionally or not, this episode IS pro-Amazon in the worst way possible.
The conclusion reached by the end isn't that the work environment needs improvement, but that people need jobs. And having the episode end on the promise that more people will get to work in these awful conditions for a minimum wage feels downright DYSTOPIAN. It would be right at home at the end of a Russel T Davies Torchwood story.
What's the thing about Torchwood ? (I never watched it, is it any good ?)
Yaz is a cop tho, so standing by a corrupt system that gets people killed isn't out there tbh. That being said tho, her being a cop I don't remember going anywhere and they seemed to have dropped it later on so she could adventure with the Doctor. If they did have her stand up during Kerblam they could have had a larger arc for her that does go into the police system, but seeing how this was handled I'm not sure how well an episode like that would have turned out.
I think the Doctor's excitement over the Kerblam man could have worked if they gave it some kind of backstory. Even just like, a quick, "Oh I used to love ordering things and seeing them get delivered by the Kerblam man when I was a little boy! It was like a friend popping into give me a present!" Or something. Idk lol
The Kerblam man managing to pop inside the TARDIS was weird enough, some backstory having it pop up on Gallifrey somehow would be insane lmao
@@charlietownsend2826 Would it really be that surprising? Pre-Time War, Gallifrey was a known planet with a known location, so delivering to it would presumably be feasible.
@@BlueSparxLPs | It’s still made up of a bunch of hyper advanced stuck up pseudo aristocrats who are considered the most advanced beings in the universe by themselves and most civilizations who know of them and most importantly are hell bent on not interfering with the outside world or at least seeming like they aren’t because they’re above it all.
And well, depending how far you’re willing to delve into lore, they also might exist outside of regular causality.
At the very least, they’re not the type to allow Space Amazon to just pop up Willy Nilly on their home world to deliver archaic trinkets from lesser civilizations to a bunch of people they keep insisting should never interfere with said lesser civilizations.
There’s a reason the "Sky Trenches" or whatever they were called were considered unbreachable before the Time War. If you could just have the Kerblam man pop there with god knows what in those packages, they’d have been royally screwed a long time ago.
I think it could have also worked just as well if the Doctor was amused by the novelty of it finding her!
“Did you see that? This thing entered into my ship! This thing has done something the likes of Ghengis Khan and The Time Controller couldn’t even dream of, all to deliver me a parcel!”
“But, Doctor, isn’t that bad? Doesn’t that mean your, uh, security system, the whole ‘impenetrable Time Machine’ bit, has a workaround you didn’t know about?”
“Well, yeah, if you want to focus on the negatives, sure. Still, it’s something I can fix later and I’d much rather have a mailman than a Cyberman entering into the console room!”
@@charlietownsend2826Considering it somehow went to deliver to the Doctor in the time vortex, I'm guessing that Kerblam is supposed to be some extreme far future human corporation that can time travel, so I guess it would be possible
However, I agree, I feel like the idea of the Kerblam man traveling through vast distances in time and literally being present in the Doctor's childhood would feel super weird
I will never get over them saying "Yeah, we have to have 10% human workers, who are paid for pennies, because otherwise they can't pay enough to live". And rather than the solution being "we should realize people shouldn't need to pay to live, especially when robots can do everything". Instead the solution is "oh don't worry, we'll let more people work for pennies to barely pay for their lives".
Edit: lol this comment made 20 seconds before you said the same thing
Remember when capaldi said fu k the bourgeoisie
If kerblam isn't framed as a good place to work then it's a bit baffling that the ending where even more people will now work for them is portrayed as a net positive.
It occurred to me that the Kerblam Man getting aboard the usually impenetrable TARDIS in a situation that should be especially impossible could, with some tweaking, be seen as a satire on Amazon asking for the keys to your house to better deliver you things.
I think the fundamental flaw is that writers didn't realize that in this setting people/worker unions wouldn't start a movement of getting 10% meaningless job for human, if anything they should push all jobs be automated so everyone don't have to work. They head stucked in our real life situation they didn't put themselves in that position.
