User Reviews

Smile had some really good things going for it. I really liked the idea that you always have to be happy or the emoji-bots would kill you, the idea that the emoji-bots and the Vardys weren't bad but were just not programmed correctly, the human race escaping from a doomed Earth, the emotion buttons that only others could see, and the creation of a new species at the end of the episode, but Smile just fell flat.

The emoji-bots had a good concept behind them (smile or you die), but I think their design really brought down the episode. They weren't threatening at all and frankly looked silly when they were "attacking," which removed the tension from the entire episode.

Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie gave good performances, but they weren't given much to do aside from walk around the city for the entire episode. The ending was pretty clever, hitting the reset button and creating a whole new species, but the last 15 minutes or so felt thrown together, with new elements popping up out of nowhere like all the people waking up, everyone suddenly getting ready to fight, and the kid being the first one to show up out of everybody else. All of those new developments just felt like they were included in the episode to give it some sort of climax after a relatively dull 30 minutes, even if the ideas employed were strong.

I've seen people praising the episode for it's great visuals, but in my opinion it wasn't that good looking. The locations were good, but that's about it. None of the shots really stood out for me, but I did like how the opening scenes in the Tardis were filmed. Murray Gold's score, which is usually great, also wasn't very good. It felt silly and playful in scenes that were probably supposed to be tense or more serious.

Overall, "Smile" wasn't really bad, but it was a pretty big disappointment and wasn't nearly as good as the previous installment. At times, it was even boring. It started off very promisingly, with a cool location, a harder sci-fi feel, good, if short guest performances, and an interesting hook right before the title sequence, but after that nothing happened until the final ten minutes. This episode had a lot of really good ideas behind it, but unfortunately it lacked in its execution, spending its time leisurely showing us around a futuristic city instead of exploring some of the strongest sci-fi concepts the show has had in a long time. I'm not trying to say that I don't want to see the Doctor and Bill having fun and getting to know each other, but "Smile" seems to have wasted it's potential when it could have been much better.

5.5 out of 10.

When one hears the word "Emojibots" in connection to Doctor Who, a slight panic attack is inevitable. Let's be honest, it just sounds awful. What a relief it is, then, that not only is the word "Emojibot" never uttered in the episode at all but the robots themselves are actually kind of effective. Written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who also penned the unfairly misjudged "In the Forest of the Night", "Smile" is an episode that didn't sound great on paper but, in its execution, has become a confident, compelling hour of sci-fi television.

It's also far darker than an episode called "Smile" has any right to be. Don't let the stunning, gleaming white set design fool you, "Smile" isn't just a cutesy, fun little trip to the future at all. When the Doctor and Bill arrive at the futuristic colony, they immediately notice something is wrong - this human colonisation is severely lacking in humans. They stumble across robots that speak via Emoji, and start trying to work out what's really happening in this bizarre place.

Unquestionably, the best aspect of "Smile" is its structure. After a somewhat unnecessary opening flash to the colony, once the Doctor and Bill arrive in the TARDIS we just stay with them, and them alone. No other face pops up until at ;east the 30-minute mark. What we have, then, is essentially a two-hander, with Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie more than up for the task.

Bill is already proving a brilliant addition to the show. Inquisitive without being annoying and excited without being childish, she brings a playfulness back to the show that's been missing for a long time now. Don't get me wrong, I've been a huge fan of the darker version of Doctor Who that Steven Moffat has served up for the two previous seasons, but this more light hearted return is still welcome. It also helps that Mackie is sinking her teeth fully into this role, her performance is committed without ever appearing so. She feels natural in the role, it's delightful to watch.

Isolating the Doctor and Bill for a good half an hour allows "Smile" to take on two identities at once. We have the investigation of a futuristic sci-fi world, and we have two new friends trying to work each other out. Bill is essentially learning as much about the human colony as she is about the Doctor. It's all a matter of perspective, and Cottrell-Boyce strikes that chord perfectly here. Peter Capaldi is as reliably on form as ever, he possesses such a firm grasp on his Doctor that I already dread the moment he leaves the TARDIS.

Where "Smile" fares less successfully, however, is in its final fifteen minutes - AKA, when guest stars begin to appear. It's a kind of double edged sword, really. Spending so long with just the Doctor and Bill is an absolute treat but it forces a handful of thinly sketched supporting characters into the spotlight come the resolution. Every decision made makes perfect sense, there just isn't a lot of weight behind any of it.

And that's a real shame, as "Smile" starts to offer up some dark, complex material as it heads into its final act. Essentially, the "Emojibots" are really a species called the Vardi, who see humanity as a kind of singular entity and wiped out a crew of engineers entirely through misinterpretation, creating a moral battle between right and wrong all while acting as a surface level metaphor for the society we occupy right now. Killing one sad person makes everyone around them sad, forcing them to also be killed and so forth. The Doctor words it best himself, "grief as plague".

