Doctor Who - Robot of Sherwood - Review: "May the stories never end!"

Episode 8.03: Robot of Sherwood
Written by: Mark Gatiss
Directed by: Paul Murphy
Airdate: 6 September 2014
I think we all have our favorite stories, favorite fairytales or legends from childhood. The ones we remember the most and are always happy to hear about again. Robin Hood happens to be one of my favorite characters from the time when I was growing up and a few years ago I watched BBC's version of the story from 2006 and it made me fall in love with the legend all over again. Robin Hood and Lady (or Maid) Marian, and the Merry Men are the kind of characters I could defend for hours and I could stop watching the shows I enjoy if they were ruining their stories for me (*cough* did that recently *cough*). So, you can imagine how happy I was to hear that Doctor Who is doing an episode taking place in Sherwood, in the middle of Robin Hood story. And what's the result? It was a great episode, a very entertaining and fun one, with a few emotional bits and a legendary aspect and it revealed more of the Doctor's emotional side which he's really trying to hide as Twelve. Certainly a win for me.

This week we start the episode with the Doctor offering Clara to pick a place and time she would like to visit next and she wishes to see a character from her beloved childhood story: Robin Hood, believing him to be a historical figure, not just a legend. Despite the Doctor's disbelief, he eventually agrees to travel to 12th-century Sherwood Forest where they soon meet an archer introducing himself as none other than Robin Hood. Since he wants to relieve the stranger of his magic box, he and the Doctor start fighting: Robin's sword vs the Doctor's spoon. And our Time Lord sure knows how to fight with only a spoon in his hand. He manages to trick Hood and throw him in a water only to end up there himself a moment later, with Clara and Robin laughing in the background.

Robin introduces the two strangers to his Merry Men and the Doctor keeps trying to prove that this place and people cannot possibly be real, in a funny sequence that includes him examining their hair, sandals and predicting Alan a Dale's death in six months. He also can't stand the fact that they keep laughing and ends up feeling the least real of them all. Meanwhile Clara and Robin talk about the dark days in Sherwood, the Sheriff and how sad Hood truly is, hiding it all behind his smile but missing his old life and lost love Marian.

Then there's the contest to find the best archer in the land, organized by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin Hood, using the name Tom the Tinker, faces with the Sheriif and wins. But before he can claim the prize, the golden arrow, he's interrupted by the Doctor who decides to take part in the contest and splits Robin's arrow. After that, the two battle for the title and both keep shooting perfectly until the Doctor destroys the target using his sonic screwdriver. The Sheriff, interested in his power, orders to capture him and in the middle of the fight it is revealed that his knights are actually disguised robots. So the Doctor lets the robots take him, Robin and Clara in order to learn more about them and the Sheriff's plans.

Locked in the dungeon, the Doctor and Robin Hood keep arguing about pretty much everything they can (being captured, Robin's laugh, their plans to escape) with Clara telling them to shut up and being identified as the leader of the group by the guard after he sees the two men listening to her. Even though they keep finding the new subjects to bicker about, like who would last longer before starving to death. Clara is taken to see the Sheriff and manages to manipulate him into revealing his story. We find out that there has been a spaceship crash he witnessed and he wants to repair the damaged ship (with gold) to get to London and take over first the kingdom, then the world.

Meanwhile the Doctor and Robin manage to steal the guard's keys, only to lose them a moment later after another quarrel. Finally, they do escape and find the 29th-century spacecraft on their way. The Doctor enters the spaceship's data banks and learns its original destination: The Promised Land. He also finds out that the ship disguised itself as a 12th-century castle, to keep a low profile and not to attract the attention of others, while the damaged engines affect the local atmosphere with the radiation creating a temporary climate (it's too sunny and too green). Also, he once again starts to believe that Robin Hood, the Sheriff and the rest of the story is only an illusion created by the ship's crew in order to keep the oppressed peasant workforce working. And it's an illusion based on the legend located in the spacecraft's data banks: Robin Hood. The Doctor wants the confused Robin to admit that he's not real, he's too perfect to be real and has to be a robot. Then enters the Sheriff with Clara and his knights, ordering his robots to kill Robin.

