Robot of Sherwood
I haven't enjoyed an episode of Doctor Who this much in a long while.
This was not exactly a super deep or plot-important episode, but I thought it was a thoroughly fun romp with some good character moments. I continue to really enjoy Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, and Clara feels more like a person this series than last series. Here is my disorganized bullet-point list of thoughts about "Robot of Sherwood":
[Spoilers of Sherwood: click to read]-The Doctor and Robin Hood spent most of the episode bickering, including while handcuffed together. Am I the only one who came out of this episode shipping Twelve/Robin Hood? Because that is classic Belligerent Sexual Tension behavior IMHO. (Warning: link goes to TV tropes.)
-The Doctor flat out admits that he uses getting captured as a strategy. No one is surprised. This series, Clara is proving talented at using this strategy to extract information. I also love how pleased she was about admitting that she lied to the Sheriff.
-The plot for this episode was silly bordering on nonsensical, but that really wasn't the point. Fire a golden arrow at the spaceship to make sure it gets to orbit and doesn't explode too low? Sure, why not. I'll take this sort of consciously goofy thing any day over a story that tries to be driven by an intricate plot but is actually full of holes to anyone who bothers to think about it for more than 30 seconds. (**coughmoffatcough**)
-Twelve was so certain that Robin Hood wasn't a real person, and yet managed to land exactly where Robin was at a key moment in his personal timeline. Sexy must have really wanted to make her hubby eat his words.
-Apparently Robin's minstrel was played by Mark Gatiss's husband Ian Hallard. (Also, I enjoyed the Monty Python references with that character.)
-The Doctor fenced against Robin Hood with a spoon. This is so very typical of the man whose primary technical gadget is a screwdriver.
-I very much enjoyed the swashbuckling nature of the fights and action. Robin stuck a dagger into a tapestry and slid down. He and the Sheriff rode ropes up to fight on a beam above the vat of liquid gold, because why the hell not. Then Robin copied the Doctor's moves from earlier to send the Sheriff off the beam into the gold, which was a nice touch. It's all gloriously over the top.
-LOLing forever at the Doctor using trick arrows to cheat at the archery competition and being so proud of the fact that he'll be the last to starve to death in their cell. The Doctor's competitive streak seems to be strong in this incarnation.
-I liked the points made in Tor.com's review of this episode that Twelve's loud disbelief in the reality of Robin Hood is a pointed departure from Eleven, who was often framed as a fairytale (both by Moffat and in the Doctor's own self-conception.) Eleven did not always do right by his loved ones despite or sometimes because of his heroic posturing. Twelve has consciously distanced himself from being a fairytale or even a hero. And yet he discusses with Robin (and sadly I can't remember which one of them said what off the top of my head) that sometimes the legend of a hero can be good for people, even if the person behind the legend is not so pure and perfect and doesn't even think of himself as a hero. Story has been one of the recurring themes in Moffat-era DW (it's one of the few aspects I do like about this era), and I think it's been a long while since we've had an episode handle it as well as this one.
-I hope next year's Gallifrey One is full of lots of cosplay of medieval Clara, Robin Hood, and spoon-wielding Twelve.
-So far I have been liking series 8 decently well. It's less awfully manic, Peter Capaldi's take on the Doctor is a breath of fresh air, and Clara has grown more of a personality. I am highly dubious about the "promised land" arc, but it's too early to really judge that.
-I should probably acquire a Twelve icon.
This was not exactly a super deep or plot-important episode, but I thought it was a thoroughly fun romp with some good character moments. I continue to really enjoy Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, and Clara feels more like a person this series than last series. Here is my disorganized bullet-point list of thoughts about "Robot of Sherwood":
[Spoilers of Sherwood: click to read]-The Doctor and Robin Hood spent most of the episode bickering, including while handcuffed together. Am I the only one who came out of this episode shipping Twelve/Robin Hood? Because that is classic Belligerent Sexual Tension behavior IMHO. (Warning: link goes to TV tropes.)
-The Doctor flat out admits that he uses getting captured as a strategy. No one is surprised. This series, Clara is proving talented at using this strategy to extract information. I also love how pleased she was about admitting that she lied to the Sheriff.
-The plot for this episode was silly bordering on nonsensical, but that really wasn't the point. Fire a golden arrow at the spaceship to make sure it gets to orbit and doesn't explode too low? Sure, why not. I'll take this sort of consciously goofy thing any day over a story that tries to be driven by an intricate plot but is actually full of holes to anyone who bothers to think about it for more than 30 seconds. (**coughmoffatcough**)
-Twelve was so certain that Robin Hood wasn't a real person, and yet managed to land exactly where Robin was at a key moment in his personal timeline. Sexy must have really wanted to make her hubby eat his words.
-Apparently Robin's minstrel was played by Mark Gatiss's husband Ian Hallard. (Also, I enjoyed the Monty Python references with that character.)
-The Doctor fenced against Robin Hood with a spoon. This is so very typical of the man whose primary technical gadget is a screwdriver.
-I very much enjoyed the swashbuckling nature of the fights and action. Robin stuck a dagger into a tapestry and slid down. He and the Sheriff rode ropes up to fight on a beam above the vat of liquid gold, because why the hell not. Then Robin copied the Doctor's moves from earlier to send the Sheriff off the beam into the gold, which was a nice touch. It's all gloriously over the top.
-LOLing forever at the Doctor using trick arrows to cheat at the archery competition and being so proud of the fact that he'll be the last to starve to death in their cell. The Doctor's competitive streak seems to be strong in this incarnation.
-I liked the points made in Tor.com's review of this episode that Twelve's loud disbelief in the reality of Robin Hood is a pointed departure from Eleven, who was often framed as a fairytale (both by Moffat and in the Doctor's own self-conception.) Eleven did not always do right by his loved ones despite or sometimes because of his heroic posturing. Twelve has consciously distanced himself from being a fairytale or even a hero. And yet he discusses with Robin (and sadly I can't remember which one of them said what off the top of my head) that sometimes the legend of a hero can be good for people, even if the person behind the legend is not so pure and perfect and doesn't even think of himself as a hero. Story has been one of the recurring themes in Moffat-era DW (it's one of the few aspects I do like about this era), and I think it's been a long while since we've had an episode handle it as well as this one.
-I hope next year's Gallifrey One is full of lots of cosplay of medieval Clara, Robin Hood, and spoon-wielding Twelve.
-So far I have been liking series 8 decently well. It's less awfully manic, Peter Capaldi's take on the Doctor is a breath of fresh air, and Clara has grown more of a personality. I am highly dubious about the "promised land" arc, but it's too early to really judge that.
-I should probably acquire a Twelve icon.