Robot of Sherwood (TV story)

 was the third episode of the eighth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It explored two legends: the life of Robin Hood and the search for the cryptic Promised Land.

Synopsis
Clara is elated when offered the chance to meet the English folk hero Robin Hood, despite the Twelfth Doctor's insistence that he is nothing more than a legend. Travelling to a sun-drenched Sherwood Forest in 1190, they soon realise that something is amiss as the cruel Sheriff of Nottingham and his sinister robot knights plot to rewrite the course of history.

Can the Doctor put aside his doubts and stir up an unlikely friendship with Robin Hood?

Plot
The Doctor offers Clara the choice of their next destination. Predicting, and in spite of, the Doctor's protestations as to his existence, Clara asks to meet Robin Hood. The Doctor set course for Sherwood Forest, "1190ish".

While Clara changes her attire, the Doctor exits the TARDIS and finds a man, who claims to be Robin Hood, outside. The Doctor remains unconvinced, but Robin's attempt to take possession of the TARDIS leads to a duel on a makeshift bridge over a river. Countering Robin's sword with a spoon, the Doctor knocks his opponent into the river, only to be dragged in after him.

Robin takes the Doctor and Clara to his campsite, where he introduces them to his Merry Men: Will Scarlett, Friar Tuck, Alan-a-Dale, Walter, and John Little, who was also known as Little John, according to Robin. The Doctor, however, is still convinced that Robin is a fake, and is constantly taking blood samples and tasting the apples to make sure everything is real. He deduces that they could only be inside a Miniscope, and now is obsessing about that. Clara and Robin have a quick chat about who they think the Doctor really is.

Meanwhile, in a nearby village, helmeted knights are taking away villagers. In one house, Master Quayle is pleading the Sheriff of Nottingham to take him and spare his maid, Marion, who is only in her 20s. When the Sheriff refuses, Quayle spits in his face, and the Sheriff said he was going to regret that later on. Then, abruptly, he plunges a knife into Quayle's abdomen, killing him. The knights take Marion away screaming.

Robin proceeds to enter an archery contest, where skilled archers compete for the Golden Arrow. Robin - under the guise of Tom the Tinker - exceeds in every activity and, in the final competition, is pitted against the Sheriff, who's own bow skills are "astounding," comments the commentator.

The Sheriff asks his guards to carry the target back to the very end of the field, which they do, and he shoots the arrow right in the middle. Well, Robin isn't too happy about that. He shoots an arrow at the same target and splits the Sheriff's arrow as his wins the contest. He is presented with the Golden Arrow, but immediately after Robin's arrow is cut by another entree: the Doctor.

The Sheriff, Robin and the Doctor then keep splitting each other's arrows on the same target, until it's so full that not even Robin Hood's arrows can get through. The Doctor is then presented with the Golden Arrow trophy, throwing is aside before the Sheriff orders his knights to seize the Doctor, Clara and Robin. Robin then reveals to the crowd who he really is before the knights attack, and Robin begins to fend them off with his fencing skills. He then cuts off the arm of one, and Clara quickly discovers that the knight didn't feel any pain at all because of the robotic sparks flying around the dislocated body part. All of the Knight's helmets open, revealing their unemotional, robotic faces.

The Sheriff realizes his game is up, and the Doctor, Clara and Robin are swiftly captured and placed in the dungeon, chained to a post, staring at the skeleton of someone who just couldn't survive.

Deep in the castle, one of the peasants falls down from exhaustion, and Marion goes over and helps him stand. A Knight comes over and declares that the peasant's work capacity has been broken down, and he is no longer useful. They then proceed to disintegrate him, much to Marion's horror.

The Doctor and Robin Hood both exaggerate that they have an escape plan, and Clara wants to hear Robin's first. Solution: he doesn't have one. Then, she turns to the Doctor, and says that his plans couldn't include the words "sonic" and "screwdriver," mostly because the Sheriff confiscated it.

The Doctor and Robin each call for the guard to have the other executed. Clara shuts them up, then tries to talk them into working together. Then, a guard comes in, and reveals that he's been assigned to listen at the door to find out who the ringleader is. The Doctor and Robin both point at each other, but then the guard takes Clara to the Sheriff himself.

