Really, was that the whole point of the silly name? That gag at the end? Was it worth it?
Yes, yes it was.
I can say this is the the first truly good, not great but good, episode of the season. Somebody behind the scenes seems to have woken up and realised Doctor Who can be good and doesn’t have to be mediocre.
Which is ironic because any other time this far into the season it would be a filler episode, the one that doesn’t really mean anything. It’s far enough along to have established everything, but not close enough to the end to need to ramp up the tension. So freed from Chibnall’s greasy grip, just told to try and be a fun and entertaining episode we got just that. They even were able to throw in a rather surprising, if only at first viewing, twist I don’t really want to spoil.
Unfortunately mentioning that there is a twist is sort of a spoiler, but you can’t review the episode around it. So if you’ve not seen the episode yet just take it on faith, it is worth watching.
So, now that I’ve tried to convince you let’s get in to my spoiler-rific review. People died! We got more than one scene with a character. They made a quick impact, you liked them and then they died! It wasn’t obvious they were going to die either. There were moments where you actually thought at the last minute the companions would save the day and the poor sod would live, but no too late! There’s nothing anyone can do, they die. Most impressively it has consequences. The sob story isn’t just something for the audience to feel bad about, it has a resolution. A point. And Kira’s death not only revivals the plot in spectacular fashion, but also drives home the consequences to the team.
Now I’m not going to pretend it’s perfect, but I was not bored and, again, the twist is what makes it. Things that really weren’t necessary in the long run were the ride down the parcel chute. The CGI was questionable and just put in for a bit of action. That’s most obvious because the Doctor just takes a shortcut a couple moments later. That doesn’t matter. I had fun, it shows just how lifeless and dull previous episodes have been.
The biggest thing I think worked with the episode was splitting the companions up. Before the companions would pair up and then spend too much time with each other. This time they were paired up with the people they meet in the story. Bradley Walsh’s Graham was witty and on point. Tosin Cole’s Ryan had some wonderful banter with the packing girl Kira. and miracle of miracles Yaz did something too! Seriously, she did something!
Not only was she there when Lee Mack died, but tried to subdue the episode's villain. She actually tried to arrest him! Did someone remember she was supposed to be a police officer? Thank you! There were little moments too, when she helped give Ryan the confidence to jump from one conveyer to another. My god, she was useful. She wasn't this important in the last episode, and that was supposed to be about her!
Hell, Ryan remembered that he was supposed to have a co-ordination problem and was clever at the same time. What happened here? This was the Doctor Who I wanted. I mean yes I would also like a proper Whovian threat. Something that was more impressive than bloke number five hundred and fifty two. But I’ll take what I can get.
Other things I liked include the misdirection. The way it cleverly worked both ways. On second viewing you can see how, while it obviously pointed to one threat, it worked just as well for the real one. There was also the obvious red herring that helped muddy the waters, but makes a lot of sense in context. The greatest thing to me is I can see how the robots are threatening in one viewing and muted victims in another. Standing there, unable to fight what’s done to them and silently crying for help from the deaf and dumb organic staff while they are slowly forced to do something monstrous.
The key to this was the misdirection. Using all the tools of a writer to make the audience think one thing, that this was just another robotic menace out of control plot, when it’s something completely different.
Chibnall’s problem has been his stilted prose and plodding predictable plots that hit every obvious beat like a metronome. This episode took that and ripped up the rule book. Going back to my classic examples that sort of thing was more in keeping with the adventure Robots of Death. A classic Tom Baker Story that does have a lot in common with this one, even though the outcome is completely different.
That won’t make much sense, but that’s what I think Who should be doing. Rather than middling retreads of the old ideas, just done short and with a higher budget, going back and putting a new spin on the core ideas of classic serials.
Kerblam was the first really entertaining story in this series and showed just what this team behind and infant of the cameras can do. I hope it’s not a one off.
10 out of 13
More please!
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