The plot was silly and not in the fun silly way but in the just dumb way and without any other aspects (like very clever dialogue or characters or fun villain/threat or development) to offset it.
IMHO.
Thank you! I was trying to explain to my husband why this episode felt “off” to me. All I could think was, “God, I miss Donna.”
I’ll give Bill a few more episodes before I make a definitive opinion. So far I’m not very impressed. I’ve been saying that, though, about every companion since Donna.
I saw it as kind of a finding-our-feet episode—a fairly generic Doctor Who plot, with a focus on what the new companion does when presented with the extraordinary (and without, thankfully—and so far—having the companion being yet another girl-at-the-center-of-the-writer’s-teenage-fantasies). As such, I thought it was perfectly alright, if not stellar.
But it seems to me there’s been a marked change to Capaldi’s Doctor, taking the edge off a bit to make him more likable. I’m not sure I like that—after a bit of initial resistance, I eventually grew to welcome Capaldi as a much-needed change of pace. But well, it’s still early days with the new companion.
Two tests against killer villains to decide it Bill was sufficiently lucky to survive being a companion.
The Doctor isn’t reluctant to being people on. He’s reluctant to get attached to them before he knows if they have sufficient luck and pluck to survive his dangers.
I wonder how many others died before Bill? Of course they don’t tell us that. 
I don’t mind Bill, but the plots thus far have been uninspiring. I realize the first episode needed to concentrate on character development and so am willing to give it a pass, but “Smile” had neither character development nor much of a plot beyond “Oh look - smiley robots! Oh help - smiley robots! Oh look - a deus ex machina!”.
I mean, the smiley robots were nicely menacing and we got a new killer (literally) emoji out of it, but otherwise yawn city. Not only is this not the only or best NuWho episode to feature scary smiley robots but they even referenced / lampshaded that one in passing in discussing the Doctor’s experience with colony ships escaping Earth.
BTW one more niggling point: when the Doctor went back inside to blow things up, why didn’t he take the TARDIS? What’s the logic in “I’m going to create a massive explosion big enough to destroy this entire building…and I’m going to leave my means of escaping the massive explosion a mile away because I can’t be bothered to move it”?
(And on a snarky note: I couldn’t help think that it would have been hilarious if the robots had displayed euro signs instead of pound signs, just to wind up certain viewers…)
What did you think of the crack about the Scottish independence movement?
Not only that: The logo on the ship said “United Earth”, so the global currency is the British pound? I guess now we know who the imperialistic aggressor was in those global wars that ravaged the planet. 
I enjoyed the first episode. This one… meh.
I think that they’ve been to the “you have to/you mustn’t perform a basic human function” well about two times too many.
Don’t Pee: The Doctor and Bill find themselves on a planet of waterfalls, where something is living in the plumbing, and to go for a slash spells instant death. How long can they hold on?
Planet of the Constipated
Doctor: What do you mean you can’t poop? How can you not do a basic human function?
Colonist: There’s something living in the sewage network and killing people when they sit in the loo. I myself haven’t had a movement in at least a week and I’m getting frightfully bloated and uncomfortable! Oh Doctor, can’t you do something about it?
Doctor: Can’t you just poop in the woods?
Colonist: :eek: HOW UNCIVILIZED!
Don’t Move.
I missed it (or have forgotten it). What was it?
I know - which is why using the euro would have been funny. EU rules OK!
That’ll teach them to visit the planet Candiru…
Bill asked: “Is there a Scotland in space?”
The Doctor said: “They’re all over the place, demanding independence from every planet they land on.”
Just watched the most recent episode. No major spoilers but it’s very good. It’s a little light on plot, but the rapport between the Doctor and Bill just gets better and better. Best one of the season, IMO.
Definitely, and I see AVclub gave it an A as well. I thought it was the only good episode we’ve had this year so far. Very solid.
Now that was exactly what Doctor Who is supposed to be. Pearl Mackey and Peter Capaldi play so well off each other.
Bear in mind that the AV Club also gave an A to “Kill the Moon”, which was so stupid that its idiocy echoed backward and forward in time, sinking the Titanic and electing Donald Trump. I love the site, but I take their *Doctor Who *reviews with a major grain of salt.
(Note that I haven’t seen the episode yet, so they may have got it right this time).
Well, the overall plot isn’t that strong, the villain is a little undercooked, the aftermath is implausible and I still haven’t figured out how they got air to the diving suits, but the tone is perfect, the dialogue crackles, and most importantly the characters are just right: the Doctor and Bill as protagonists are pitched exactly as they ought to be. And Nardole’s line about putting coffee in the tea was great.
I thought this episode had really bad Direction. Everything was just a little bit off, and that irritated me.
Wow, I did not realize that. I think “Kill the Moon” is my least favorite episode.
That one was pretty bad, but the dialog between the Doctor and Clara elevated it for me above my own least favorite, “In the Forest of the Night.” I’m pretty easygoing about bad science if the story’s otherwise good, but that one made my eyes roll so hard I hurt myself.