Getting topical with the ep this week as we find emojis are the future of the world, or the world in our future. Couldn't help but notice some aspects had been covered before like the bones ground into bread...fe fi fo fum!" Or a take on Soylent Green. Turns out there's always a spaceship involved and the destruction of the human race. Clearly the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) is getting bored of guarding the vault, whilst we still ponder the age old question of 'what's in the vault?' A bit of a Pandorica mystery me thinks. As he takes Bill (Pearl Mackie) on a journey to the future (so only fitting at the end they end up not back in their own time, but the past - yeah so how'd that happen?)
Lots of other questions pondered yet again as to why the Doctor does this and is able to do this, interfere in other planets and people etc! Since he tells Bill he's not a galactic policeman or anything of the nature, as she thinks she's sussed out what the words on the Policebox mean: "assistance immediately given." She also thinks the seats should be nearer the control panel in the TARDIS which he says is a negotiation with the TARDIS when it comes to flying. Nah then it'll be too Star Trek-y, we don't need to get comfortable in seats, he's not exactly in there long enough to need them.
Nardole (Matt Lucas) offers to make him a cuppa, but not for her, he's not going to be a slave to humans, but slave to an alien is fine! Ha. So the Doctor sees it as his chance to escape the monotony and go exploring and being back in time for tea, as in English tradition. Ending up on the planet where the workers who live there have been erased since they didn't smile and the emoji badge gave them two tears. Cos mother died and they needed to grieve but instead had to try and smile. Well that didn't work. As the swarm of nanabots, which comes out of the sky and after them. Knew the storm was actually what the city was made from even before it broke away and chased them.
Then we get the whole exposition about the badges and smiling and the expressions changing, not so much wearing your heart on your sleeve, but wearing your expressions/feelings on a badge on your back. As the emoji changes with your mood. Two tears and you're out, it seems, or more likely taken out. Also having a conversation about the magic haddock and the food, as to why Bill gets one piece of blue jelly on her plate and he gets too. No it wasn't a sexist food thingy for the future but the Doctor tells her he's got two hearts. And why not, why one heart he asks? Algae being the future food source or so she thinks. Er, did she just eat a piece of human? And the Doctor saying he's not into fish when she says it smells fishy, but he was into custard and fish fingers, Doctor Eleven (Matt Smith)!
As they set about exploring and the emojis change, finally being chased by the robot with their 'revenge' face, the Doctor takes her back to the TARDIS and returns to blow up the city, cos the colony ship can't be (probably need some Colony Gin now! after this ep! Re The Apprentice!) left to arrive here and suffer this fate. Of course we get the obligatory bit first, about discovering the garden and how the robots were sent on ahead and had to cultivate and prepare for them. The twist being the ship was already here and the humans were in cryogenic status. Then he finds out what happens to the 'skeleton' crew who were meant to get sent here ahead to control the robots. Which he finds in the cupboard. So why not burn their remains? Peter looked good with that skull in his hand, hey I'm sensing a future Hamlet??!! Of course she's not going to stay behind in the TARDIS.
He shows her the wall and how the swarm is part of the walls, chancing upon the ship as it has nuts and bolts which is what he likes. That city reminded me of a ship. (Which is actually the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia.) The ship is reawakened as it senses the presence of humans and he leaves Bill there to read the map and guide him, naturally he doesn't need guidance, but he sees the humans bought everything with them, their little nick knacks. Even the letterbox! Bill figures out she can take a photo instead of standing around. Then she meets the boy that the Doctor saw in the locket he found in the ground. He wants his mother. Bill also finding the room with the old woman and the history of what happened to the humans. Doctor: "Grief! Grief as plague...the Vardies’ job was to maintain happiness, so they identified grief as the enemy of happiness and everyone who was experiencing grief as a problem… A grief tsunami." They all carked it!
The Doctor realizing that he can't blow the ship up cos the humans are already in there and they all come back to life now. Taking matters into their own hands with guns, what else, after he "lectures" them about what happened to their families. The swarm surfaces since they shoot a robot and attacks them, where the Doctor gets the idea of resetting the robots. Then negotiating on behalf of the humans with the Vardies and the humans. Asking how much rent they want, cue pound signs! Yeah that was so human greed induced!!
Oh and the magic haddock: apparently it was akin to Aladdin and the genie in the lamp. With the fisherman getting three wishes and wanting his son back from the war and a hundred pieces of gold. He got his son back, dead and the gold thanking him for his service. The magic haddock not being able to reverse wishes. Again the age old story of be careful what you wish for, even if you can't reverse them. Obviously. But the Doctor shows at the end how he could reverse them but turning the button on and off on the robot and making them forget their memories of everyone they killed. That they have feelings, well he killed one then when he three it over the bridge! So much for Bill asking if he's ever killed anyone, to which we didn't get a reply for obvious reasons! The magic haddock reminded me of the WW Jacobs story/movie of The Monkey's Paw. You can't undo a wish, it just gets worse.
Sharp viewers would've caught the David Bowie tribute from Ashes To Ashes as the Doctor tells the Emojibot; "I'm happy, hope you're happy too." As well as references to Aberdeen and if there's a Scotland in space, well clearly there's everything in space! As well as letting us in on guarding the vault cos " a long time ago a thing happened. As a result of the thing I made a promise. As a result of the promise I have to stay on Earth guarding the vault." But 'I have my moments of escape,' probably one reason why he took on Bill as a student. The Doctor also warning her to stay away from his browser history, what's he been browsing some more Beethoven tracks? ha. (Clara's in the vault! Well I can speculate!)
This one was just a typical story in a return to the 'older' style eps in some ways even though was typically topical with computers/Internet speak.
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