Kerblam! (TV story)

Kerblam! was the seventh episode of series 11 of Doctor Who.

Synopsis
When the Thirteenth Doctor finds a mysterious call for help packaged with a delivery from the galaxy's largest retailer, she and her friends get to work in finding out the cause of the distress. However, is the human 10% of the workforce rebelling against the robots, or is there a much more complicated plot going on?

Plot
In the time vortex, the TARDIS is flying at an alarming speed. Inside, Graham, Ryan and Yaz are holding on the best they can to the console. The Thirteenth Doctor tells them to hold on tighter. Graham asks if the Doctor can do anything about the turbulence, to which the Doctor says is due to her trying to avoid something chasing them. The Doctor is frustrated, she is still having problems understanding the new systems of the renovated console. She looks at the monitor, which shows a blue light in the time vortex behind them. The Doctor immediately identifies it as a teleport pulse.

Suddenly a robotic man in a postal outfit appears in the TARDIS, holding a white and red box; it says it has a delivery for the Doctor. The Doctor gives an ecstatic yelp, telling her friends it's the Kerb!am Man; Graham thinks the Doctor is just making sounds. The Doctor takes her package, with the Kerb!am Man reciting the company motto as it departs. Once the Kerb!am Man leaves, a brief holographic logo of Kerb!am appears. The Doctor explains that Kerb!am is the biggest delivery company in this galaxy; she then states that she doesn't remember ordering anything, so it must have been a while back. She opens the box and pulls out... a fez!

Immediately realizing that her eleventh incarnation was the one who placed the order (due to his fondness for hats), the Doctor puts on the fez, asking her friends if it suits her. Graham says it does, while Ryan takes the bubble wrap. Yaz then notices something strange on the packing card; on the back is written two words: help me. Ryan thinks its just a prank, recalling when he and his fellow coworkers used to leave surprises in the trainers at his old job. However, Graham and Yaz convince the Doctor that it might be worth a look to see if it's just a prank. The Doctor agrees and spins the hourglass on the console, stating "Kerb!am, here we come!" The TARDIS shakes as it heads to their destination.

The TARDIS lands outside Kerb!am 's main office, on the moon of Kandoka. The Doctor exits out, minus the fez, revealing the details to her team. Ryan sourly notes that having come all this way, he feels like he's back home at work. The Doctor tells Ryan that he's brilliant; they should go undercover as workers to find out what's happening in the company. They walk into the reception area, greeting by the Head of People Judy Maddox. Using the psychic paper to show their "recommendation", the Doctor discreetly sonics Judy's tablet to update the information; Judy sees that the recommendation comes from the First Lady, who is a relative of theirs. The Doctor is surprised, quickly passing it off as something they asked her not to do, as its awkward. They are lead by Judy to the workers' area, passing a worker named Dan, who tries to make work banter with a TeamMate, "Les", who acknowledges his humor despite getting its name wrong.

Judy leads the group to a scanner that will assign them a job based on their physical and mental capabilities. She is briefly confused by the Doctor having two hears, which she passes off as a benefit of the First Lady's health plan. As Ryan gets scanned, the power briefly goes out; Judy explains that due to their location, power tends to fluctuate. Once Yaz is scanned, everyone is given an ankle bracelet, which is explained to keep track of them and their productivity. Judy leads them through the facility, showing off each work area. She notes that there are over 10,000 humans workers; Ryan tells the Doctor that they're going to have a hard time figuring out where that message came from. Leading into the packing area, the Doctor learns that the lights on the ankle band are colour-coded for their jobs; Ryan and Graham have purple, which are people who work in packaging, while she has white and Yaz has red.

Judy leaves them to the TeamMates, robots similar to the Kerb!am Man, but programmed to help out the workers. After Judy leaves, the Doctor uses her sonic to swap colours with Graham as she needs to be in packaging to learn more from the employees; a TeamMate comes to take Yaz away, to work in storage. Graham wonders what job he swapped with the Doctor to get as a TeamMate comes for her and Ryan; a TeamMate arrives with a bucket and mop, telling Graham he's a janitor. The Doctor and Ryan hold back laughs, as she nearly got stuck with the job. Graham firmly tells them to not laugh.

