Dr Who Robot Of Sherwood Forest

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Spoiler alerts This was the most enjoyable Who adventure to date and in many ways, a pantomime romp worthy to have been a Christmas special. It proved that Capaldi's dark Doctor doesn't rule out humour in the series. The Doctor finds Clara has a Robin Hood fixation so he takes her back to the early 13th century to prove that Robin never existed only to immediately be met by him. The Doctor's inability to accept the truth of the legend gives the story its drive; though Robin's too good to be true nature may not even be answered yet. While Robin seems rather too human, and very Errol Flynn, the Sheriff Of Nottingham is clearly a villain and his robo-army is genuinely impressive, but this is the third robot story in a row now, (though Daleks are only semi-robots). The banter during the chained up in the dungeon scenes is very funny, especially with Clara's reaction to the men trying to out-do one another. The conclusion is weak, with the golden arrow's weight seeming far too negligible to affect the critical status of the doomed escaping spaceship as it does. Robin tells the departing Doctor that he learned his Time Lord origins from Clara though that may yet prove to be a lie. The all too convenient happy return to Robin's side by Marion was very contrived and it would have been nice to see more from the Merry Men who got very little to do after the Doctor's efforts to test them for signs of being robots. Ben Miller's Sheriff was clearly channeling Alan Rickman, so the Doctor's use of the spoon was all the more amusing, as was the archery contest with a great deal of cheating and ego-grating going on. Arthur Chappell