Doctor Who 10.02 - "Smile"

[lizbee]

Fun fact! A modern Doctor Who episode is exactly the right length to eat a bowl of cereal, drink three small cups of tea, and apply a fresh nail wrap. The deco styling matches my new Star Wars T-shirt, but I can't quite decide how I feel about this shade of pink. Which is fair, because I also can't quite decide how I feel about this episode!



I did not dislike this episode, and, in fact, I wholeheartedly loved the characterisation, but plot-wise, I feel like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be, and hopped from one option to the next.

Things it briefly seemed to be:

• The Happiness Patrol but without the satire OR the Kandyman, who is, let's face it, the best homicidal robot of all time
• A companion piece to "The Beast Below" in terms of humans evacuating Earth and a companion on her first trip to the future discovering that humanity is a bit terrible
• Something about slavery, oppression and self-determination, like BSG but with emoji instead of rape
• A bit of an awkward thing about indigenous people and colonisation

In short, plot-wise, it was a bit of a mess. And, given the show's treatment of memory wipes recently, I feel like that ending was a bit cavalier, even though it seems that the Doctor managed to wipe their homicidal tendencies without also deleting their sentience. And a memory wipe is definitely better than genocide, so well done, Doctor, for moving on from that solution.

The important thing is that Bill is wonderful, and very Ace-like in her thoughts about explosions being followed by trouble, and maybe it's just The Times We Live In, but Bill and Twelve feel very Ace 'n' Seven in their interactions, even though Bill is not remotely as damaged as Ace. She even says "Wicked!"

Granted, she seems to be falling into a bit of hero worship, but it's early days yet, so I'll allow it.

I especially liked that she interpreted the two servings for the Doctor as food sexism, because that's also what I thought, and I was simultaneously annoyed at the sexism itself, and the prospect of having to scroll past 85 Tumblr posts about how it proves Moffat is evil. BUT NO. Thanks, show-and-character, my scroll button appreciates it and so does my brain.

(Also I am now craving blue jelly.)

I do feel like, with the genre savviness she was established as having last week, she should have recognised the cryopods for what they were? It's always a bit uneven when a new character is turned over to a writer who doesn't know her yet. I hope that's just a wobble -- it's merely a blip on the narrative radar, but it bugged me a little.

I'm enjoying Nardole in the role of "aged retainer who doesn't care for the newcomer", but a little goes a long way, and I'm not sorry that he's confined to the sidelines. But I'm a bit sad that fandom seems to have an asexual companion RIGHT HERE, and apparently no one cares because he's pudgy.

Comments

[capalxii]

Kandyman is the greatest villain this show has ever had. Agree that Bill continues to be wonderful, but the plot felt off to me overall.

[nostalgia]

I didn't even know food sexism is an actual thing.

[ironed_orchid]

I continue to love Bill, and this was a good episode to showcase Bill, but not do much else.

[lokifan]

I had the same thought when Bill didn't guess what the pods were, and about the somewhat-messiness and weirdness of a memory-wipe solution. Especially since I kind of think recognising sentience should go hand-in-hand with realising you can't wipe them the way you could a computer/robot. "Imagine if someone did that to you." But I really enjoyed the horror first-half and Bill :D