The Doctor talks to her coworker Kira, asking her if she know of anyone in need of help. Meanwhile, Yaz is assigned to the storage room with Dan, a man who almost never sees his daughter anymore. His daughter gave him a necklace with Arcadium. He warns Yaz that the TeamMates are watching them, to also monitor their productivity. Yaz gets an assignment to find a lamp in a section that Dan warns is dangerous, and therefore he insists on them switching jobs. Whilst looking for the lamp, Dan meets a delivery bot, who kills him. At the assembly line, the Doctor witnesses a power drain. Kira’s boss, Jarva Slade, walks in and scolds Kira simply for losing focus for a second, leading the Doctor to confront him, requesting that he speak to her more nicely. Yaz finds Dan’s necklace, and asks a TeamMate for help, but gets surrounded by another delivery bot, and runs away. Graham gets started on his job as a janitor, where he meets Charlie. The intercom then announces an emergency break period. Yaz mentions Dan’s disappearance, so the Doctor plans to confront Judy and Slade, after asking Graham for a map of Kerblam. Kira bumps into Charlie in the Home Zone, and it's obvious that Charlie has a crush on her.

The Doctor confronts Slade and Judy about the disappearances, who promise to investigate, but the Doctor still suspects Slade of involvement, and so the three of them hide in a paneled alcove, so they can search Slade's office. Meanwhile, Graham gets a map from Charlie.

Judy catches the Doctor looking at records of the disappearances and has at this point found out that the Doctor's identity is a lie. Before the Doctor can scold her for supposedly ignoring the disappearances, the entire system shuts down, apparently all through the warehouse, draining down to the foundation levels. Charlie and Graham comes in, which activates a delivery bot, which attacks Charlie. The Doctor uses her sonic to turn it off. Judy is equally suspicious of Slade for his record-keeping.

The Doctor finds a really old delivery robot named Twirly and hooks it up to the system. It turns out to be the system itself that sent the Doctor the request for help.

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Cast

 * The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
 * Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
 * Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
 * Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
 * Judy Maddox - Julie Hesmondhalgh
 * Dan Cooper - Lee Mack
 * Jarva Slade - Callum Dixon
 * Kira Arlo - Claudia Jessie
 * Charlie Duffy - Leo Flanagan
 * Voice of Kerblam - Matthew Gravelle

Crew
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Story notes

 * This marks the first Doctor Who television story to have an exclamation mark in its title. Around 100 stories in other mediums had already utilised the exclamation mark, such as PROSE: Byzantium!, AUDIO: Bang-Bang-a-Boom!, Unregenerate! and COMIC: Doctor Conkerer!, or even multiple, as in COMIC: Flood!!!.
 * A sneak preview of the episode was broadcast two days prior during the Children in Need telethon.
 * This episode marks the first time the six crystals around the TARDIS console are shown moving while in-flight. The tips of the six crystals move in rhythm with sinking and rising of the crystal pillar in the console, seemingly "pulling" the pillar up. (Giving a more "organic" feel to the control room.)
 * After TV: The Woman Who Fell To Earth and Demons of the Punjab, this is the third episode of Series 11 to have a double meaning in its title. In this case, the title can either refer to the company Kerblam! or the onomatopoeia for an explosion, where in this episode people are exploded after they pop bubble wrap.

Ratings

 * 5.93 million (UK overnight)

Filming locations
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Production errors
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Continuity

 * The Doctor receives a fez. (TV: The Big Bang)
 * The Doctor previously visited a warehouse which also contained a mystery in her seventh incarnation, with Melanie Bush. (AUDIO: The Warehouse)
 * Ryan mentions once working in a warehouse. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
 * The Doctor uses her psychic paper as a reference. (TV: The Vampires of Venice, The Lodger)
 * The Doctor notes that "some of [her] best friends are robots". Some of these friends have been K9, (TV: The Invisible Enemy, et al.) Kamelion (TV: The King's Demons, et al.) Catherine Broome, (PROSE: Companion Piece) Gisella, (PROSE: The Depths of Despair, et al.) Kevin (COMIC: When Worlds Collide, et al.) and Handles. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * Ryan mentions his difficulty with co-ordination. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth, The Ghost Monument)
 * The Doctor mentions meeting Agatha Christie, in an encounter with wasps. (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp)
 * Graham calls the Doctor "Doc". (TV: Rosa, et al.)
 * The Doctor uses the same Venusian aikido single finger stun move as she had done before. (TV: The Ghost Monument)
 * Twirly notes the Doctor has high blood pressure. (TV: Smile)
 * The Doctor still hasn’t gotten used to the TARDIS' new controls. (TV: Rosa)

DVD releases
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Blu-ray releases
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Digital releases
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