Still, a jumpy resolution doesn't give in to what is, for the most part, a confidently character driven episode. Bill and the Doctor's relationship is fleshing out nicely, it's a dynamic we haven't really seen before and it's giving the show a nice shape up - the set up feels retro but the dynamics feel new. "Smile" is fun right up until the moment it gets dark, if it had managed to land its resolution a bit cleaner and fill its supporting characters in a bit faster, it could've been a classic. As it stands, it probably won't make anyone's top 10 list but it's still upper tier Doctor Who with its heart in the right place.

Grade: A-

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I'm guessing people are going to be divided on Smile, so all I can say is my opinion, and I felt it was pretty darn good!

In order to introduce our new companion to the universe, we need something light and fun rather than something dark and complex. Just look at Amy's second story, and Clara's, both light-hearted adventures that present the new character with a whole new universe, while also testing their emotions.

Smile manages to be this while also being a fascinating adventure with an air of mystery constantly in the air.

The new robots, which I'll call the Emoji-bots, are interesting, but their design is very cliché. Ask someone who's never seen a futuristic robot what it would look like, they'll probably describe the Emoji-bots. And I highly doubt the Human race will still use Emojis that far in the future but whatever!

But I'm fine with their simplistic design as this isn't meant to be a ground-breaking episode, it's just meant to be enjoyed, and Smile is certainly enjoyable.

The first 15 or so minutes than involve the Doctor and Bill simply wondering round the city talking and looking around, was very fun to watch. I could watch a whole episode of just this, but obviously the plot has to start at some point.

The Doctor and Bill soon find lots of Human skulls which they work out have been harvested from the colonists, by the Emoji-bots. Wasting no time, they escape from the city, having worked out that they kill in response to sadness. The Happiness Patrol?

The Doctor decides to head back into the colony and blow it up, fearing what will happen when the other colonists arrive when they find their dead relatives.

I felt this decision by the Doctor was a little out of character at first but it's grown on me, and I now understand the Doctor's reasoning.

The Doctor and Bill head for the Engines of the main ship which is located at the heart of the colony, and the Doctor starts tampering trying to blow it up.

Meanwhile, Bill finds a dead woman, and a young boy. The Doctor, alarmed by this finds that all of the colonists are already on the planet, and are waking up.

I would've thought the Doctor would've been a little more shocked about the fact that he just nearly destroyed the Human race, but we haven't got time for that because we're in a rush.

This episode's climax seems to be racing to round off all of the elements it introduces right at the last minute. Padding, something that can absolutely destroy a story if done too heavy-handedly.

It starts as a simple introduction, until the second-half. Now suddenly we're juggling the Emoji-bots, the Killer Bug Robots, a ship full of Colonists, the mystery of the sadness response, and the mysterious dead woman.

With only 10 minutes left this episode suddenly starts going too fast, and I found this a little off-putting.

The Dead Woman reveals... uh, something about grief that I don't understand. Really, I didn't get this at all, but a woman died then lots more people died, then the Emoji-bots attacked because they saw grief as an enemy. This could've done with a bit more explaining.

The colonists decide to destroy the Emoji-bots but are soon attacked by the Killer Big Robots. The Doctor... does something akin to turning the power on and off and the Emoji-bots all reset.

A Reset Button!!! I hate Reset Buttons!!!

So the climax is horribly complicated and the ending is nonsense, so why do I think this episode is quite good?

Smile was fun. It disappointed me in places but I still had a good time watching it. It was never dull and had plenty of great moments.

It won't go down in history, but I ask of the viewer when critiquing this episode, don't look too deep, just go along for the ride, have fun, and Smile!

I was really excited for an action packed series of Doctor Who. I do enjoy slower episodes, but this one was actually boring in parts. It has fantastic ideas, the emoji bots are fun, the emoji buttons are cool, the programming gone wrong is cool, and it looks phenomenal, but nothing happened. At all. In this episode The Doctor and Bill walk around for 35 minutes, then a few people show up and the episode ends. Really?

Great visuals and strong leads don't make up for an almost nonexistent plot and a contrived ending.

5 out of 10. I expect a lot more from this series seeing as the Pilot was so amazing. And why isn't Nardole in this episode aside from the beginning?

WOW - this was one of the best episodes I have ever seen, although I will never send another emoji in my life . the story had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish - it had so many twists and turns , nearly blowing up what was left of the human race , how did he stop the slaughter , pressed the reset button , classic . I really think his new companion is going to hold her own with the best of those that have gone before her . I am so glad I have freeview plus - I will be watching it many times before the next instalment - I can't wait for the elephant on the thames . until then Whovians - KEEP SMILING

A half-smiley face for this one. It has lots of good ideas (the mood indicator that you can't look at, because looking at your mood affects your mood), and nice set design, but leaves a sour taste because the doctor doesn't really set things straight, and hundreds of deaths are swept under the rug. Also, that is a particularly small cast of people considering how many pods are in the spaceship - budget cuts, maybe? **1/2 out of 4.

