Doctor Who 'Smile' Review

Doctor Who has always had flimsy continuity, it happens when you're a 50 year old show about time travel. But one episode. One goddamn episode, could no one keep track? An episode about happy robots learning the concept of grief and seeing it as an enemy-killing anyone experiencing it-and The Doctor's plan is to simply wipe their memory. Even though last episode he came to the conclusion wiping memories is not a good way to solve your problems and can just lead to even more problems. In this case, what's to stop the robots from learning about grief again and the same dilemma happening again. It's even worse when you think of how this was all just one more rewrite away from actually being a damn good episode. How about instead of The Doctor removing grief from their systems he teaches them to cope with it? To learn that people need to feel grief, that you can't stop it, that trying to deny the problem rather than accepting it actually makes things worse. Something that The Doctor himself has a lot of trouble with in the past. It would also tie in with Bill and her puddle girlfriend and helping her cope with it.

Speaking of Bill, she remains a great character and the highlight of the episode. Her constant random choice in questions and thinking outside the box continues to be entertaining, but we get further insight into her philosophy. She's a naturally optimistic person, and she wants to see the future simply because "I wanna see if it's happy". Of course the episode then tries to prove her wrong by saying the Earth turns to shit and humanity is on its last leg...even though that contradicts everything about Earth's history from other Doctor Who episodes (Again, continuity is wibbly wobbly). But just thematically that's an idea that really doesn't fit well with Doctor Who. This is a series built on hope, that the good guys win in the end, that the future is bright, that change is good. That's the bigger issue here with this plot thread, not that it doesn't make sense continuity wise, but it goes against the core philosophy of Doctor Who. It's also rather insulting to Bill as a character, as if they're saying she was stupid to think the future could be anything but terrible. The episode was written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who previously wrote season 8's 'In the Forest of the Night'. Another terribly written episode with a cynical and very anti-Doctor Who philosophy behind it. Why does this man keep getting to write for this show when he doesn't understand the basics in Doctor Who (Or even well structured writing).

This episode is thematically at odds with itself, with the prior episode, and with the series as a whole. The Doctor behaves out of character and it's inconsistent in a plethora of ways from the rest of the series. Bill was the only real saving grace of the episode, but I feel like one more draft is all we needed for a solid episode. 3/10.

-Danny