Doctor Who: Series 10, Episode 2 – “Smile” (2017)

(It was a little tough to find a picture from this episode - when I did a Google Image search for "Doctor Who Smile," it mostly gave me adorable shots of various Doctors grinning.  Thanks, Google - I needed that.)

 

Emoji robots!  Yep, what a long, strange trip it’s been from 1963.  Plotwise, this episode has some hitches, more so than “The Pilot,” but it still hits home where it counts, so my tentative optimism for the season continues.

For her first official, intentional TARDIS adventure, the Doctor takes Bill to an early off-world human colony.  The landscape is exquisite, the city is sleek and gleaming, and everything about it seems designed for perfection.  The only problem?  No humans.  As our heroes investigate why the paradise colony is deserted, they learn that the aforementioned emoji robots who keep things humming are hiding something behind their smiley faces.

That description sounds a little dorky, and seeing the emoji robots out of context in the previews, I thought it sounded a little dorky, too.  However, within the episode, there’s more logic and less gimmick to it, and the story takes the conceit to some interesting places.  A monster that’s drawn to your negative emotions is interesting, and the idea of having to feign happiness in order to stay alive is pretty neat nightmare fuel (plus, it gives us Twelve making these really awkward grins in moments of great peril, which is totally fun to watch.)  And really, the set-up of the colony itself and the robots’ place within it is decently cool.

Where the story falls down, for me, is in the resolution.  I like pretty much everything before maybe the last ten minutes, and then it gets unfortunately slapdash, like the show painted itself into a corner and realized there was no time left to come up with anything beyond a rather hapzhazard deus ex machina to get out of it.  I thought writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce had a similar issue with “In the Forest of the Night” back in series 8 – strong concept, but in the end, the execution doesn’t quite pull it through.

That said, I’m not bothered as much by it just because Twelve and Bill are so much fun together.  I like Bill’s boundless curiosity, her genuine love for new experiences, the way she puts things together, and the realistic way the things she’s seeing on her travels affect her.  It’s a delight to see the world of this episode through her amazed eyes, and while I wouldn’t say she gets any huge victories here, she’s great support throughout.  She’s smart and observant and has a talent for asking the right questions at the right moments, all good things to have in a companion.

Having Twelve going up against baddies that need you to be happy, “cranky Doctor” against emoji robots, is going to be an obvious winner, although this episode is also a good reminder that “cranky Doctor” isn’t a very complete description of Twelve.  In truth, he’s always been one to show a range of emotions, and I think getting a new companion has reinvigorated him further – he and Bill play off of each other beautifully here.  However, he does spend good chunks of this episode puzzled, troubled, horrified, angry, and so on, and Peter Capaldi’s expressive face gives the emoji robots plenty to dislike.  Also?  He has a really lovely bit towards the beginning that I loved, explaining how the TARDIS works to Bill.

Side note:  the episode briefly features Mina Anwar, who played Rani’s mom on The Sarah Jane Adventures.  I enjoy seeing actors pop up in different roles in multiple Whoniverse shows, and this time around, I couldn’t help but imagine Gita Chandra tooling around on another planet.