Doctor Who Series 10: 14 Easter Eggs & References You Might've Missed In 'Smile'

12. The Happiness Patrol

The premise of this episode draws from several previous sci-fi works. Doctor Who fans will immediately be reminded of 1988’s The Happiness Patrol. In that, the Doctor arrives on a human colony world where the civilians must always be happy on pain of death.

The premise perhaps originated in It’s A Good Life, a short story by Jerome Bixby in which a super-powerful child controls a small community and forces everyone to be cheery. It was memorably adapted for an episode of The Twilight Zone in 1961.

The idea of white robots that intend to aid their human masters but end up harming them is also similar to 2011’s The Girl Who Waited. The Handbots in that episode attempted to administer medicine to Amy, which unbeknownst to them would kill her.