Kerblam! was the sixth serial of Season 55 of Doctor Who. It was written by Sarah Dollard, directed by Nida Manzoor and starred Jemma Redgrave as the Fifteenth Doctor, Rebecca Root as Joanne Tilley & Ravin J Ganatra as Anderson Stenhouse.
Synopsis[]
When the Doctor receives a mysterious call for help packaged with a delivery from Kerb!am, the galaxy's largest retailer, she & her companions 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? She later finds out the system types all the slips, including the one she got. Why is the system needing help?
Plot[]
To be added.
Cast[]
- The Doctor - Jemma Redgrave
- Joanne Tilley - Rebecca Root
- Anderson Stenhouse - Ravin J Ganatra
- 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[]
To be added.
Worldbuilding[]
The Doctor[]
- The Doctor gets a package containing a recorder, bubble wrap and a packing slip.
- The Doctor describes prejudice against robots as robophobia.
- The Doctor has two hearts.
- Anderson says she bet the Doctor was the sort of kid to poke a stick into a wasp's nest to see what happened.
- The Doctor says she doesn't like bullies, conspiracies and people in danger.
- The Doctor uses venusian aikido.
TARDIS[]
- The Kerblam Man can teleport into the TARDIS.
People[]
- Anderson says that they used to put funny notes inside the trainers at his old workplace.
- The TARDIS team's false credentials says they're relatives of the First Lady.
- Judy Maddox is Head of People and says she made a Person error.
- Daniel Cooper calls one of the TeamMates Les.
- Judy mentions her father.
- Anderson used to work at the SportStack warehouse.
- The Doctor mentions a person called Roger Wilco.
- Anderson is put on Kerb!am's Premium Maintenance team as cleaner.
- Daniel and Joanne work in "fulfillment".
- The Doctor and Kira Arlo work in "packaging".
- Kira mentions her mum and dad.
- Daniel has a necklace lacquered with Arcadium that he got from his daughter.
- He jokes that she is Kerb!am's Head of Finance.
- Daniel says he was a rubbish husband to his wife.
- Daniel calls a TeamMate Basil and jokes that he used to be a pole dancer.
- Jarva Slade is Warehouse Executive.
- Anderson gives his age as 310.
- Missing Kerb!am employees include Rhys Fenjh, Arien Elgyum, Jax Harkall, Irsa Moyner, Zaff Pillax, Ra Mon Sheshter, Bagola Thotum, Basog Thotum, Kamel Wmoyna and Chinello Zoogul.
- Employee Looper called Chinello's mum to check on Chinello.
- Charlie Duffy works at Maintenance and is Graham's Maintenance Mentor.
- The people during the current shift is designated Team 9.
- The Doctor mentions Agatha Christie.
- The TeamMates lies to Kira, telling her she's Employee of the Day.
- The Doctor says Charlie is not an activist because of what he's doing.
- All employees are sent on two weeks paid leave.
Business[]
- Kerb!am is the biggest retail warehouse of the galaxy.
- Kerb!am is a certified Ten Percent People-Powered Company.
- The TARDIS team gets to see a book called Printed Artefact being packed.
- Ever since the People Power protests, the Kandokan labour laws ruled that at least 10 percent of the workforce are actual people.
- Kerb!am maintenance has 198 Safety Rules. Number 198 is to not drink the cleaning fluids.
- Kerb!am Safety Rule 1 is to not climb onto the conveyor.
- Every piece of bubble wrap contains a tiny gaseous bomb.
Technology[]
- The Kerb!am Men transports via teleport pulse.
- Judy Maddox has an electronic clipboard.
- The Doctor uses the psychic paper.
- Daniel says machine learning has failed.
- The Induction scanner allocates work details based on fitness, stamina, dexterity and mental assessments.
- The Kerb!am workers all wear GroupLoop ankle monitors. They function as a way of reporting work productivity of each individual back to The System.
- The fulfillment workers use product scanners.
- Kerb!am has a large network of conveyors moving boxes around all over the warehouse.
- Kerb!am Men and TeamMates have built-in speech circuits.
- Kerb!am has a night mode installation.
- Kerb!am has had multiple types of Delivery Bots.
- The Delivery Bots have receptor codes.
- The Delivery Bot version 1.0 is known as Twirly.
- Twirly mentions ear mufflers, pencil sharpeners and cola bottles in his pre-set info-speech before it runs out of juice. And after a recharge mentions cushions.
- The Doctor tells Twirly to look past new upgrades, firewalls and security patches to find the base code.
- The Doctor connects a DIN connector to Twirly.
- The Delivery Bots have teleport circuits.
- Slade has a gun with an energy pack.
- Charlie has a Kerb!am Man trigger device.
Jargon[]
- Kerblam it is a very common phrase used at Kerb!am.
- Humans are also called organic workers.
Locations[]
- The planet Kandoka has a Moon on which Kerb!am is located.
- A door at the back of the lobby at Kerb!am is labelled Home Zone. This place is a hologram garden used for free time and lunch breaks.
- Kerb!am has a Warehouse Floor with "fulfillment" at sections 1-100 and "packing" at sections 101-200.
- Kandoka is home to a human colony.
- Kerb!am also has a Final Checks area which packs the parcels and sends them onwards down to Dispatch which is where the postmen picks up the packages for delivery.
- Joanne gets sent to pick up an antique lamp at Section Triple Nine Double Five Slash Seven.
- Kerb!am gets its power drained down to the Foundation levels.
- Kerb!am has a Maintenance store.
- A sign says Sector D4 is the Canteen and Maintenance.
- The Doctor says it's not the first time she's hidden inside a panelled alcove.
- Kerb!am has an enormous package shifting area.
- Kerb!am also has a Disinfection Post which sprays disinfection on the packages.
- Kerb!am further has a Laser Quarantine Chute, which shoots beams as a Hygiene Defence if the disinfection fails.
- Foundation is below a massive liquidisation tank.
Notes[]
To be added.
Continuity[]
- The Seventh Doctor encountered an advertising drone promoting the Psychic Circus on the planet Segonax (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)
- The Doctor uses her psychic paper as a reference. (TV: The Vampires of Venice)
- The Doctor notes that "some of [her] best friends are robots", echoing the words of her previous incarnation. (TV: Technophobia) Some of these friends have been K9, (TV: The Invisible Enemy, et al.) & Kamelion. (TV: The King's Demons, et al.)
- The Doctor mentions meeting Agatha Christie, in an encounter with wasps. (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp)
- The Doctor has previously been employed by organisations and individuals. (TV: Spearhead from Space, et al.)
Home video releases[]
DVD[]
- This story along with the other stories in Season 55 were released as Doctor Who: The Complete Fifty-Fifth Season in 2020.
Blu-ray[]
- This story along with the other stories in Season 55 were released as Doctor Who: The Complete Fifty-Fifth Season on Blu-ray in 2020.