Doctor Who Series 37 Episode 7 - "Kablam!" Spoilers

[Crazedwraith]

Has just fished airing. Watched it live for a change.

I enjoyed it! There were nice nods to Ten and Eleven's adventures.

Slightly miffed they killed off all the nicest people of course but it was decent enough yarn with something for everyone to do, even with quite a few guest characters. There's obviously some applicability to the modern day and amazon but for the most part it didn't become preachy.

All in all, a good watch. Next week's another 'the past was shite' historical looks like. This time witch hunts! Odds on the Doc being tried as one?

[Juubi Karakuchi]

Mostly automated factory with humans doing automatable tasks? Power outages? People going missing? I was starting to think this would be a Cybermen episode .

Nicely done on the whole though. The Doctor’s speeches were a bit jarring in places, but not too bad.

[Bedlam]

I felt the moral was rather muddied at the end, the mass murder was actually stopped due to the fact the place was automated but that was used as a reason to reduce the level of automation. It seemed a bit like 'the terrorist won'.

[mr friendly guy]

Nice inversion of the trope of the machines turning against humans and with the machines trying to protect the humans. This sort of happened also in the Robots of Death, although in that classic Who story the system fighting back was humans sending a robot to figure out what was going on. That being said, Robots of Death was still more enjoyable than this, but its a decent story.

[Enigma]

So far we're half way into the series and it has all been meh. And now there's a rumor that both Chibnall and Jodie are leaving next season.

[Crazedwraith]

It's only 10 episodes so we're 70% of the way through.

Meh is a step up from Capaldi as far as I'm concerned.

[Tribble]

It's only 10 episodes so we're 70% of the way through.

Meh is a step up from Capaldi as far as I'm concerned.

YMMV of course as I rather liked Capaldi's Doctor, especially later on. That being said so far this season is better than Capaldi's first season and Matt Smith's last IMO.

[Enigma]

I'd put Capaldi's Doctor slightly above Jodie's Doctor. In the sense that I'd rewatch Capaldi's episodes more than one whereas I have no interest in watching Jodie's episodes more than once. I don't blame her, she does The Doctor justice, but she hasn't been given good stories to work with. Decent stories? Yes. Good stories? Nope. None of them are memorable.

As for the rumors, I don't know which site mentioned it (late night reading on my phone), but it seems that Chibnall doesn't like how things are done behind the scenes and if he leaves then Jodie would leave with him. Not only that but the two male companions will leave and Mandip's status is unknown. Apparently, Chibnall and Jodie do not want to do 'a full series a year' that BBC wants with Chibnall saying it isn't sustainable and Jodie being a new mother.

If this is true, then we'll see a new Doctor in a year.

Found the website.

[The Romulan Republic]

Since when has New Who ever done a series every year?

I really hope that isn't true. Partly because I like Jodie Whitaker and her companions and they deserve a successful run, and partly because it'll be used by certain parties as proof that the attempt to have a female Doctor failed. Especially if she leaves because of the work load while being a new mother. The argument will be "This is why you shouldn't hire women".

Its completely unfair, of course, but that's how it'd be played. And if it happens as a result of BBC mismanagement behind the scenes, then I will never forgive the BBC.

Anyway, finally caught the back half of the episode on repeat. The robots and the factory had a very RTD-era feel, to me, but the plot (with something innocuous and every-day actually being a deadly threat) felt very Moffat-y, just with the worst Moffatisms toned down. It felt a bit rushed plot-wise, but the commentary on automation and unemployment, while perhaps a bit ham-fisted, was very timely, and not something that's discussed enough in media. It was the guy playing the villain who really sold it- he really seemed like a desperate young man trying to convince himself that he's doing the right thing.

Also, Yaz is really growing on me.

Overall, this season has been solid thus far. There has been no episode that was outstanding, that made me go "Holy shit, that's amazing", like Blink or Waters of Mars or The Doctor's Wife. But there haven't been any awful clunkers either that I've seen, and the overall tone is better than Moffat's later seasons.

The Doctor still seems more... subdued, more ordinary personality-wise than the larger than life figures of Tennant through Capaldi. I'm not sure whether that's better or worse overall, but its certainly an interesting change of pace. Though Whitaker did seem to be channeling Ten a bit in this episode to me- again, parts of its felt very RTD-era to me.

[B5B7]

The villain would rather that people have menial jobs than doing whatever else it is possible for people with very advanced technology to do.
And in the end he kind of won, though he is dead so can't appreciate his victory - increased human employment.
The episode had some nice bits, but something is lacking, that would make it rewatchable.

[Crazedwraith]

Well it's heavily implied that not having a job is still roughly as bad as it is today for people. So yeah, high employment even of crap work is better.