Doctor Perseus Reviews: "Robot of Sherwood" *SPOILERS*

In this week's episode of Doctor Who, Clara has the Doctor take them to the Sherwood Forest in medieval England to meet Robin Hood, whom the Doctor believes to be just a legend. However, things take an unexpected turn when they end up meeting the actual Robin Hood and his merry men. With a deadly plot from across the stars brewing beneath an English castle, the Doctor and Clara must work together with the alleged Robin Hood to determine who in Nottingham is real and who is not...

After two fairly dark and serious episodes, we finally have our first "fun romp" of Series 8 (and, from the looks of things, the last episode of Series 8 to be set in the past). I went into this episode with a pretty open mind. This wasn't one of my most anticipated of episodes this season but I was definitely interested in seeing how it turned out. And I can happily say that this was quite a fun ride of an episode.

I swear, the Doctor (and the whole episode, by extension) had me laughing more than I had while watching the two previous episodes. It was nice to see the Twelfth's Doctor's silly side come out a bit more. It's always nice to see that no matter how dark the Doctor gets there's always a joyful and fun spirit within him. I was already laughing quite a bit during the pre-titles sequence with him and Clara arguing about going to the Sherwood Forest to find Robin Hood. By this point, the Twelfth Doctor and Clara are bouncing off each other wonderfully. This is only their third episode together and it already feels like they've been together forever. The Doctor's antics throughout the episode were a joy to watch and it was entertaining to see him having to overcome his stubbornness and accept that a legend such as Robin Hood was real. The spoon duel and the argument between the Doctor and Robin in the dungeon were definitely two of the biggest highlights of the episode for me. I also enjoyed seeing the parallels between the Doctor and Robin being shown and the final scene between the two of them was rather touching.

Moving onto Clara, she was a joy to watch in this episode too. It was fun seeing her fangirl about Robin and it was fitting to see her provide the more human interactions in comparison to the Doctor's alien quirks and judging throughout the episode. Along with the Doctor and Robin, she was hilarious in the dungeon scene and I loved it when she yelled at them to shut up. Her conversations with Robin were also really good and her interrogation scene with the Sheriff, just like her interrogation with the Half-Faced Man in Deep Breath, showed just how clever and somewhat manipulative Clara can be.

Tom Riley gave a good performance as Robin Hood. It wasn't the greatest performance but it was enough to get me to enjoy the character. He bounced off the Doctor and Clara extremely well and, while it was a bit cheesy, I liked the ending with the Doctor returning Marian to him. I must admit that I was impressed by having the twist of the episode being that there was no twist at all. I expected there to be a revelation that Robin was actually a robot the whole time and the episode played on that assumption. Then it went and turned things around by having it turn out that Robin and his merry men were actually real and that the only reason he was a legend was because his true story got lost in history. Eh, I can buy that. Meanwhile, Ben Miller gave a pretty good performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham. He was a fittingly despicable villain for the episode and he had a pretty fitting death scene (despite the fact that the scene with him having his head cut off and him revealing that he was part robot was removed). I really liked how Robin defeated him in the same way the Doctor had beat Robin in the sword/spoon fight at the beginning of the episode.

The robot knights were a nice addition to the episode. They were intimidating enough and I liked how they shot beams through cross-shaped holes in their metal faces. And I liked how the Doctor and the captured people defeated them by reflecting their beams back at them. The rest of the supporting cast did a decent job. While most were about as forgettable as the supporting cast from last week's episode, they still had some pretty fun moments. I especially loved the moment when Robin was introducing his merry men and the Doctor was inspecting all of them. The funniest, and darkest, bit was with the Doctor finding a bunch of diseases in Alan-a-Dale and telling him that he had only six months left to live (which went right over his head and the Doctor quickly pushed back under the rug).

Moving on to the little things. It looks like we're starting to see some of the Doctor's random costume changes that Moffat was teasing about. Here, he was wearing a dark purple shirt under his jacket instead of the usual white shirt and blue cardigan. Clara's costume was also really nice. At the beginning of the episode, I was expecting her to take on the Maid Marian role of the episode. That was until Marian was mentioned and, of course, later when Marian was returned to Robin. I liked the little bit with the Doctor pulling the arrow out of the TARDIS and the hole disappearing right then and there. It was a small but nice touch. We also got an interesting continuation of the Promised Land story arc with the robot knights' original destination being exactly that.

I have a few minor complaints about the episode. Firstly, while I really enjoyed the Doctor in this episode, the Doctor didn't really do all that much. Most of his actions throughout the episode consisted of him over-examining everything in an attempt to prove that Robin wasn't real. His stubbornness here reminded me of that professor in Midnight who kept saying that it was impossible for there to be any life on Midnight despite obvious evidence to the contrary. Also, while I liked the medieval setting, the 50-ish minute run time didn't really allow the full feel and mythology of the setting to be entirely fleshed out. And, as I stated above, the ending with Marian was a bit cheesy. Finally, I think it would have been more fitting if this episode had kept its rumored title: Robots of Sherwood. I just think that would have been more fitting due to all of the robots in the episode.

