Doctor Who/Robin Hood crossover? This is me making grabby hands as irritatingly as possible. See the grabby hands? Give. Give episode. Give it to me for cuddling.
That’s actually pretty close to my true impression of the episode, as you will see below.
Summary
It’s one of those “free pass” adventure days, where the Doctor asks his companion what they would like to see most in all the universe. Clara says she knows he’ll insist that the man’s not real, but she wants to meet Robin Hood. The Doctor does insist that he’s not real, but takes her to Sherwood Forest anyway. Once there, Robin Hood promptly shoots an arrow into the TARDIS and starts posturing.
He challenges the Doctor to the duel for his blue box, which the Doctor gamely takes up with a big spoon. The fight ends when the Doctor does some tricky footwork and knocks Robin in the water. (Robin returns the favor promptly afterward.) The outlaw takes the duo to his hideout and introduces them to the Merry Men—which Clara accidentally dubs them for the first time. The Doctor is suspicious and analyzing the whole band, convinced that they’re not real.
In the meantime, the Sheriff of Nottingham is taking gold (not jewels and other things of value, just gold) from the people. He sends a young woman to work under the castle and kills her father. Robin Hood attends the famous archery contest for the golden arrow. Though he wins, splitting the sheriff’s arrow in twain, the Doctor shows him up. This goes back and forth for a while until it comes clear that the knights and guards of Nottingham are robots. They capture him, and Robin and Clara, which had been his plan from the start. Of course, once captured, he has no actual plan, so he and Robin begin to bicker. Clara finally puts an end to it, which results in her being pegged as the “leader,” and getting brought to the Sheriff. She tricks him into giving up his story; a spaceship crashed to the ground and brought the robots, who the Sheriff plans to use in his bid for world domination. (Turns out, he’s not a fan of Prince John either.) They need gold to power the ship.
The Doctor and Robin do eventually escape, making it to the castle’s control room—the palace is actually the spaceship in disguise, and the Doctor realizes that it, too, is headed for the “Promised Land” that the control node of the S.S. Marie Antoinette spoke of two episodes back. He figures that they created Robin Hood from their databanks of Earth history and legend, keeping the peasants complacent in the takeover by giving them a hero to look toward. The Sheriff comes in with Clara, and Robin takes her hostage and escapes. When Clara wakes the next day, he interrogates her about what the Doctor knows of him and his story.
The Doctor is locked up alongside the young woman who was captured earlier. He knows that the ship doesn’t have enough gold, and that the damage is too extensive; if the ship tries to take off, it’ll blow up and destroy half of the British Isles. He teaches the peasants to arm themselves against the robots with shiny platters and trays, and they stop the work on the ship, calling the Sheriff to them. The peasants escape while the Doctor continues to insist that Robin Hood is another robot… until the Sheriff points out that it makes no sense for them to create someone who is always trying to foil their plans. At that moment, Robin and Clara arrive—the Merry Men have taken the castle, and Robin is there to stop the Sheriff. During the fight, he cuts off the Sheriff’s head only to find out that he’s a robot as well. The spaceship landed on him when it fell.
They fight over a vat of molten gold, and Robin uses the Doctor’s trick to knock the Sheriff into it. The ship starts to take off once they’re out, but it won’t break orbit, so the Doctor and Clara and Robin fire the golden arrow together to give it an engine extra boost so it explodes in space. It is the greatest archery feat ever attempted by three people at once. Before they leave, Clara tells Robin to never give up on finding Maid Marion (they’d had a chat about her early on). Before the Doctor exits, Robin asks if it’s true that he’s only remembered as a legend and not a real man. The Doctor confirms this, and Robin says it’s good, better than history. That Clara told him the whole story of a man who saw people oppressed and couldn’t stand it… so he stole a TARDIS. Robin tells the Doctor that perhaps neither of them are heroes truly, but their stories are what matter. Clara wants the Doctor to admit that he likes Robin Hood, and he tells her that he left the outlaw a present. When the TARDIS dematerializes, Maid Marion is behind it—the same young woman who was working in the depths of the ship.
Commentary
This is a Mark Gatiss penned episode, which might have worried a few fans to start—his episodes have a middling track record (remember the WWII fighter planes in space against multi-colored daleks?). But in my opinion, this sort of episode is exactly where Gatiss shines. He does an excellent job with history, with fictional figures and legends. He’s at his best when the science fiction aspects of the episode require little-to-no explanation. He knows how to make myths out of spaceships and robots, which is a particular plus in my book, being the sort of person who has always leaned more toward fantastical sci-fi.
And he made me cry this time, the bastard.
Sure, the episode seems a little contrived for the first half. And there’s some weirdness in progression of events—the fact that the Doctor happens to find Robin Hood on a first go (gosh, the TARDIS must have really wanted to prove him wrong on this trip), that the world is set up in a sort of skeletal fashion off the assumption that we all know the tales, that Robin himself is hard to take seriously at all first the first half of the episode—it makes for an interesting brew that could have easily not panned out. (Also, Clara faints when Robin Hood flings them into the moat? Did she hit her head on a rock?)
There’s also a very basic storytelling problem here: Gatiss is pulling primarily from more modern Hood legends, ones that moviegoers will recognize best. It’s a good practical decision, but a bad one historically speaking—the events in the episode would ring truer if they’d been mined from the older ballads, but then you don’t get the great background of Robin Hood as a dispatched nobleman, and all the cues that viewers know best. I do get it, but Clara loves the legends and she’s a teacher, and it’s an awkward suspension of disbelief for my part.
