I'm so mad that such a fun episode with a really good premise and potential for relevant social commentary got ruined by that speech at the end

So I should probably hate this episode for what it represents and for what it does to the Doctor as a hero of the working class... But I'm just not going to beat myself for actually liking about 3/4 of the episode. It is fun, and the mystery is actually engaging. It just sucks that the resolution is so bad and out of sync with everything that came before (e.g. The Sunmakers, Oxygen...) I just know that if this were under Moffat the Doctor would have fudged that company up so bad. The Doctor is pretty badass as she confronts management for 40 minutes, and then at the end she does nothing to subvert the status quo (although you could argue that she knows that capitalism will end after the events in Oxygen, so she can't really alter the course of history, I don't believe they thought about that, it's my head cannon so I can sleep at night)

PS: I agree with everything quantumshade wrote, great review.

twink bad

I really enjoyed this one, fun adventure/mystery story at Amazon Kerblam. I also thought the bubble wrap twist was great.

Very surprised with low ratings on this one.

Ooh, it's pretty close! It's *almost* something I enjoyed, and has some pretty memorable lines and moments. I think people are a little too hard on Kerblam over its flawed ending, but so much of it is so much closer to at least something resembling Doctor Who compared to the other dud episodes. Jodie Whittaker's initial enthusiasm on receiving a Kerblam package was infectious and one of those few moments in her time as the Doctor where I was really feeling her embody the character, at least a bit.

The story is a bit of a disaster in its implicit endorsement of capitalism (which the Twelfth Doctor will apparently go on to destroy) and of just the status quo in general, but really that's all just a clumsy attempt to get a little political around the automation trend. None of this is very original or well done, there's a bunch of dumb lines everywhere including that infamous line about being best friends with robots, the companions and even guest cast really don't have much to do, and overall it just doesn't work.

The Kerblam robots just look okay. A little bit of polish could have made this episode at least passable. It at least isn't a boring episode like so many other Thirteenth Doctor stories, and it tends to stick with me, at least a little.