Tennant's Doctor was pretty useless in Midnight and even with three Doctors in The Day Of The Doctor it took Clara to merely open the unlokced door to their cell. Personally I liked that the Doctor had to solve the problem without the sonic screwdriver.
8X03 "Robot of Sherwood" Grading/Discussion)(SPOILERS!)
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Tennant's Doctor was pretty useless in Midnight and even with three Doctors in The Day Of The Doctor it took Clara to merely open the unlokced door to their cell. Personally I liked that the Doctor had to solve the problem without the sonic screwdriver.
Best episode of Capaldi's run so far and the best episode of Gatiss in a long long time. It's still nothing special though and I found myself losing interest especially anytime Clara was onscreen. The last few minutes were great though. If only the rest of the episode could have had that much weight to it.
Very silly and a lot of fun... I agree the arrow was stretching it but I'm willing to go with it. It's no worse than all the people recovering from the cubes stopping their hearts. 
Really liked Capaldi and Clara is settling in w/him nicely. Not being familiar w/Ben Miller from this side of the pond, all I kept thinking was how much he looked like Anthony Ainley's Master, even sounded like him.
Really liked Capaldi and Clara is settling in w/him nicely. Not being familiar w/Ben Miller from this side of the pond, all I kept thinking was how much he looked like Anthony Ainley's Master, even sounded like him.
Not only that, but some dialogue remained that indicated that the Sheriff was a cyborg. While he and Robin Hood were fighting on the beam, the Sheriff says words to the effect of, "I am a new breed. Half man, half engine. Never aging, never tiring."
I will say that I had missed that dialog, leaving the whole thing a bit more ambiguous for me that had his head been chopped off and placed back on (don't think I would have missed that).
That was a fun romp and I voted good for it. Perhaps because of some contrivances I can't vote eyebrows but otherwise it lived up to the potential of Robin Hood meets The Doctor. In my opinion, the fact the Doctor argued so much with Robin was such a fitting way to have this particular Doctor interact with a legendary figure. If it had been Eleven then the bantering would have been so much lighter, ridiculous and it would likely have been the Doctor pulling out all the Robin lines ala Clara. Here Twelve who was crockedy and it fuelled a lot of neat scenes, with the Doctor getting bested by Robin on some occasions or both being as bad as one another. It meant the Doctor could remain serious and a grump but still be part of an all out fun romp of an episode, which soothes any concerns that a darker Doctor wouldn't serve up such tales.
I like the fact The Doctor wouldn't buy into Robin being real, how he went about being investigative (in these cases using the sonic at times as a scientific tool), how he even gave Clara this opportunity to go where she wanted almost like a thank you.
Also Clara continues to be really impressive this season. Which actually makes me very concerned for her...
The Promised Land for robots/androids in ships that crash land in Earth's past? There's something up here. What with Daleks in prior episode saying the Borg line 'Resistance is Futile' is there going to be a First Contact type situation, assimilate Earth's past - are we going to see Cybermen also in search of this Promised Land?
I like the fact The Doctor wouldn't buy into Robin being real, how he went about being investigative (in these cases using the sonic at times as a scientific tool), how he even gave Clara this opportunity to go where she wanted almost like a thank you.
Also Clara continues to be really impressive this season. Which actually makes me very concerned for her...
The Promised Land for robots/androids in ships that crash land in Earth's past? There's something up here. What with Daleks in prior episode saying the Borg line 'Resistance is Futile' is there going to be a First Contact type situation, assimilate Earth's past - are we going to see Cybermen also in search of this Promised Land?
I half-heard that line, and I thought he was implying Robin Hood will become part of the engine when he falls in the gold.
The thing is, though, that this Doctor is very unsure about being the Doctor. He doesn't quite trust himself in the sense that he can't believe in such old-fashioned heros such as himself. It's basically spelled out for us at the beginning of the episode. That's also why he doubts that he is a good man. In-universe there's no reason for him to really doubt that. After all, from his perspective he's just spent 900 years defending a tiny, inconsequential village against every baddie in existence, in the end sacrificing himself just so they could live another day. If that's not inherently good I don't know what is.
Even when his goodness wasn't so clear (like in the RTD era with him having destroyed Gallifrey) he himself didn't doubt it in any meaningful way. Ten knew what he had done and yet he could give us the whole "the man that never would" speech with absolute conviction.
Capaldi's Doctor is a mirror of the (teenager or adult) audience (or at least a chunk of it), doubting that the universe is constructed in such a way that old-fashioned heros like the Doctor (or Robin Hood for that matter) can be real. It's a post-modernist, critical view for a post-modernist, critical world. To me that's a very interesting direction to take the show, one that has the potential to make it more mature.
However, I'm not so sure it's suitable for the show. After all, this is still a show aimed at kids and I doubt they understand this meta-ness. I'm not sure one should make them less sure about the existence of old-fashioned, inherently good heros.
Well, we'll see what will happen.
Given the number of people who feel this is a fluff meaningless episode, its pretty clear some have not caught on to the meta-theme of legends and heroes. I'm pretty sure they won't like next week's episode either as it looks at who The Doctor is, disguised as a horror flick with a totally daft ending.
Pretty silly episode, and like the two previous episodes, the only good thing about it was Peter Capaldi. Just imagine what an episode will be like if Capaldi actually had a solid script to work with. I'm hoping it's next week because the teaser looked very interesting.
I loved the Patrick Troughton reference. I had rewind and pause the episode to make sure it was really him.
EDIT: Just remembered! I loved the mini-scope reference, which appeared in The Carnival of Monsters, one of my favorite Pertwee stories.
I loved the Patrick Troughton reference. I had rewind and pause the episode to make sure it was really him.
EDIT: Just remembered! I loved the mini-scope reference, which appeared in The Carnival of Monsters, one of my favorite Pertwee stories.
I'm not familiar with Ben Miller at all, but I have to say that with his hair, beard, and costuming, he reminded me a lot of Anthony Ainley as Tremas.
A bit meta, but a nice moment nonetheless.
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Loved it, nice fun episode, and love the Capaldi interpretation of The Doctor.
The Spoon fight was a great call out to McCoy, and brought up the Three's Sword Fight with The Master for me, even moreso since Ben Miller as the Sherrif was such a reminder of Ainley Master, it's a shame they didn't save him for the Master. I never thought about Ben Miller for the part, but, I think he'd be supreme as a Master
I'm really enjoying the Conflicted Doctor and I'm enjoying the bickering. Loved Robin using the Doctor's winning trick in the Sword Fight with the Sherriff
The Spoon fight was a great call out to McCoy, and brought up the Three's Sword Fight with The Master for me, even moreso since Ben Miller as the Sherrif was such a reminder of Ainley Master, it's a shame they didn't save him for the Master. I never thought about Ben Miller for the part, but, I think he'd be supreme as a Master
I'm really enjoying the Conflicted Doctor and I'm enjoying the bickering. Loved Robin using the Doctor's winning trick in the Sword Fight with the Sherriff
I confess, I squealed like a fanboi because I thought it was the Master. Ben Miller is one of my favourite actors, he's good in Primeval, and DiP, and if you haven't seen it, watch his comedy series Armstrong & Miller.
I thought the ep was fun, very fluffy, some nice bits, but not essential.
And yes, Clara did look... very nice.