I don’t know if Chibnall actually disagrees fully with the politics he’s was trying to be critical of
I agree that kerblam isn't shown to be a great place to work, but it isn't shown to be inherently worse than any other future job. The workers in 42 didn't love their work but, hey, gotta work.
Amazon has literally worked people to death and then made their coworkers work around their bodies. If this is an Amazon discussion they pulled their punches on Amazon and dialed up the 'insanity' and 'anti-technology' of people who oppose it.
I know this is probably accidental, but I just wanna say that when something shows the negative consequences for something doesn't mean it can't be pro thing propaganda. You can have far right propaganda that tells their soldiers to their face that they will go out there and most likely die a gruesome and horrifying death. And that's because you don't have to convince people that a thing is nice, or humane, or even that it's great at what it's trying to do. Propaganda's goal is convincing the people consuming it that the thing is necessary.
It showing that working at a amazon warehouse is soul crushing and cruel doesn't mean that it is inherently against Amazon. A pro Amazon story could acknowledge that but then side step it by pointing put that the alternative is a world where on line deliveries are so much more expensive and disorganized. It can side step it by convincing people that the misery is a necessary cost for modernity.
Has there ever been another episode that has had such a fantastic opening 2/3 before bungling its ending as badly as this one? The only other one I can think of is "The Power of Three", and that one can at least be chalked up to behind-the-scenes difficulties
Maybe hell bent, which imo had a fantastic opening half ish then went downhill from the moment the doctor saves clara.
and yup the power of three is so fun until Chibnall remembers he needs to actually resolve it. One of my favourite set ups to a doctor who episode tho
Multi part stories are kind of cheating, but I'd say the series 5 finale would be exactly that. Or maybe the Weeping Angels 2 parter
In retrospect its kind of a shame we didn't get some kind of follow up to Kerblam where the Doctor goes back & sees for all the promises, things didn't actually improve at the Kerblam warehouse after the incident in this episode, & in some ways got worse. like maybe some of the Kablam men replaced by "organic" employees were repurposed to "monitor" organic employees to ensure they are always working, monitoring their toilet breaks, etc. Kind of like how Planet of the Ood followed up the issues with the Ood in The Impossible Planet/Satan Pit.
Honestly given the criticisms this episode got and the fact that the writer of this episode came back for Series 12, I’m shocked they didn’t do this idea. Would’ve been a hell of a lot better than Praxeus.
Or it ended wih an offcreen change that that wasnt the problem and we follow a peson that lived there and noew they hhave automated space communism because the system too,
I dont kno introdic a character from ther in a story that could talk about it casually at the side.
One detail I like with Whitaker's sonic is that it actually has a display on it that the Doctor looks at when she uses it.
It was implied that the previous Sonics starting with 11's had a psychic display that anyone using the Sonic could see, I assume it took the look of holograms around the Sonic.
This is kind of the inherent problem with any form of mass media attempting to criticize capitalism, when those same media outlets are themselves also part of the capitalist system.
Sure they might be able to critique the most egregious excesses of hyper capitalism, but they are rarely ever going to critique the basic foundational tenants of capitalism. That's the entire reason the Doctor says systems aren't the problem, but rather people who abuse those systems are. It's the same reason why in other stories the solution to a greedy executive is to replace them when a more beneficent one, without ever asking the question whether we even need any executives in the first place.
@@christopherbennett5858: it might be a public company, but it's finances are still tied to an otherwise capitalist economy. Also, popular shows like Doctor Who get marked elsewhere and the BBC makes money off licensing it, not to mention all the merchandising as well.
But in stories where there aren't robots who can do jobs instead like there are in this one, aren't executives necessary? Doesn't someone need to manage the company and doesn't a pre-automation setting need companies to provide jobs?
I agree that capitalism sucks, but I don't see what we can replace it with as long as people still need or want things that only other people can make. Am I missing something?
@@adamdavis1648: that comes down to another question capitalist media is loath to address, the question of who should own the means of production. Under a capitalist system the answer is always an executive class to whom all the laborers are subservient.
