Smile

"They're designed to make you happy."

Writer: Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Format: TV
Broadcast: 22nd April 2017
Series: 10.02

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Bill

Synopsis

After shaking off Nardole, the Doctor asks where Bill Potts wishes to travel in time. She asks to see the future. Complying, he takes her to see one of Earth's first space colonies, where it's been stated the inhabitants have cracked the secret of perpetual happiness. However, they soon discover that the cause of this 'happiness' has a very deadly punishment for not following along...

Verdict

Smile was a very good episode to continue my rewatching of the tenth series of modern Doctor Who and I was delighted that it was better than I remembered. Based on my ratings for the series on its initial broadcast, I had this as the worst of the series but I was actually interested in the story right from the get go. I really liked how excited Bill was in the TARDIS that she was getting a proper adventure following The Pilot and I loved that once she was on the colony, she was extremely appreciative of the Doctor bringing her. She loved where she was and was just happy. That was actually rather important for this episode with the smile theme being extremely prominent. If you weren't smiling, you were as good as dead. We saw a horrifying example of this play out early on in the episode with a quite graphic killing with bones just collapsing to the floor. The moment the Doctor learned that the fertiliser for barley was human in origin was frightening and Bill's sense of adventure evaporated from her face. Pearl Mackie is a terrific actress and I thought it quite humorous that Gemma (my girlfriend who's watching the series with me) really liked her top. She looked good and modern and she seemed right at home on her first trip in the TARDIS. Her questioning of the chairs being too far away from the TARDIS console was really good and I just thought she had a really strong episode. The Emojibots were intriguing and they definitely didn't seem as cheesy as they did on the original broadcast. The Doctor saw that they actually did have a life but they were acting so literally and somewhat stupidly that they had nearly caused the end of the human race. The way that they defined happiness as the opposite of grief, which was the first way someone died on the support team sent ahead of the colony ship, was intriguing and the resolution from there was quite quick and simple. That was okay because it was logical. I did think the colonists appeared for too little a time but then again I'm not sure they were really needed for longer. The Doctor and Bill more than carried the episode before their awakening. Peter Capaldi was good as the Doctor and I liked how his Scottishness was questioned in the story. The Vardy were a great element and the scenes of the microbots just coming from being the wall was actually quite scary. They were so quick and it was pretty interesting that they were the whole place rather than just being part of it. The Doctor and Bill being in the original spaceship was very good and I loved how the Doctor had memorised the map with Bill then taking too long to realise she could just photograph it. He was maintaining his tutor stance. I liked that the Doctor couldn't resist breaking his oath of protecting the vault and ventured off world but he couldn't quite return to the same place. The ending leading into the next episode is always something I like and as a whole, this was a very good episode!

Rating: 8/10