When I first heard of this episode before the series began, there were two alarm bells that rang. First of all, the title sends a quick shiver down the spine with cheese and predictability, no prizes for guessing what it would be about. Secondly, it was written by Mark Gatiss which experience told me it could be either a good thing or a not so goo thing. I wouldn't say he has written any bad episodes, but they do have a tendency towards going too far and being a bit silly at times. When the episode came to be broadcast, I had forgotten it was a Gatiss episode so I watched with little preconception. Tit title, however, was unavoidable...
The episode opens with something which I forgot to mention in my last two reviews: The Doctor writing and working things out with a piece of chalk. In Deep Breath he found a piece of chalk (by smell, no less) and proceeded to scrawl all over the floor and walls of his bedroom. Into The Dalek featured a shot or two of a blackboard in the TARDIS covered in Gallifreyan calculations, and Robot Of Sherwood opened with a shot of the Doctor writing on it... suggesting that Into The Dalek was originally intended to come after Robot Of Sherwood, but that needn't be the case. He turns to Clara and tells her it is her choice where they go this time. She almost reluctantly suggests a meeting with her hero, Robin Hood... As he sets the TARDIS towards Sherwood Forest 1190AD-ish, the Doctor points out that heroes like that are never real, saying "You'll only be disappointed"...
Clara reminds him that flying around space an time to save people and put things right makes him a kind of hero... doesn't it? With the Doctor still questioning himself, he's not so sure, and that's the rippling undercurrent for the whole episode. Of course, the main theme up front is that Robin Hood is just a legend and can't possibly be real, so when the Doctor meets a man claiming to be him within seconds of stepping out of the TARDIS, his focus is on trying to find the truth. Clara, on the other hand is delighted and somewhat starstruck. Being a Robin Hood story, there are all the narrative elements one might expect - a dual on a bridge, the 'merry men' in their secret camp, the Sheriff of Nottingham brutally murdering the poor as he takes their money (though in this case he is specifically focussed on gold), and a competition to determine the best archer in the land which leads to Robin splitting the arrow. However, Gatiss sprinkles the Doctor Who magic over the whole things, along with plenty of silly-dust.
A lovely moment of note comes just moments after the Doctor steps out of the TARDIS and declares "No damsels in distress, no pretty castles, no such thing as Robin Hood"... an arrow flies across the picture and lands with a wobbly thud in the TARDIS door-frame. The lovely part is the way the TARDIS heals itself after the Doctor removes the arrow! Sadly, this is followed just a few moments later the fabled duel on the bridge featuring the Doctor armed with just a spoon (but proud and confident of it). Robin and his men have a deliberately irritating trait of laughing a lot and unnecessarily which leads to Clara acknowledging that they are indeed merry men... a term they are unaware of, thereby suggesting that Clara is responsible for it (one of those lovely little self creating prophesies, like the other legend crossing The Myth Makers back in 1965). At that point, the silliness also comes from the Doctor taking hair and blood samples from them before pointing out that the trees are suspiciously green for the time of year and slips in a joke about it being too sunny as well "Have you ever been to Nottingham?"
Gatiss even acknowledges the silliness as the golden arrow contest becomes extreme one-upmanship between Robin and the Doctor with the line "This is getting silly" before blowing the target up. Then, at last, the robots arrive on the scene. Rather beautiful, yet evil faces under the Sheriff's guard's helmets, reminiscent of those in The Robots Of Death but with cross shaped lasers on their noses. This detail is nicely reflected in the cross shaped windows (technically known as arrow slits) in wall of the the dungeon where Robin, the Doctor and Clara are then locked up in because "The quickest way to find out any bodies plans... get yourself captured". Not the first time the Doctor has done this, but echoed by Clara's tactics later on when she tricks the Sheriff into telling her his background "People are so much better at sharing information if they think the other person's already got it."
There's a scene where Robin and the Doctor argue about their respective plans of escape and the Doctor's call to a guard complaining about being locked up with a laughing man, all of which feels very much like a scene from "Black Adder" and ultimately results in the guard taking Clara to the Sheriff for questioning because she is clearly their intelligent leader. It's all really quality stuff dressed in silliness and despite the overwhelming sense that it's being played for laughs a little too much, I find it hard not to chuckle along with it and enjoy Robot Of Sherwood. The setting is new and interesting but the plot is hardly creative - yet another crashed spaceship disguised as a contemporary building while the locals are terrorised by the aliens as they ready themselves for escape. There were also times, perhaps unsurprisingly or even intentionally, that it felt very much like an episode of the 2006-2009 TV series "Robin Hood" but the cast all seem to ply their parts perfectly as intended. Ben Miller in particular shines in a dramatically dark but genuine portrayal of the Sheriff and there is a certain chemistry of contempt between Robin (Tom Riley) and the Doctor.
It is curious that the door to the robot's is in the shape of a Gothic arch, but even more curious is the way, when first seen, it looks like a castle window looking out to the full moon - in fact, the 'moon' (which we see is full in a later reflected shot) is just a round window revealing a bright interior and the apparent dark sky around it is merely due to the low light. But the greatest curiosity comes as the robots arrive and blow it off its hinges... the Doctor just opened it without problems and it wasn't locked behind him, and since it is the robots' ship that shouldn't have been an obstacle any way. Similarly puzzling is the way the robots seem to be casting gold into circuitry, yet it is later talked about in terms of power and the golden arrow is used to provide a boost simply by embedding it in the hull of the ship... a boost from 83% to full power, at which point the suspension of disbelief is stretched beyond credulity. That said, an earlier moment where Robin slides down a banner with his sword cutting through it was pretty incredulous even if it were a cliché.
Extra nice touches come in the form of second Doctor actor Patrick Troughton appearing in one of many references to the legend of Robin Hood (a publicity shot of him playing the role in the 1953 TV series), the Sheriff referring to the Doctor's confiscated belongings as a gallimaufry (sounding confusingly similar to the Doctor's home planet Gallifrey, though used anachronistically since it isn't known to have come into use before the 16th century), and Robin deflecting the Doctor's questioning of his story by demonstrating it's similarity to his own - they both deny that they are heroes but Robin points out that "if we keep pretending to be, perhaps people will be heroes in our name... and may those stories never end" bringing us back to the arc of the series, people dying for the Doctor. Unlike the first two episodes, nobody is seen to be saved in Robot Of Sherwood, but only the robots deaths are not shown explicitly, just their ship exploding, so perhaps we will see them again.
This is a beautifully and lovingly crafted episode with further uncertainty between Clara and the Doctor (Clara: "When did you stop believing [in legends like Robin Hood]?" Doctor: "When did you start believing in impossible heroes?" Clara: "Don't you know?"), some great lines and gorgeous visuals as always. It is a shame about some of the silliness and the dubious ending but that's never stopped Doctor Who from being great before! Besides, there is something very old-school about it and Mark Gatiss has managed to write a 45 minute episode in a way that it could easily have been a 4 x 25 serial from the 80s.
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