I'm probably not well versed enough to explain the full details of the alternatives, however, such system might be one in where, for example, everyone who works at a factory shares equal ownership, where there are no salaries, but rather everyone shares equally the profits for the work they contribute. Under such a system, sure there would probably need to be "executives" of sorts, to manage finances, supplies, shipping, and other assorted paperwork, but such positions would be appointed democratically by the workforce, and so held accountable by that workforce.
@@EmeralBookwise That's a pretty well thought out answer.
@@adamdavis1648 yes you're missing a whole lot. Neither executives nor capitalism are necessary to make things, that doesn't even make any sense.
Relating back to my own dyspraxia - what Ryan said about taking a while to learn things physically, that represents my experience perfectly. It’s hard to do little things like that, especially with my hands but after having done it over and over, it’s no problem.
I would have died on the conveyor belt however…
The entire season is liberal politics written by people who don’t understand liberal politics
chibnall’s neo-liberalism was really showing in this episode.
Aha I'm so glad someone finally said the whole contradiction of the jobs that aren't needed in this episode. Episode almost pushing a Luddite message in that sense. So weird
I kinda liked this ep when it first aired, then I rewatched it and the "oh NO" hit.
I think the problems arise because this episode is not primarily about capitalism or even big business. It is essentially a classic detective story. Who is the villain? It is even laid out like a classic detective story. As in any classic detective story a major clue is given very near the beginning. Why did the intelligence give the doctor the role of janitor? To put her in direct proximity to the villain. She however rejects this role (otherwise the story would soon be over). The Kerblam environment is merely smoke and mirrors to divert us from the solution to the mystery. This is why there appears to be conflicting ideas. Discussing the story's political ideas is akin to discussing train timetables in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
I like the energy and the overall idea of the episode so i can still enjoy it occasionally, but yeah…. Definitely a lot of contradictions that end up leaving me feel… muddled. I guess that’s the best word for it. Just wanted to ask…. How’s your blood pressure? During your editing rants i thought for sure that you were going to pop a blood vessel or something.
The strangest thing about how the problem being jobs aren't needed any more because everything can be automated is the Doctor actually kind of brings this up at one point, asking why people are doing jobs that could easily be done by machines. And then it gets ignored by everyone and never brought up again even by the Doctor...
Regardless of the Doctor's past attitudes toward capitalism, it REALLY seems out of character to have her so enthusiastic about a corporate mascot.
Just because the framing of the work enviroment is bad doesnt mean the story is criticising it.
As is, it just goes "these working conditions are bad. And theres nothing wrong with that, be thankful, more people should be working under these conditions."
Throught the story there is only 1 character that criticizes the system and. Well. You broke down the "People are the problem, people like you." Line yourself.
I have been binging Doctor Who to try catch up (I fell off somewhere at the beginning of Capaldi) and your reviews is basically what has been keeping me going through this season... Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Can't wait to catch up with the rest of your take twos ☺️
I'm so glad you brought up the two weeks pay thing. When I first watched the episode, I was confused. Thinking I had misheard the line, because no one reacts to it?!?
Ultimately, much like the instances with Ryan in this episode. The 13th run can be summed up predominantly by two words: Repetitive exposition. At times it is so obnoxious I think it almost sounds like pitches to Big Finish. Except it is at a level far beneath them.
Quinton Reviews has a video about Mr Peanut where mascots hide the horror of what the corporation does. The nesquick bunny not nestle the water futures company. Maybe the kerblam man is similar?
So, uh, was anyone else weirded out when they spotted the Kerblam Man Funko Pop staring at us the whole time?
And I just realized that's the joke at the beginning because I am smart and observant. 🤦
Your identification of the problem with why people need to work is spot on. You should look into the comic book series, Magnus Robot Fighter. This comic addresses the problems that arise after humans no longer need to work because robots can do all the work.
I feel like this episode would have been better with two major changes. Change 1) The Doctor was excited to see the kerblam man but quickly realized it was from a capitalistic version of kerblam. Change 2) The AI actually recognized it no longer needed capitalism at all. The first change would allow the Doctor to comment on the benefits of automation but the problems of capitalism. The second change would actually allow the AI to be a more heroic character in the story.
She actually says "If you want it, Kerblam it" after killing Charlie with a kaboom, so to say.