Discounting that, there’s also the fact that Robin and his merry band are played somewhat less than genuine for the first half of the episode, almost camp. It seems to be a diversion tactic—if they come off too accurate to the figures we know and love, the audience will be less inclined to believe the Doctor when he insists that they’re fake. And without that little niggling chance hanging over our head, most of the episode doesn’t work. As a result, the Merry Men and Robin himself have a sort of frat bro vibe at the beginning, man-children who are incapable of taking anything seriously. I am with the Doctor: the laughter is creepy.
The Doctor’s insistence that Robin Hood can’t be real is a very specific departure from previous Doctors, especially Eleven. At first glance, it seems to be just a way of differentiating them, but it goes deeper than that; the Eleventh Doctor lived something of a fairy tale, with his child friend Amy who he appeared to like some kindly wizard one night. But he didn’t exactly do well by Amy, did he? Poor Amy Pond, left behind and then left again, and then zapped back in time where he could never lay eyes on her. The Doctor did a lot of damage to the people he loved in his last incarnation. Is it any surprise that he doesn’t believe in heroes and fairy tales anymore?
So that’s the heart of the episode. The Doctor telling Clara over and over, no, this man can’t be real because people like this don’t exist. He would know. Clara is a perfect avatar this episode because the audience is getting the same buzz off the encounter—it’s the Doctor and Robin Hood! The Doctor! Robin Hood! AAAAHHHHHHHHH. Look at them fight like little boys! Look at them try to outdo each other! (Honestly, I laughed until I nearly choked at his Time Lord pride for being the one who would starve out last in their cell.) The Doctor fought Robin Hood with a spoon! Which may be the most Doctor Who thing to ever occur in a Doctor Who episode. He used trick arrows to win the archery contest! Everything about this episode needed to happen. It was a perfect stew of “have not”s that needed to be “have”s. The world suddenly seems more right.
Clara gets a lot of credit this episode, again being treated like a character with intelligence and her own agenda (a trend that I hope will continue for the rest of her tenure and extend into the future). She gets pegged as the leader by the guard because she’s the only one who can command focus. She gets the Sheriff to spill a lot of information, then thoroughly enjoys admitting that she lied to him. I also give Gatiss a lot of credit for not going too overboard with the “look, boys—a woman!” scenario that often happens in these narratives—Robin Hood flirts because that’s what he does, but he’s not trying anything, and none of his comrades do either. Other historical scenarios sometimes result in the companion getting a slew of unwanted advances (like Shakespeare and Martha, for example), but everyone here treats Clara with respect. Though we see very little of Maid Marion, she also stands out as someone compassionate and capable. On the other hand, I really do wish we’d gotten more of her. Particularly since this is a very dude-heavy episode.
Getting to know Capaldi’s Doctor better and better remains the treat lately, though. Never have I seen a Doctor who manages to balance grumpiness with just enough softness that it doesn’t sting. This was a problem that occurred often for the First and Sixth Doctors; they were both wonderful in their own way, but also a bit too mean sometimes. Twelve’s grouchiness comes off more internal—he’ll let you know he dislikes something, but not insist on your agreement or try to make you feel stupid in the process. When Clara calls him on his attitude, he takes the rebuke. It doesn’t mean he listens, but he is aware in a way that he has never been before—he’s not for everyone. Whereas previous Doctors were convinced of their own superiority (Six in particular), Twelve has no illusions of perfection. He’s not even sure how much he likes himself, let alone that he deserves to be liked by others.
Which bring us to the conclusion of the episode, the reveal that Robin Hood is a real man, that he lived and did the things the legends said. And the Doctor can’t believe it because he knows he’s not a hero anymore, so how could Robin Hood be?
What the Doctor has forgotten is that people don’t think of themselves as heroes—they are made into heroes according to the perceptions of others. And Robin Hood takes the time to explain that to him through Clara’s voice. He asked her what the Doctor knew of him, who the Time Lord was, and she told the story of a great hero who helped the downtrodden. (Doctor, you taught peasants to fight laser-shooting robots with buffet trays! YOU WIN.) It doesn’t matter if the Doctor doesn’t feel like that man… that’s still his truth. Sneaky, sharp Clara saw something that the Doctor could never see, that he and the infamous outlaw happen to have a great deal in common. They are both angered by oppression, they are both outcasts of somewhat noble stature, they are both kind and romantic and larger than life.
They cannot be contained by history. They must be stories.
This acknowledgement both plays with and manages to be more satisfying than the narrative we received from characters like River Song in previous seasons, regarding the universe’s view of his adventures. Yes, in some cultures the word Doctor means “warrior” because of their encounter with the Time Lord, but one story does not make a life. Clara has seen the Doctor through countless points in time, and this is the story she tells. Robin Hood is a hero to her, but the Doctor is her hero. Even grumpy and childish, even spoon-wielding and sad, even befuddled and disbelieving. Even when he can’t see it. Especially when he can’t.
And Robin Hood, who starts off the episode with an unconvincing laugh and an annoying cadence, ends as the hero that folklore has known for centuries. He is wiser and warmer, he’s willing to do more for the people who depend on him. And just when he thinks he’s got so much farther to go, Maid Marion is hiding behind the TARDIS and he gets his happy ending.
Because the Doctor and Clara wrote this story. And those are always the sorts of endings they’re working toward.
