Doctor Who: New Review

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Emojis and Armageddon.

By Scott Collura

Spoilers follow for this episode of Doctor Who.

A planet where robots communicate only by emoji? There’s got to be an answer!

This second episode of Doctor Who’s new season manages to not only tread fairly lightly as the Doctor takes Pearl Mackie’s Bill for her first proper TARDIS adventure into the future, but it also tackles head on a few particularly modern -- and troubling -- topics in the way that only this show can do. For where else but on Doctor Who could cute little emoji-speaking robots wind up being a predictor of not just our own planet’s doom, but perhaps also the solution to avoiding said doom?

It all starts with some more great interplay between Mackie and Peter Capaldi, who have just eased right into this new companion/Doctor dynamic. The Doctor’s bragging about stealing the TARDIS, as if to try to impress upon the young Bill that he’s cool and hip and just one of the kids too, seems to have that very effect on Bill. But her reply is equally cheeky, as she says that just maybe she’ll steal it from him. It’s all lots of fun and both actors are just charming together.

We’re also getting a better sense now of where Matt Lucas’ “Mom”… uh, Nardole fits into things, as it looks like he’s more of an Alfred the butler type who stays home and tsks while the Doctor flits off on unauthorized adventures with Bill. So much to Nardole’s consternation, the Doctor and Bill do indeed head off here -- to the future, which Bill says she chooses rather than the past because she wants to see if it it’s “happy.” Well, the episode is called “Smile” after all…

Of course, the Earth colony of tomorrow that they wind up on is far from happy, what with those emoji-loving ‘bots killing anyone who isn’t smiling. But more to the point, Bill gets a glimpse of the past too -- her future actually, but the colony’s would-be residents’ past on Earth. She sees the growing wave of disasters and horror that led to humanity having to flee its homeworld, and she weeps. “Did something terrible happen?”

"Can you tell me who'll be cast as the next Doctor?"

Yes it did, and perhaps an old curmudgeon might blame it on the very emojis that dominate this new world. Well, not specifically the emojis, but the adult, non-hip view (unlike the adult, trying-so-hard-to-be-hip Doctor from the first scene this week) that cell phones and social media and the internet and blah, blah, blah are the downfall of society. The selfie-obsessed masses so eager to impress upon the world around them how “happy” their lives are never even noticed the world was going to hell around them. Make sure you crop that mushroom cloud out before posting that picture on Instagram!

That the Doctor is only able to save the colonists by realizing that he also has to save the emoji-bots is the real twist of this story, and also where the lesson comes in about how we in the here and now need to learn to recognize the needs of those around us, and respect those needs, and work together in order to not have to flee a decimated Earth a few decades or centuries from now. While potentially pedantic, the light touch of “Smile” and the always excellent Capaldi -- that scary, handsome genius from space -- combine to make the point without sonic-screwdrivering it right into your face.

The episode perhaps could’ve used a bit of fleshing out in terms of the colonists -- that lead human with the gun only serves to be annoying and dumb. But other than that, the presentation of the vast, clean, high-tech colony itself and the much more grungy human ship at the center of it all is a nice bit of Doctor Who production design that also drives home the themes of the episode. Utopia may sound nice, but it doesn’t have anything on the real world.

Some notes:

• Bill’s sizing up of why the Doctor has never fixed the TARDIS’ chameleon circuit is pretty much perfect.
• The Earth ship is called the Erehwon, which doesn’t just spell “Nowhere” backwards but is also a reference to a satirical 1872 novel by English author Samuel Butler called Erewhon (slightly different spelling from Erehwon) about a utopia that turns out to be nothing of the kind. Additionally, Butler also tackles in that book the concept of machines becoming sentient. Just like in this episode!
• The Doctor says he’s over 2,000 years old here, which of course is true but seems to be a gross understatement. Yes, the very answer to the Doctor’s age is probably unknowable at this point, but after last season’s confession dial loop of 4.5 billion years (which involved different bodies but the Doctor seems to remember every bit of), he’s really, really rounding down here.
• Of course, the Doctor does get it all very wrong at first and almost kills everyone, emoji-bots and colonists alike. Wouldn’t it have made sense to check some database about this colony’s history before trying to blow it up? Eh, that’s not how he rolls…
• The emoji-bots are a nice addition to the pantheon of Doctor Who creatures, turning quite creepy when they take on that “death” emoji look. The crumble of bones that follows is also memorable.
• Next week: the past!

The Verdict

A nicely balanced episode of Doctor Who, “Smile” gives us some good, fun relationship-building between the Doctor and Bill while also dropping some fairly heavy thematic material into the mix as well. I’m totally sold on this new Doctor/Bill dynamic at this point, and this season’s new direction as well.

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