Doctor Who Series 10: Ranking Every Episode From Worst To Best
8. Smile
"You don’t call the helpline, because you are the helpline." - Bill
Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s series 10 contribution was another story unnecessarily weighed down by a style that mimicked Doctor Who of old. One might be forgiven for thinking that a directive was issued to the writers to go old school. It’s certainly quite a contrast to the thoroughly modern series 7 when, for example, Moffat told Whithouse that in writing a Doctor Who Western he needn’t bother watching The Gunfighters.
Despite tackling a highly topical subject – the effect of emoji and social media in general on language and communication - the pacing and structure of the episode made it feel like Smile belonged to a bygone age of classic series first-parters: the kind where the Doctor and his companion(s) would spend most of the time exploring a strange new environment. In a 45 minute single episode format such a focus is a luxury that negatively impacts on the ending, leaving it muddled and rushed.
That said, Smile is the first hit of the list, and from hereon in there will be little to choose between the episodes in what has been one of the best series’ since the show returned in 2005. Smile has a very clever and thought-provoking ending which eschews the rather humancentric attitudes so prevalent in much of Doctor Who. It also cemented the excellent chemistry between Capaldi and Mackie that would become one of the most notable aspects of the series.