When the Doctor gets a call for help in a package, the crew heads to a Kerblam factory and uncovers a frightening plot. The TARDIS crew is crashing through space when a robot, which Doctor excitedly calls "the Kerblam Man" appears with a delivery. She explains it was a delivery bot for the massive retail business Kerblam, and pulls out the familiar image of her delivered fez. Ryan walks off with the package's bubble wrap and a confused Yaz hands the packing slip to the Doctor; it reads "Help me." Ryan shrugs it off as a joke, saying they used to do that where he worked, but Yaz and Graham convince the Doctor they should at least take a look to be safe. The others are amazed when they land at a massive Kerblam factory, and though Yaz worries about how big the place is, Ryan noting that he feels like he's at work gives the Doctor an idea. The Doctor speaks with Head of People Judy Maddox (Julie Hesmondhalgh), convincing her they've come in from Kandoka and using her psychic paper to say they're relatives of the first lady, at which point she scans them into the system with her screwdriver. As they head to their work stations, they see Dan Cooper (Lee Mack) interact with a robot; the Doctor chastises Ryan and Graham for saying the robots are creepy. We head to Graham getting scanned to determine his best area of work, and Judy explains that the robotic "TeamMates" are the stystem's face and help assist and supervise human workers. Judy is surprised to see the Doctor's two hearts, but is distracted explaining that she enjoys Kerblam's system of automation along with organic workers. The power suddenly goes out, but Judy says it's a result of building on a moon; Yaz asks about happiness and Judy hesitantly says she hopes it feels like a privilege to work at Kerblam. Everyone is fitted with ankle "GroupLoops" that monitor activity and report back to the system; Ryan mentions wearing one with his old job, though Judy doesn't know where he talks about. They get a view of the massive factory and Judy explains how orders come in and are sent to the different sections of the factory. She explains rules including that anyone on a conveyor is immediately terminated. After explaining that packages are immediately teleported once done, the Doctor is frustrated to learn she doesn't have the purple GroupLoop required to work in packing slips. Once Judy leaves, the Doctor uses her screwdriver to swap jobs with Graham; Yaz is told to come with one robot while the Doctor will be with Ryan, and Graham learns he's a maintenance man. In packing, the Doctor and Ryan make quick friends with Kira Arlo (Claudia Jessie); the Doctor says the work isn't bad while Ryan flies at the work, explaining his experience at the factory helped despite his coordination issues. Kira says she used to be terrible but now peps herself up before shifts, then explains to the confused Doctor and Ryan that Kandokan labor laws require companies to hire at least 10% human workers at all levels. Ryan is surprised to learn Kira has only ever had one present in her life, from Judy; she never knew her parents and likes to imagine how happy it makes people when packages arrive. The Doctor asks if Kira ever heard of anyone at Kerblam needing help, but the girl merely looks back in confusion. Over in Dan's section, Yaz asks the same thing, but he warns her the robots can hear everything if they want; he suggests she keep her head down and work hard and she'll receive praise. He got a poster on the wall for doing this, and he explains how his daughter is back home; she gave him a necklace as a present which he treasures. A TeamMate tells them to get back to work, and Dan says he works a hard job to ensure his daughter doesn't have to, and mentions how automation passed humanity as we were busy staring at our phones. The TeamMate interrupts again to suggest they get back to work, and an request comes in for an object from a Triple 9 area for Yaz. Dan immediately takes the request, saying Yaz will get lost in the Triple Nines, explaining that area isn't as well managed and the last person to go down there was fired. The power suddenly goes out again, and Mr. Jarva Slade (Callum Dixon) arrives at packing to reassure everyone that it's fine; he rudely tells Kira to re-engage her brain "if she can find it." Ryan and the Doctor stand up for her, getting in the executives face and giving advice on respect after saying she'd just add his warning to her collection. She asks if he knows anyone who needs help and he simply tells them to get back to work; Kira warns them against standing up to Slade. She explains that people have gone missing despite some apparently never making it home when they should have. Down in the Triple Nines, Dan is surprised to find a delivery bot wandering around; it doesn't answer but grabs him when he says he'll report the problem. Yaz, who has gone looking for Dan, hears him scream, and finds his cart, necklace, and broken scanner along with the robots, whom she is forced to flee from. Graham is bored listening to rules and is introduced to Charlie Duffy (Leo Flanagan), who saw the crew arrived and is happy to have a new companion. As the two joke, the power goes again, and everyone later meets up for a break and learns what Yaz found; the Doctor wants Graham to make use of his unrestricted access by finding plans of the whole complex. Charlie and Kira have some obvious awkward flirting, and when the Doctor says they're going to file a complaint about the disappearing people issue, a nearby bot watches. She goes to Judy and Slade; the former explains there isn't a police force that would help, as they have jurisdiction, so the Doctor gives them the packing slip. Slade reveals the slips are automatically labeled during the printing process, and Ryan notes no one in their section could've had time to do it like Slade suggests. The Doctor threatens that she could become suspicious of them, so the duo say they'll look into the issue; she warns that they'll deal with her if anything else happens, and leaves. While Yaz and Ryan poke fun at the Doctor for looking into matters all the time, the Doctor has them hide in an alcove and references her past adventure with wasps and Agatha Christie. Elsewhere, Charlie is shocked to learn Graham noticed his thing for Kira, and explains he can't seem to concentrate while around her; he hasn't told anyone as he's been alone for a while. Graham, noting that he's new here, asks Charlie for a map of the place; the young man leads him to a display housing a building design; the robots come on as the pair leaves. The others sneak back into Slade's office, breaking into his filing cabinet. Something catches the Doctor's eye just as Judy catches them. The GroupLoops had notified her of them, and the Doctor's poor attempt at an excuse prompts Judy to reveal there were no shuttles from Kandoka like they said. Admitting the truth, the Doctor reveals the file shows Slade is keeping track of the missing people; the