Over the years, Frank Cottrell-Boyce has written a number of significant works including the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, directed by Danny Boyle. He has also won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for The Unforgotten Coat. Frank's reputation did not seem to impress Doctor Who fans as his Series 8 episode, In the Forest of the Night, received a lukewarm response and often languishes at the lower end of the episode ranking polls. Nevertheless, Steven Moffat appreciated the author’s work enough to bring him back to write Bill’s second episode, Smile.
In the Forest of the Night was all about man's relationship with nature. Smile explores the notion of artificial intelligence and how it can develop or go wrong. On a distant planet, man-made robots have been constructing a new colony to house the last survivors of the human race. These robots are called the Vardies, tiny construction robots that look a like a swarm of bees or a starling cloud. The city walls are literally made out of them. Their interfaces are called Emojibots, tasked with maintaining happiness levels of the human colonists. Over time the robots’ intelligence and understanding of how to maintain happiness has expanded. The single death of a human colonist causes grief to spread across the colony, forcing the Emojibots to kill each unhappy human in turn. It’s a situation that the Doctor compares with the fairy tale of Magic Haddock, a creature that grants wishes but does not have the capacity to understand the meaning behind them. Ultimately the Doctor reboots the robots intelligence and leaves them with the surviving colonists to make peace and build a better future. It may not work but it’s their best chance. This is a story about hope rather than grim certainty.
The Colony City was filmed on location in Valencia and it looks spectacular. The tinted colour of the sky and the crops outside makes the planet look gorgeous. Buildings are painted clinical white while the under-levels are more practical, with pipes and gauges. . The over-city is a triumph. It’s nice to have a sci-fi location that looks aesthetically pleasing. The Colony ship is a little more traditionally grungy. This rusting industrial look was fresh when films like Alien were released but it has become as clichéd as the designs it was intended to replace. The atmosphere is complemented by Murray Gold’s soundtrack, which uses a lot of synths. Lawrence Gough continues to prove himself as a decent director with his realisation of this location. The helicopter shots of Bill and the Doctor running through the cornfields give the whole thing a sense of scale.
For a large portion of the story, the only characters we see are the Doctor and Bill, are exploring the seemingly deserted, colony, evading robots and uncovering secrets. It’s good to see that the focus on character development from The Pilot is carried through to here. We see all of Bill’s reactions to her first journey into the future. Along the way she learns why the Doctor is staying on Earth, and discovers how he likes to interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets. Pearl Mackie is continuing to be an absolute delight. It’s nice to see the reactions of the companion after they were glossed over in Amy and Clara’s time. I liked it when Bill asked the Doctor how much the Tardis cost. No companion has ever asked that before.
Peter Capaldi's Doctor continues to show a range of emotions to Bill. He shows righteous aggression when he tries to blow up the Colony before he realises there are still humans there. He later shows regret for this. He ultimately finds the peaceful solution, even when compromise is called for and seems very polite and friendly when he's talking to the Emojibots. He still refers to himself as Bill’s tutor and it’s a role that suits this older Doctor very well. We fans are lucky to have Peter Capaldi on this show.
The robots are well designed. The Vardies look like a starling cloud that you might find by a pier whereas The Emoji bots have a nice smooth and clinical design. Cute but deadly, like the Quarks were supposed to be in The Dominators. Their tendency to kill people who don’t smile back is similar to the Happiness Patrol soldiers from The Happiness Patrol. and the concept of them turning the bones of the preparation team into fertiliser is similar to Soylent Green. Their smooth joins makes them look similar to the Handbots from The Girl Who Waited, who were also malfunctioning tech. It really has become an overused trope.
The only other human characters are the preparation team at the beginning and the revived colonists at the end. This cast includes Ralph Little as the gun totting ‘Steadfast’ and Mina Anwar as ‘Goodthing’. Their odd names are never spoken in the episode, but they’re better than the kinds of names you used to get in sci-fi like ‘Zardon’ or ‘Gorfax’. The actors are effective but the roles barely quality as characters. They serve their plot function as generic representatives of humanity, and do not develop beyond that. Their appearance is all too fleeting to be memorable.
Another character who makes a fleeting appearance is that of Nardole, who only appears near the beginning to try and stop the Doctor leaving the world. It serves the plot function of revealing Bill that the Doctor is meant to be guarding the vault on Earth. Otherwise it feels almost like a standard contractual appearance. Hopefully we’ll see more of him when the Tardis returns to contemporary Earth. I did like the little line he had that he won't stoop to serving humans.
As I’ve noted before, aspects of this episode seem to have been derived from stories in the original series. The focus on the Doctor and Bill exploring the city was reminiscent of The Ark in Space while the robots tendancy to maintain happiness is similar to The Happiness Patrol. It’s unlikely that Frank Cottrell Boyce has spent much time watching these stories but perhaps the production team were too nervous of annoying a writer of his reputation by steering him away from old concepts. One call-back I did like, was the throw forward at the end of the episode The Doctor and Bill emerge from the Tardis to find themselves on the Thames, with an Elephant in front of them. This kind of scene felt like a nice call-back to the next time cliffhangers of the William Hartnell era. It may or may not have been intentional but it was still fun to have.
Smile is a pretty decent episode. It's not without its faults as the idea of alien tech that needs reprogramming feels incredibly stale but it has some good moments. I can’t speak for every fan but I’d imagine that this episode will end up being more popular than Frank Cottrell Boyce’s previous episode. It's not as innocent as the other tale and there are creepy ideas, like the Emojibots using human remains for fertilizer. Overall, this is decent enough that it will put a smile on your face.
7/10
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