A story I like a whole lot, not least for being one of a string of Jodie-era eps that have a specifically Sylvester McCoy vibe to their setting (Orphan 55 I have always liked because it feels like it could be from S24, in a good way!), but this is another one that is divisive, at least thematically.

I think everyone could agree that this episode *looks* fantastic, the design of the warehouse, little break zone park, the production design of all the signage in the background, and of course The Teammates themselves, that’s all pretty ideal. Jennifer Perrott, who also directed The Tsuranga Conundrum, keeps the pace nice and high when required, the editing when Yaz is pursued through the Triple 9s is really good.

I suppose where we get into questions is the resolution to the story, and here’s how I read it: the Kerblam! business is of course exploitative and largely awful, Lee Mack can only see his child once a week for example. The Kerblam! computer system, on the other hand, has more empathy than the people that manage it, and senses, tries to stop on its own, then eventually has to directly ask The Doctor for help to avert a truly senseless massacre. You could reasonably ask if the system is trying to save lives out of what The Doctor perceives as empathy or merely making a sound business calculation about needing to keep customers alive in order to have people to buy things lol.

So, The Doctor must clearly avert the deaths of 100,000 people, she begs and tries to convince Charlie not to do it in every way she can think of, but he starts it anyway, then smashes the device so she can’t quickly stop him. Despite the girl he loved dying in front of him (the computer system’s murder of this almost comically nice girl as a ploy for his empathy is pretty intense as a plot element), he commits to killing a ton of innocent people because he believes it will erode trust in Kerblam and automation in general. He can’t be allowed to kill people on that scale no matter how exploitative an employer Kerblam is.

Her only option in the time given is to keep the deadly bubble wrap (so good as an idea on multiple levels) there where it is, set it off now where it can only destroy The Teammates and the Kerblam dispatch area, and escape with everybody using one of their robot heads as a short-range teleport. Charlie is the one who runs away from them and will not come back no matter how much she pleads. I don’t know what else she was supposed to do for him, he made a choice. I guess this is divisive in a similar way to the scenes with Kid in Interstellar Song Contest, it’s uncomfortable to see The Doctor seemingly side with a big corporate entity, but the way I see this one, it is more that an intelligent computer system begged for help in averting a massacre, and Charlie refused to be swayed and refused to be saved.

In the end, Judy believes she now has leverage to hire more actual people (a majority she says anyway) and treat them a little better, I don’t know that I could reasonably expect The Doctor and friends to bring down this entire galaxy’s economy on their way passing through? The company is ubiquitous because the galaxy is making the choice to use it, those people definitely do need a wake-up call, but the death of 100,000 people can’t be it. I will agree that The Doctor certainly doesn’t need to be *quite* so gung ho about the company from the very beginning, although her excitedly saying “Kerblam man” is a highlight anyway. I guess we must also picture the 11th Doctor up late, a few wines in, ordering a new Fez on the Kerblam! app and giving it a door code pin to access the TARDIS when it arrives lol.

I think the plot logic all works for me, and it is consistent with The Doctor’s character that you exhaust every method you can to convince, cajole, compel the antagonist to change their ways and failing that you just have to stop them, and even then you try to save them but if they’re committed killers then honestly not all that hard (Dinosaurs On A Spaceship). Good that this one makes you think that through, though! Is it right or is it wrong? Was Charlie right to some degree, sure he was! There are some clunky bits of writing earlier on that I think are way more worthy of criticism, like Ryan just saying the thing about his coordination issues twice out loud largely unwarranted. But I really want to read the novel, I like what this story is up to a lot and I love how it looks. 3.75/5