grassangel | Fan panel response for Kerblam!

I think the little things about the previous week’s responses are just bland, rather than their blandness being indicative of anything

You loved seeing and learning more of Yaz’s story.
A historical Doctor Who setting can be great for learning something new.
An emotionally engaging storyline makes for an exciting episode!

Usual start, have I watched it, the rating (still high, despite my reservations about the story), and free space for overall thoughts.

There were lots of fun little callbacks to previous stories, characters and moments in Doctor Who that I really enjoyed and the way the episode poked fun back at the jokes made about Doctor Who's use of bubble wrap in costume and monster design was a lot of fun on a meta level. But I felt the theme/message of the story got muddled and ended up heading in a direction that's contrary to what I think are the values of Doctor Who. Doctor Who has previously had very strong opinions about the evils of capitalism and large corporations and how people end up being dehumanised by them. The people lost and the corporation won - it's still standing, unchallenged and more or less whole, and free to exploit even more people for their labour. Which doesn't make sense, it's set in the future and things should be better, more hopeful.

Trying to get across my disappointment in the ultimate message the episode sent. Will probably also post in the forums about this, but given they’re usually shouty as well, I’m not sure if that’ll get through.

But I can show my feelings a little through the ratings? Which ended up being a bit all over the place given how bad a mood thinking about that damn ending made me feel.
It’s the usual bunch, topical won as highest rated because yeah the whole Amazon parallel isn’t exactly subtle, but I was frigid on the whole ‘warm’ and ‘charming’, or being ‘shareable’ or ‘for people like me’.

Followed by more ratings! The location: Kerblam Warehouse, The storyline, The other characters, Monsters/Villains, The core cast (The Doctor, Ryan, Yasmin & Graham)
Core cast won, obvs, and.... I had to say that the storyline and other characters were disappointing (<4)

Then rating the characters: Judy (Head of People), Ryan, The Doctor, Dan Cooper (Lee Mack), Graham, Kerblam Robots, Charlie, Kira, Yasmin, Mr Slade
I like that whoever wrote this knew that people would basically be calling Lee Mack’s character... Lee Mack. Wide spread of ratings though, Ryan and the Doctor push ahead, while Dan, Slade and Charlie lag behind.

Words! I love the words section
Creepy for the Kerblam Robots, misguided for Charlie, sweet for Kira, arrogant for Mr Slade, misguided for Judy (Head of People), and bland for Dan Cooper (Lee Mack)

Then the regular how much of previous Doctor Who have you see, do you want to keep receiving these, then free space! Which is basically more room for me to go “Do better. Be kinder.”

The receipt of the fez highlighted one of the things I'm missing most about the new TARDIS design: a lack of furniture. I would've so loved to see the fez sitting alongside the Doctor's coat on the hatstand that has been in the console room for ages but is now absent. Also, as much as the episode was fun and was enjoyable for all the delight it took in references and conspiracies and conveyor belt rides, the implications of the conclusion (I noticed that the employees were only given paid time off for only half of the period the company would be closed) left a tremendously sour taste in my mouth. It's not the politics of the Doctor Who I love; it's not groundbreaking, it's not radically kind. Instead it's a conservative story, and only serves to uphold the status quo.

I forgot to mention that I hope Lee Mack’s cameo means Susan Calman will get her turn, but dammit, the politics is more important.