Doctor Who Series 11: 10 Huge Questions After Kerblam!
All the major talking points following episode seven of Doctor Who series 11.
Kerblam!, the promising Doctor Who debut for Australian script-writer Pete McTighe, was a fascinating satire-come-morality tale. Taking modern institutions and concerns and reimagining them in the distant future is a mode of storytelling well suited to science fiction. It’s also one that hasn’t been visited as often it ought to have been in Doctor Who. As far as the legacy of the series goes then, this makes an important contribution.
The tale is a well-crafted one, with the twist more subtly disguised than last week’s. For once, none of the regulars were reduced to spare parts. McTighe takes a number of Doctor Who’s core components and transforms or subverts them to interesting ends. The weaponised bubble wrap a lovely way of turning what was once seen as a sign of naffness in monster design into a rather terrifying concept, especially for the bubble poppers among us. But the true evil behind the story is less easy to demark.
What’s going on at Kerblam and who ought to be held accountable for the evils that are about to unfold is still up for debate, making this the most ambiguous episode the series has offered so far, and some of the questions it provokes along the way run deep and go to the heart of what Doctor Who is all about.
10. When Did The Doctor Order The Fez?
Chris Chibnall did promise diehard fans that despite the lack of returning characters and monsters, the Doctor’s colourful history would provide a number of Easter Eggs in series 11. There hadn’t been all that many until this episode hit us with them like a cluster bomb. Kerblam! Pete McTighe revealed his fan credentials by overloading his debut Doctor Who script with references to the series’ past.
The gift of the Fez at the beginning of the episode was for the fans as much as the Doctor. It didn’t have to be an item we had seen the Doctor use, but by selecting one of the most iconic wardrobe accessories of recent years, McTighe both teases and tricks the audience.
The writer wants us to make the association of the fez with the eleventh Doctor. He wants to tease us that maybe the person needing her help is someone from yesteryear. It throws us off the scent of the System itself being responsible. A later mention of the First Lady adds to the intrigue, with River Song the only person who could have warranted such a title in relation to the Doctor. She definitely owed him a replacement Fez after destroying the original in The Big Bang. In that episode the Doctor even said he could buy a new one. Perhaps this was it, accidentally delivered to the wrong Doctor.
If the association with the eleventh Doctor is all part of an elaborate trick, then at a story level there is no reason to single out Matt Smith’s Doctor as the one who ordered the item. He isn’t the only Doctor to have donned a fez. He was beaten to it by Sylvester McCoy’s seventh Doctor (Silver Nemesis). Indeed, there were many similarities between this episode and those from the McCoy era such as Paradise Towers, The Happiness Patrol and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.