• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

8X03 "Robot of Sherwood" Grading/Discussion)(SPOILERS!)

Grade "Robot of Sherwood"

  • Eyebrows

    Votes: 28 24.6%
  • Good

    Votes: 48 42.1%
  • Average

    Votes: 28 24.6%
  • Bad

    Votes: 8 7.0%
  • The Doctor is NOT a merry man!

    Votes: 2 1.8%

  • Total voters
    114
  • Poll closed .
I don't know about all the censored stuff but I thought this worked very well as is and was a fun outing. I finally felt like I've seen the potential of Capaldi as the Doctor. I found his bantering with Robin amusing and his crotchety nature played into the story and laughs. My favorite bit was when he sniffed the sandal. Not only that I thought Clara seemed nicely realized as well.

This is the first episode in a while where I didn't have some reservations about it afterward. Oddly, I had forgotten the title while watching and was actually surprised when they were robots. :lol:

Didn't know the sonic could explode hay bales.

Wonder if that was one of Seven's spoons? :)
 
Enjoyable enough episode. Only negative was the squabbling in the dungeon got to be a bit much.

And man, someone really wasn't watching their continuity. i.e. the Tardis door when they meet Robin.

And did the Doctor just lose another Sonic?

No idea what to think of next weeks.
 
Hm. There were lots of nice little moments. The golden arrow part though had us just laughing. That just seemed so, so, silly.

Who was that playing the Sherriff? He seemed very familiar, I'm presuming he was wearing a wig and a fake beard.
 
Who was that playing the Sherriff? He seemed very familiar, I'm presuming he was wearing a wig and a fake beard.

Ben Miller, quite well known British comic actor, appeared as part of Armstrong and Miller, was in Primeval, numerous other things.
 
Who was that playing the Sherriff? He seemed very familiar, I'm presuming he was wearing a wig and a fake beard.

Ben Miller, quite well known British comic actor, appeared as part of Armstrong and Miller, was in Primeval, numerous other things.

Also the star of the first two seasons of Death In Paradise - and I didn't recognise him cos he was so channeling Count Rugen, and only noticed his name in the credits!
 
How the HECK does shooting a golden arrow at a space ship FIX THE ENGINES enough to make orbit?

Even for a Doctor Who fan very used to suspending my disbelief, that made me very, very angry.
 
How the HECK does shooting a golden arrow at a space ship FIX THE ENGINES enough to make orbit?

Even for a Doctor Who fan very used to suspending my disbelief, that made me very, very angry.

The episode was a tribute to Silver Nemesis. Bows and golden arrows are very powerful (and slingshots and gold coins even moreso).
 
Can you please explain (in spoiler code) what were the changes?

Also is it just me or was this a rather "nothing special" episode?

During the sword fight, immediately before Robin and the Sherriff both cut the ropes and are pulled up onto the wooden beam...
The Sherriff knocks Robin's sword away and is about to kill him. Clara throws a sheet over his head, blinding him so that Robin can grab his sword and cut the Sherriff's head off, which rolls away. The Sherriff's body then gets back up and grabs Clara, while the Sherriff's head tells how the spaceship landed on him - revealing by this that *he* is the titular Robot of Sherwood! He then threatens to have his body kill Clara if they don't give him back, so Robin throws the head to the body, which releases Clara in order to catch it. It then reattaches the head, and Robin says something about this giving him a sporting chance. They then resume their fight, with the ropes.

Of course, aside from meaning the title is now meaningless, this edit also means everyone will have seen the *human* Sherriff get killed, rather than a robot Sherriff get melted.

Really? That's really what happened in the original version? I find that really absurd and I'm high on acid right now. :lol:

In my current state of mind, the episode made perfect sense. I'm just not sure whether you're allowed to do that, go that meta with Doctor Who. The golden arrow magically resolving the problem also fit into that. I also expect this will play a part in the season arc. I figure someone's imagining all this, either Clara or the Doctor.
 
Worst episode since the show restarted in 2005. I gave it Bad instead of "Not a Merry Man" because I liked Capaldi and the references that didn't go over my head. And the way the Doctor cheated. I liked that bit.

But the arrow? To fix a spaceship? I'm with Starseeker on this one. If that's all it took, why didn't they just dump all the molten gold in the crucible over the ship and go even higher.

Ben Miller continues to intrigue me. I kept flashing back to "The King's Demons" and it hit me what a wonderfully Ainley-like Master the man would make.

Please let that happen.
 
Missy didn't appear this time, but we have yet another group of robots searching for The Promised Land. And both groups of robots ended up crashing in various times on Earth. Coincidence?
 
And now we know The Promised Land isn't some dreamscape or ephermeral dimension, but an actual planet. Which strongly hints that either The Promised Land is Gallifrey Reborn, or we're going to hear "What does God need with a police box?"

Nice to see the scene edit didn't really hurt the episode. Might have even helped, in a get-to-the-point kind of way. There was just enough dialogue to indicate the Sheriff was a half-robot to cover it.

And I swear, if Big Finish doesn't immediately hire Ben Miller as a recast Ainley Master...
 
I don't know. I personally thought it was a fun, if overly silly, episode.

It's like you guys expect Doctor Who to be high drama or something. I just don't get it. XD
 
Was that venusian aikido the Doctor used to knock Robin's sword away?

Very Pertwee like just then.
 
Last edited:
First Lincoln, then Derby, then the WORLD! I like how things escalate there :lol:

I really wanted to rant that Robin Hood still isn't actually real. Then Robin said this to the Doctor: "I'm just as real as you are" and I realized I kinda had to shut up. Well played, well played...
 
It was ok, but nothing really special. I like Capaldi, but I'm not sure I like the why the Doctor is written. It seems like he's being written kind of as a bad child or something. I wanted a serious Doctor, but I didn't want a guy arguing with Robin Hood in a dungeon about having a plan. During those scenes I was thinking about to how Tennant and Smith's Doctors were always on top of the situation and, Tennant especially, always strategically getting out of whatever bad situation he was in. With the Doctor now, are we going to endure 20 minutes of arguing with someone before he actually does something?

I guess when I heard he was going back to being a more serious doctor, I was hoping it would be closer to Eccleston, but I haven't seen it yet. Like I said, I like Capaldi, but I would love it if the Doctor actually acted like the Doctor again. I did enjoy the stuff with Robin Hood and Clara, who has really done some great work this season so far.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top