Smile

I doubt there has been a writer for Doctor Who that has written as many feature films as Frank Cottrell Boyce. The prolific Mr Boyce's debut story for Doctor Who, 'In the Forest of the Night' disappointed some as the story's reach exceeded its grasp.

In Smile the writer explores the possibility of technology going wrong as it miscommunicated. The Doctor brings Bill into the future, a new planet ready to be colonised but there are no people. It seems the robots have been on a rampage because the exiting crew were not happy. A bug in the robot's system that needs fixing.

Most of the episode was just a two hander with Bill and the Doctor talking and investigating as the mystery unravels. The robots are designed with emojis such as smiley faces however they could not contend with the devastating effects of grief that humans feel.

More impressive was the art design, this was just stunning. I thought the episode contained cool CGI but the basis of it were buildings in Valencia designed by Spanish architect Santiagao Calatrava.

The episode ends leading to next week's adventure which harks back to the early William Hartnell era. Maybe this could be a clue to a theme for this series as we had a glimpse of a picture of Susan in episode one.

Marking the second episode of the tenth series, "Smile" also marks the first adventure Peter Capaldi's twelfth Doctor has with new companion Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) since she joined him in the TARDIS. A coluorful, somewhat quirky episode which is also more innovative and original than last week's never the less highly entertaining "The Pilot", it's also a more minimalist one in so much as both Capaldi and Mackie are the only two actors on screen for the majority of the story. On the planet, Gliese 581d, a group of colonists are slaughtered by their robot servants called Emojibots when they display feelings of unhappiness. Not so long after, the Doctor and Pill sans Nardole (played by Matt Lucas, who makes an all too fleeting appearance) arrive on the world where they find the colony deserted apart from its robotic inhabitants. Puzzled by the lack of human presence, the Time Lord begins to investigate. However not before he and his new companion have their ears connected automatically to a network via their nervous system, meaning they can communicate with each other through their ears, and they are given discs that use emoticons to reflect the emotions they are feeling. Before long, the Doctor comes to the realization that their emotions could determine their fate.

Straight from the off, I thought this episode would have a fair amount in common with the 1988 classic series story, "The Happiness Patrol" and I'm glad to say that beyond the theme of being sad could be a death sentence, any similarity beyond that apart from it being set on a planetary colony ends there. With nothing subversive and political below the surface of its inventive exterior, early on there is an eerie sense of foreboding that director, Lawrence Gough which is enhanced by the isolation and deadliness of the robotic threat. When it's all said and done, it can be deemed as a cautionary tale that taps into man-kinds over-reliance on technology, and when it becomes a hindrance rather than a help. The emojibots here make for a genuinely unsettling foe if that is the right word to be used given the context of their ultimate motivation revealed before the end. A sublime creation in both concept and execution, they're a testament aesthetically to the design team behind the series who do a fantastic job in bringing the colony to life.

As with last week's "The Pilot", the chemistry between Capaldi and Mackie is perfectly solid, the relationship between the two now well and truly cemented with the latter making for an excellent foil to her older co-star. Capaldi once again captures the curious nature of the Time Lord perfectly who here eventually takes on the role of diplomatic mediator. Mackie as Bill, also once again captures the wide-eyed wonderment and awe that the character experiences.

If there is a flaw, is that the story perhaps reaches its climax a little too soon, with everything being wrapped up too expediently without allowing more time to dwell on the plight of certain characters. That being said, the plot thematically does brilliantly capture the essence of the power of grief, and how the robots fail to grasp the concept given their programming which manages to parallel the series 2 episode, "The Girl in the Fireplace". For all its innovation and originality, "Smile" marks an overall satisfying outing which while flawed, marks a continual upturn in the quality of the new series which thus far is proving to be a more rewarding experience than Series 9. If it keeps on this trajectory, I can see this being a good 10th series, and with the episode ending with a neat little coda that acts as an eye-catching means to segway into next week's adventure entitled "Thin Ice", I can't help but be excited.

If you are watching this episode just smile. Same if you are reading this review.

This is, I think, Steven Moffatt and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce doing their take on the classic 4th Doctor serial The Ark in Space. The common elements being a futuristic setting where the remnants of human civilisation are in stasis preparing for a fresh start on another world but the first humans emerging from hibernation are attacked by something. It is also is pretty similar to other stories like The Beast Below, even sharing the aspect of robots which kill you if you don't react the way they want. The Doctor again is in a position to intervene and, along with Bill, tries to investigate and stop the oncoming catastrophe.

The story concept is therefore not very original which is a bit of a negative for me but they are pretty common science fiction ideas and logical ones with potential for plenty of interest and enjoyment. It works on basic levels as the story has a threat and a darkness as well as a proper science fiction feel that a lot of fans, including me, want from the series. I also liked that the Doctor mentions that he has met a few of the ships transporting remnants of the muman race before which makes this less of a remake and more of a sequel to earlier similar stories like The Ark in Space and The Beast Below. But these good basic ideas are not entirely successfully translated, in my opinion.

It has some good humour with a really strong and fun relationship between the Doctor and his new companion Bill. Pearl Mackie continues to act very well as Bill who is funny, strong willed, spirited and thoughtful. Peter Capaldi continues to be perfect in his role.

Another notable plus is the good level of production values. The setting looks convincing with nice location and cinematography plus good effects. The "emoji-bots' are well created and look realistic in construction.

Those emoji-bots are the first slight negative that detracts from the story for me, though, because I find the idea of making emojis a central part of a far future story pretty cheesy. Making fashionable things central to far future stories will always date them, in my opinion, and is just a bit of an obvious gimmick. Of all the fashions to focus on, emojis seems one of the least inspired too. It is used very well in the plot to be fair but it is not the most imaginitive idea for the threat. I would have preferred them to just be robots that responded to emotion in a less gimmicky way.

The main negative for me is that the ideas are a bit clunky in how they are delivered. The dark ideas of the death of colonists, and them being turned into fertilizer, is more morbid and clumsy in its presentation than scary and thrilling. The microbots forming the building are not entirely convincing to me, the building does not believably appear to be constructed of tiny robots. The humans they encounter are quite flimsy non-entities and the way the Doctor plans to destroy the site and the way it all pans out is not as good as it could have been. Also some of the dialogue is overly expositionary and a bit stilted at times, I think.

The plus points of the main character performances, bits of better dialogue, classic science fiction ideas and good level visual production counteract the negatives and keep this at an acceptable standard for an episode overall. I do not think it is a particularly impressive story in terms of development of ideas but it ends up an ok filler episode for me on a similar level to its predecessor The Beast Below.

My Rating: 6.5/10.

Series 10 Episode Ranking: 14th out of 14.

Great idea but the plot was just boring. not a great episode