The TARDIS is boarded by a robot delivery man from Kerblam, the largest mail-order retailer in the galaxy, with a package that the Doctor ordered some time back. But while the Doctor is delighted to once again have a fez, the packing slip is even more important – bearing the words “help me” on the back. The Doctor pilots the TARDIS to Kerblam headquarters, where the time travelers go undercover as new hires in a warehouse populated by 90% robots and 10% people (in accordance with local law). Workers have been disappearing from Kerblam, and the Doctor immediately suspects the company’s small management staff, especially when Slade, the warehouse manager, is revealed to have known about the disappearances without telling anyone. But the Doctor soon discovers that Kerblam itself sent out the distress call…and that one of the “organics” on the premises is planning to start a planet-wide spree of death and destruction with super saver shipping.
written by Pete McTighe
directed by Jennifer Perrott
music by Segun Akinola
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Julie Hesmondhalgh (Judy Maddox), Lee Mack (Dan Cooper), Callum Dixon (Jarva Slade), Claudia Jessie (Kira Arlo), Leo Flanagan (Charlie Duffy), Matthew Gravelle (voice of Kerblam)
Notes: Odds are good that the eleventh Doctor purchased the fez, a piece of headwear whose coolness he was fond of declaring (though it could have been the seventh Doctor, who had some affection for fezzes, as seen in 1988’s Silver Nemesis). This episode also isn’t the first time that mail has been delivered directly into the TARDIS, as a similar special delivery initiated the seventh Doctor’s investigation of the Psychic Circus in 1988’s The Greatest Show In The Galaxy.
LogBook entry by Earl Green