To anyone worked up about this episode as Vera here or me, just go watch The Sun Makers with Tom Baker. I really hope we get an episode addressing capitalism done right soon. God knows we need it.
I wish it wasn't apparently impossible to find somewhere to watch classic Doctor Who so I could take your suggestion.
@@DavidRYates-tk2tqMost of Classic Who is on BBC Iplayer (and if you live outside of the UK, you can use a VPN to access it).
re Kerblam delivery, it reminded me of Greatest Show in the Galaxy, in which the TARDIS couldn't even stop spambots from gaining access. And the Doctor might have passed on TARDIS access when placing the delivery.
Kerblam would have made it to be one of my all time favourite dr who episodes...But then the ending happened. And I have never loathed an episode more.
I have a particular disdain for it as well. It's my _Kill the Moon,_ if you will.
Chris Chibnall wasn’t criticizing capitalism
He likes capitalism
On paper the plot is well-structured and clever, including the twist that Charlie is the villain - it’s a swerve that makes sense in hindsight, note that the system was trying to put the Doctor with him and she unwittingly obstructs that because she doesn’t WANT the janitorial job. But the framing has very unfortunate implications in execution, and coupled with Kira’s death (which IS a desperation move to try and stop Charlie only to galvanise him further) contradicting the benevolence of the system… yeah.
It was good right up till the end screwd it up, which is real shame.
I really like the Kerblam company jingle. That was something that always stuck with me lol.
I totally agree with u about it missing the mark on the commentary it’s trying to make cause 4 years after the episode aired I just got that the episode is actually a commentary on automating the workforce which I’m my opinion is a failure to make the commentary coherent enough for it to be understood so it doesn’t take 4 years to be understood or be taking wrongly as a defense of companies like Amazon
Just to highlight how bad this episode's understanding of economics is, if hardly anybody has jobs then who has the spare income to buy products from Kerblam in the first place? Companies like Amazon can only survive as long as it has paying customers. If for arguments sake you can get items from Kerblam without having to pay money then why would you even need a job?
Presumably the populace is racking up massive debt that’s keeping the economy afloat for now but will eventually crash in on itself. You know, same as we have.
I used to call this episode "Karb!and", probably because I tuned out before the weird confused messaging stuff happened. It's more interesting that I first thought, if just because of it's failures.
This episode is a libertarian fever dream. Full of big ideas, with no grounding in reality.
It almost seemed odd that they cast comedian Lee Mack
The system allocated The Doctor to work alongside Charlie because it knew he was the villain, and then The Doctor went and messed it all up.
Oh jeez you’re right! I didn’t even realize that.
The Advertising Robot in the Greatest Show in the Galaxy did exactly the same thing as the Kerblam Man so I think it was a call back to that.
Thank you for this video! you sum up all of my frustrations and problems with this episode!
I forgot this episode existed
13 being initially excited about the Kerblam man made sense to me. It's true that a lot of previous Doctors have taken issue with modern technology and conveniences, but it's often for very hollow reasons. (What, exactly, is the problem with Blogging? Why, exactly, does The Doctor position themself as anti-blogging? It's just a thing that humans do and that they happened to decide that they don't like. There's no moral point to their dislike of blogging, they're just a crotchety old timelord.) 13 cast off a lot of that unnecessary negativity and was more willing to embrace the fun of a silly robot showing up to deliver a present without immediately jumping to cynicism that may or may not have been deserved. It's regrettable that they didn't allow her to bring her cynicism back once it was clearly deserved, but the initial setup of "13 loves silly human technological conveniences, actually" worked for me. It also made sense to me that the robot could enter the tardis since she, presumably, had given it access when placing the order. (Well, or 11 had...)
Lol UA-cam stuck an ad for Amazon in the middle of the video and for a second I thought Vera was doing a bit
Unintentional self-own on the part of Amazon.
you’re absolutely right. based opinion.
Has anyone else thought that Charlie's plan is kinda similar to the Unabomber's? Mailing bombs to people in an effort to halt the advancement of technology.
