Doctor Who Season 10: “Smile” Trailer and Synopsis
By Lacy Baugher
The new season of Doctor Who continues as Twelve takes Bill on her first proper adventure, to a mysterious settlement full of emoji robots.
A new season of Doctor Who is here, and all is right with the world.
Season 10 premiered last weekend with “The Pilot,” an episode which did all the heavy lifting of setting up a new companion in the TARDIS. Bill Potts is now traveling with the Doctor, and though there are some lingering mysteries leftover from last week story — most notably what the Doctor and Nardole are up to in the university basement — it’s time for our new traveling duo to have some fun together.
What’s in store for them on their first adventure? In “Smile,” they head off to visit a human colony in the distant future, where something weird appears to be going on.
The BBC synopsis is short and sweet:
"The language of the future is emoji! The Doctor takes Bill to a spectacular city on a distant planet – but where are the colonists? A band of ‘cute’ droids hold the deadly answer."
But Doctor Who TV has a version that’s a bit more substantial. (Thought not a lot.)
"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 trying to unravel a terrifying mystery…"
So, if these descriptions are anything to go by, this seems like a largely straightforward episode.
Sure, the mystery of what happened to the colonists on this futuristic emoji planet may have some unexpected twists. And there’s probably a cool monster in there somewhere. But this seems like a pretty standard kind of Doctor Who episode. It basically goes like this: Doctor gets new companion. Then Doctor takes said companion on their first time-traveling trip. (And it’s almost always to some point in the future that’s of interest to human history in some way.) There’s a formula to this, after all.
That’s not really a bad thing, though. Bill needs some time to settle in, and these are the kind of adventures that will build a relationship between her character and the Doctor. We can’t cry over them later if we really believe in their foundation now.
Watch the trailer for “Smile” :
And if you want a bit of a more in-depth explanation of the episode, well, here are stars Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie to introduce it to you:
Next: Doctor Who: Three Things to Think About After “The Pilot”
Doctor Who Season 10 continues Saturday, April 22 on BBC One and BBC America.