Doctor Who: Kerblam!

Can I just say f**k Kerblam? The original episode is not this impressive feat of filmmaking, and the incredibly frustrating third act, including a speech from the Doctor that is infamously out of character, is just another frustration to pile on top of an already middling episode from a middling season of television (for the most part).

I was SURE the novelization would improve things, and in a lot of ways it does. McTighe’s prose is very good. It’s a quick, engaging read that builds upon key details from the original episode, primarily adding backstory for both Judy and Charlie. Which is precisely what makes it so enraging for me personally whenever the third act, once again, portrays the Doctor as ignorant to the flaws of capitalism and the “heroes” are completely amoral while Charlie, the antagonist, becomes the only sympathetic character.

Judy especially, who is sort of just this hapless administrative person in the original episode, is such a strange character in the novelization. Her backstory as someone who grew up in poverty due to mass layoffs portrays her as a “f**k you I got mine” figure as she tells us that only ten percent of the staff of Kerblam are organic. Despite this, the Doctor repeatedly congratulates her for having humanity’s back, and her decision at the end to hire more human workers comes out of nowhere. Charlie, on the other hand, is shown to be much more sympathetic. His relationship with Kira is a lot sweeter in prose than the actor was able to portray on TV. The backstory with years and years of fighting for basic human rights is treated by the novel as immoral, simply because he and his parents would lie to police. His decision to use violence to harm Kerblam is completely justified, although his plan makes no sense and is stupid as can be. The Doctor of course makes the exact same speech about how individuals are the problem, not the system, and I’m left feeling angry and disappointed that the Doctor would do such a thing (let alone the implication that the 7th would as well, which happens on the final page). This is easily the most angry I’ve been reading Doctor Who. I know McTighe isn’t a bad writer, but this is an abomination

Pete McTighe's novelization of his Doctor Who episode Kerblam is much stronger than the TV version. It dives in deeper into Judy's backstory and her motivations; we learn about how robots made her Dad redundant, and how she saw her Dad be arrested in the riots led by humans against their robot replacements.

There's also a lovely cameo from the Seventh Doctor and Ace, who inspire young Judy to take over Kerblam, and prioritise the people over the machines. It ends with Judy hiring considerably more human workers, and having the robots packing the boxes whilst the humans supervise, which I think fixes some people's issues with Kerblam. It places the focus more squarely on people power triumphing over automated machines.

Pete McTighe, in these pages, does the best job of recapturing the feel of a classic Target novelisation that I’ve ever seen out of the new range. It could have been Terrence Dicks novelising a story he cared about, which is a delight.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen the episode in question, but the book did a great job of evoking the best of the era and punching up the guest characters by giving them additional back story and motivation - exactly what you want from this range.

The first two thirds of Kerblam! are very strong but it does start tripping itself up somewhat when the sympathetic antagonist (made even more sympathetic in the novelisation) starts his terrorist / freedom fighter activity against the giant Amazon-esque corporation. The book goes to some lengths to reaffirm that Kerblam! (Amazon) should have better working practices as it wrap ups and it makes all the right political points but it isn’t as elegant as the rest of the story. Perhaps while the antagonist was actually carrying out his scheme would have been the time to look at both sides of the argument in more detail, rather than in the closing pages.

It’s a lovely quick read though. One of the essential target books which earns its place independently of the programme itself.