Returning to write for televised Doctor Who on his seventh occasion is fan favourite writer Mark Gatiss and this time he is bringing Robin Hood to life. Robin Hood was always going to be a tough character to bring to Doctor Who. I know that many were unconvinced about his inclusion when it was revealed. There have been some classic outings for the character and some very poor ones. We know that Robin Hood was in the pitch that Moffat gave to Gatiss and it is a good idea for The Doctor to encounter this impossible hero, aiding The Twelfth Doctor in his search for identity and as a result Moffat gave the job to one of his main writers.
Robin Hood is described on several occasions as an 'impossible hero' by The Doctor; this is also a reference to him. The Doctor has been wondering a week ago in Into the Dalek whether he was a good man (the answer a good dalek), now this week brings him a stage further in his search for identity. Robin Hood is a very good character to play of The Doctor as both characters are very similar. Robin Hood is played very well.
Many Robin Hoodisms are included in this so it can feel like a proper Robin Hood story. This is the only time The Doctor is probably ever going to meet Robin Hood, so it is right that the production team included everything from Robin's mythos. This includes the Sheriff of Nottingham who is played very very well and is a proper Doctor Who villain. There was a scene deleted due to political reasons but I am glad they did that. On the one hand there is the current situation but on the other I find the fact that the Sheriff being human much better than him being a robot.
The Doctor is very strong and Capaldi is very confident in his performance. He is very much The Doctor but a very different one to that we have seen before. There are some very clear homage to the Third Doctor in this story and the Sixth Doctor in his personality.
Clara however steals the story; Coleman's performances are as incredible as ever, the character now seems to have been given a lot of space to evolve over the series making her much more rounded as a character. The confrontation between Clara and the Sheriff is one of the best Doctor Who scenes I have seen since the show came back. She totally outwits the sheriff using only her intelligence, body and wit.
This story is what one could refer to as this series more comedic story (as episode three usually is) with some good jokes throughout but there are some darker scenes such as the death of the villager early on in the story.
The robot knights are never going to be a legendary monster that will return for the next fifty years but they serve the job in what is truly a character piece, this is a story about the doctors search for identity. He was on Trenzalore for so long that he had a lot of time to think about his time and obviously he is beginning to question who he is. The pinnacle of the story is this and the way Gatiss parallels the heroes The Doctor and Robin Hood.
This story does have some floors however. Some of the exchanges between The Doctor and Robin went a little too far into the silly. A gold arrow a) would not fly and b) would not help the ship fly. If they could delete the final arrow scene at the end like the beheading scene, we would have a very good story.
Robot of Sherwood was fun basically. It is nice to have a fun story every so often. This story is the light relief of the series before we venture into Listen next week which is looking to be Moffat returning to the terrifying which was what made his name in Doctor Who in the first place.
7/10