After having a bite to eat, Clara is able to goad the Sheriff into revealing his past - that he witnessed a spaceship crash and has been trying to repair it by collecting all the gold in the nearby land, so that he can use it to travel to London and take over the kingdom. He tells her that every King needs a Queen and leans in to kiss her, and she wiggles out, threatening, "If you ever do that again..."

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Robin uproot the posts and at a blacksmith's shop break their chains before locating the spacecraft inside the castle. It is there that the Doctor discovers that the ship, originating in the 29th century, was set to reach "the Promised Land." He then confronts Robin Hood and shows him photos from books and stories and television shows that follow his adventures. He now believes that Robin is a robot, like the Knights, but then the Sheriff arrives with Clara and some robots. Robin escapes with Clara and jumps into the water with her, leaving the Doctor to get knocked out and chained in the bowels of the castle.

Back at the campsite, Robin and his men interrogate Clara about the Doctor and what he knows about Robin Hood.

The Doctor wakes up and finds he is chained across from Marion, who encourages him to think up a plan to escape. He had before rallied the peasants and has wriggled himself free, just as a Knight comes up and declares that he's ready for work. It's cannon starts to warm up, but the Doctor holds up a plate and the blast is deflected back and the Knight is decapitated. The other Knights then become aware of the revolution, and start randomly firing, but their blasts are sent back at them by peasants, who are all holding shiny plates. When the last one has been defeated, the Sheriff arrives, and the Doctor tries to get him to confess that Robin is a robot created by the Knights. The Sheriff doesn't know what he's talking about, but just then Robin Hood and Clara arrive, seeming to be on friendlier terms again, and the Sheriff proposes a final reckoning between him and Robin. He accepts, and after a short sword fight, Robin uses the same "surrendering" technique that the Doctor taught him, and he tricks the Sheriff into coming at him, and then he clips him on the back and sends him tumbling into a vat of molten gold, where he freezes eternally.

The ship is about to take off, and the Doctor, Clara and Robin escape and watch (with Robin's Merry Men) the spaceship rise from the castle. Two Knights are at the controls, and the Doctor says that in a few seconds it will explode and devastate half the country. The Doctor realizes that if they shoot the golden arrow from the archery contest into the ship, the gold content will give the ship the boost it needs to reach orbit and detonate harmlessly. However, Robin is unable to fire the arrow as his arm is injured, the Doctor cheated at the contest using technology and can't really fire a bow and Clara has too little experience so Robin suggests they work together to fire it. With Clara and the Doctor aiming the bow for him, Robin fires the arrow into the ship's engines. The plan works: the ship reaches orbit and explodes harmlessly.

As the Doctor and Clara prepare to leave, the Doctor admits to Robin that he accepts his story is real, and that the fact that he was real will be lost to history. Robin takes a moment to accept this, and then reminds the Doctor, based on the stories that Clara told him, that he is a hero of similar background as well. When the Doctor continues to deny this, Robin Hood suggests that their role is not to be heroes themselves, but to inspire others to take on that role. Clara then offers him a few words of encouragement before they depart, revealing that the Doctor has left Robin a gift - he has found Marion and brought her here to reunite with Robin.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * Clara - Jenna Coleman
 * Robin Hood - Tom Riley
 * Quayle - Roger Ashton-Griffiths
 * Quayle's Ward - Sabrina Bartlett
 * The Sheriff of Nottingham - Ben Miller
 * Alan-a-Dale - Ian Hallard
 * Friar Tuck - Trevor Cooper
 * Little John - Rusty Goffe
 * Will Scarlett - Joseph Kennedy
 * Walter - Adam Jones
 * Herald - David Benson
 * Guard - David Langham
 * Knight - Tim Baggaley
 * Voice of the Knights - Richard Elfyn

