Doctor Who recap: Kerblam! was an episode with a lot of surprises

The Doctor gets a brand new fez at the start of Kerblam!

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

In the latest Doctor Who episode, the Doctor and her friends face conspiracies and deadly bubble wrap in Kerblam!

Well. I’m not sure what I was expecting from an episode like Kerblam! But I will admit, I certainly wasn’t expecting that.

The adventure kicks off with a delivery robot from Kerblam!, a galactic delivery service. Along with the Doctor receiving a fez and looking incredibly happy about it, there’s also bubble wrap and a delivery note. The last item she’s not so happy about, due to the message on it. It’s a message with just two words:

"Help me."

Naturally, the Doctor and her team head straight to the Kablam! warehouse, which is big enough to take up virtually an entire moon. They meet Judy Maddox, who’s in charge of looking after the workers, and they go undercover as new employees. The work force is only ten per cent organic, but that still leaves over ten thousand workers to investigate.

The Doctor and Ryan work in shipping with Kira. She’s a very likable but very sad worker who’s only had one present her whole life. They also meet Mr. Slade, Kira’s thoroughly unlikable supervisor who prefers obedient employees over happy ones.

Yaz, meanwhile, works with Dan. He comes across as a decent guy, and a father who doesn’t get to see his daughter that often. The galactic economy really isn’t great and, while Dan misses his daughter, he considers himself lucky to have a job at all.

One of the orders comes from a section that’s a little more out of the way, and while Yaz is scheduled to get the item, Dan goes down in her place. Unfortunately, while down there, he suddenly gets attacked by a delivery robot. After hearing his scream and quickly investigating, she narrowly avoids a similar attack herself.

Graham, meanwhile, works in maintenance with Charlie. After quickly meeting with the rest of the team, it’s clear to everyone – and I mean everyone – that Charlie and Kira really like each other.

The Doctor uses the first Kerblam! robot to help figure out what’s really going on.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

What happened to the missing?

The team then let both Slade and Maddox know that employees are going missing within the company. While Slade and Maddox say they’ll look into it, none of the team actually trust either one of them. (During this scene, the Doctor makes a nice little mention about meeting Agatha Christie.)

With a little help from Charlie, Graham is able to get a diagram for the company for the Doctor. Breaking into Slade’s office, the Doctor finds proof that employee disappearances have been gradually increasing.

Suddenly, another power cut occurs, and a robot attacks Charlie. They quickly rescue him before quickly working out that the System was behind it. Have the team found their culprit?

The Doctor realizes that the best way to access the System properly and find out what’s really going on is by accessing the first Kablam! robot. As she charges the device up, Kira is kidnapped by the robots. Ryan, Yaz and Charlie go off to rescue her. Of course, they take a very risky route, as they take a trip onto one of Kablam!’s many, many conveyor belts.

Meanwhile, the Doctor finds out that it wasn’t an employee who sent the message to them, but System itself. She isn’t able to find out why, but she does find out who isn‘t behind the whole thing: Slade. It turns out, he’s actually been looking into the employee disappearances himself, and wasn’t sure whether to trust the Doctor or even Maddox.

We then find out what happened to all the previous employees who went missing: they had been liquidized. Whoever or whatever was really behind it was nothing short of ruthless.

Even worse, they find an army of delivery bots, every single one of them holding delivery packages, ready to be instantly dispatched. And they find a weapon inside. But not your usual kind of weapon.

It’s not until the end of the story that the real killer is revealed: maintenance man Charlie!

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Explosive surprises

Ryan, Yaz and Charlie find Kira inside a room, but with no way to get to her or even warn her. Through a window, Charlie begs her not to open the package that’s waiting for her. Of course, she does. There’s nothing inside but bubble wrap. Finding it, Kira does what anyone else does and presses it. The bubble wrap bursts. Unfortunately, so does Kira.

More from Winter is Coming

After getting an incredibly shocking death, we’re then given the episode’s biggest twist: Charlie was behind it all. Incredibly angry about how Kerblam! were only hiring ten per cent organic workers, in a time where unemployment is at an incredible high, Charlie planned on creating a huge attack to make people aware. His method? Highly explosive bubble wrap that would kill someone the moment it was popped.

The System begged for help because it was fighting what Charlie was doing. It even allowed Kira to be killed purely to make Charlie feel what the families of his own victims were all feeling. But it still wasn’t enough to make him change his mind.

In the end, the Doctor was left with only one option: change the delivery bots’s destination. As soon as they teleported, they arrived straight back to the factory. And every single one of them detonated, destroying Charlie with them.

Maddox and Slade promise to make the system less automated. Yaz wants to make things right for Dan’s daughter. And Graham is strongly tempted to pop some bubble wrap…before he’s reminded of just how dangerous it really is.

Next. Elizabeth Klein – the Doctor’s Nazi companion. dark

What did you make of Kerblam!? Was it a Doctor Who episode that surprised you? What did you think of the story, or even the robots? Let us know in the comments below.

Home/Doctor Who