Awesome asides and hints:
- Robin Hood fans would have instantly recognized the fight between the Doctor and Robin as a mirror of the initial fight between the outlaw and Little John because it occurs in practically every modern retelling of the story. What’s great is seeing the Doctor get the drop on Hood this time around, along with the fact that Robin takes the move for himself when going up against the Sheriff.
- There are nods to famous versions of Robin Hood and the actors who protrayed him all over the place, but my favorite is probably the knife-to-the-banner slide Robin does with Clara toward the end. Pure Douglas Fairbanks.
- When the Doctor is looking through the ship’s databanks at various versions of the Robin Hood story, there is a shot of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton! He was in the television series The Adventures of Robin Hood in the 1950s. (No, he did not play Robin. But he’s got a bow and arrow, and that’s all that matters.)
- The Doctor being able to duel is actually a skill he has displayed several times in as many incarnations. On a hilarious (to me) note, he has dueled the Master more than once (as Three and Five), and also fought as the Tenth Doctor as well.
- Of course, the robots were headed to “the Promised Land.” Which means that this isn’t some glitch in one ship’s system. Someone is clearly sending out the signal. Is it all Missy’s doing? Time will tell….
Emmet Asher-Perrin also keeps a dueling gauntlet in her coat pocket. You can bug her on Twitter and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
I was wary about this episode because I’m not a fan of Gatiss’s episodes in general, but I actually enjoyed most of this episode. Until the ending. I wasn’t sure at first whether or not I liked Robin actually being real, but I agree with this review that it was a good way to explore the Doctor’s shattered belief in heroes. This was a very camp episode, but self-aware in a way that made it work. Both the Doctor and Clara seem to realize how silly Robin and the Merry Men are. Clara loves it, and the Doctor is irritated by it. What bothered me was the golden arrow. I feel like the plot should have been resolved in a more creative way. At that point, it felt like the self awareness of the episode’s silliness disappeared, and it actually became silly.
“During the fight, he cuts off the Sheriff’s head only to find out that he’s a robot as well. The spaceship landed on him when it fell.”
That must be the beheading that was cut at the last minute. I guess you got an earlier review copy? This sure didn’t happen in the version I saw.
I found the Doctor’s bickering with Robin to be too broad, childish, and overdone. Otherwise, it was an okay episode, stronger toward the end. Clara was great.
Ben Miller as the Sheriff looked uncannily like Roger Delgado as the Master. Can we bring him back and reveal he was really the Master pretending to be the Sheriff? After all, the reveal that he was a robot was cut out…
Maybe this is just me, but I loved Clara calling the Doctor on his overuse of the Sonic to get out of jams, and then him actually spending most of the episode trying to escape while Clara and Robin did a lot of the actual work. It was great!
I imagine others have taken note, but there’s an apparent drive to pay homage to the 4th doctor in this series (aside from the overt references to character) – both doctors awake from regeneration speaking of large dinosaurs, Into The Dalek was simlar to Genesis of the Daleks, and this episode reminded me of Androids of Tara on a few levels (including a display of superior fencing skills). Almost as thought they’re trying to recapture magic by reproducing it. Fancy that.
Recontextualizing historic figures, tales, or even ordinary objects (such as statues of angels, or in this case – golden arrows) can work well within a Who serial, but this was a cursory pass at potentially rich material, and sadly, Robots of Sherwood played out like a pre Daniel Craig Bond film, complete with a villain informing the titular hero of his plan before neglecting to kill him, (“Best way to learn someone’s plan is to get captured!”) and a sloppy, contrived 3rd act which leaves the audience groaning. At least someone could’ve fired the golden shot from the doorway to the blast chamber to increase the stakes and tension. With scraps like this they might as well cast Roger Moore.
I did genuinely enjoy the banter between Robin and the Doctor, I continue to love Capaldi’s performance, and the episode was fun, if disposable.
“During the fight, he cuts off the Sheriff’s head only to find out that he’s a robot as well.”
You shouldn’t watch leaked videos…
@2: Ben Miller also sounded like Delgado. Why couldn’t he be the Master?
I noticed a call back to Jon Pertwee when the doctor did a kind of Venusian aikido chop to someone’s hand to disarm them. Can’t remember who’s hand however…
Enjoyed the Robin & Doctor banter. Appreciated a Sonic-less (for the most part) episode and Clara continues to shine in this season. A light comedic episode that made me chuckle a few times.
A fine comedic episode where the Doctor takes the unusual position of being wrong from the beginning and continues being progressively less wrong as the episode goes along but never to the point of being right. Wonderful comic momenta from a Doctor that continues to surprise. A wonderful piece of fluff.
I really enjoyed this episode, but then my childhood plan was to marry Robin Hood, so I could relate to Clara’s delight. I loved the duelling scene- I wonder if the spoon was a nod to Alan Rickman’s sheriff in Prince of Thieves. And I loved the talk about how heroes are constructed and believed in by others, even if not by themselves. After the two first rather serious episodes, it was also nice to have a more lighthearted one.
Ben Miller must have had tremendous fun doing the sheriff and chewing the scenery.
I think Peter Capaldi is doing a very good job as the Doctor and I look forward to see more of him.
And no Missy- thank you! I hope she isn’t a dark version of River Song, I would prefer it if she was the Rani. Or the Master.
