Doctor Who - Robot of Sherwood

Doing the reviews a week late also makes it much easier
to find images.

The Doctor offers Clara her choice of outings in the TARDIS and, despite knowing that he probably isn't real, she chooses a visit to Robin Hood. The Doctor is dismissive, but no sooner has he left the TARDIS than the merrie outlaw (Tom Riley) is shooting at him.

In an unseasonably mellow Sherwood Forest, Robin and his outlaw band oppose the evil Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Miller, gnawing through the scenery like a badger with the munchies), who is taxing the shit out of the locals, but despite my fears this is only in order to create circuit boards for a crashed spaceship from the future (theme!), and not to shoot Cybermen (although I'm sure they'll be along soon enough, mostly because they're on the series poster). It all ends with evil defeated and Robin and Marian (a sharp lass who helps the Doctor out when he's thrown into the dungeon) reunited , by way of a better musing on the nature of the Doctor as a hero than we got last week.

The Good

• The episode has a palpable sense of fun, there's no denying it.
• The idea that the Doctor has trouble believing in Robin Hood as a 'larger than life hero', just like the Doctor, is a better handling of the series theme (whether the Doctor is a good man, a hero, whatever) than last week's clumsy 'good Dalek' story.
• The idea that Robin laughs because otherwise he'd collapse into helpless floods of tears is actually kind of moving.
• Although she had a small role, so as not to tip their hand, Marian was proper feisty.

The Bad

• Robin is remembered as a legend, but not a man, yet the legend - or at least, the version Clara knows best - is spot on in every detail (except for the robots).
• The bickering between Robin and the Doctor is fun in places, but again robs the Doctor of some of his gravitas. Seriously, the point of scenes in which the Doctor is or seems childish was traditionally to offset the character becoming too serious or too authoritatian; if those scenes take up more than half of every episode, he just looks like a bit of a useless tit.

The Ugly

• Clara mocks the overuse of the sonic screwdriver; this is only okay if they stop actually overusing it (see also Day of the Doctor). If they do, I may move this, but for now, it's an ugly.

Theorising

• So, that's two time-travelling future spaceships to the promised land in three episodes. I have a bit of a theory forming, but I'll talk more about that next week when I discuss Listen, as it touches on stuff from that episode.

Top Quotes

• Robin Hood: I am many things but never that. Robin Hood laughs in the face of all.(laughs merrily and loudly)
  The Doctor: And do people ever punch you in the face when you do that?
  Robin Hood: Not as yet.
  The Doctor: Lucky I'm here then, isn't it?
• The Doctor: When did you start believing in impossible heroes?
  Clara: Don't you know?
• Clara: It is not a competition about who can die slower.
  The Doctor: But it definitely would be me, though, wouldn't it?
• Robin: History is a burden. Stories can make us fly.

The Twelfth Doctor
The Doctor is starting to come into focus a little more now, as a man who questions incessantly (represented by his blackboard scribbling, as well as his attempt to analyse the merry men out of existence), and questions himself more than anything. I think that the line from the first episode 'Who frowned me this face' is going to be important; somewhere between the Eleventh and Twelfth 'official' Doctors, the self-loathing which generated the Dream Lord from his subconscious seems to have crystallised into a desire to disprove his own purpose and invalidate his own actions.

The Verdict
Robot of Sherwood benefits hugely from following an underwhelming opening to the series. a promising concept is ultimately squandered on silliness - disappointing, as writer Mark Gatiss is usually much better at controlling the silliness in his scripts and making it work with the story - but where Deep Breath was a mess and Into the Dalek took itself rather too seriously, the joy and energy here were just what the Doctor ordered (although not this Doctor, because he's a bit of a misery at the moment).

In the long run, I don't think that Robot of Sherwood will ever count as more than fluff, but it's good fluff. It's the kind of episode I wouldn't mind sticking on of an evening if it's been a tough day and I'm in need of distraction, even if it's never going to be one of the classics.

6/10

A note on my rating system, as it's kind of arbitrary:

1-2 - Truly terrible; if I get the season on DVD, I'll be skipping this one.
3-4 - Some redeeming features, but overall either dull or offensive.
5-6 - Good ideas poorly executed, or weaker ideas beautifully realised.
7-8 - Good fun, atmospheric, clever and/or tying in well with the arc plot; at least two or three of the above.
9-10 - Liquid Who.