Smile is the first Doctor Who story that I have liked because of its colour scheme although the story itself has paled over time.

The Doctor selected Bill to tutor because he noticed that she smiled in his lectures when she didn't understand what he was saying where other student's frowned (bonkers but there you go…). So it was particularly tricksy of Moffat to follow The Pilot with a story in which the Doctor's and Bill's lives depended upon them smiling.

In a far future Earth colony, the only aspect of our language to survive is emoticons or emoji. I can already hear young people groaning at this get-down-with-the- kids conceit. (Next season, aliens will no doubt seek to mesmerize humanity via flip fidgets). Nevertheless, the idea produced some funny moments when we got a rare insight into The Doctor's feelings in situations and a few scares when the travelers tried to stop their true feelings being displayed on emoji that had for some contrived reason attached themselves to their backs.

The threat came from pedantic robots and their nano bot companions which had been sent to create a threat free environment for the human colonists. Except the terraforming had gone too far and the robotniks had decided grief was a threat to humanity. Unfortunately, humans have a lot of unhappiness in their lives so cue big bins full of human skulls, the remains of those whose emotions didn't live up to the new world's requirements.

Literary science fiction buffs such as myself will have spotted the significance of the name of the colonists' space ship 'Erewhon' ('nowhere ' geddit?), which was the title of Samuel Butler's 1937 Utopian novel of the same name (utopia also meaning no place btw). In Erewhon, people who are criminals are treated as if they were ill and, pertinent to Smile; people who are ill are treated as criminals and duly punished. Erewhon lacked machines because of the perception that they might develop a life of their own through Darwinian selection. This, of course, is what happens in Smile.

Research tells me that 'The Vardy', as the new nano life forms were called, take their name from Andrew Vardy, a professor of swarm robotics at Memorial University of Newfoundland. I think his work might also have informed Michael Creighton's book Prey in which a swarm of nanobots form a literal swarm much as they did here. I was strongly reminded of Creighton's novel (not one of his best) as the story unfolded.

So Smile was not short of a literary history or of serious ideas. The trouble was that each and every one of these ideas had to be spelled out in great chunks of dialogue during which my mind, and body, began to wander. During a climactic moment in which the Doctor apparently pressed a reset button I found myself washing dishes in the kitchen.

For the most part, Smile was a bold two-hander between The Doctor and Bill. Nothing really developed their relationship and Bill was mostly confined to the time honoured role of the Doctor Who companion, asking questions and feeling threatened when the answers became too belligerent. But the two actors make a very watchable team and their run-around escapades certainly helped show off City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain where most of the episode was shot.

A triumph of location and post-production colour treatments over dramatic structure Smile was rarely less than watchable. But given the limitations of the current format, writers are going to have to avoid having the Doctor download large gobbytes of information that, in the end, leave me totally buffered.

This episode opens on a distant planet in the far future as a woman works in a vast field; she returns to the near-empty city and is met by another woman who tells her she must keep smiling while informing her of a death… at first she is confused, then disturbed, then sad before a swarm of something surrounds her and all that is left is her bones. This of course is the planter The Doctor and Bill will soon be visiting.

When they arrive there is no sign of any people; just cute little robots with emoji-faces, which give each of them a disc that displays their current emotional state. There is also the insect like swarm that The Doctor explains in made up of nanobots called Vardies. As they explore they eventually discover the shocking truth about what happened to the people… the robots were designed to keep them happy and eliminated unhappiness by eliminating the unhappy! There is worse; these people were merely an advanced party of 'shepherds' who were preparing things for the arrival of a large colony; if The Doctor doesn't do something they won't last long.

I must admit that when I saw the trailer for this episodes with its 'they speak Emoji' robots I didn't expect too much… in fact it was a pretty good episode; certainly much darker than I expected. Only a minute or two in we see somebody reduced to a pile of bones then later we see piles of skulls and learn that the people have been turned into fertiliser… by then I was half expecting to be told that the food Bill ate was 'Soylent Green' (even though it was blue)… it didn't quite go that far. The setting looked great; very futuristic and sterile… there is something unsettling about large buildings with no sign of any people. The emoji robots were a bit too cute to be really threatening but the Vardies made up for that; especially when we see that Bill and The Doctor are literally surrounded by them. The ending was a bit weaker than I'd hoped for but still effective enough and to be fair it fits with the series preference for negotiation rather than confrontation where possible. Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie did fine jobs as The Doctor and Bill; given that it was only their second adventure together is was probably a good thing that for most of the episode they were the only people around. Overall a pretty solid episode.

