As the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) once again scrawls more equations and the like onto the board in the TARDIS, a continuation from the last two eps, cos obviously they're part of some foreshadowing involved. He asks Clara (Jenna Coleman) where she'd want to go or who she wanted to meet and she comes up with Robin Hood, cos she's it's like a dream of hers to meet him, but he says he doesn't exist, he's not real. But plots in a date and place for the TARDIS to land. Cue Robin (Tom Riley) and demanding the TARDIS is his to take. But he's not taking that without a fight. When Clara emerges, she's dressed as Maid Marian of course, or rather a Maid Marian.
So naturally they have a sword fight but the Doctor doesn't have a sword so he puts on his glove and takes out a spoon which doesn't really get help much, but he manages to push Robin into the stream.
Saying, "I am the Doctor and this is my spoon." So where'd he rumble that from, the Victorian restaurant in the first ep, The Promised Land.
Heading back to their camp, they are introduced to the rest of his Merry men and the Doctor takes samples from them to analyze and see if they're real. Then asks what season it is since it's too green. Whilst Robin and Clara have a meaningful conversation about why he's sad, she knows cos he's always laughing. Mentioning Marian and how she told him to never give up. Clara knows him as the Earl of Loxley. Anyway championing for the poor, he's entering the archery tournament and he knows it's an obvious trap.
The Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Miller) meanwhile takes prisoners from the village, even killing one of them. At the arrow shooting, of course Robin wins the golden arrow, but he's then matched by the Doctor, thus starts their constant getting one better one each other, until the Doctor says he's bored of this and blows up the target with his Sonic. But the Doctor doesn't want the arrow, he wants "enlightenment," As he tells the Sheriff. As a fight ensues, the knight gets his arm cut off and it's a robot. Thus the Doctor gets himself and Clara arrested; cos that's the best way to infiltrate for info. In the dungeon, there's more fighting talk and competition with each other and eventually Clara tells them to shut up. They must have a plan and well neither one of them do. The guard takes Clara away.
As she dines with the Sheriff he wants info about who she is and the like, but she gets him to tell his story of the lights in the sky and the ship landing. She got him to do the talking again, as she did with the Half Face man in the first ep. He wants her to be his consort. The Doctor and Robin still bickering over who's better and Robin making lost of comments towards the Doctor being old, which we knew would come eventually since his change of face. Robin pretends to have a nervous breakdown as the Doctor tells the guard and knocks him out. Then fight for the keys again, which fall through the grate. Well good thing Clara wasn't here to see that, the Doctor adds.
Getting out, they find the spaceship and the Doctor accesses its databanks, finding more reference to "the Promised Land." Once again being Missy territory, who doesn't featured this ep. He recalls that was what the Half Face man was in search of and no more is said of it. The Sheriff is melting down gold and it appears he's making a giant computer chip out of it. Which the Doctor tells him won't fly the ship as it doesn't have enough power to fly and will take out most of the country with it. But the Sheriff is blinkered in wanting to rule and oust Prince John.
The robots try to take out Robin, but Clara stands in front of him and he makes his escape by jumping from the window into the moat below. the Doctor is locked with the workers and he meets the woman who was taken for the village and they hatch a plan to destroy the robots. This they do by reflecting their laser death rays back onto them using the golden trays. Those robots did fiendishly resemble the Cybernauts from The Avengers TV series.
Robin demands to know who he Doctor is. Though he did appear sinister when he asks that. Leading to another showdown in the ship, where this time Robin fights the Sheriff as they end up on the catwalks above the melting pot. Taking a leaf out of the Doctor's playbook when he threw him in the stream, he does the same, leaving the Sheriff to fall into the pot. The Doctor says the ship still doesn't have enough gold to make it fly out and so they must use the golden arrow. Having to admit he cheated by planting homing devices in the arrows. Robin can't shoot cos of his arm, so he suggests they make it a team effort. Hitting the ship, it enters orbit and explodes.
The Doctor tells Robin he is eventually forgotten being real and becomes a legend. With Robin adding, he's as real as the Doctor. He's the Last Lord of Gallifrey who took the TARDIS and helped people, which is what Robin does. The Doctor is perturbed that Clara told him that, she wasn't supposed to. The Doctor leaves him a present, Marian (Sabrina Bartlett). The woman from the village and the melting works. But hey it appears the Doctor gave him a picture of Clara for his locket.
Not only was there that arrow shooting scene with an allusion to Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, but Clara even goes so much further as to mention it. The Doctor also commenting he's bantering and how he hates it. Well Doctor Eleven (Matt Smith) would know plenty about bantering! "I am totally against bantering." Though come on, must admit he looked liek he was enjoying the bantering. So after the colours, are we still on that? Last time it was Pink and Blue and now scarlet, when Will Scarlett was introduced. There must be something more to this.
When those pics of Robin Hood were shown, there was one, deceptively resembling Errol Flynn's turn as the Merry Man, (taken literally here with the jokes!) Especially after that reference to Errol Flynn's 'private parts.' A brief reference to Carnival of Monsters (with Doctor 3 Jon Pertwee) but at the end of the day, funny it may have been, the epsiode didn't really do much other than reinforcing how this Doctor doesn't want to be reminded of being a Time Lord and his 'helping' others. Even though it was written by Mark Gatiss, it delved too much into the comedial aspect, which is fine for an early ep, but it's the darkness that I and many others want from this season/series.
Am looking forward to next week's ep, where things come out from under the bed. Er, that's cos it's where you put stuff right. Whenever you lose something, always look under the bed first! Ha. Have to mention the BBC production of Robin Hood from a few years back in 2006 (with Jonas Armstrong and Richard Armitage - probably the only reason worth watching it, !! But this ep just seemed like a poor imitation or attempt at emulating it.) What is it with the BBC and their 'attempts' at Robin Hood?
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