This episode definitely is frustrating because it has some great moments with the doctor and companions and some great energy and fun stuff, but the messaging is not properly thought through which just means it doesn't become the amazing episode it could've been
Oh how I love this review! Yes, I was also totally there for the vibe, one of the best 13th, maybe the best, as far as crazy out there Who fun & some good writing, plus nice twist. Kerblam Man was also scary cool. (Oh, Chibnall didn’t write this one? Interesting.) But, but, I was instantly pretty depressed/annoyed at the time by the complete miss re the social/moral issues. (As usual logistics bothered me way less than they generally bother you, tho your logic points are always good & well-taken 😉) Not concerned about the Doctor enjoying Kerblam, but the overall message in the end was truly truly problematic. A mess and a miss. Sadly. You are so right. Thanks for your incisive critique, as always. PS Pointless work is deadening, been there. Best money I ever made (at the time) was a long-ago paralegal job that truly made no difference to any human, ever. Godawful. Digging ditches has way more meaning to society than that stupid job did.
I'm a thirteen's era stan, but I can't with Kerblam!, I just can't. The message is too f*ck up for me not to skip it when I do a rewatch (even though Yaz has great scenes in it and I really love her character).
I thought the twist was interesting. It's an idea I want to see more of in fiction. We're deluged with stories about A.I.'s becoming advanced and eventually deciding to kill us all. I want to see more stories about wherein becoming more advanced, an A.I. becomes better able to understand humanity and becomes more empathic towards them, rather than the usual nonsense about deciding that we're all monsters and we need to die.
I can get behind the idea of what the twist is meant to be. The problem is that the show SAYS that the AI has become empathetic but that is NOT demonstrated in its actions. At all. It willingly sacrifices a completely innocent person in a last ditch attempt to change Charlie's mind, and it clearly doesn't care about the work environment that these people are in even a little bit. It only cares when somebody is taking actions that endanger the system itself. It's not empathy, it's self preservation.
I wonder if the makers of the show are looking to the future and the predicted financial issues for the BBC and this episode was the first step towards trying to get friendly with Amazon to maybe get picked up by them and getting a bigger production budget... 🤔Seems unlikely and don't see this episode helping if that was the case. Just an interesting theory.
Lmao - I never noticed the a month off work with 2 weeks paid leave before - yikers.
To be fair to oxygen, I think in that scenario the last bit of capitalism that was left was the space bit. Once word gets out how bad the conditions were, they squash the last of it.
Woof. The ending of this episode is appallingly bad. I was really on board up until Charlie was revealed as the villain. The system isn’t bad, it’s individuals who take advantage of the system who are bad? Okay, but what allowed those individuals gain power? Why are corporations allowed so much power? Could it be that the system is flawed? No? The system is actually based? Lol okay. Also, so radicals (Charlie) who are trying to break down the system are the problem? I mean, granted Charlie is a terrorist, but…oh man. This is rough.
Although, Thirteen defending the system and claiming that it has a conscience is kind of foreshadowed, since earlier in the episode she says "some of my best friends are robots."
I thought that line was just a reference to the robot companions from Classic Who...
@@Jedi_Spartan Yes well the Doctor is also friends with a hi-tech screwdriver and they talk to doors.
The Doctor wouldn't have ordered a fez. The Doctor would have simply picked up (stolen) a fez.
This episode HURTS me. I don't care about Amazon, I have issues with the Doctor murdering the guy. She sets the robots to blow up with him inside. "If he didn't want to die, he should have left the bombs I triggered" is kinda psychotic behavior.
It also hurts me how she destroys countless objects from people around the galaxy. Why? I get it's her master plan to sabotage Kerblam with thousands of angry customers, but I'm sad about the objects.
She could have disabled the robots, but she went OUT OF HER WAY to destroy countless item and kill the guy. Charlie is nuts and she sets off bombs in the room he is in. Why?. A dumb decision that only shows Chibnal's go to technique of killing off characters when he doesn't know what to do with them any more.
I honestly don't think her behavior is any harsher than the kind of thing 10 pulled on the regular where he'd give one warning and then sabotage their plan and blow everything up (see The Next Doctor, The Runaway Bride, or if you really want to see the dark side: The Family of Blood).