group is surprised when the power has a total system blackout. Judy finds the power is drained right down to the foundation; Graham arrives with Charlie and hands over the Kerblam plans. Graham points out that, despite the power outage, a robot is in the room; it tries to strangle Charlie so Judy rips its head off. She is shocked, but Yaz tells her about what happened with Dan, and Judy claims the delivery robots never go to the area Dan disappeared from. The Doctor gives the robot's head and finds the system seemed to have channeled all the energy to one bot; Judy says it's obvious the system's attacking since no person would do it. The Doctor is suspicious of Judy, but Charlie agrees plenty of people would be without work because of her, and Judy continues that the system still has the missing people logged as working. Needing the original plans for the delivery bots to figure out what went wrong and where, Graham and Charlie take the group back to the archives where they got the complex plans. They find the original bot, also called "Twirly," and though Charlie is anxious about Slade, Judy says she'll handle him and the Doctor reactivates Twirly. The others note how cute and retro it is, while a nearby TeamMate comes on and allows Slade a view of what they're doing; he has found the headless bot and prepares a blaster. Over in packing, some bots tell Kira she is a great worker and has been selected for a prize as "worker of the day," and she goes with them despite never having heard of the award. Back in the archives, Twirly loses power after a sales pitch, so Graham suggests they go back to maintenance and Judy reveals she's got a notification that Kira has gone missing and her GroupLoop is off the system. They realize the system is deliberately telling them about the abduction this time, and they are surprised to learn Kira is down in dispatch, where people aren't allowed to go. Ryan tells the others to find what they need from Twirly while he, Yaz, and Charlie go down to dispatch; he takes them to a shoot. He says he sprained an ankle the first time he did it at his old job, and though telling Charlie of his condition and the latter saying he'll go alone if necessary, Ryan and Yaz are determined to help. The three go down the shoot while the robots lead Kira to a room that feels like a vault, leaving her inside as the doors are sealed. The trip to dispatch leaves the trio screaming as they take a trip down a slant, somehow not being launched when the track aims down. Ryan accidentally knocks Charlie off with a high-5; Yaz convinces him to jump and they all reunite as the Doctor successfully recharges Twirly. The robot is puzzled when they don't want sales pitches or delivery, and becomes nervous when Judy tells him they need his help in a mission that could save all of Kerblam. The Doctor quickly tells him about the potential compromise and plugs him into the system; he agrees when she says he'll be retrieving anything strange and delivering it back to them. Once plugged in, Twirly has an experience that tells the Doctor exactly what she needs to know to move forward with their investigation. Whereas the previous episode was focused on specifically the history of Yaz's family and simply had some alien aspects as part of the situation, this episode is steeped in sci-fi tech.
Kicking things off we got a joke about the Doctor still having to adjust to her new form and TARDIS when she says she still hasn't gotten used to driving it, at which point a robot appears. This Doctor, often more excitable than her predecessor, is ecstatic upon seeing the Kerblam Man, while also having her curiosity piqued when she finds the request for help. As was often the case with Classic Doctor Who, we actually have some pretty simple sets throughout the episode, with the characters interacting in simple rooms and even pointing out the old-fashioned file cabinet in Slade's office. By focusing on having the robots and some of the accessible tech look futuristic, however, the show succeeds in making it appear as if the characters are in the future on an alien world. We actually get an interesting mystery with this episode as well, as no one seems to know where the "help" message came from. When the crew learns that people are disappearing, the obvious suspect is Slade, since he is pretty rude, but at the same time there are moments where he seems sincere about wanting to help find the people and having the obvious suspect be the antagonist would be boring and predictable. This would especially be the case considering he's be a stereotypical self-absorbed jerk businessman, which has been done plenty of times before, including this show this season. There are some fun one-shot characters this episode, like Kira and Dan, with the latter quickly getting an emotional story to get people invested in him, though while his death is sad, the short time he was here does prevent him from being as sad a death as some other characters. Jodie Whitaker does an impressive job again of standing up to a bully character when she defends Kira against Slade, with quick retorts to ever threat he makes. The conveyor scene I found a bit odd because of Ryan suddenly deciding to tell Charlie all about his condition, as well as the somewhat silly way they shoot the trio jumping to the lower belt. At the same time, I did get a good laugh from Ryan high-fiving Charlie, only to accidentally knock him off their conveyor belt. The looks on Ryan and Yaz's face were great. While it's been done before, the robots of this episode are definitely creepy to both look at and hear, with their lifeless expressions and inflections. It's a somewhat easy route to take, since plenty of people have fears surrounding such lifeless faces, like what you see with dolls, but it still needs to be done right. Throughout the episode, there is a rather creepy air to the robots since they just occasionally pop in to say ominous things like warning characters to get back to work. As is needed for this kind of situation, the robots have an energetic, kind voice in spite of their creepy nature, which helps make them more unnerving. The episode has some good references for longtime fans, with the Doctor wearing a fez at the start and later mentioning her wasp-filled adventure with Agatha Christie. The writers thankfully didn't linger on the jokes, which would have weakened them, but rather left them as simple references for fans to enjoy. Overall, the episode isn't really as big for me when compared to something like Rosa or Demons of Punjab, especially since part of its message is a typical thing about becoming reliant on tech. While it goes another route, at its base that is the point, with Dan taking a jab at people "staring at smart phones," though a plus is how the focus is more on unemployment. It was still some sci-fi fun to watch, and this week will hopefully give us something just as good, if not better.
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