@@.-@ & 6: On the subject of callbacks to earlier Doctors, the one I noticed was the Doctor’s reference to having met Richard the Lionheart. Although he’s unlikely to have gotten fencing lessons from Richard, since it was the William Hartnell Doctor who met King Richard (Julian Glover) in “The Crusade,” and that Doctor wasn’t exactly a man of action. So he may have been embellishing a little there.
But they’re continuing to defy our expectations by having this older Doctor be, if anything, even more physical than his predecessors. So much for the buzz about how they’d have to add a new (young male) companion to be “muscle.”
On the whole, I thought it was a very nice story, with a lot of pleasant crunchy bits of character development. That being said, there were an awful lot of silly plot points requiring application of the MST3K mantra.
So… The Doctor blithely disbelieving in Robin Hood as a real person? He should know better than anyone else about legends having a basis in fact. Didn’t River Song say she hated wizards in fairy tales because they always turned out to be the Doctor?
Of course, even with legends having a basis in fact, it’s a little much for the real event to reflect the legends so much that it plays out like Robin-Hood-movie-of-your-choice. This was actually a bit of a red herring for me, as it led me to expect that it was going to turn out we actually were in a holodeck or something. But no, turned out Robin Hood was a real live boy after all. Of course, I can forgive them needing to keep us guessing throughout the whole episode, but still, just seems a little sloppy to me.
Shooting the spaceship with a gold arrow to give it just enough little extra kick to send it into space? Really?
There were lots of fun character bits during the show. The Doctor bantering with Robin Hood was brilliant. Though I have to say the prison scene where the guards came to take the ringleader away and took Clara was kind of a fitting metaphor for the episode. It seemed like Clara was the one who took most of the initiative when it came to figuring out what was going on and getting stuff done, while the Doctor was preoccupied with rolling to disbelieve and quarrelling with Robin.
It’s a little hard adjusting to this new, older, crotchety Doctor. When you get right down to it, the prior three incarnations were a lot more alike than they were different. This one is a lot different to how any of them were. As much as he goes through this episode reacting and being grumpy, it’s hard to accept him as being the same character as those last three. And so far, we’ve ONLY really seen him being grumpy and crotchety. I hope sometime soon he discovers his sense of fun. Even 7 and 9, the previous dour Northern Doctors, were capable of having fun from time to time.
No Missy this episode, but we did see another reference to the Promised Land. It kind of gives me the same vibe as that planet the last humans in the universe were in a rush to get to, where they got turned into the Toclafane. I guess when you get right down to it, this Promised Land place is a lot like a cemetery–people are just dying to get there.
@11: In the original series, every Doctor was pretty much the diametric opposite of his predecessor in personality. So for me, it was harder to accept that the past three Doctors (heck, the past four, since it was McGann who set the “young romantic lead” template) were all so similar — that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. With Capaldi, we’re finally getting the kind of variety in Doctors that we should’ve been getting all along.
@12: Yeah, I know. It’s just kind of hard getting used to that again after all this time.
@12 As Emily summarized -“He’s not even sure how much he likes himself, let alone that he deserves to be liked by others… And the Doctor can’t believe it because he knows he’s not a hero anymore, so how could Robin Hood be?”
There’s that incongruent self doubt again – do you see now that it’s continuous, and included in every epsiode? Most well adjusted adults have their persepctive on life sorted out by age 30, and the Doctor, a genius, and perhaps the most well adjusted paragon of virtue ever, has to be chastized and taught lessons at the ripe age of 2000? If anyone is in the position to dole out wisdom, it’s the Doctor.
I’ve thought more about our previous discussion re: Into the Dalek, and it really comes down to one thing – absolutes. You either believe in them, or you don’t – I do, and so does the Doctor (when he isn’t being poorly written). See, there is absolute evil in the real world (see: ISIS), and absolute evil has, by definition, forfeit its own right to life, and sealed its own destruction. In cases of absolute evil there is no gray area – for the innocent citizens there is only death at the hands of abslolute evil, or life. What do you prefer? Being alive and sharing life with those around you, or being dead? The Doctor chooses life and takes action against evil, because that choice is predetermined when your enemies are absolutely evil. Repeatedly being forced to make that choice would weigh heavily on one man, but he wouldn’t be apologetic, and he ultimately wouldn’t question his character for always choosing light and life over death and darkness. The Doctor isn’t concerned with being politicaly correct, but objectively morally correct. He can appear wrathful and terrifying, but his wrath is drawn from protection, and writers should be careful not to confuse this with actual darkness (they clearly haven’t been). Additionally, the series as a whole can be written to convey a message about foreign policy, but making the Doctor himself analogous to a politically correct, apologetic, repentant imperial nation, all but corrupts the character. He’s a strong character who feeds off the strength of his companions – making him weak is, in my opinion, antithetical to the spirit of the series. When everyone is too concerned about shades of grey to see evil for what it is, is exactly when we need strong, selfless characters who aren’t afraid to take action. Also, the Doctor is highly individualistic, and rages against convention, so it’s a strange choice to write him as a surrogate for such a rigid concept, especially when he hasn’t made any of the bloody humanitarian mistakes America or England have. The more I think about it, the more I personlly want to write off the last 8 seasons as non-canonical big-budget fanfiction.
Just as a by the way…Did anyone else notice the referrences to Blackadder? Specifically to Rik Mayall (who died in June ’14) and the two episodes which featured him; as Robin Hood (in the Dr. Who parody episode) and as Lord Flashheart (in the Goes Forth series particularly, but also throughout the Blackadder history)? I suspect this was more accessible to British audiences than to most of us in the US, but definately there. The clear “missteps” in this episode have pretty clear roots in the work of Rik Mayall. I suspect that this was a Dr. Who episode meant to pay homage to him, in a very stealthy way. RIP Rik.