Overall, I found Robot of Sherwood to be a really entertaining episode. Is it going to go down as one of the Doctor Who greats? No. But it was an incredibly fun, hilarious episode and, in all honestly, that's good enough for me. Next week's episode is Listen!

Comments

[MariusIoannesP]

He was a fittingly despicable villain for the episode and he had a pretty fitting death scene (despite the fact that the scene with him having his head cut off and him revealing that he was part robot was removed).

Oh, is that why he described himself as part man, part engine? That left me kind of confused.

They were intimidating enough and I liked how they shot beams through cross-shaped holes in their metal faces.

That actually bothered me a bit. Crosses should not be used as weapons... Unless you're fighting vampires or other assorted demonic beings.

It looks like we're starting to see some of the Doctor's random costume changes that Moffat was teasing about. Here, he was wearing a dark purple shirt under his jacket instead of the usual white shirt and blue cardigan.

Yeah, I kind of liked how he was dressed here better than how he usually dresses.

I pretty much agree completely with your assessment here. I particularly enjoyed the Doctor's silly moments, such as when he cries "I am the Doctor, and this is my spoon!" The dungeon scene was great too, especially when Clara points out the Doctor's plans seem to always include the sonic screwdriver! It kind of alludes to that issue you've had about the sonic screwdriver doing everything. I also loved how Clara plays the Sheriff of Nottingham like a fiddle when he's interrogating her! We've learned so much about Clara this season. I also found it fascinating given the darker trend of this season that the Doctor doesn't consider himself an old-fashioned hero. My favorite part though was the whole arrow-splitting duel the Doctor and Robin Hood end up having! I found it a bit of a twist on a piece of the modern legend of Robin Hood.

Was is it just me or was this episode is somewhat similar to "The Fires of Pompeii"? You have aliens in the past using a local ruler to build parts for their spaceship.

I just wonder though how much Robin Hood compares against the one from Once Upon A Time.

You know there has some study into the theory that Robin Hood may have been a real person.

[BioniclesaurKing4t2]

To me, the pacing and progression in this episode felt the best of the season so far. In "Into the Dalek", I got to the end, looked back, and thought, "Wait, it's over already? That was quick." This episode just kept going forward, and forward, and are you sure it's only 46 minutes? But it didn't overstay its welcome in the process.

And the Doctor's stubbornness is excused here because he, unlike the professor in "Midnight", has come across such impossible or improbable situations as this that have turned out to actually be falsifications, so he has a valid reason to still be suspicious and doubtful.

And I'm not sure if it's just more common of a theme than I thought, but on the subject of Robin Hood slipping from history to legend, I just so happen to be working on a Whooves fanfic which uses the phrase "history forgets a lot". Funny how things work, eh?

[RandomGreymane]

Ben Miller really managed a good sheriff here. I will mention something I found really odd and I don't know if it was planned or not.

Several times during the episode I couldn't quite figure out what was bugging me. Then when the sheriff and Robin are on the beam above the crucible it hit me - the sheriff looked a LOT like the master from the original series.

Beyond just the general facial structure it was little things like eye motion and jaw set. Call me weird but perhaps Ben maybe took his cues for villainy from the canonical source.

[Doctor Perseus]

2433803

That actually bothered me a bit. Crosses should not be used as weapons.

I can understand why you didn't like it. I personally liked it because I felt it acted as a fitting representation of the Crusades that were happening during Robin's time.

Yeah, I kind of liked how he was dressed here better than how he usually dresses.

So you like the purple shirt more than the white shirt/blue cardigan combo? I think Capaldi looks great in both. Heh, it looks like MLP and Doctor Who are the only shows out there right now where men can comfortably talk about fashion sense and clothing options.

The dungeon scene was great too, especially when Clara points out the Doctor's plans seem to always include the sonic screwdriver! It kind of alludes to that issue you've had about the sonic screwdriver doing everything.

Yeah. I think that was a nice little jab at the constant use of the sonic throughout Tennant's and Smith's eras (even though John Hurt's War Doctor already took a few jabs at that concept back in The Day of the Doctor).

Was is it just me or was this episode is somewhat similar to "The Fires of Pompeii"? You have aliens in the past using a local ruler to build parts for their spaceship.

A lot of people have been comparing that episode with this one. I can see the similarities, I'll admit.

I just wonder though how much Robin Hood compares against the one from Once Upon A Time.

Are you talking about comparing that Robin Hood to the original legend or the Robin Hood in this episode? Either way, I think he's fairly different from both.

You know there has some study into the theory that Robin Hood may have been a real person.

Neat! Though, if his existence is proven in the future, that could make the Doctor's claim about Robin being just a legend way more false than it was already proven to be. Whatever the case, we can just play the "alternate realities" card and just say that Robin's existence was never proven in the Doctor Who universe (aside from, obviously, the Doctor and Clara meeting him).

[Doctor Perseus]

2435437

Several times during the episode I couldn't quite figure out what was bugging me. Then when the sheriff and Robin are on the beam above the crucible it hit me - the sheriff looked a LOT like the master from the original series.

A lot of people have been saying how Ben Miller was channeling Anthony Ainley (the actor who played the version of the Master seen throughout the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors' eras) in this episode.