Monday 24 April 2017

Doctor Who: Smile


Another solid entry for the ‘Meh’



This was touted as the episode to solidify the new dynamic between the Doctor and Bill.

This new dynamic appears to be that she asks questions then attempts to psychoanalyze him…which exactly the same thing that all the other companions have done.

There’s nothing wrong with it; she has to act as he audience viewpoint for the Doctor so it makes sense. But I don’t know why she was presented as a massive change to the dynamic if she’s just going to act like every other companion.

The villains of the episode are robots that we initially think are suffering from a glitch, but we learn have actually developed sentience and become an emergent species.

The “we have created life and we’re not sure what to do with it” trope was played out back when Star Trek TNG did it and it doesn’t really bring anything new to the story here.

I don’t know if they’re setting up a theme or just being lazy, but once again, the villain is not aware of their own villainy. If this is going to be the go-to explanation for most of the episodes this series, there had better be a pay off at the  end.

There isn’t really mush to say; aside from the foreshadowing of a major cataclysmic event on Earth, this is very much a filler episode.


The cast are all good, the special effects do their job and the story is serviceable.

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