In the end though while laudible for those that mourn, Rik Mayall, it isn’t really something Dr. Who fans should have to recognise–he isn’t someone we value as one of ours afterall. I have affection for Rik Mayall, but I don’t understand the writers insistence that I mourn him in an episode of Dr. Who.
This episode was silly and none of it holds up under any scrutiny, but I liked it anyway. Robin Hood was such a ridiculous jackass, and pretty much every scene with him and the Doctor made me laugh — except for the last one, where I felt a great deal of sympathy for the both of them. (This season has been very “meta” so far about the Doctor, his morality, what he wants to be and what he is and how other people perceive him.) I liked how the Doctor was just a cheating bastard in the archery contest. Shooting the gold arrow into the spaceship was over the top even for this episode, but seeing those three pulling back the bowstring gave me enough of a giggle to say well, okay, I’ll take it.
I like this Doctor’s character arc so far. 9 was angry, 10 was mopey, 11 was in denial, and 12…is just bitter, and a lot of it seems more “realistic,” for want of a better word. He no longer believes in himself, he no longer wants anyone to like him, and he deflects people’s attempts to reach out to him by lashing out, telling mean jokes and being kind of a petty, egotistical jerk. But when he’s caught off guard, he doesn’t know how to react, and you can see another side of him trying to stand back up. When Marion kisses his cheek out of appreciation, he looks absolutely shocked, and has no idea what to do. When Robin tells him about his own heroism in the eyes of others at the end when he was expecting another story about Robin himself, the grumpiness likewise crumbles. It makes me really, really want him to find some hope by the end of the season.
At least we didn’t get another heaven scene breaking up the flow of the episode this time, though the reference was obtrusive enough. They were going to the Promised Land too! That’s where Missy is, and she’s totally mysterious! What is the Promised Land?! Who is Missy?! The computer could’ve just had a flashing neon sign that read “STORY ARC REFERENCE” on the screen.
@@.-@. This one also reminded me of “Androids of Tara,” since I’d just recently re-watched that one on Netflix. And 12 reminded me a lot of 4 all through this episode.
Just to explain the review’s reference to decapitation, which didn’t actually occur in the episode as broadcast. The decapitation scene, which revealed the Sheriff as a robot, was cut because of all the recent real world decapitations by ISIS. A very good and sensitive choice, if you ask me, and the episode worked just fine without that scene.
I myself am a fan of Gatiss episodes. “Victory of the Daleks,” the WWII episode with Churchill, is one of my favorites. I know the way they whipped up force bubbles so Spitfires could fight in space was far fetched, but that scene delighted the little boy who still lurks in my heart–I mean, really–Spitfires versus evil Dalek saucers–what could be better? My favorite Doctor Who episodes are those with that ‘little boy’ appeal.
Which is why I liked this episode. Doctor Who meets Robin Hood? Far fetched? Who cares, because it is just such a cool idea! I do admit that the beginning of the episode felt a little uneven, as they set the premise up, but once it settled into a groove, it was great. I loved Capaldi’s reaction to the arrow quivering in the side of the Tardis, loved his spoon duel with Robin (the man can hold off a swordsman with a spoon, how awesome is that?), Capaldi’s distaste for all the merriness and laughing, the archery contest, the old “defeat the bad guy ray guns with mirrors” trick, the bickering in the dungeon, the way Robin uses the Doctor’s fencing trick to defeat the evil Sheriff. Yes, the gold arrow being just enough gold to tip the scales in their favor was improbable, but this episode wasn’t about probability or logic, it was about fun, and myth, and the logic of storytelling. The wrap up, where the Doctor is shown that heroes don’t always feel like heroes, was emotionally resonant in the best possible way, and the reunion of Robin and Marion a very satisfying happy ending to cap it off.
And the reference to the unexplained “Promised Land” was the perfect way to keep that mystery brewing. Much better than the heavy handed “Missy” scenes. The only thing she lacks to be a classic cliched evil villian is to have a mustache to twirl as she cackles about her mysterious schemes.
I am getting more of a feel for the new Doctor with every episode, and enjoying them more and more. While I always welcome new Who episodes, I find myself looking forward to Saturday nights each week now with happy anticipation.
Cheesy vibe to the whole Robin & Merry Men/Nottingham/Sheriff atmosphere/attitude/look . . . I suppose the ‘8os Showtime and more recent BBC adaptations spoiled me . . .
Spoon as weapon, lol . . .
Funny shout outs via quotes/paraphrases to Marx, Shakespeare, and whichever Henry asked to be rid of that troublesome priest Becket.
Did no one else think of that stone/metal design in Fires of Pompeii when the robots moved that rectangular design?
I thought the robots were going to turn out to be Cybermen.
@16 Yes, they might as well have just put up “Story Arc Reference” but at least Missy didn’t appear!!!
Terrible episode in my eyes. The bickering went on too long, how the hell did a golden arrow on the OUTSIDE of the ship boost it’s engines? Why was there SO MUCH gold left behind? Can’t be because they were in a hurry – in fact, why wasn’t it being done closer or on the ship? Many other annoyances too. The Doctor’s little quips are rather amusing however.
