It has a power to clearly illustrate the nature of social injustices, to imagine where such problems might lead in the future and to serve as a call to action to bring about positive change. Science fiction has long been used to hold a mirror to the real world and the issues that plague society. After initially presenting the Ood as obliging servants in "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit," Davies later revisited them to show how the species had been exploited and effectively enslaved by humanity in "Planet of the Ood." Much like the Ood in their first appearance, the human employees seen in "Kerblam!" seemed all too happy with their poor treatment and low pay, but unlike with the Ood, this injustice was never challenged. Russell T Davies' era as showrunner was defined by working-class heroes, be they companions like Rose Tyler or even entire species, like the Ood. Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor often featured in episodes focusing on progressive themes such as environmentalism, workers' rights and power struggles, and the politics of war. It's a far cry from Doctor Who's history, which is filled with stories in which the Doctor has spoken truth to power and dared to challenge the systems of control and authority that they have encountered throughout time and space. The episode literally transforms an all-controlling system into a victim, while turning a disillusioned worker into a potential mass murderer. The mystery of the distress call in "Kerblam!" is resolved when the Doctor discovers it was the automated system running Kerblam, having gained sentience, that sent out a call for help. It is an employee worried about job losses to automation who becomes the episode's villain and who is forced to endure a speech in which the Doctor declares "The systems aren't the problem." This issue is used to overshadow the punishing, underpaid jobs of human employees. Here, labor laws guarantee a workforce that is 10% human, while the other 90% are the robotic TeamMates. Having received a distress call from the vast galactic retailer, Kerblam, the Doctor and her companions go undercover in the company's warehouse. The Doctor explicitly refers to this as "the end point of capitalism a bottom line where human life has no value at all," in a direct attack on the injustices of capitalism.īy contrast, "Kerblam!" paints a bleak picture of a future in which humans are faced with a choice between mass unemployment and poverty, or unforgiving work for little pay, and yet the Doctor seems unbothered by this situation.
Thanks to automated spacesuits that can operate independently of their wearers, the company running the station has started killing off employees to reduce oxygen costs.
The former sees the Twelfth Doctor, Bill and Nardole arrive on a mining space station, where even the oxygen the workers breathe is privately owned and must be purchased. "Oxygen" and "Kerblam!" show the Doctor adopting two fundamentally opposed viewpoints.
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