Rate & Discuss: Smile

April 22nd, 2017
Warning! This article and its comments may contain spoilers...


In the far future, at the edge of the galaxy, there is a gleaming, perfect city. This brand new human settlement is said to hold the secret of human happiness – but the only smiles the Doctor and Bill can find are on a pile of grinning skulls. Something is alive in the walls, and the emojibots are watching from the shadows, as the Doctor and Bill try to unravel a terrifying mystery…

After last week’s premiere, the TARDIS is now officially open for business as Bill embarked on her maiden voyage through time and space. Well, this was her proper maiden voyage…

Let’s not forget that she casually visited Australia and the end of the universe in The Pilot, but the Doctor pulled out all of the stops for his new companion in tonight’s adventure as he took her lightyears away to the edge of the galaxy where a picturesque paradise (run by grinning robots, naturally!), was awaiting the arrival of a new human colony of happiness…

Make that grinning killer robots, as the drama escalated very quickly as soon as our heroes found themselves caught up in an escalating mystery of epic, Emoji proportions. But how did you rate the latest episode? Did writer Frank Cottrell Boyce’s return leave a Smile on your face, or was the tale of technological terror a dystopian disappointment? Our episode discussion is now open, so share your reviews and reactions below. Oh, and keep smiling!

You can read what WhovianNet thought of tonight’s episode in our advanced preview here.

NOTE: This discussion will NOT be spoiler monitored so please do not read the comments section if you haven’t seen Smile. You have been warned!

Rate this episode
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars
(13 Votes, Average: 3.92/5)
10 comments on this article
  1. John Doe
    April 23rd, 2017 at 7.52am | #1

    Watching this episode left me with nothing but a grimace. Please don’t kill me.

  2. Edward Tremethick
    April 23rd, 2017 at 12.37pm | #2

    This episode was fantastic, and I am so glad to learn that the TARDIS has broadband! And OMG, Peter smiling the whole episode! It was great!

  3. Marieke D
    April 23rd, 2017 at 12.56pm | #3

    Loved the episode. Its awesome to learn about the Doctor together with Bill. Nice to see that the Doctor can make mistakes, it also has a very interesting message about the use of technology! Peter was incredible.

  4. JC
    April 23rd, 2017 at 4.08pm | #4

    I wasn’t that enthused about seeing Smile, even after last week’s impressive start to the Series. It just seemed a bit silly and even just from the previews, it felt like it might be quite a dull episode.

    I can’t say that I liked it as much as last week’s episode, but I accept that part of that may have been because of my lower expectations. I suppose the emoji robots would have been funny for younger people, but they were a bit too gimicky for me.

    I liked that the Robots were only killing because they were struggling with the logic between their original programming and what they’d subsequently learnt. It once again harks back to the Two Streams facility, where the 11th Doctor, Rory and Amy had to escape Robots that killed with their kindness. These Robots were killing with their attempt at happiness. In that way, it was somewhat satisfying when they were reset and the unintential cause of their harm was taken away, allowing us a look at the new robotic lifeform’s sense of humour when The Doctor talked about rent and the money sign appeared.

    I think Smile exceeded my expectations in that it was an OK episode, an OK storyline and it was reasonably entertaining. That doesn’t sound like a glowing review, but considering how little interest I had in it, it’s far from negative either.

  5. Steve
    April 23rd, 2017 at 5.34pm | #5

    Actually I quite liked this one. Am “almost” throw back to the Classic Series. Peter C is the Doctor in this one and what a great Doctor. Bill so far, is turning into a decent companion, not the normal over bearing person that is Moffat’s favoured! Still only 2 episodes in yet!

  6. Valcoor
    April 23rd, 2017 at 5.58pm | #6

    The emoji bots were a “cute” idea, but I just can’t imagine the Dr doing “cute”.
    I can see where Bill could start growing on you, but I’ll leave judgement on that for later.
    Once again the Vault and the “thing that happened long ago” were mentioned. It’ll probably take most of the season to find out what’s in there, but I think it’s going to be worth the wait.
    All in all, while it wasn’t the Dr’s greatest episode, it wasn’t his worst either.
    On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it a 6.

  7. Edward Cleary
    April 23rd, 2017 at 9.57pm | #7

    As second episodes go, this was a pretty decent one. P&P, as absolutely no one but me is calling them, Peter and Pearl are wonderful to watch. If they carry on the form they’ve brought so far to the rest of the series we’re in for a treat. Matt Lucas is looking like a welcome edition to the cast, also. Resolution was a bit rushed, but I loved the cliffhanger-carry over into the next episode. Felt very classic Who, and left me with a big Smile.

  8. mason greenwood
    April 25th, 2017 at 9.15am | #8

    I loved this episode because for once the doctor was wrong and he was going to kill all those people then he made him self look like the hero and the n just reset every thing and felt really smart and that made me laugh

  9. Beverly
    April 25th, 2017 at 5.44pm | #9

    For me, Capaldi and Clara never really worked. I don’t think they had the right amount of on-screen chemistry. Which led me to not really like Capaldi’s Doctor…. until now.

    Don’t know if it’s just me, but Capaldi and Bill certainly are a match made in heaven! The dialogue between the pair of them is fantastic. Bill has swept into the TARDIS team as a breathe of fresh air!

    She’s asking all the crazy questions we’ve never had before and it’s perfect, (How much did the TARDIS cost?)

    The Pilot was amazing, however I really did love Smile. I saw the similarities with The Beast Below, and I thought it was cleverly done. Also, when I first saw the emojibots in the trailer, I thought, oh, well they look childish and silly! So it was a complete shock when they were nothing like that whatsoever, quite creepy at times but also cute and lovable at others.

    Also, loving Bills costumes! And Capaldi’s new sonic is quite lovable, whilst I’m really intrigued by the vault, and why exactly the Doctor allows Nardole to boss him about, I suppose only time will tell, I’d like to think we’re gonna see a backstory to Nardole, or maybe he himself is hiding something! Oh god, I’ll shut up now, just so excited for the rest of the series!! Roll on Saturday Night!!!! :D

  10. David
    April 26th, 2017 at 5.09am | #10

    Have to say I didn’t enjoy episode two anywhere near as much as the first, but I am still really enthralled by Bill. Yep. she did ask way too many questions, but I guess I would too if I was travelling in time. She is definitely shaping up to be a far, far more interesting companion than I had anticipated.

    Visually, it was a treat, but I felt as though some of the ideas in ‘Smile’ had been explored previously in DW.

    Still extremely excited and intrigued by what’s to come this series.

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