Robots, missing workers and don’t pop the bubble wrap!!
This week we have a more complex plot compared to previous weeks; this week it is much more about mystery and trying to discover what is happening at Kerblam! In many reviews there have been many comparisons compared Kerblam to Amazon however I will let you decide if you think this is true or false. It takes a while for our team to understand what is happening on Kerblam and to be honest it isn't until the end of the episode they finally understand what has been happening. We, the audience, are led to believe someone in particular is to blame for what is going on yet really, we are deceived, and the culprit is the most unlikely person.
The Doctor and her friends go to Kerblam as they are sent a message asking for help; we believe that it is one of the workers asking for help as we discover workers at Kerblam are going missing yet really it is the system asking for help. There are good performances in this episode from all the cast, but Lee Mack delivered a great performance. We are used to Lee Mack being funny and cracking jokes yet in this episode we got to see another side to what he can do. Mack’s character Dan is extremely likeable and caring, he just wants to do his little girl proud, so he works hard at his job in the warehouse of Kerblam. Unfortualty, Mack's character after bonding with Yaz is taken and we discover like the rest of the missing workers was liquidised. Sometimes in Doctor Who the missing people can come back alive once found but, in this episode, there was no chance of saving them which shows the dark side and consequences of travelling with the Doctor which is there is always danger you might not survive.
Also, in this episode there is references to past Doctor's, for example the Doctor is delivered a fez and asks if it still suits her, this is relating back to the 11th Doctor played by Matt Smith as his Doctor loved to wear a fez. Also, there is a moment where the Doctor mentions if she has told her friends about the time, she met giant wasps, this goes back to the 10th Doctor episode called the Unicorn and the Wasp, where the Doctor (then played by David Tenant) met Agatha Christie and was fighting against wasp.
Our monsters for this week aren’t really monsters, they are just robots who are control by the system and they deliver the parcels. Our 'monster' is just a robotic postman following orders from the system, yet someone is interfering with the system; as a result, the system is calling out for help. The real 'monster' or villain is a very young human who wants to protest and is willing to kill to get his message across which is quite sad as he even kills the person he loves. What this story does is make a simple thing scary, like in past stories the dark/shadows and statues have been made scary and in this episode bubble wrap has been made scary. If you pop any of the bubble wrap you die as each pocket is a small bomb. People normally can't resist popping bubble wrap but now I think many people might think twice due to this episode.
This episode isn’t all mystery there are humorous moment, like when the Doctor becomes a child when she groans when she is told she isn’t allowed to ride the conveyor belts. Finally, this is the episode Yaz actually becomes a character and does something; she creates a bond with Dan (Lee Mack's character), helps Ryan with his dyspraxia and also uses her police training for once to stop the bad guy. We finally got to see a bit of what she is like and how she can help, hopefully this will now stay around, and she won’t go back into the background.
Kerblam! is a fast-paced episode, filled with mystery as the team try to find what is going on. There is love and loss and the most unlikely person ends up being the bad guy. Also, the simplest thing, that most people love has now become deadly.
