Thought I’d spin this off from the Post-RTD thread as it’s a bit off topic.
I’m really trying to wrap my head around why people are so aghast at the end of Kerblam!.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of Amazon or big business or whatever but I just struggle to see why people have such strong reactions to Kerblam.
Is it this line at the end?
Can people elucidate more for me. Is the story really betraying all that Doctor Who stands for? Is Kerblam (the company) a terrible, awful thing?
Educate me.
I am the Kerblam fan.
I’m aware of why people don’t like the episode, but I find Ttheir reasoning to be a bit ridiculous.
Kerblam is personally one of my favorite stories. I honestly don’t get it myself.
I’m not a huge fan of Kerblam, I think its message is fudged but I really don’t see it as a betrayal of Doctor Who.
For those that do, I hope that if they haven’t already they stop using Amazon. Its a tad hypocritical to berate an episode of Dr Who for being on the side of big business if you contribute to the profits of the obvious big business this show is targeting.
It is that the whole episode is pro-big company and the big company faces no consequences. It is well established in the story that the people are suffering because of Kerblam but the Doctor does not care about that at all. It could have been good if the story made the Doctor care for the people but she doesn’t and that is not what the Doctor stands for.
Someone else will probably write this better but I think that this is the main problem with it.
I’ll admit, being pro-big business when I’d been getting The Sun Makers vibes earlier in the episode was a bit of whiplash for me.
(I also feel like there was some stereotyping on who turned out to be the terrorist…)
Not pushing back but can you elaborate on how the people are suffering because of Kerblam and in what way the story suggests the Doctor doesn’t care about it.
Kerblam! I don’t think it’s particularly pro or anti capitalist, and rather tries to do both. First half of the episode is showing how bad it is working for Kerblam, the hours, the long times away from family, showing the boss man being a dick, and the societal issues that make it very hard for anyone to get a job. But then at the end, “the system isn’t the problem,” and the the only thing Kerblam seems to change is increasing the number of people they employ instead of automating without making any change to their working conditions. I think it’s confused and has some rather mixed messages in it, but I also think it’s far from a bad episode and not entirely fair to say it’s purely a pro-Amazon thing.
It is said that the people on the planet are poor and that there are no jobs. It has gotten to a point where one person is willing to commit a terrorist action, because he sees no way out. He is punished and that is right. But the Doctor newer really stands on the workers side and in the end of the story and by the end she just trusts an executive to do the right thing (that never gives fair working conditions) instead of helping the workers to organize for a better future.
And even if “the system” refers to the computer system of Kerblam, that system thought killing an innocent one of the company’s workers, Kira Arlo, to teach Charlie a lesson was an acceptable thing to do. No one was using or abusing the system to cause that.
The thing that really would have saved it would have been if they had done like they did with the TV station in season 1 and have the Doctor come back to it and seeing the dystopian future of Kerblam where nothing really changed for the people. That could have been cool.
Yeah, I was just thinking Kerblam! was yet another case of the Doctor solving the immediate problem, and then leaving before anything new is put in place of what they just tore down. I wonder if this one bothers people more because it’s so much more real of an issue.
I think this reflects my thoughts on the story in a way I wasn’t being able to formulate or express so thanks for the post.
The Doctor wouldn’t even really need to come back. The pr for the company at the end and them trying to hire the Doctor could have been replaced with something as the Doctor was leaving showing that they weren’t really planning on resolving the problems and trying to fix things…
Would have been a good chance for a cameo, actually. Maybe the company people could be reporting on things to their boss… and it’s Sil.
Unfortunately we live in a society, and you can have opinions against things like capitalism whilst being forced to live within that system because there are no alternatives.
This meme comes to mind…
Yeah. I mean, sure, I’d like to shop other places besides Amazon… but Amazon’s killed off a lot of the businesses I would have been shopping at instead.
I was thinking about that comic panel as well.
It’s one of my favourites haha
