It was fine. I didn’t really like it all that much, as it felt old-school, like one of Russell T Davies more mediocre bits of nonsense, which distracted me too much to really connect with it.
Really? Because I was getting a definite “Amazon” vibe from it (from previews I was expecting a send-up of Walmart, but it was definitely Amazon inspired).
Yes.
Yeah. It was a pretty solid episode conceptually, but it felt … flat. Intellectually, I enjoyed the subversion of the “creepy smiling robots” and “the evil Mega-Corp runs on people…literally” tropes, but it just didn’t engage me the way “Rosa” and “Demons Of The Punjab” did.
And I’d like to see the Doctor show a little bit more, well, Doctorish arrongance. She’s always the smartest person in the room, and she knows it. I’d like to see her reminding people of that fact, every now and again.
Yeah, they were laying it on pretty thick.
I thought the episode was entertaining, but nonsensical. Yes, I also liked that they subverted the “evil Mega-corporation” and “AI run amok” tropes. But I also think that they have don’t a fairly lazy job of “world building” this season.
Kerblam! is a galaxy-spanning delivery service run by an AI that uses teleporting robots to deliver packages anywhere instantaneously? Yet they employ a handful of humans in anachronistic jobs like mopping the floors and packing boxes?
The Kerblam! supercomputer is capable of identifying this particular episode’s threat and come up with roundabout ways of asking for help, but can’t actually stop it or alert the proper authorities?
In a universe of Daleks, Cybermen, Autons and all other manner of robot races, all of a sudden “automation of jobs” is a hot button issue?
Anyone else notice Lee Mack as Dan? Thought he was pretty good - I figured he’d just be a cameo and crack a couple of jokes. But he did a solid job portraying a decent Everyman sort.
When he came on scene, I said “Hey, that’s Lee Mack! Wonder if David Mitchell’s also in this ep?” to Mrs. SMV. Alas, she’s never seen Would I Lie To You? and was unimpressed with my familiarity with British comedians.
I’m a big fan of the show too. It was weird - I’ve seen Lee Mack a lot, but this was the fist time I’ve seen him act. He was good.
For one, they said specifically that they hired the humans because they were legally obligated to do so.
For another, we don’t know *when *the episode takes place. Automation may be a big issue 10,000 years to the future, and a thing of the past a few millennia later.
Despite its flaws, I enjoyed this episode. (Although I did wonder why the AI didn’t print out a detailed description of the problem, it’s possible the AI thought the Doctor would actually prefer to investigate a mystery.)
The episode was kind of retro, with scenes reminding my husband of “The Sun-Makers” (the Fourth Doctor) and “The Happiness Patrol” (Seventh), and me of “Gridlock” with the different levels of “traffic” on the conveyor belts (Tenth) and the Doctor getting a temporary job to investigate a mystery, as in “Closing Time” (Eleventh, and of course, the fez.)
Not sure about how much credence to put into rumors, but there is talk about Chibs and Whittaker moving on after S12. Not sure about what Chibs is moving for, but Whittaker is not happy with the work cutting into family time. If its true and she being a professional, I’d expect that she would go 100 percent into every episode just for future work alone but if she is phoning it in this early, then something is off.
He writes and stars in his own sitcom, which has been going for over ten years. It’s called Not Going Out and is worth a look.
He also used to be in a comedy sketch show called The Sketch Show, some clips of which are on YouTube.
And it may just be a problem on that planet - much like Seattle and Amazon fighting over minimum wage and what not, the government of Kandakor(?) tries to rein in its major (and possibly only) private employer. Wonder who owns Kerblam? Possibly the system took itself private via stock buybacks, kind of like Andrew Martin?
Appreciating this reference…
Thanks for the tip! I’ll have to check those out. Not having access to the BBC, my only source of exposure to British comics are YouTube clips of WILTY and Mock The Week and Never Mind The Buzzcocks and such. So my knowledge is shallow but broad; however, I can at least recognize Frankie Boyle, Russell Howard, Alan Davies, et al. I’m hoping that Dara O Briain or Jimmy Carr will one day play my city.
Now trying to remember, just for the heck of it, which other British comedians have done Doctor Who, at least in the NuWho era. Off the top of my head I remember Greg Davies, Lee Evans, Bill Bailey and Peter Kay, plus of course Catherine Tate as Donna and Ingrid Oliver as Petronella Osgood. And, arguably, Bernard Cribbins.
David Mitchell and Robert Webb were glaringly miscast as robot voices. And there was both Matt Lucas and David Walliams, though quite separately.
Can’t believe I forgot Matt Lucas. Also, Chris Addison as Missy’s virtual assistant.
They specifically said 90% of the galaxy was unemployed IIRC.
All I’m saying is that I think they could have taken the whole “Amazon taking over the Galaxy” thing and made it a bit more extreme, even absurd. For example, something like the Autofac episode of P K Dicks Electric Dreams on Amazon Prime. Or this Onion articlewhere Jeff Bezos declares North America Amazon’s second headquarters and puts a dome over it.
Or maybe explore what the entire galaxy is doing in their spare time besides working? Presumably they don’t actually have to since it seemed relatively easy for Charlie to fake his way into a job with Kerblam.
Also, Yaz is supposed to be a British cop, but not once has she said “Ello, ello, ello!” to anyone.
A moon-sized warehouse isn’t absurd?
Bill Bailey was in NuWho? Which ep? And how did I miss Mitchell, Webb and Addison? I’m a fan of all three (especially Mitchell and Webb’s sketch comedy). Greg Davies I remember from “The Husbands Of River Song”, of course.
I didn’t know Catherine Tate and Matt Lucas did comedy - I thought they were comic actors. (Like all right-thinking Whovians, I recognize Donna Noble as the best of the NuWho companions.)
The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe - the 2011 Christmas Special. He played some kind of futuristic… forester? Lumberjack?
James Corden (twice)