This season is just not working for me so far. I could watch Capaldi read the telephone directory however – he’s such a good actor that it’s the only thing keeping me going so far. Ben Miller did a good turn too.
Am I obture in wanting the Sonic Screwdriver to be a different model for a different Doctor? Or, even better, written out again?
I think the direction of this episode, and the first, were lacking a lot. Some of the cuts weren’t accurate enough continuity wise. I know it’s a TV programme but it stood out a LOT to me.
The beheading was cut ion the UK at the last minute due to the recent incident in London and the British journalists abroad.
Really hope this season picks up soon. Strange that none of my fellow Brits are struck so far but the Americans seem to be enjoying it? Too much pandering to US audiences perhaps?
Next week looks to be a good, old-fashioned frightener though, Capaldi sure to shine again.
As a Marian in real life, I must insist. It is MariAn, not MariOn. Turn the subtitles on if you don’t believe me. Traditionally, the female version is Marian; the male version is Marion. It’s the one way that I can get people to spell my name correctly, to tell them that it is like Maid Marian.
I liked this as a “merely” fun episode. I don’t see this Doctor as crochety as some do. Maybe it’s my age. He sounds more like the uncle who will tell you the hard truth or the aunt who wants to know whats-so-funny-young-lady.
Yes, #18, I definitely thought of the Fires Pompeii when I saw the gold pouring scence. I was comparing that schmatic in my head with the one on last night’s screen.
And thanks, #2 for explaining that our reviewer saw a pre-release version. I was prepared to go back and watch the end again because I knew I did not see the Sheriff decapitated. I think that the episode worked fine with him as an ambitious man and not a robot.
I did think of Blackaddr, but it’s been years since I saw those.
And equations again! I am waiting to see how those are used.
@17. AlanBrown
The removal of the beheading scene actually caused a few things to NOT make sense.
1) Why did the Sheriff have a device that could shut down the robots? If he was only a human that came upon the crashed ship, why would the robots give him a termination switch?
2) As screened the Sheriff’s line about being “a new breed – half-human, half-engine” made no sense to us when watching it. We rewound and turned on the closed-captioning to see if we had misheard it.
I hope that when it’s released on disc the scene will be reinstated because of these reasons.
@19 – I can’t speak for all Americans, but this season isn’t doing it for me, either. No charm, and little cleverness, too many nods to classic SF – I’d rather be imersed in a good story than be picking out references.
I thought perhaps they were playing to British fans of the classic DW.
@14
“Most well adjusted adults have their persepctive on life sorted out by age 30, and the Doctor, a genius, and perhaps the most well adjusted paragon of virtue ever, has to be chastized and taught lessons at the ripe age of 2000?”
Well, this is the fundamental problem of writing a show like this when you, as Moffat has, have committed so fully to making The Doctor himself the central focus of the show. When The Doctor is at the center, the center cannot hold, because the kind of experience and insight that an… ugh… 2000 year old being (and don’t even get me started on the constant, ridiculous, frivolous off-screen aging done to 11) would have is literally unfathomable to those of us with lifespans less than 1/20th so long. This is why Doctor Who is at its best when the companion is the feature character.
The regeneration thing does provide some plausibility to the problem, though. The Doctor, for all intents and purposes, goes through a pubescent period every time he changes, hormones, body chemistry, etc., all changing pretty dramatically. Who wouldn’t be filled with self-doubt the 13th time he had to go through puberty? Once was more than enough for most of us.
@@@@@ 24: The difference being that humans have little life experience and point of reference when going through puberty for their first and only time – the Doctor has a mountain of history to ease his transition, and furthermore, this isn’t being presented as a temporary side effect of regeneration, but as a pointed effort to correct mistakes that weren’t mistakes.
@18: Cybermen are allergic to gold. I was wondering if the robots needed the gold to fight the Cybermen.
@24: Interesting thought. As I said before, self-doubt is essential to goodness. After all, every situation is different. There’s no predictable formula or reflex to making the right choice in every situation; you have to think about it, consider not only the situation but your own response to it and whether that response is appropriate. You have to be able to adjust your own behavior to fit the needs of the situation and the people around you. So you can’t consistently do the right thing unless you do question yourself. If you assume you’re always right, you’re likely to do great harm and never even notice, because you’ll assume anyone you’ve wronged is just misunderstanding or ungrateful when they try to tell you how you wronged them.
So maybe the fact that the Doctor is constantly starting over, having to rediscover who he is and re-examine his own motivations and choices, is a key part of the reason why he manages to stay good. Because it doesn’t let him get complacent and ossified in his way of thinking, so he retains the flexibility he needs to deal appropriately (more or less) with different situations.
Just to add that Patrick Troughton did play Robin Hood in the 1950s – he was the first, live broadcast TV Robin, before Richard Greene, though he also appeared as a guest several times in Richard Greene’s series.
@27: Also, his grandson Sam Troughton played Much in the 2006 BBC Robin Hood series.
I didn’t have a problem with this. Clara’s an English teacher, not a history teacher. And loving the legend can mean loving the whole mythos, ancient and modern. If Clara has chosen to study Robin Hood, she’d do so from a literary perspective, admiring the scope and complexity of the legend, not by breaking it down to find out the history.
In asking to see Robin Hood, I expect she half-feared to have her love of the legend hit by a hard dose of reality, but her curiosity overwhelmed her desire to keep the magic of Story for this particular character.
No wonder she laughed with delight when she met the Robin Hood of story, not a historical shadow.
