Robot of Sherwood

Robot of Sherwood could easily have been a disappointing episode. It seems pretty clear that the first two episodes were designed to hook as many viewers as possible: the first had an extended running time to introduce its new Doctor, the second was the token Dalek story with a co-credit by the much-loved (in most circles) Steven Moffat. Meanwhile Robot of Sherwood was a return to the once popular celebrity historical sub-genre of the show, with the third most experienced writer of Doctor Who (in terms of episode credits) available. It looked like Moffat plucking a simple idea and giving it to a safe pair of hands.

Gatiss delivered one of his better scripts. Looking at his body of work on the show it seems that funny Doctor Who is his strength (until emulating Pertwee stories becomes a broader genre). Night Terrors is more confusing than terrifying, which is what it’s meant to be. The Crimson Horror has its moments but ultimately doesn’t progress beyond being an episode of The Avengers set in the 1800s, and it doesn’t hit that well enough. Victory of the Daleks gets a bad press because of the new plastic Dalek models it introduces. It’s not a bad episode. But it’s also not a particularly great one.

You get the idea.

Robot of Sherwood feels like a confident bit of writing designed to just give the Capaldi Doctor an amusing adventure. The jokes are funny, Capaldi is once again on form, and Tom Riley understands how to portray the kind of square-jawed Robin Hood Gatiss has written. The “it was well directed” line is a standard by now, but it’s worth saying anyway.

Really, there were only a couple of negative points, and they were minor. One was the waste of a well-known name like Ben Miller. He got a lot of screen time but the role didn’t really give him much to do beyond being a glowering villain with confusing motives. He goes from being the Sheriff of Nottingham, to a man who wants to take over England, to a robot who wants to launch a castle into outer space. Things move too quickly for the character. In fact, the reveals about his true nature could probably have gotten some laughs if Gatiss had structured them better. Maybe I should take back some of my praise.

The golden arrow ending was, to put it bluntly, stupid. Not just because the Doctor, Robin Hood an Clara all managed to aim it perfectly at a miniscule spot on a castle in the process of falling from the sky, but because the relatively small arrow proved to be just the required amount of gold to save the day. It was too convenient, even for Doctor Who.

Finally there was the name. Robot of Sherwood? Not Robots? C’mon.