We cut to an establishing shot of a distant planet that really does looks great, even though it's fundamentally a wheatfield, the open space all around does suggest an off world location, Long gone are the "good old days" of every planet being a quarry somewhere in Britain. We follow a colonist and her Vardi robot to the city and a second colonists, one instantly recognisable to me as Mina Anwar, an actress in numerous UK shows but more relevant to Who as the mum on Rani Chandra in the Sarah jane Adventures. My immediate thought was that they are expanding on the Indian Space Agency from Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, but while it isn't stated as such it may be a possibility.
Anyway, bad things happen and the nanite swarm that helped the Vardi robots build the city sweep and kill the two colonists when their helper droids are alerted to the fact that they are no longer happy due to a small electronic emoji badge on each colonist's back.
Cue the Arrival of the Doctor.
Landing not far from the city the Doctor and Bill investigate their new find, the Doctor berating Bill for her robot discrimination, a common thread that seems to be appearing in this series. They then encounter the Vardi and are issued with their own reactive-emoji badges that are unable to be seen by the wearer, especially when they attach themselves to their backs. The Vari escort the pair to another large room with a small table and blue food cubes placed upon it. Bill is given a single serving while the Doctor is given two, explaining that it's because he has two hearts and not because it's a "bloke-utopia" as Bill suggests.
Again here we are following up on the "Pilot" where fundamental facts about the Doctor are told to the audience again for those not in the know. Is this due to the new TV deal that gives the BBC five more series to make using this one as the starter? Maybe.
As the pair look around the Doctor hypothesizes that the nanites that there are no colonists because they have been sent in advance to prepare for their arrival., unfortunately this is later disproven when he discovers a necklace amongst the plants in a garden quickly backed up by the discovery of the skeletal remains of the preparation team being used as fertilizer, much to Bill's horror.
The pair attempt to leave but they are confronted by the Vardi who seeing that they are no longer happy head them off ready to give them the killer hug that ended the previous colonists lives. Forcing a smile seems to dissuade them and they return to the TARDIS.
Telling Bill to stay put the Doctor heads back to the city in order to destroy it and stop it from becoming a death trap for the main batch of colonists but in classic companion tradition Bill soon follows telling the Doctor that she knows why he keeps the TARDIS as a phone box, it's because of the sign "Advice and assistance obtainable immediately", words that pretty much sum up the Doctor.
The Doctor finally figures out the the Vardi nanites are actually what makes up the city not something they constructed. Figuring that the original ship the colonists arrived on must be somewhere they venture onwards and find a door which opens at a touch into a disappointing interior that pretty much screams factory rather than spaceship. Tis was a letdown after the great opening vistas and city shot but something that's been seen before, recently in the first Star Trek reboot movie where a similar site was used for the engine room due to budgetary constraints.
In my opinion this is where the story starts to fall apart. Even though the Doctor "explains" reason the place looks so industrial it just doesn't feel like a spacecraft and the introduction of a wall map that Bill uses to guide the Doctor enforces this again. Even though its a 2D representation of the ship, she is able to determine where the Doctor should change levels in order to go down. When the Doctor arrives at the engine room we are given a disappointing "engine" that for some reason sits in the middle of walkways. Another poor design that doesn't even seem to be attached to the rest of the ship it's supposed to power.
Bill soon realises that she is being kept out of danger by the Doctor as he has already memorized the map and taking a photo of it heads on after him. She quickly discovers the body of an elderly woman seemingly in a tomb of some sort and looking at an electronic book (not the Hitchhiker's Guide) she is given a run down of the colonist's history. Bill despairs at the fact that something bad happened on Earth causing the need for the colonist to evacuate but quickly sets off to help the Doctor where she encounters a boy.
During all time the Vardi robot seem to not want the colonists waking up and so they send ONE of their number to stop it, at least this is my assumption as they begin towards the ship when the pair entered, not when the alarms go off as the engine begins to fail.
Aftera quick struggle with the Vardi robot utilising the only possible reason for the walkway design (drama) the rest of the colonists begin to wake up. The Doctor quickly hurries to the engine again which seems to be right next door to the stasis room and also missing its listing from the map because neither the Doctor or Bill saw "Sleeper Pods" written there!
Cue Ralf Little as Steadfast and as the rest of the colonists wake up Bill takes the Doctor to the tomb.
The pair figure out that the elderly woman dying was the first sign of grief on this new world and the Vardi's attempt to keep people happy meant they killed the grieving which lead onto more etc... Really, I don't buy it. Why does the Vardi's program of keeping the colonists happy mean that those that aren't are killed? Is death the only cure for unhappiness that the Vardi can see?
The Doctor passes Bill the necklace he found earlier that shows an image of the boy, meaning that friends and family or the awakening colonists were among the starter team and the new grief would cause the Vardi to attack again.
Steadfast goes gung ho, arms himself from an impressive array of weapons for a colony ship and sets off determined to destroy the Vardi and their robots. The group find the boy with two Vardi robots and as he begins to show grief they prepare to attack. One of the robots is shot down, with Steadfast saying its just one robot, Bill says it not just one robot. Surely as a member of the colony Steadfast should know that the Vardi are supposed to be there to make up the city or did he expect one made up of cardboard boxes?
The nanites begin to attack just as the Doctor figures out the Vardi are alive he resets the Vardi returning them to their previous non-homicidal state. The Doctor seems happy enough that after identifying he Vardi as a newly emergent species he quickly whips in and reboots their brains to a less dangerous state. Free will be damned.
All in all not a bad episode. Bill continues to shine as a great companion, the settings are largely great looking but some fairly thin reasoning behind the certain plot points.
Next Thin Ice
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