#16 (12.6): Praxeus.

There's something wrong with the birds...

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 50 minutes. Written by: Pete McTighe, Chris Chibnall. Directed by: Jamie Magnus Stone. Produced by: Nikki Wilson.


THE PLOT:

Three crises in three different locations, all connected. In Hong Kong, former police officer Jake (Warren Brown) searches for his husband - missing astronaut Adam Lang (Matthew McNulty). In Peru, travel vlogger Gabriela (Joana Borja) wakes to find her partner, Jamila (Gabriela Toloi), has vanished. And in Madagascar, researcher Suki (Molly Harris) is shocked when a member of the crew of a missing submarine washes up on shore - only to be consumed by an alien pathogen mere moments after.

The Doctor has sent her companions to each of these trouble spots to investigate. Ryan notices the strange and aggressive behavior of the birds, and scoops up a bird corpse to bring back for study. Graham and Yaz team up with Jake, and rescue Adam from mysterious figures in hazmat suits. Study of the bird corpse and the astronaut's blood leads the Doctor to a startling conclusion about the nature of the virus - Even as Yaz's pursuit of one of the hazmat-clad figures leads her into danger...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: This episode sees her largely an enthusiastic carrier of exposition.  The first half sees her popping up in each location to connect various dots for us. Then, when the action settles in Madagascar, she studies the various clues for a while before explaining to both the other characters and the audience what exactly is happening. Jodie Whittaker is fine throughout - But after so many episodes that have pushed her Doctor and revealed more brittle and vulnerable sides, it can't help but be a disappointment to see her reduced to "Dr. Exposition."

Yaz: A rare good episode for Yaz. Given that Pete McTighe wrote Kerblam!, which was by far Yaz's best episode last season, it may well be that he has a feel for the character that other writers just don't.  She gets a lot to do here, from taking the lead in the investigation of the Hong Kong warehouse to insisting on going back for an important piece of alien equipment - which the Doctor resists because it isn't safe, but ultimately relents in the face of Yaz's determination. There's an amusing note in which Yaz is thrilled to discover an alien environment without the Doctor - only to be crushed when she learns that her discovery isn't so unearthly after all. Mandip Gill seems to relish her turn in the limelight, and shows how likable and charismatic she can be when she's allowed to actually do something!

Graham/Ryan: Also get a few good moments each.  Ryan spends the episode's first half paired with Gabriela, and is our viewpoint character for a memorably creepy sequence in an abandoned hospital; also, his recovery of the dead bird is key to the Doctor piecing the full situation together. Graham anchors a strong emotional scene with Jake, listening as the younger man pours out all his insecurities and offering just a few gentle words of advice. When Jake talks about what it's like to love someone amazing, Graham doesn't say one word about Grace - He doesn't have to, his emotions about his late wife etched clearly into his face. Good character writing for a character who has mostly not been well-treated this year, elevated further by a terrific performance from Bradley Walsh.


THOUGHTS:

I've seen a lot of comparisons of Praxeus to Orphan 55, and it's easy to see why. Both are standalone episodes, and both are episodes with strong environmental messages at their core.  Orphan 55 received a fair amount of criticism for its heavy-handed message.  For me, the message was not that episode's failure, but rather that the story itself felt rushed and incomplete, as if the different scenes just didn't fit together.  It all descended into a rush of activity that became meaningless... and therefore, boring.

Praxeus, by contrast, sets up a lot of different pieces, but keeps them unified. The pace is quite rapid at the start of the episode, with us dropped into events already underway, but we're given just enough information between creepy set pieces and action scenes to carry through the first third. Then it slows down, allowing us to receive needed exposition - while still keeping some tension alive through Yaz's venture into first the warehouse, then the alien environment. Once the script has revealed what is happening, the pace picks back up for the final stretch. All the pieces fit together; and for those who are bothered by messages, it should be pointed out that the Doctor doesn't make a big moral speech when she talks about plastic in the environment - Within the context of the story, that in itself is simply exposition to explain why the Praxeus disease is spreading on Earth.

Special mention should be given to the effects. The disease is well-realized, and the effect of it claiming - then exploding - its victims is genuinely disquieting. Scenes in which Ryan and Gabriela investigate an abandoned hospital have some nice atmosphere, leaving me once again musing that the current production team could probably pull off one heck of horror episode, if they were so inclined.

I won't get overenthusiastic, here - This is not going to go down as a personal favorite.  There are at least two too many guest characters, and the resolution feels overly convenient and tidy. But the episode does the best job of any so far this season in balancing the regulars, and if it's a filler episode, it at least manages to be a generally entertaining one.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: Fugitive of the Judoon
Next Episode: Can You Hear Me?

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#7 (11.7): Kerblam!

Something isn't quite right with the robots...

1 episode. Approx. 49 minutes. Written by: Pete McTighe. Directed by: Jennifer Perrott. Produced by: Nikki Wilson.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor receives a delivery from Kerblam!, the biggest retailer in the galaxy. Much to the Doctor's delight, it's a fez - doubtless ordered two lifetimes ago. More interesting to the others is the packing slip, which has a message printed on the back:

"HELP ME."

They travel to the Kerblam! warehouse, where they go undercover as new workers. They meet Judy (Julie Hesmondhalgh), the friendly but ineffectual "Head of People", and Slade (Callum Dixon), an overbearing manager. The Doctor and Ryan go to work in the packing stations, where they befriend Kira (Claudia Jessie), an enthusiastic young employee. Yaz is assigned to Fulfillment, retrieving items from the warehouse with Dan (Lee Mack), a veteran staffer. Both Kira and Dan separately remark on employees who have suddenly "gotten the sack," with Kira mentioning a co-worker who never arrived back at her home. Meanwhile, Graham is assigned to maintenance, where he bonds with Charlie (Leo Flanagan) and takes the opportunity to learn the layout of Kerblam!