In this episode we are treated to Bill's first official outing as The Doctor's companion. Unfortunately it follows the typical Doctor Who second episode of the season slump. The premise is somewhat interesting, Nanobot controlled emoji robots trying to eliminate sadness by eliminating sad people. Oddly logical, in a way, and suits machine logic. Unfortunately the execution is a bit subpar. The visuals and the eerieness of the episode's first act are well done and The Doctor and Bill are spot on but it starts to go down hill in the second act once The Doctor decides to blow up the colony in order to prevent the nanobots from devouring any other hapless colonists who might try to settle on the colony.

The Doctor's decision here feels a bit out of character to be honest, not bothering to see if there is any other life on the ship that serves as the central hub for the ill-fated colony is a rather hefty oversight. Fortunately Bill is there to discover the other colonists still in cryo-sleep (well, runs into one of them at least) all of which is a little convenient story-wise. The discovery of the catalyst for the nanobots' genocidal rampage is again interesting but also again poorly executed with little sensible explanation beneath the service of how unexpected grief could trigger such a reaction - - one would think there would be safeguards within the programming, like "no killing humans" or something.

The final act, after the colonists awaken, is hurried and sloppy, with a deus ex machina reset button that makes the nanobots harmless, which makes no sense as to why it couldn't have been used earlier instead of blowing the place up. The colonists' bull-headed attempt to destroy the nanobots is likewise nonsensical. Guns vs microscopic machines? Stupidity. And the nanobots being a new emerging species was equally rushed and sloppy. To be fair, it's not all bad and the episode had some interesting ideas which had some definite potential if developed properly (a two-parter may have been in order here?), but it's execution leaves this episode rather average and forgettable. 7/10

google TV boxes are useful!!

Welcome to a new era.

I rate this 8.5/10 !

This is much better than last week's mishmash!

Bill does a Rose in this one and written better.

Nardole makes a brief cameo.

So past or future Bill?

Future it is!!

Did someone rip off RTD's 2nd script?

No.

We see the future. Something has gone wrong with the robotic servants and the humans. People are dying and sadness is target for non-mutuality!

The first crew dies ....

The Doctor and Bill arrive to a new city on a planet 20 light years.

There are scanned and greeted.

The robots speak Emoji.

As I said unhappy feelings are reasons for being nailed off.

First its dinner.

Then the garden only to find that the dead are being used as fertiliser.

The Doctor and Bill make it back to the TARDIS rather brittle.

The Doctor tells Bill to stay with the TARDIS while he prevents a next ship from being slaughtered.

Back to the city for the Doctor. So far so good and the Doctor is looking for something new.

Bill surprises the Doctor (how fast is she) and Bill is getting under the Doctor's skin. Yes, the Doctor is the Police . Nice twist.

The Doctor and Bill find a ship (United Earth) and enter.

The doctor gets Bill to read the schematic of the ship.

The Doctor plans to use the ship to blow up the mad machines.

Here is the brilliant twist!!

Bill find a young colonist!

As the Doctor is trying to set the ship to destruct, Bill is trying to get new information to the Doctor.

The Doctor has to fight a mechanical antibody. The time of his life as usual.

As soon as the Doctor finds out about the new colonist, he countermands his own sabotage.

He has to now plan a peaceful co-existence with the colonists and the artificially intelligent life forms, the Vardy otherwise humanity in its anger could be wiped out.

The young colonist is looking for his mother and feels sad.

An angry fight arises when the humans and the vardy tangle.

The Doctor does need to work on anger control when bad news happens.

The Doctor's only chance is to hit the reset button and he does.

The Vardy have forgotten unhappiness and grief.

The humans need to be calmed down.

The Doctor acts as go between and

please everyone smile.

Happy endings and a new adventure awaits.

Plot: Clearer than the start.

The doctor : His usual self

Bill: The companion that is maturing.

7.2 is an unfairly low score, but it is a little bit harsh this was a pretty fun little episode worthy at least of 7.5. I liked the little robots and would like to see a sequel to this some point in years to come, naturally with it's low score that probably won't happen. Nevermind though, the episode itself was interesting enough and worth a watch to anyone who hasn't seen it.

After last weeks reboot episode it was interesting to see where this second episode of 'Dr Who' series 10 would go.

The positives is that again the story is much simpler than those from previous years, and Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie are working well together.

This episode though didn't really have a lot of a climax. It was a lot of build up for not a lot of finale. It was unbalanced because of that.

Matt Lucas was in it less - that's a good thing, but it was a slower episode that promised a lot and offered not a lot.

It's still an improvement on previous years though.

What kind of idiots develop such biometrics and human control system. How on earth the ear can be updated without agreement. That was almost like bio-hacking. They deserve to get in serious trouble. (of course the massacre was terrible and way too much) It is illogical that the highly developed society (escape from the earth) do not think of the danger and have very poor understanding of emotion.