@@CouncilofGeeks Maybe I just have a bad case of subconscious anti-chibnal or anti13 bias. Being more harsh to them than I am to 10. I have to work on that. Sorry.
I love Jodie and Chibnal is fine, but sometimes I just go ugh. Usually for really obscure things.
13's "no killing rule" is all over the place, but you're right, 10 also had similar moments.
@@HotDogTimeMachine385 I get it. It’s an easy trap to fall into, where if your overall experience isn’t great you dwell on things you’d be more forgiving of in other circumstances.
@@CouncilofGeeks Interesting point. People do have a nostalgia filter on some RTD aspects.
Whether he meant 10 to be morally questionable... well yes, I think so, how well executed is debatable.
@@CouncilofGeeks I think the issue is that the show at least calls out the 10th Doctor for those actions. Here, nobody ever points it out, so it's like the show is allowing her to get away with that. Donna points out that the Doctor goes too far in the Runaway Bride, and the framing of The Family of Blood is suitably tragic so as to give weight to the terrible punishment the Doctor metes out. Here, everyone just leaves on their merry way, completely happy, with no attention drawn to what she did. The issue isn't necessarily the moral ambiguity; it's more so that the ambiguity is caused by bad writing rather than actual intention accompanied by commentary.
That said, the 10th Doctor did get on my nerves sometimes with his "Angelic Savior" Complex. When I heard things like "I'm the ultimate authority. It stops with me" and "He's like ice and fire", I'd always roll my eyes. The 10th Doctor's run was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but at least RTD didn't overlook such blatant moral inconsistencies the way Chibnall has been doing.
I tend to judge dr who eps based on the monsters. The kerblam men had weeping angel and Vasta Narada energy and i was totally there for it.
And as I recalled, The Doc let the bot in. Also... who said bots can't have vortex manipulators built in.
Totally agree with your assessment of that episode. I found it to be insufferably annoying and was shouting at the screen.
i think the issue is that kerblam wasn't criticizing capitalism in the first place? it felt more like it was criticizing unions and protests movements, aggressive or not, rather than actual issues with big corporations
to sum things up, it was taking a "liberal" approach, not a "socialist" approach as it did in the past, with for instance, oxygen.
This is my least favorite episode of 11's run. Something you didn't mention was the the Doctor murdered Charlie for no reason. Neolib trash...
Simple tweak, the system is self aware, has evolved, but wants to serve and allow people not to work....
That's all that is needed....
A sequel which had explored the world of Kandoka or followed up on some of the issues, similar to Long Game and Bad Wolf, may have helped, but without it the ending let's Kerblam down.
Never warmed to this episode: the ending is horrendous, the deaths felt cheap, the script is all over the place and worst of all the Doctor comes over as naive and plain stupid (I can see why people gave up on the series!). It's a terrible waste of a great idea (ghost in the capitalist machine).
So, UBI, then?
Not sure I have seen you this worked up since Hell Bent, lol!
You know it’s funny, Kerblam is one of the only good 13th Doctor episodes. Really shows what Whittaker’s take on the doctor could have been
I thought the effort they put into humanizing Kira and Dan was one of the best things about this episode.
Finally, I understand what felt so weird about this.
It's possible that the reason for the Kerblam! Man's ability to both follow and enter the TARDIS is due to the fact the Master had already destroyed Gallifrey at this point, leaving other time travel possibilities for others.
Interestingly, Lee Mack's Dan wouldn't have been considered on borrowed time by most UK viewers, as he's a popular comedian and actor, most famous for the sitcom Not Going Out, but also for his appearances on panel shows like QI, 8 Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown and, most prominently, Would I Lie to You? In short, his character's death would have been a bit of a shock; it certainly was to me.
On the subject "the system", I feel it stems from the philosophy that an idea isn't responsible for those who hold it. As such, the system is being abused by those who control it, either consciously or otherwise. A corollary of that is Charlie's campaign of destruction. He and he alone is responsible for the idea he holds. If anything, his needless sacrifice at the end demonstrates his, as you say, strawman position.