Then Dan takes a call to retrieve an item from a remote, mostly closed-off floor... and vanishes. When Yaz follows, she comes face-to-face with some Kerblam! delivery bots. And the robots are definitely not behaving according to their program...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: "I don't like bullies, don't like conspiracies, don't like people in danger, and there's a flavor of all three here." After getting the message, the Doctor is initially content to try a low-key approach, more-or-less blending in among the workers. After Dan's disappearance, she abandons that entirely, directly confronting Slade and Judy, breaking into locked cabinets, and even hacking into Kerblam!'s base code. She manages to stop what would have amounted to a 9/11-style event, but not without collateral damage. Right after her confrontation with the villain of the piece, she looks anything but pleased. For a brief moment, she actually looks like she's been utterly defeated.

Graham: "You're just making sounds now!" Graham's bemused exasperation, both at the strange but recognizable Warehouse of the Future and the Doctor's behavior, provides a lot of amusement. He's none too pleased when the Doctor switches jobs with him, which sticks him with "Premium Maintenance" (read: janitor). He doesn't dwell on his annoyance, though, using his affable nature to form a friendship with Charlie and to get the younger man to obtain a map for him. He pays attention to his surroundings, which means that when the Doctor needs to access "Kerblam Version 1.0," Graham knows exactly where she can find it.

Yaz: This isn't remotely a Yaz spotlight episode, and yet it may well be her strongest showing of the season. When the message arrives, she is the first of the Doctor's companions to urge investigating. She genuinely bonds with Dan, and is concerned enough for her new co-worker to go looking for him immediately after he disappears. When Ryan hesitates before jumping onto the conveyor, she is a silently encouraging presence - Then provides more vocal encouragement when they have to jump from one conveyor belt to another. The episode ends with her making a request of the Doctor: To visit the family of one of the story's casualties.

Ryan: "Halfway across the universe, and I feel like I'm back at work." Kerblam! reminds Ryan of the various jobs he has held, and not in a good way. The Doctor seems to enjoy doing this kind of mindless drone work (doubtless it's a new experience for her... for less than a day), but Ryan knows this kind of work too well and finds no fulfillment in it. When Kira gushes about how work gives people purpose, he responds, "some work." His familiarity with these types of warehouses does mean he knows exactly how to get into closed off areas when it's needed.

The script also wins points for not only remembering Ryan's coordination issues, but properly engaging with them. We learn that at his warehouse job, he had difficulty with some tasks at first. "Takes me a while to learn things physically," he tells the others. "Get there in the end, but some stuff takes me a bit longer" - and during that period, he only kept his job with the help of friends who covered for him. He hesitates before jumping on the conveyor belt at the end, but does not take the chance to stay back when it's offered. "That's not how we roll, is it, Yaz?" - which earns him an appreciative glance from her.


THOUGHTS

Kermblam! is a good, solid episode of old-school Doctor Who. A well-paced mystery, some creepy robots, an undercurrent of commentary on current society. I could easily see this episode working with pretty much any Doctor, with only relatively minor rewrites. It's one of the least immediately interesting episodes of the season, but it makes up for that by being one of the most entertaining.

Pete McTighe's script gets a lot of mileage from the obvious parallels between Kerblam! and modern corporations (the obvious target being Amazon). The work is dehumanizing, repetitive, and dull, something commented on by both Ryan and the Doctor. The workers wear devices to monitor productivity - something Ryan reminds us is not really science fiction when he observes that "wore on of these at (his) last job." Oversight is all but nonexistent, leaving complaints and issues no place to be properly addressed, something that frustrates even the management whose job it is to deal with those issues.

There is also a nice sense of an established world here. The viewer sees the work as dehumanizing, as do the regulars, but the actual human employees of this time and place seem genuinely enthusiastic about having these jobs. Judy, whose title is Head of People, proudly declares that the company is "Ten-Percent People Powered!", as if having actual humans making up 10% of the workforce is a rare and special achievement. Kira mentions having only received one gift in her entire life - not complaining, but instead reflecting in wonder on receiving a small box of chocolates. Dan "splurges" on a flight back home twice a year to see a daughter he obviously adores. Even the one character who is angry and frustrated at the state of affairs isn't raging against the nature of the jobs - Just that the quota for them is a measly 10%. It all creates a grim picture of a society whose problems extend far beyond the story's warehouse setting.

The script is quite well-structured, to a degree that becomes very clear on second viewing. The mystery plays fair with the viewer, with clues planted in the early scenes that most simply won't catch the first time around. I appreciated that apparent stock characters - an ineffectual Human Resources staffer, a sneering manager - end up being more rounded than they first appear. The villain's identity is a surprise that works, because when it's revealed it fits with what has gone before.

I only have only one issue with the story, but unfortunately it's a big one. Late in the episode, suspense is built when a likable guest character is put into jeopardy. It's actually refreshing that the regulars don't manage to rescue this character in time. But it is not the villain who kills this character - and the murder goes largely uncommented on by the Doctor and her friends. The scene itself plays out very effectively, and I have no problem with the Doctor not addressing it in the climax (she's a little busy preventing thousands of deaths at that moment). But the epilogue should really see her doing something about it. Instead, the script appears to forget entirely, which just doesn't sit right.

Kerblam! is still a good episode: Well-paced, often funny, with the best balance of the four regulars since Rosa. But the failure to address that guest character's murder leaves a sour taste - A shame, because this good episode would otherwise be a quietly superb one.

Rating: 7/10. But probably would have been a "9" without that single, severe misstep.

Previous Episode: Demons of the Punjab
Next Episode: The Witchfinders

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