@29: I think I would’ve found it more interesting if they’d met someone who was a more realistic basis for the original legends — not the Robin of modern stories and films, but close enough to be the inspiration. They could’ve shown him the legends that he inspired through the centuries, and inspired him in turn to live up to that legend and do something genuinely heroic. That might’ve resonated with the Doctor’s arc as well as this did.
It certainly would’ve been preferable to seeing all the modern stuff that’s accreted over the centuries. Friar Tuck wasn’t a part of the story until the 15th century, Marian wasn’t until the 16th century, the idea of Robin as a partisan of King Richard against Prince John also dates from the 16th century, Alan-a-Dale was added in the 17th century, and the fully-formed modern version of the legend comes mainly from Ivanhoe. So portraying all of that already in place in 1190 was hugely anachronistic. (Heck, even having Robin be from that era wasn’t settled on in the legends until the 16th century.)
@30 – next you’ll be saying Arthur wasn’t real either…
@30 –
I think that would be boring. I’ve got a degree in history, and love studying it. But history and story are two quite distinct things. If something is clearly labeled “fiction”, then don’t let history get in the way of a good story!
And this was so much about the collision of legends.
Trying to make Robin Hood historical would have ruined that, because it would have upset the balance of the two legendary heroes. It would be like putting mini-biographies of the various actors to play the Doctor into the Doctor’s part of the story.
Clara is a contemporary adult woman, who loves the legendary Robin Hood of contemporary culture, and travels with the legendary Doctor of our contemporary culture.
Only the full-blown legend of Robin Hood as it exists in contemporary culture could balance the full-blown legendary Doctor of contemporary culture.
@10: “since it was the William Hartnell Doctor who met King Richard (Julian Glover) in “The Crusade,” and that Doctor wasn’t exactly a man of action.”
Not a man of action? He boasted of training the Mountain Mauler of Montana! (That was in The Romans, another serial where the ‘history’ was less than historical and largely played for laughs).
Regarding the accuracy, or otherwise, of the legends: Presumably at some point Twelve and Clara meet up with Sir Walter Scott, and tell him the ‘true’ story.
#30
As the old saying goes: when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
15. AI1: I couldn’t stop thinking about Flashheart through the whole episode. As a huge Black Adder fan, one would think I would have enjoyed that, but I didn’t.
I’m having a hard time with the start of this season. Love Capaldi and believe he has what it takes to be one of the great doctors, but after all the talk about how the series is going to be “darker” now, I feel like it is being written more as a childrens show and I feel like there is a lot of rehash (and not callbacks) in the story ideas. This episode’s robots making gold circuit boards reminds me of the stone circuit boards in The Fires of Pompeii (with Capaldi). Why?
I’m looking for some deeper episodes where Capaldi can really shine.
I’m in the “Well, that was just silly” category.
I see now there was more to the episode than it first appears, but it will never be a favorite. The Merry Men were too 1 dimensional and I agree with the Doctor “their laughter is creepy.”
But yes, Clara calling out the Doctor and his screwdriver was a fun moment.
Plus, there is the whole “Reality becomes myth, myth becomes forgotten” thing. So some of the names should not have matched so perfectly with our modern movies knowledge of the Robin Hood tale. But hey, it’s TV.
And the sword fights were just badly choreographed. It was annoying. But the spoon was funny. One friend wondered if it was a call back to the “I’ll eat your eye out with a spoon” line of the Kevin Costner Robin Hood.
So far I have been utterly disappointed with the direction they have taken with my beloved Doctor. The first episode was a letdown, to put it mildly. They opened with dinosaurs, a bit already used in a Matt Smith episode. They reached back to Lady in the Fireplace, which had a concrete and satisfying ending, and clumsily engineered a way to bring it back to life. The robots were never really the point to the story. They were simply a vehicle for suspense and danger. Oh, and we get it. Vastra and Jenny are married. But in case you didn’t know, they referenced it more than a dozen times. Hey guys – no one cares that they’re gay. Move on already.
Now we come to the latest episode. Although saddened by the lackluster premier, I am the forgiving sort and certainly love Doctor Who enough to allow for a slow start. Hey! It happens. So the time arrived and I sat there on my sofa with anticipation as the opening credits rolled, hoping that I was in store for a wonderful evening with my favorite show. But what happened instead? I watched with astonishment as the Doctor fought Robin Hood with…a spoon. I’m sorry, but that’s just stupid. The rest wasn’t what I would call terrible, but not great either.
But what bothers me most is that they are making it impossible for me to warm up to Peter Capaldi. I understand that they are going for a more aloof, disconnected, and unapproachable Doctor. But all they are doing is making him into an A$$hole. His abrasive insulting dialogue isn’t aloof. It’s just ill-mannered. Poking and prodding people isn’t disconnected. It’s simply odd behavior. And arguing with Robin Hood like some school aged child isn’t what you expect to hear from a 2000 year old Time Lord. If you want a rude yet quirky Doctor, fine. But you need to write him that way. At this point it’s all over the map.
I truly hope they find their center and tighten up their dialogue and storylines.
I thought the episode was pretty good, actually. At least I and my family laughed.
I do wish they’d stop trying to make “pudding-brained” happen, though…
Okay. I’ve had time to think about the first three Capaldi episodes.
