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The Doctor and Nardole are living under the guises of a university professor and his assistant at St. Luke’s University in Bristol. Bill Potts, who works at the university’s canteen, is called to the Doctor’s office, where he notes she attends all his lectures, and Bill eventually becomes the Doctor’s student.
Months pass, and Bill is intrigued by another student named Heather, who has a defect such that it looks like there is a star in her eye. Heather asks her to inspect a mysterious puddle, asking her if she can see what’s wrong with her reflection, but Bill does not notice anything except that her face seems wrong somehow. Bill turns around and Heather has left. Within the puddle, a voice notes its search for a pilot has begun.
Bill meets Heather again, who encourages her to look into the puddle. The Doctor investigates it, and notes that the reflection is not a reflection, but something mimicking them. Bill returns to her flat, and is chased by a moving body of water, which manifests Heather’s likeness. She runs to the Doctor’s office, where water-Heather materializes, forcing him and Bill into the TARDIS. The Doctor moves the TARDIS elsewhere in the university, where he and Nardole check on a vault they have been guarding, thinking whatever is after Bill may be interested in it. Just then, water-Heather appears, causing the trio to return to the TARDIS.
The TARDIS lands again, on the opposite side of Sydney Harbour to Sydney Opera House, where the Doctor admits that he is an alien. The water-Heather arrives again, chasing them. The Doctor takes them to another planet and millions of years into the future, but she finds them again. The Doctor decides to have it chase them through a battle between the Daleks and the Movellans. A Dalek catches the Doctor and Bill, but its shot hits water-Heather. Heather assumes the Dalek’s likeness. The Doctor speculates that when the substance that took possession of Heather found her, it found someone who wanted to leave. Bill convinces the creature to let her go, and it melts away.
The Doctor and Bill return to his university office, where he attempts to wipe Bill’s mind but she stops him. He says that he has promises to keep, that he is in disguise and no-one should know who he is. As Bill leaves the grounds, she finds the Doctor waiting for her with the TARDIS, having changed his mind. Bill agrees to travel with the Doctor.
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Hi!
First time listener here. I really enjoyed the episode, probably more than Wayne.
It was odd that Bill was so connected to a girl she barely knew, but after thinking about it, maybe it was because they were young and their youth made them more open to the connectionand beliving in their feelings. Just an idea.
Oh and Go Pack Go!
I thought that “The Pilot” was one of the better done Doctor Who episodes that I’ve seen in years. It was certainly one of the stronger performances for Capaldi as The Doctor and Pearl Mackie makes an excellent companion. Matt Lucas’s Nardole adds some great comic relief to a more horror film than SciFi like plot….I give this episode a 4.0 out of 5.
The Pilot rated 9.0 out of 10 by this Whovian!
If we didn’t know of the earlier versions of “Smile”, I would have given this episode a lower rating; but thanks to our knowledge of 1966’s ‘The Ark’ with William Hartnell’s Doctor traveling into the far future and meeting the last of humanity living aboard a starship as Earth’s destruction looms and 1975’s “The Ark in Space” with Tom Baker’s Doctor aboard a space station containing a select group of humans being kept in cryogenic suspension, who’d fled the Earth after it was devastated by solar flares,I gave the episode a 5.5 out of 10. The sleeping humans would have had to be cared for in some way and the grief factor, about leaving a doomed home and family losses, had to be taken care of. Creating the emojibots was the solution. This would ensure survival of a healthy, happy and productive human species. Human nature won out. Sad, depressed humans survived and the emojibots’ purpose went viral and they stared wiping the depressed people out. Good thing the doctor showed up to do a reboot on the little guys; but remember it takes more than a reboot to get rid of a computer virus. We may see those irritating, little guys again!
Doctor Who The Pilot 2017 was Good Because it shows the Doctor having a normal life on Earth like that he got a normal Job as a University Teacher