In conclusion, Kerblam! strikes me as being as anti-capitalist as Oxygen, but using more recognisable ideas than paying for the air that you breathe. It's also my least-favourite of the Series 11 episodes, precisely because it feels like something we've had before; it's a bit too Doctor Who-y, if that makes sense.
You pretty much summed up how I felt about the episode after I watched it a second time, yeah. I think the premise and beginning of the episode have a lot of potential for a fun story and have an opportunity to really say something meaningful. It feels less like a malicious intent to demonize the lower working class in the face of oppressive capitalism, and more like a social / economic reform story that they wrote the setup for, then kinda stopped thinking about what the message they wanted to get across actually was. It feels like maybe the crew had too much fun fleshing out the setting (if there is such thing as "too fun" worldbuilding), and didn't dedicate much attention to the dynamic of oppressor vs. oppressed, as well as missing the opportunity to make an insightful point about automation. Took er jerbs, them Kerblam Men did.
Does “Take Two” mean you’ve had to watch some of Chibnall’s episodes more than once? If so - how brave 😂
This is one of the better ones tbf, but yeah watching through series 11 as a whole would be a serious chore
It's unabomber vs Amazon
Ok i think its a good episode but even charlie could havge worked, if you still make the management antagonistic and complicit in the oppressive conditions. Still do, make her ambivalent if it has to be, but not good.
Also charlies motivation. His enemy should never have been any worker cause, but paranoia because of AIs an the kablam system. The robots, h just really is nuts about robot. That people exist. And its not an accidental stawman.
Ive frequently held this up as the one, unequivocally good Chibnall-era story. But seeing it again in this new light, yeah...
I don't understand why 'u r loved' is said at the end of every video nowadays. i don't get it. who is everyone who is watching the video loved by?
By someone.
@@CouncilofGeeks my bpd-ish brain gets pretty stressed trying to process the statement in question, but thx for responding all the same. It's helpful to understand where u r coming from when u say that.
As much as I enjoy It Takes You Away I really dislike series 11 more every time I go back to it.
12th Dr in se10 is an anti-capitalist and the 13th Dr in se11 is a capitalist. Weird.
Ehhhhhh, not sure I'd go that far, since 13 isn't actively engaging with Capitalism. But it is weird she seems to just accept it.
By this time in the 11th season, I was just hoping for an episode that would remind me why I like the show in the first place. And "Kerblam!" fit the bill for me. Very good use of the companions, interesting story, some really funny moments. If the story is a little wonky, so be it. I enjoyed it because it was fun.
Doctor Who writers stuck in the liberal mind prison
*The systems aren't the problem. How people use and exploit the system, that's the problem.* That was an 'Aha' moment of what the episode was trying to get at (I have that quote as a screensaver along with many quotes that I made). the Kerblam man is not the only thing that appeared in the TARDIS. I remember an advertisement robot like the Kerblam man in The Greatest Show In The Galaxy, although if it was in space or the time vortex is unknown.
In this video you seem very anti-capitalist (or at the very least critical of capitalism in its current form), the reason I bring that up is beacuse I remember an older video of yours where you call yourself a capitalist. Have you changed your mind on capitalism? If so, what made you do it?
I’m a capitalist by necessity because I’m self employed and live in a capitalist system.
Friend look up how liberal capitalism works
This has never been an episode of Series Eleven that I've ranked in the top half. It's fine, just not outstanding in my opinion.
Why does The Doctor liking a mascot = liking the company it’s a mascot for for so many people?
I’m not a fan of Energizer (I have no feelings about the company at all; couldn’t even tell you if they’re still in business off the top of my head), but if a giant Energizer Bunny showed up at my door I’d probably get a kick out of it out of sheer nostalgia, if nothing else.
I get hating Amazon and capitalism generally, but the mascot is a mascot, and like VW said: it’s a good design.
This is the only episode that felt like early rtd and moffat dr who again
When you start screaming, I click dislike and turn off video
My biggest criticism is that it was a boring episode.
I am a massive of Lee Mack so I am always going to be a fan of the episode and the fact I don't watch shows to overanalyse every single thing that happens in an episode
Vera. I applaud you for spotting these issues and explaining them so well. 🤌👏 I simply love you and love your content.