Doctor Who Series 10: 7 Big Questions We're Asking After 'Smile

6. What Are The Other Influences Behind Smile?

If the story seems oddly familiar, then that’s because it draws upon a whole host of Doctor Who classics making it more of a tribute to the entire 50 years of the show than the Hartnell era in particular. The idea that a lack of happiness could be punishable by death was explored in different ways in The Macra Terror, The Sun Makers and The Happiness Patrol. Hidden here is also a lovely nod to David Bowie who died while the episode was in pre-production. Capaldi, a big Bowie fan must have genuinely smiled when reading “I’m happy, I hope you’re happy too,” a line from Ashes to Ashes in the script.

It would be odd if Doctor Who had never explored the classic sci-fi subject of human colonies escaping a doomed earth before (see especially The Ark in Space), and that fact is referenced explicitly here when the Doctor points out that humans vacated the planet on all kinds of ships. This throwaway line establishes continuity even if different stories address the same period in Earth’s history.

Technology going wrong and turning against its makers is also a recurrent theme, from The Robots of Death to The Girl in the Fireplace. The idea of a dystopian society in which the robots rise up against us, continues to be contemporary through shows like Black Mirror, but it is a much older idea. The Vardy ship is named Erewhon (nowhere spelt backwards); a direct reference to Samuel Butler’s 1872 novel.