The Doctor continues to believe that it's all just play-acting. But Clara runs to help Hood escape the deadly army. And the two get away by jumping into the moat through a window. The Doctor realizes that the Sheriff is trying to build a gold matrix to make the engines work but soon finds himself captured again, this time with a young woman captured by the robots earlier in the episode. The two lead the prisoners' revolt against the knight robots while Robin Hood, back in his camp with the Merry Men convinces Clara to tell him who the Doctor really is. In the fight with the prisoners, most of the robots are destroyed and the people manage to flee. The Doctor stays behind to face the Sheriff and tell him that his plan isn't going to work because he doesn't have enough gold to stop the ship from exploding and destroying half of England. And finally, in the middle of their conversation the Doctor realizes that he was wrong the entire time and that Robin isn't one of the Sheriff's men and in fact he IS Robin Hood, the legend.

Robin Hood comes to his rescue, with Clara by his side and the Merry Men to save the day. He fights the Sheriff, in a final reckoning after all that he has done to the people. Robin is able to defeat his enemy using the trick he learned from the Doctor in their duel at the beginning of the episode and the Sheriff dies, falling into one of the gold vats. That's when the spaceship, controlled by the remaining robots, takes off and destroys the castle. Everyone who was still inside is able to escape. And in order to give the ship enough power to leave the Earth's surface, The Doctor and Clara help the injured Robin to fire the golden arrow from the contest into the ship, so it explodes a little later, without harming anyone on the planet.

All that's left is to say goodbye. First the lovely goodbye between Clara and Robin where she tells him to never give up, not even for a one single day and to keep being amazing and as safe as he can be. Then the Doctor's goodbye to Robin Hood. The two talk about what it means to be a legend and how stories have an amazing power to make people fly, to give others hope. The Doctor still can't quite believe in Robin's story but Hood tells him what he knows about the Time Lord's one. And the two find something they agree on, they both don't see themselves as heroes but if they act as them they give others a chance to do heroic things in their name. "Perhaps we will both be stories. And may those stories never end." Beautifully said. The Doctor and Clara disappear in the TARDIS but not without leaving a present for Robin. The woman, locked earlier with the Doctor turns out to be Marian and thanks to the Doctor, Robin Hood is reunited with his love. "Thank you, Doctor!" A great ending for a great episode.

Whovian notes and questions:
1. Robin Hood is one of my favorite stories. How about you? Any favorite legends and/or fairytales you like to revisit?
2. The Promised Land seems to be a theme of the season. Any theories you have you'd like to share? I'd love to read them.
3. So many amazing quotes in the episode! Any favorites? Here's some of mine:

"Oh! All those diseases! If you were real, you'd be dead in six months.
I am real.
Bye."

"That isn't even funny. That was bantering. I am totally against bantering."

"When did you stop believing in everything?
When did you start believing in impossible heroes?
Don't you know?"

"It is not a competition about who can die slower.
It would definitely be me though, wouldn't it?"

"Well, there's a bright side. Which is? Clara didn't see that."

4. I loved the Doctor's goodbye with Robin Hood. Beautifully written and acted by both actors, I think it has to be my favorite scene of the episode. Though there were many hilarious moments I adored as well. What's your favorite scene of the episode?
5. A shout-out to an image of Patrick Troughton in Robin Hood (1953 TV series)!

Thank you for all the comments last week and for reading. Go ahead and share your thoughts about the episode below. Till the next week!

Justyna JJ Kubica

22. Student. SpoilerTV Writer. Loves Movies, TV Shows (Doctor Who, Teen Wolf, Sherlock, Person Of Interest, Arrow, Supernatural (especially 1-5), Agents Of SHIELD, Sleepy Hollow, The Musketeers, Fringe, Psych, etc.) and Books (Harry Potter!). Fantasy & SciFi geek! Scene Of The Week articles author. Member of SpoilerTV team since 27th November 2011.

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