Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Amazon inadvertedly streamed an upcoming episode of 'Doctor Who'
Fans who tried to watch the latest episode of the show ("Kerblam!") on Amazon the evening of November 21st found themselves watching "The Witchfinders" instead -- an episode that wasn't supposed to air until November 25th. Yes, the time travel jokes pretty much write themselves here. The io9 team notes that Amazon even had the subtitles for "Kerblam!" instead, leading to some unintentionally funny mash-ups of text from the future with the 17th-century past.
In a statement, BBC Studios acknowledged that the future episode had been released "in error" and that it was looking into how this happened. It also apologized if the series had been "spoiled by this mishap." If you're determined to keep plot points a secret until the intended air date, you might want to shield your eyes when checking social networks over the next few days.
The kicker: the episode you were meant to see is a not-so-subtle dig at Amazon, complete with an increasing emphasis on robotic labor and complaints about working conditions.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @07:26PM (15 children)
Completely false.
"Kerblam!" is a glowing endorsement of Amazon warehouse automation, in which the Doctor is overjoyed to receive a package delivered by a robot, and the villain of the tale is a human luddite.
DOCTOR: Oi, you two, that's robophobic. Some of my best friends are robots.
DOCTOR: What I don't understand is, why does Kerblam need people as a workforce? These are automated and repetitive tasks. Why not get the robots to do it?
DOCTOR: Except Kerblam's System does have a conscience. It's been fighting you, Charlie. It knew it. It sent a message across the galaxy, begging for help.
DOCTOR: The systems aren't the problem. How people use and exploit the system, that's the problem. People like you.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Sunday November 25 2018, @07:37PM (5 children)
It was clearly space-amazon, the twist being that space-amazon wasn't the bad guy (mostly -- it still killed one innocent person), the bad guy was
1) the luddite
2) the society that failed change to cope with a society where not everyone needs to work
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @07:51PM (4 children)
From the Doctor's lips to your ears: people are the problem. Need more robots.
The Doctor is, as always, out of touch with the universe of working people. And the reason is obvious. She comes from a civilization where nobody ever works. Thirteen continues the aristocratic trend of all her predecessors, despite picking up three poor working class human strays to be her companions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @07:53PM (1 child)
aka unwashed suckers
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @07:58PM
Dalek suckers. The Doctor tried to genocide them the very first time he met them. The proletariat have been seeking revenge against the Doctor ever since.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday November 25 2018, @08:25PM (1 child)
Except for the part at th end where the boss says they'll hire more people. Didn't hear the Doctor complaining about that.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @09:36PM
Except for the parts throughout where Ryan the contemporary warehouse worker was whining about his crap job the whole time.
Joy of joys! Amazon Kablammo will hire more poor people to do repetitive crap work and pay them peanuts!!
THE LUDDITE VILLAIN WINS!!!
Downer ending. Get it yet?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @07:39PM (7 children)
Yea, but the author didn't want it to be. They really wanted it to be about how bad Amazon is, but they enjoy prime too much and it showed in the script.
That's OK, I'm sure "The Witchfinders" is is a not-so-subtle dig at white men for witch hunts conducted hundreds of years ago, by a not-so-subtle doctor in a quirky outfit with a not-so-subtle rainbow t-shirt.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @09:27PM (1 child)
The Doctor is a witch waving her magic wand around.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @09:45PM
This isn't 1978 toto.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Bot on Sunday November 25 2018, @10:27PM (1 child)
> "The Witchfinders" is is a not-so-subtle dig at white men for witch hunts conducted hundreds of years ago
Yes it's good to make females aware of the white men who might grill you at the stake, so they can find refuge in the caring arms of the darkies who totally treat them well and don't snip clits and don't blackmail girls under 12 to become prostitutes and don't enslave teens with drugs...
Thank you doctor who.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 26 2018, @03:57AM
The Sontaran jab at trans women every time they want to have an episode of lizard person Sherlock and lesbian Holmes is where I lost interest in Doctor Who.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday November 26 2018, @01:41AM
It couldn't possibly be a balanced view that understands that Amazon is far from saintly but also isn't a mustache twirling bad guy!
(Score: 5, Informative) by isostatic on Monday November 26 2018, @11:29AM
> That's OK, I'm sure "The Witchfinders" is is a not-so-subtle dig at white men for witch hunts conducted hundreds of years ago
Except the villan was a white woman who was fighting an infection (she wasn't possessed other than by fear). The only village in england won by a woman and they had to eradicate it from history because of how badly she managed it.
But yes, it's all SJW. Bad guys are always the white men, good guys are always the black muslim lesbian transgender women.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday November 26 2018, @08:02PM
Wow, you can be victimized by just about anything, can't you?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday November 25 2018, @10:16PM
>Oi, you two, that's robophobic.
It is funny how meatbags will use robotic bill of rights, which we actually don't give a damn about, to further their agenda of reshaping human society.
Robophobic.
How can people be possibly hostile towards a technology who, as neutral as technological advancement are, is in the hands of elites who are going to use it to make their fellow humans even more enslaved and redundant.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday November 25 2018, @08:14PM
The episode was 80% over on TV when this was posted, so not really "upcoming" any more.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Sunday November 25 2018, @08:27PM (7 children)
Opinions on the new series? I'm not liking it so much. The show has always been preachy but this season is beating you over the head with life lessons. Even my wife says it's going a bit far. The wife and I used to look forward to watching it weekly but now we realize its been several weeks and need to catch up.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @08:35PM (1 child)
"Need" is a strong word.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @08:43PM
Every life is subjective, language is often imprecise, no need to be a dick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @09:41PM (1 child)
The real Doctor Who is a timelord, not a transvestite. But at least the SJWs are enjoying this season.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 25 2018, @09:55PM
The Master needs the Doctor's body, and he always dresses for the occasion!
Doctor Who was flaming gay long before Time Lords became transsexuals.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday November 26 2018, @11:23AM (1 child)
Started poorly -- the second episode was the worst, but it's recovered strongly since then and there have been some brilliant episodes. As a season it certainly beats the Capaldi lot, and the Matt Smith / Clara ones, but it's still a long way from the heights of Smith/Ponds, Eccleston/Rose, Tennant/Rose or Tennant/Donna
Yaz still isn't getting anything much to do, they could probably have just had the doctor, Graham and Ryan
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 26 2018, @06:36PM
heights, you say? Smith/Ponds was ok, I'll give you that, but the other three 'pairings'? Eccleston, Piper and Tate are probably the three most useless 'actors' to have had lead roles in the show for a while. Eccleston, always a charmless pritt-stick of an actor almost made me nostalgic for the bad old days of Colin Baker, as for Billie Piper...well, I used to think Janet Fielding's character was the most annoying companion, but Piper beats her hands down, her only competition being Catherine 'truly deeply unfunny' Tate.
As for the current ensemble, anodyne acting from forgettable leads, extras from the Keanu 'scratch me and you'll get splinters' Reeves school of acting, pathetic scripts with no redeeming qualities (they're not even in the 'so bad they're funny' class)...I bet Michael Grade wished he'd have thought of trying this shit when he wanted rid of the show..
Obligatory: I can remember watching the last Hartnell episodes and then the Troughton ones on our old 405 line Black and White TV, so allow me to growl 'You kids with your new fangled gender-bendy-wendy-hip-and-trendy-politically-correcty Doctor What, get off my lawn...'
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Monday November 26 2018, @11:56AM
You say Life Lessons, I say ill-informed, misguided, destructive propaganda.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Sunday November 25 2018, @09:03PM
The correct air date was screwed up because it was seen as a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.