The Doctor, Robin Hood and robots in Medieval England. Warning: contains spoilers!

Robin Hood is a British folk hero, famous around the world for his story of triumphing against the greedy Sheriff of Nottingham. The tale has been adapted hundreds of times, for radio, television and cinema. It seems odd then, that it has taken Doctor Who almost 51 years to finally add its own adaption to the long list. But is Robot of Sherwood a worthy addition? Not really, no. In fact, it's rather average.

Robot of Sherwood sees the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) take Clara (Jenna Coleman) back to the days of the Crusades in an effort to prove that Robin Hood (Tom Riley) never existed. Meanwhile, the Sheriff (Ben Miller) has aspirations of power and is collecting all the gold in the county to fuel his evil plan.

Mark Gatiss has been a fairly average writer for Doctor Who, with only three truly good episodes to his name since 2005, two of which were written last year. Thus, I was expecting something similar to the brilliance of Cold War and The Crimson Horror. Alas, that was not to be the case, and Robot of Sherwood is the first disappointment of the series. That’s not to say it’s bad, but it definitely doesn’t live up to the potential it could have had, and I think the main reason for this is that it felt out of place; too different from the other episodes of the series. Deep Breath and Into the Dalek were both quite dark, brooding episodes with a very serious tone, whereas Robot of Sherwood is essentially the polar opposite – fun, light-hearted, not taking itself seriously at all. The tonal difference is incredibly off putting and detracts quite a bit from the episode. It honestly feels like it was written for Matt Smith’s Doctor more than anything.

Despite this, Capaldi still manages to make the episode his own. If there’s one positive about the lighter tone in Robot of Sherwood, it’s that Capaldi gets the chance to show the audience other aspects of his considerable acting skills, particular his comedic ability. However, despite his mastery of the art, he still can’t hide the fact that the episode just didn’t suit him as much as the previous two, with the spoon fight and interactions with the Merry Men feeling very awkward and contrived.

Contrived sums up several elements of the episode rather well, actually. The Doctor doubts the existence of Robin...why, exactly? Surely someone who has wandered the universe for millennia would quite readily believe that folk heroes like Robin could exist? It just seems that this subplot was added to have some conflict in the episode. And while unnecessary, it’s hard to deny that the tension between the Doctor and Robin is hugely entertaining. The banter between them in the prison is funny, albeit stupid, but Capaldi and Riley play off each other brilliantly. However, them arguing so heatedly does seem to exist just to allow Clara to be taken as their ‘leader’ and face interrogation from the Sheriff, thus driving the plot forward.

The ‘main’ plot would be a more accurate description, though, as the episode also seems to be crammed full of various other plot threads that never really see a conclusion (the Doctor’s determination to prove that Robin is a fake is the only one that does get closure.) For example, we’re introduced to Maid Marian quite early on in the episode, but what does she actually do? She gets captured, sees a prisoner get murdered, talks to the Doctor, then appears behind the TARDIS at the end. She adds nothing to the episode, and her presence seems quite unnecessary. There is a hint of a subplot concerning her and Robin, but it’s never given enough screen time to be fully explored and developed, and I was left quite bewildered at the end. I don’t think the problem could have been solved by extending the running time either; the rest of the episode didn’t have enough material to merit an increase to 60 minutes or a two-parter. It would have been better if she’d been dropped completely.

One aspect that would have benefited from increased screen time, though, was the Sheriff of Nottingham. Nicely underplayed by Ben Miller, he manages to come across as quite menacing despite having a crucial reveal cut from the final episode thanks to some unfortunate political circumstances. Originally, it was going to be revealed that the Sheriff was the titular robot of Sherwood, having being rebuilt after the spaceship landed on him. This is hinted at several times throughout the episode, but thanks to that scene’s cut, the final resolution is left to a confusing, hard-to-hear line during the climax of the fight scene, and the shot of the Sheriff’s hands sticking over the side of the vat. I know it was a last-minute edit, but it still leaves things annoyingly unresolved and very ambiguous. The average viewer would walk away from the episode none-the-wiser about what the Sheriff actually was.

One other thing about the episode that really irked me was the golden arrow. It’s explicitly stated several times throughout the episode that the Sheriff is gathering all the gold in the county and melting it down to power/construct circuitry for the spaceship. If that’s the case, then why would he risk losing the golden arrow, especially when it’s needed for the spaceship to take off later on? It’s yet another forced aspect of the episode that only exists to drive the plot forward – and it happens again when the arrow miraculously allows the ship to reach orbit. Science doesn’t work like that; it’s the equivalent of chucking petrol on a car and expecting it to have a full tank. It’s almost as bad as gamma radiation appearing as lightning and transferring DNA in Evolution of the Daleks...

But despite what I’ve said above, Robot of Sherwood is nonetheless somewhat enjoyable, but is unforunately very average. Contrived, with a tone not consistent with the previous two episodes, it’s very much a disappointment and a missed opportunity. It honestly would have been better as a prequel to The Kings Demons.

6/10