#kerblam!

[dandelionjack]

some final thoughts on the matter from me, my twitter mutual Frosty, and their mutual Bonnie.

never been so disappointed in my fav show.

[ryttu3k]

Right, so we have:

Kerblam!, featuring an exploitative mega-corporation who horribly mistreats their workers (but the Real Bad Guy is the angry young man planning to do terrible things in response; the exploitative mega-corporation is fine!),

Lucky Day, featuring a secretive and heavily armed organisation who have extreme power over the entire population and a history of disappearing those who cross them (but the Real Bad Guy is the angry young man planning to do terrible things in response; the secretive heavily-armed organisation is fine!), and now

The Interstellar Song Contest, featuring a corporation who literally commits genocide against an entire planet (but the Real Bad Guy is the angry young man planning to do terrible things in response; the genocidal corporation is fine!)

All three episodes focus on the wrong bad guy. Like yes angry young men planning to do terrible things are absolutely a problem. Radicalisation is a problem. Terrorism is a problem. But it's kind of concerning that their targets, who have objectively done some pretty shitty things like, you know, exploitation, disappearing people, and genocide, get off not just scot-free, but with UNIT still framed as The Good Guys!

The first two were written by the same person and you can easily say, well, that's just McTighe not knowing how to write a political allegory to save his life, but man, I had much higher hopes for Dawson. Is this a BBC thing, or is this just the direction the show is taking? Because, uh, I have concerns.

[earlgreydyke]

kerblam! is a slightly messy episode but ultimately i don’t think it’s as “morally bankrupt” as people make it out to be. i think people are decontextualising the “the systems aren’t the problem” quote. they literally were and that didn’t go unacknowledged - the system still had to be restructured with the temporary closing of kerblam! at the end of the episode and the partial replacement of automated systems. it definitely wasn’t a perfect allegory for late stage capitalism and revolutionising a workplace but ultimately it showed that charlie’s extreme ideology of mass murder wasn’t the perfect solution either. something that i don’t see people discuss is that the doctor asks why the robots can’t do the menial tasks. she gets told it’s because organics need to work so they have purpose. i think maybe what the episode is more likely trying to imply is that artificial systems arent at fault, it’s the way they’re operated. i just think there’s more nuance to the episode and how we can respond to it than people are allowing. i do believe it’s fair to say that in thirteen and fifteen’s series, people are much quicker to be critical of imperfect writing.

[doctorwhoisadhd]

no but for real. why does it feel like pete mctighe is accidentally tripping and falling into writing conservative episodes of dr who. like how are you going to do that.

[chiefblossom]

I just rewatched kerblam! But it had such an opportunity to be GOOD and the whole villain being a villain cause he wanted people to be employed??? If they had gone the route of kerblam men going evil 100% would have been good, a little cliché but good

[quietwingsinthesky]

like it feels obvious on doctor who. the show who’s main gimmick is that the guy running around goes only by a title they gave themself and whose identity revolves around a dialogue with that title, constructing it, interrogating it, redefining it, endlessly as a part of their journey. it feels obvious to say that you absolutely cannot on this show give something an incredibly symbolic name and then Not say anything about that.

so why does kerblam spend the latter half of its runtime emphasizing The Foundation, right. the foundation is where power gets stored when it goes out everywhere else. the foundation is where workers are being killed and melted down into goop. the foundation is so old that the original plans of the building on paper are needed to understand it. The System is in The Foundation before it is anywhere else.

and then that. doesn’t matter. we aren’t going to use this to say anything. in fact, we’re going to assert that the system is so Fine, Actually that filling the foundational level of it with ten million bombs doesn’t even do any lasting damage to it. and hey, hey. remember when the system decided that the Correct option was to kill an innocent person uninvolved in all of this because she happened to be someone that charlie liked. remember when it lured her down into the foundational level to fucking murder her. yeah, that was justified of it actually, the blood on its hands is worth the point it was making.

how do you build the perfect set-up for the most obvious critique: Space Amazon Is Built On Bad Foundations That Lead It To Hurting The Workers And Customers In The Long Run. and then stumble ass backwards into uhhhhhh no actually it was this one guy. with bombs. and also his bombs are so ineffective and meaningless that blowing them up in the center of the facility did Nothing. he is both an unimaginable threat and also powerless. please take our doctor who episode about how good space amazon is very seriously.

[headcanonsandmore]

FOR THE LAST TIME, ITS THEME IS ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS, NOT CAPITALISM-

[itsdawnforyou]

"How'd you like a warning for insubordination?" "Id love one! I could add it to my collection"

I love that 1- the doctor DEFINITELY has a warnings collection. And 2- the doctor using passive agressiveness!

[of-monsters-and-werewolves]

Politically speaking, Lucky Day isn't infuriating in the same way Kerblam! is, but it still isn't half messy.

[queerestqueertoeverqueer]

HEY LOOK AT THE KERBLAM! NOVELISATION (tweet)

[chibnall-era-tournament]

Chibnall era episode tournament!

[thedoctorwhocompanion]

Four Writers Confirmed for Doctor Who Series 15

Four Writers Confirmed for #DoctorWho Series 15

Four writers have been confirmed for the next season of Doctor Who, the second series with Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor. This includes a returning writer who previously worked on the Thirteenth Doctor era. Pete McTighe wrote Kerblam! and Praxeus, and has worked with showrunner, Russell T Davies, on the upcoming spin-off, The War Between the Land and the Sea. He’s also written for Doctor…

[earlgreydyke]

i need everyone who enjoyed Lucky Day to say one nice thing about Kerblam! right now!!!!!!!!

[dandelionjack]

right im just gonna pretend that episode never existed. charlie the industrial terrorist was right and the only compelling character in the entire thing. the doctor was a wet blanket and ended up defending space amazon twelve of “the endpoint of capitalism: a bottom line where human life has no value at all” fame would put her in timeout for this. lock her in the vault with missy and give her a refresher on works by lenin and marx until she recognises she fell for corporate brainwashing (seriously, the doctor?? “systems aren’t the problem, people are?” ooc and just plain awful)

[cyanogen-miasma]

i am currently listening to a spotify ad for ASDA voiced by Jodie Whittaker?? 13th Doctor jumpscare??? kind of giving Kerblam! if you ask me

[helpmeimblorboing]

Donna would fucking obliterate the Doctor if they ever told her how they once unironically said "The system isn't the problem"