From The Boss Dungeon Vaults: Doctor Who Series 8 First Impressions (Episode 3: Robot Of Sherwood)

(Once again, just a sentence of context: these are old writeups I did for Series 8 of Doctor Who as it was airing, on a website called Boss Dungeon. I'm rewatching the series in anticipation of Series 9, and adding new commentary in. Today, Robin Hood. Tomorrow, THE WORLD.)

Doctor Who, since it's come back, has often dabbled with what some have called "the celebrity historical"; an episode set in Earth's past, wherein the Doctor meets some famous historical figure. We've had Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, and Richard Nixon... among others. These episodes also involve some sort of science-fiction element, be they Daleks or the Silence or who knows what else. This week's celebrity historical has Robin Hood and robot knights in it... and you know what?

This is a really fun one.

After two episodes that show the "darker" side of the Doctor, and question his status as a hero and a good man, we take a bit of a step back into lighter territory for this episode. The Doctor here isn't so much a flawed hero here as he is a comedic grump. While Clara is enamored by Robin Hood and his merry men, and having the time of her life, the Doctor spends most of the episode in disbelief that Robin Hood even exists. He's just a folk legend, and the Doctor is convinced that some sort of outside shenanigans are afoot. Holograms? Robots? A miniscope? He's even more of a smug know-it-all than he was in Into The Dalek, and that doesn't even get into his interactions with Robin Hood. He squabbles and argues with Robin constantly, and the pair don't get along at all. Whereas a previous incarnation of the Doctor might cooperate with Robin, Capaldi doesn't even consider it. For better or worse, we have a more acerbic Doctor this time around. I think it works better in this episode because it creates great comedy.

That's what this episode is; somewhat lighthearted comedy. The actor playing Robin Hood nails it. He's filled with bravado and overconfidence, and a great foil to the Doctor. He's a braggart, but he's also incredibly skilled. There's plenty of swashbuckling and sharp wit in the episode, and it really reminded me of something like The Princess Bride. (Funny, that, considering the dread pirate Roberts would later play Robin Hood in the Mel Brooks parody film.) The Sheriff of Nottingham is also quite marvelous. He's threatening, but also a bit of an incompetent buffoon. Clara is easily able to turn the tables on him when he attempts to interrogate her. This is no half-faced man with a flamethrower for a hand; this guy is just a ham who wants to TAKE OVER ZE WORLD. Speaking of Clara, she's once again a voice of reason. The Doctor and Robin Hood bicker like children when they and Clara are captured, and it's Clara who eventually yells at them to both shut up and try to think of a way out. This is the second episode in a row with Clara challenging the Doctor and calling him out on acting up. Clara-as-schoolteacher again. Boy, I really love this new Clara. She's great.

Of course, this being a celebrity historical, we have the sci-fi element of robotic knights. Visually, they look great. They remind me a lot of Megatron from Transformers, and they have a forehead laser that's used to great effect. That's about all they add to the episode, aside from being the impetus for the plot. They're visually imposing, but nothing all that scary. They're not Daleks or Cybermen or anything with name-brand power like that; they stomp around and do bad things and get blown up. The only other thing to say about them is the mention of the "Promised Land" from Deep Breath. It once again reeks of setting up the big season-long mystery, but here it's less of a pander than Missy's appearance last episode. It actually adds a clue; the Promised Land will be important to the season's end, whatever it is. Missy showing up last week appeared to add very little except re-iterate that she exists.

In the end, Robot Of Sherwood is a fun 45 minutes of Doctor Who. It's lighthearted and filled with plenty of little moments to make you grin like an idiot. It's just plain fun, which is something Doctor Who needs to do every so often. It's easy to lose sight of that with episodes that deal in series-long mysteries or outright horror. The closest analogy would be Dinosaurs On A Spaceship, from Series 7. That wasn't the best episode, but it was much like Robot Of Sherwood in that it was just a bunch of fun to watch. Robot Of Sherwood is better than that episode, thanks to its character interactions and tone. Even the cynical can enjoy something that just revels in being a bit silly and over-the top. For goodness's sakes, it has the Doctor sword-fighting Robin Hood using a spoon! Who can't find joy in that?

Next week: Oh boy, this one looks like it's going to be scary. Don't get spooked.

AND NOW WHAT I THINK... NOW

I don't think there's too much in-depth commentary to have here, really. This is a Mark Gatiss-penned bit of lighthearted fluff set in the past. Not quite as good or essential as his Series 7 episodes (those would be Cold War and The Crimson Horror [aka DA CRIMSON 'ORRAH]), but still a great way to spend your 45 minutes. Doctor Who is a show for everyone, and that does include the kids. It doesn't all have to be pants-shittingly terrifying concept monsters that can only get you on a set of rules based on autonomous bodily functions. Sometimes you can just let your hair down with this show and watch Doctor Who have a swordfight with Robin Hood, using only a spoon. Then you go from that to a lady getting dragged off to slave labour and the Sheriff of Nottingham running his sword through her father. So yeah, Doctor Who doesn't entirely keep the unpleasantness away, even in their fluff episodes. I mean, watching this again, it is fun. It's just the kind of thing I don't have anything else to really add. The original writeup mentions everything good about it already. The bantering, Capaldi being some sort of grouchy belligerent fusion of William Hartnell and Jon Pertwee, Clara taking charge of her own interrogation like the "bossy control freak" she is. I can tell you right now, I latched onto Clara and her initiative in a lot of these writeups. I love it, and while it doesn't seem to play much into the arc of the Three of this series, look again. Clara is doing what the Doctor would do. She's taking control of things, figuring out the Sheriff's evil plan. She's becoming more like him, and that becomes really problematic right around Mummy On The Orient Express. "Clara Who" is definitely a thing that has started happening. The more angry in the fandom decry this, yelling about how Grand Moff Tarkin's special little Snowflake ended up not only saving every Doctor ever with that timestream jump... thing... but also gave him the idea of retconning the Time War. You may agree, you may disagree. I disagree myself, but I know plenty of people who won't hesitate to call the Moff out on what they see as a slight. We'll get into this tomorrow and I get to try to be as concise as possible in a particular rebuke without going into Outright Callout Mode. Fun! Regardless, Moffat is playing some sort of meta game with Clara here, and he damn well must have heard the complaints because he pulls a real cheeky move in Death In Heaven. Oh yeah! The peasants use shiny plates and stuff to reflect the lasers back at the Megatron Knights! The mirror theme came back! We also got another mention of the Promised Land, and I still don't know why robots from the 29th century have anything to do with Missy's thing, which is quite obviously centered on 2014 Earth. Aside from that, I think that's all I can say about Robot of Sherwood. It's fun, it advances plotlines and symbolism and whatnot, and it's 45 minutes of lighthearted action swashbuckling fluff. Sometimes that's all you need.

And then tomorrow, we get to talk about gettin' spooked and ambiguity. Ohhh boy.