Robot Of Sherwood: Ranking - 247

   Robot Of Sherwood

(Series 8, Dr 12 with Clara, 6/9/2014, showrunner: Steven Moffat, writer: Mark Gatiss, director: Paul Murphy) 

Rank: 247

''He doth his green way beguile,

To fair hostess merriment

Before a blue box came from the sky

That was Heaven sent

They came from they came from space

This Earthchild and the man who had just changed his face

Honour to bold Robin Hood

Sleeping in the underwood!

And honour to Maid Marian

And all the Sherwood clan!

And honour to the Doctor and Clara

For defeating the Robot Sheriff just like they did the Mara!

Though their days have hurried by

They're still out there somewhere in the sky'

Robin Ood Robin Ood riding through the glen, Robin Ood Robin Ood enslaved yet again, feared by the bad, loved by the good, looks good in a snood, Robin Ood...No wait, sorry, that's not a critique of this story, it's my submission to RTD2 for the DW spin-offs he's promised us for when the show moves to Disney this year. This episode? If you can believe it, that's even sillier. It turns out that the myths and legends of Robin Hood are real - he's not an alien or an android either, although the Sheriff of Nottingham is, naturally, in league with an army of robots from outer space (there was originally a scene where he turns out to be one too, but they cut it at the last minute as it showed him being beheaded and on the day of broadcast Islamic State were on the news for doing that for real). The story doesn't quite turn out the way we're used to though. The outlaws are a bunch of namby-pambys. Even Robin himself is a bit of a big-headed twonk rather than a proper hero. Not since the 1960s has DW done this with its historicals, taking a nation's heroes and then laughing at them. it didn't always work then and it doesn't always work now, but in context of what's quite a worthy heavy series it's nice to have a change of pace with an out-and-out comedy. All the things you'd expect from a Robin Hood spoof are here (not least the parts that were in DW's own timelsot filler on the BBC) and they're done at least as well as other productions from archery contests to swordfights to saving fair maidens. The episode is oddly slanted too though, it's two most substantial scenes exploring not the fight for justice against a wicked tyrant but the Doctor and Robin clashing for Clara's affections and their later bonding inside a prison cell when they realise they are more alike each other than they realised. Unfortunately Tom Riley's Robin is a bit too feeble and one-dimensional to be the Doctor's equal, whilst Ben Miller - so good in so many other things - is the stiffest, feeblest Sheriff of Nottingham you ever saw. The big reveal of the robots falls rather flat too as in truth they don't get very much to do at all. sad to say, too, that for all this episode's strong one-liners the script still isn't terribly lifelike or believable compared to, say, the Disney version (and in that one Robin's a fox and the Sheriff a wolf!) Still, this is a story that isn't meant to take itself too seriously and there's enough zingers in the script to keep you watching. 'Sherwood' is also deeply watchable thanks to the gorgeous location filming which makes the most of all those suitably medieval looking sites Britain still has, with Caerphilly Castle and Fforest Fawr perfect substitutes for a pre-industrial revolution Nottingham.

Positives + There's a sweet fan-pleasing moment near the end of the story when the Doctor shows Robin that his legend will live on forever, even if some of the facts are wrong. In and of itself this scene is just a carbon copy of the better one in 'Vincent and the Doctor', but then Peter Capaldi shows Mr Hood photographs of some of the TV and movie adaptations of his story...One of which features a young Patrick Troughton long before he got to play the 2nd Doctor. One of my favourite DW fan Easter Eggs as if you don't know it doesn't spoil the story and even if you do know no one makes a big song and dance about it, its just there to make you go 'oh look!' This also means, of course, that Patrick Troughton the actor exists in the DW universe. I'm rather pleased about that. I wonder if anyone watching his series on Green-Ray in the DW universe in the future ever goes 'hang on a minute - didn't he save us from the cybermen? And isn't he a dead ringer for that evil bloke Salamander too?!

Negatives - Inevitably the Doctor and Clara feel like extras who've wondered into someone else's universe this week. What's odd is how much their characters differ from the way they act in any other story where Clara plays the Doctor and Robin off each other, enjoying having both of them vying for her attention, while the Doctor uncharacteristically gives into it. In many ways its a surprise it doesn't happen more often - she's a natural flirt and of all the doctors he's one of the most insecure, behind all the bluster - but neither of them acts quite like this before or since. Odd.