Revisiting the Twelfth Doctor: Robot of Sherwood

Robot of Sherwood

Here we are, already. The point in the series where I felt everything was going horribly wrong. I'll save you a scan through the text and declare, up-front, that I didn't hate this as much as I thought I would. It's isn't good science fiction, drama or history but it's an entertaining enough Robin Hood romp, let down by an ending which is just... I don't even know what it is.

Here's a reminder of what I remember from seeing this story the first time, roughly a year ago:

Oh dear. Honestly? Not even looking forward to revisiting this one. A silly idea, brought to a head with one of the worst dramatic climaxes in television history. I remember lots of arguing for Clara's attention, leading to a resolution which one Who fan referred to as "like pouring petrol on the outside of a car and expecting it to work".

It's episodes like this that cause me to question what kind of show Doctor Who should be. I'm a lifelong fan of science fiction. To me, good science fiction posits a change to something that forms the everyday fabric of our lives and then explores the world that comes out of that change. Often, science fiction takes place in a far future where the whole technological fabric of society is unrecognisable, but the human elements of story and character remain something to which we can relate. In other instances, the sci-fi world is recognizably ours but with a single change, such as the Channel 4 drama Humans, in which the single change is the presence of artificially intelligent android domestic servants.

The basic premise of Robot of Sherwood is sound. An alien ship has crash-landed on Earth during the 12th Century and assimilate themselves into local history in order to repair their ship. It's been done before in Doctor Who - The Time Warrior. The difference in tone between those two stories is vast. The Time Warrior is a genuine insight into the rule of barons in feudal Britain. The human villain is sinister and deadly, but not a caricature. The neighbouring Lord is practical, dour and determined to act in a reasonable way. In Robot of Sherwood, we have a cast of larger-than-life characters, encapsulated by The Doctor's insistence at the beginning that they are fictional characters who never really existed. They're a romantic ideal, not real historical figures. Despite an attempt to inject some pathos into the scenario by hinting at the trauma Robin Hood has faced, it barely comes across as a beat in the midst of bantering, lute-playing and machismo. The fact that the Doctor calls the Merry Men out on these actions doesn't mean this shouldn't be the audience's reaction as well.

Then there's the ending. Spoilers: the space ship taking off doesn't have enough gold to safely clear the planet. Robin fires an arrow, which sticks to the outside of the rocket and somehow powers the engine into space. Firstly, let's ignore the fact that despite being short of gold, the villain gives away a solid gold arrow, which obviously contains enough gold to fix his own problem. Secondly, a gold arrow powering an engine from the outside is one of the worst pieces of science fiction writing I have ever encountered. That a single writer, sitting on their own may construct this bizarre set of events is unfortunate, but it happens. Writers run with bad ideas and make mistakes. Any normal editor would simply make them change it. However, for a production crew, made up of dozens of skilled storytellers, to read this idea, think it was good and go through the weeks-long process of producing it and getting it to our screens is unforgivable. The whole thing could have been saved, if the Special Effects shot had shown the arrow flying through the metal side of the engine or even - and I'd take this explanation, however goofy - somehow flew up into the rocket nozzle and made it into the engine. Those are daft explanations, but they are, at least, explanations. If you're not following why I think this is such a bad piece of science, try an experiment. The next time you're cooking, place a lit candle next to the cooker, on the outside and see if it affects the cooking time.

Ultimately I'm not sure what to take away from this story. There's a central idea that maybe the Doctor doesn't know everything and his assumptions about the truth of history are maybe no more accurate than our own. But while The Time Warrior gives us time to reflect on the responsibilities of those who rule common people and the importance of careful interaction with less developed cultures, Robot of Sherwood leaves us with the impression that its okay to take a revisionist approach to history. So what if the overwhelming factual evidence is against the existence of a historical figure? Maybe that's what they want you to think. Evidence isn't truth. My opinion is that Robin Hood is real, so who are historians to tell us otherwise? While I'm at it, maybe those scientists that tell me medicine is the only answer are wrong. I'll beat my cancer using crystals, or positive thinking. And vaccinating my child is just a conspiracy to give them autism, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccination is safe, essential for society and the health of other peoples children and that my beliefs are those of an ignorant and dangerous asshat.


There is a place in science fiction for doing away with assumptions and even ignoring the evidence for a more important mechanism. Physics suggests that travelling faster than the speed of light, or even time travel, are impossibilities in our universe. We can put these rules aside, because the value to the story of assuming that, maybe, one day we will overcome these limitations is worth exploring. And it's even perfectly fine to re-address historical events. If history is truly bunk, then the best we can get from it is a new perspective on our present. Robot of Sherwood offers none of this. It is bad science fiction and pretty weak fantasy. And that's coming from the guy who thinks Paradise Towers is a good, solid and engrossing story.