Story notes

 * A scene in which the Sheriff of Nottingham was beheaded, revealing him to be a robot, was edited out of this episode's broadcast as it was deemed inappropriate in light of recent events in the news — namely, the beheading of two American journalists by terrorist group . The cut can clearly be seen in the finished programme, when the tapestry behind Clara and the Doctor vanishes before Robin cuts the rope and rises to the wooden gantries. However, the admission of the Sheriff that he was "half man, half engine" and the scene showing his hands in the vat of molten gold makes up for the editing gap.
 * One of the images brought up on the computer screen is of Patrick Troughton, the actor who portrayed the Second Doctor, and also the first actor who played Robin Hood on television.
 * Actors David Benson and Ian Hallard also appeared together in AUDIO: Invaders from Mars, which was also written by Mark Gatiss. Benson later appeared in AUDIO: Wildthyme at Large, a story which also featured Robin Hood.
 * This is the first episode since TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS to have no scenes set on present-day Earth.
 * The archery tournament and the Golden Arrow is a staple of the Robin Hood legend, including the ballads A Gest of Robyn Hode and Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow.
 * Robin Hood mentions that "all property is theft to Robin Hood," when in actuality the story of Robin Hood was of a man robbing tax collectors in order to return the money to the people who'd worked to earn it.

Ratings
5.2 million (overnight)

Filming locations

 * Fforest Fawr, Brecon Beacons National Park


 * Caerphilly Castle, Castle St.

Production errors

 * Clara closes the Tardis door when first meeting Robin Hood but when Robin and The Doctor duel its open.
 * During the sword/spoon duel scene, Robin slices off one of The Doctor's coat buttons but later in the episode all of his buttons are intact.

Continuity

 * The Doctor suggests to Clara that they are inside a miniscope upon encountering Robin Hood and his Merry Men in Sherwood Forest. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
 * This is not the first time that the Doctor has encountered a spaceship disguised as a castle. (TV: State of Decay)
 * The spaceship was headed for the destination of "the Promised Land." The Half-Face Man also claimed that he was waiting to reach the Promised Land. (TV: Deep Breath)
 * The Doctor uses Venusian aikido to disarm Robin Hood, complete with "Hai," as his third incarnation commonly did. (TV: The Mind of Evil, Inferno, The Claws of Axos et al.)
 * The Doctor previously encountered a ship that needed gold to repair the engines, in his fifth incarnation the Djinni used the gold the Black Guardian horded from the Caliph and compressed it to make a warp manifold, the fifth segment to the Key to Time. (AUDIO: The Destroyer of Delights)
 * Once again the Doctor likens a foolish person's thought processes to pudding. (TV: Deep Breath)
 * King Richard the Lionheart and his brother Prince John of England are mentioned. Meanwhile in 1190, King Richard is fighting the Crusades, where he met the First Doctor. (TV: The Crusade) The Fifth Doctor would meet the android Kamelion masquerading as the then King John in 1215. (TV: The King's Demons)
 * The Doctor and Robin Hood escape the cell by feigning a possession in the same way as Ben and Polly did in TV: The Smugglers.
 * The Tenth Doctor had an arrow hit his TARDIS in London in 1599 (TV: The Shakespeare Code) and an arrow fired by Lady Peinforte hit the Seventh Doctor's TARDIS in Windsor in 1988 (TV: Silver Nemesis).
 * A different account about the appearance and the fate of Robin Hood was referred in PROSE: The Thief of Sherwood.
 * In London of 2050, K9 Mark 2 would encounter a virtual reality simulation of Robin Hood in a recreation of Sherwood Forest inside a museum. The view held at this point is that there was indeed a real Robin Hood, a sentiment affirmed by K9 who claims to have met him in his original incarnation. (TV: The Last Oak Tree)
 * The Twelfth Doctor is still writing obscure calculations with chalk, (TV: Deep Breath) on the TARDIS blackboard. (TV: Into the Dalek)
 * The Doctor observes that the crashed spaceship is from the 29th century. His previous incarnation visited the Starship UK, which was launched in that same period to escape the solar flares threatening the Earth. (TV: The Beast Below)
 * At some point, Clara has learned about the Doctor's origins, not only that he stole a TARDIS (as witnessed by one of her fragments in TV: The Name of the Doctor but not necessarily remembered by the original), but that he came from a wealthy family.
 * After having previously heard that Clara is from Lancashire, (TV: Journey to the Centre of the Tardis) we learn in this story that she came from the town of Blackpool, the town she previously mentioned in TV: The Rings of Akhaten. This is also the same town in which actress Jenna Coleman was born.

DVD releases
The episode will be released as part of the Complete Series 8 in November.

Blu-ray releases
to be added