Doctor Who: "Smile" Review

Bill Potts’ first trip in the TARDIS proper is chronicled as Series 10 continues with “Smile” by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Whilst the episode makes one or two missteps, overall there’s definitely much more good than bad, and the story as a whole is a step up from last week.

The episode opens with a scene reminiscent of 2005’s “The End of the World” and Rose Tyler’s first journey through time and space (and it also manages to reintroduce the show’s core premise rather better than “The Pilot” did, it must be said). This is a very good thing, as (coupled with the episode’s ending leading directly into their next adventure) it feels as though the days of the Doctor’s companion being ‘part-time’ and continuing to live at home between trips (an utterly dreadful idea used by the Ponds in Series 7a and Clara Oswald throughout her entire three-year tenure on the show) are over. The scene with Nardole feels surplus to requirements, and I can’t shake off a feeling that Steven Moffat isn’t that great at seeding his series’ overarching storyline (something Russell T Davies did with aplomb), but we’ll let that slide.

So, as mentioned above, this is Bill’s first trip. And it cannot be overstated: Pearl Mackie is wonderful, and she makes for easily the best Moffat-created companion, with the highlight of the show being her discovery of an archive of the terrible things humanity has done. I’m not necessarily impugning on the acting abilities of her predecessors, but it feels more like she’s got better material to work with than they did – and she consistently knocks it out of the park. Her reactions to her discoveries in the Doctor's world feel totally natural, and she feels much more like a rounded, three-dimensional character than Amy or Clara ever did. Which makes my main problem with the episode feel a bit churlish.

Because, you see, when the Doctor and Bill arrive at their destination, for a lot of the time they’re the only characters there. The parallels with “The End of the World” continue, as the Doctor and companion arrive far in the future and discover what has become of humanity. But where that episode mixed the wonders and horrors of the Doctor’s world, “Smile” feels like it leans too much towards the latter – shortly after arriving at the new human colony, they discover that the robots designed to help have actually ended up murdering loads of innocent people and using their skeletons for compost. This results in the Doctor telling his companion to return to the TARDIS, such is the danger of the situation – which, although it obviously doesn’t last, feels like a real misstep for her first episode as a full-time companion. The companion’s first story should immerse them in the Doctor’s world, and although the central mystery that arises from the abandoned colony is an intriguing one with a thoroughly satisfying answer, it feels like it falls down a bit on that level. "The End of the World", "The Shakespeare Code", "The Fires of Pompeii", "The Beast Below" and "The Rings of Akhaten", although they all varied in quality, understood the necessity to include spectacle in the companion's first trip in the TARDIS... which this doesn't. I've got nothing against smaller, quieter stories, but this one feels misplaced, and I feel I'd have enjoyed it more if it had come a few weeks later.

The main mystery stems from the Emojibots, originally created to help the incoming colonists. Although the “It speaks emoji!” line had been played to death in the trailers (which also dilutes the rather good line about seeing what remains of humanity thousands of years after Bill’s time), the episode still gets some decent visual gags out of them, and they’re a strong part of the story overall. The twin concepts of artificial intelligence going tragically wrong and a society where people have to be happy aren't terribly original, but the robots still work and are bolstered by, as mentioned, the visual element and the mystery of exactly why they're going around killing people.

Overall, this one’s pretty good. It gets a few minor things wrong, but it’s a very good vehicle for Bill Potts, even though after two fairly ‘quiet’ episodes it feels like the show needs something bigger with some memorable guest characters. Fortunately, it looks like next week might deliver.