What I’ve decided is this: someone (Moffat or the BBC or someone else with power) was extremely worried about casting an older Doctor. It began with a direct challenge to the audience, in the form of Vastra questioning Clara, about being willing to continue with the Doctor now that he has an older face and isn’t putting on a young face just to be liked. Basically, they tried to shame us, if we decide we don’t like this Doctor, by blaming it on his looks.
With the second episode, the opportunity to bring an action hero type aboard the TARDIS (to deal with an older Doctor who can’t do as much action-hero stuff) was coldly rebuffed. Honestly, we need another Leela- or Captain-Jack-type so that the Doctor *isn’t* the most bloodthirsty person on the TARDIS. Capaldi could so easily become a Doctor who is the voice of reason, if there was someone on board who was less reasonable than he is now.
Now, in the third episode, we have them trying to say this old Doctor really is action-hero-ish enough, really he is, by *defeating* Robin Hood, with a spoon. Face it, BBC. You’re trying too hard.
Capaldi is not an action hero. I’m hoping they start writing to Capaldi’s strengths rather than to the strengths of the action-hero Doctors we’ve seen since 2005. That’s when I think the show will gain the balance it so desperately needs right now.
I’ve been a devoted Whovian since Jon Pertwee. Also been a fan of Peter Capaldi since Lair of the White Worm. Am I in for him as the Doctor? Absolutely.
@39: You’re forgettting, the Doctor had plenty of action beats in “Deep Breath” — climbing out windows, running on rooftops, jumping out of a tree onto a horse, jumping into the Thames and swimming across it, dangling from the underside of the booth/elevator, fighting with the Half-Face Man.
And really, let’s examine this assumption about the Doctor being too old to do much physical stuff. That makes sense for Hartnell’s Doctor, who arrived at that age the regular way, by living very long. It makes sense for the War Doctor at the time we met him, or for Smith’s Doctor in the final confrontation on Trenzalore. But Capaldi’s Doctor is brand new. He’s freshly regenerated, his body completely renewed and restored. Whatever the apparent age of the face he’s chosen, his body is quite youthful, and it makes perfect sense that he’d be active and full of energy.
‘Tis a silly episode.
@36: Wasn’t the line from Prince of Thieves:
“I’ll cut your heart out with a spoon?”… followed by a nobleman saying something like “why a spoon and not an axe?”
“Because it’s dull and it’ll hurt more!”
@43: Yes. That was it. Been a long time since I’ve seen the movie, so didn’t remember the exact quote.
@42: Monty Python FTW.
@41: I would say that would also hold true for Three, with his Venusian Aikido.
It’s interesting that those who have more trouble adjusting to the Capaldi Doctor seem to be mostly fans who started with the new series*.
Despite their dark sides, all the previous Doctors were manic, funny and amiable in different ways. He was occasionally an asshole, but he grinned so wide and ran away so fast that you forgot.
This Doctor smiles less. When he’s abrasive, or offensive, or dismissive, he doesn’t rush away someplace else, so his words rest on you. He’s more paced – and in that, he’s more similar to the first Doctors, and the old serials.
That means to say I love him to bits, of course.
Also, for those who think you need to have it all figured out at 30, and aren’t allowed a crisis later in your years: good for you. Please understand that for most people that’s just an act, and they keep looking for themselves and rethinking their world view their whole lives.
* not scientific polling data, just a general impression from looking on th
46. Atrus
“Also, for those who think you need to have it all figured out at 30, and aren’t allowed a crisis later in your years: good for you. Please
understand that for most people that’s just an act, and they keep
looking for themselves and rethinking their world view their whole
lives.”
Yes, absolutely, and I wonder the age of the people who think this? Maybe they are just older and just very lucky? For most of us we go on working out who we are for the whole of our lives, for me that’s part of what being alive and aware is about.
Also the person who thought the gay marriage thing was passe? The BBC received complaints about their kiss, so it isn’t passe for everyone sadly.
I haven’t seen any of the originals since they were originally aired, but I don’t remember say No 3 as being smiley.
@44 i sometimes expected chapman in his uniform to come on screen to say “stop this programm, it’s silly”…and when they cut of an arm of one of the dark knights i had to laugh really hard…
So…ummm….are we gonna talk about the Fires of Pompeii correlations or what?! Circuit board made of gold? Local official in cahoots with alien invaders, whom have a broken down spaceship and manipulate the community and environment to remain hidden, as well as a means to their nefarious ends?
My only real disappointment with this episode was the treatment of Maid Marian. In the early Robin Hood stories, she was portrayed as a capable fighter who dressed as a man and even wounded Robin Hood in a fight (the fact that she could beat him was how he recognized her). I had hoped to see something of that here. As it was, she was still a decent character.
That aside, however, I thought the episode was excellent.
There is a Hollywood expression about programs that “jump the shark” (google it or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark ). When a sci-fi series gets to the point where they decide to do a “Robin Hood” episode then it’s the beginning of the end. Not to mention repetitive – the Star Trek TNG Robin Hood episode being just one perfect example.
@51: So… how do you know when a Robin Hood series has jumped the shark?
Total side note: I heard a distinctly Game of Thrones sound to the music in the fight scene toward the end. And immediately said, “Wait, of course, he’s getting a crown of gold.” Did anyone else hear the GoT? Maybe I’m crazy and jonesing for it everywhere.
Brilliant review — thank you! I don’t have BBC America this year so I resisted all the spoilers till my DVD set arrived in the mail yesterday. I loved this episode and really appreciate your in-depth take on it for when I go back to watch it again. Great insight and commentary.