The Doctor and Team TARDIS respond to a call for help from a certain shopping giant…

The parody isn’t subtle, but it was never meant to be – and for anyone who’s ever worked for a “retail giant”, particularly over the holiday season, this episode is more likely to cause nightmares than any number of Predator Tooth monsters. Pete McTighe’s script starts off as a satire on Amazon and the rest, but the number of twists and turns before we find out who really asked for help, and what they have in mind means that it’s one of the few episodes in recent times that you can’t predict from pretty early on.

There’s plenty for all of the regulars to do, and a couple of decent guest star roles – it didn’t need to be Lee Mack as the Kerblam! worker assigned to help Yaz, and Mack is suitably reined in by director Jennifer Perrott who does a great job generally in establishing the sheer size of the warehouse. (Look at the way the first scene in the office are framed or the start of the next scene.) Callum Dixon’s Jarva Slade perhaps gets a bit of a thin part, but Julie Hesmondhalgh  more than makes up for it.

Sure, there’s a degree of familiarity about elements of the story and the design (which you have to assume is a deliberate tip of the hat to The Greatest Show in the Galaxy), and the Doctor’s starting to make a few more references to previous incarnations, but that just cements this as part of Who’s long history.

Verdict: A solid piece of Doctor Who with a surprising throw back to a classic Tom Baker story… 8/10

Paul Simpson