Holistic Review: The plot doesn't seem to have been constructed very carefully, but as light entertainment it's a good deal of fun.

As I mentioned last week, I've never been a big fan of the Robin Hood tales. I'd lay odds that my first exposure to the legend was that Disney movie starring a fox, which is probably why I lost interest at a young age. (Talking cartoon animals have never really been my cup of tea.) Besides, Robin Hood is very much an action hero, with his archery and his swordfighting and his thievery, and those have never been elements that draw me to a story. So, except in that it was written by Mark Gatiss, Robot of Sherwood is not an episode that I was automatically excited about, therefore it had to work extra-hard to win me over. At first, I thought perhaps it wasn't concerned with trying, instead taking for granted that the entire audience would have the same enthusiastic reaction to Robin Hood that Clara did, but by the end I really was enjoying it.

In truth, it's hard not to enjoy a story with the same themes as Doctor Who — a hero who renounces his society and its laws in order to rescue helpless people from oppression and injustice — and it's nice that Robin explicitly points out this similarity at the story's close. But I must also give a lot of the credit to Tom Riley, who gives such an energetic, charming, good-natured, consistently funny performance as Robin Hood that it's impossible not to like him. Perhaps this is common in Robin Hood adaptations — I haven't seen enough to know — but I like that Riley gets to play the popular stereotype of Robin, mischievous and taunting and constantly brimming with confident laughter, but also gets some depth from the revelation that this jovial persona is really just an affectation by which he maintains his heroic image while masking a deeper sadness. (Clara, though, is preternaturally intuitive to read him so accurately!) Both his swordsmanship and his skill as an archer provide moments of levity and derring-do — like the moment when Robin deliberately shows off by splitting four arrows without even looking! — and, of course, they're central to the plot. His feud with the Sheriff is given an excellent resolution, when a disarmed Robin turns to face the Sheriff, hands outstretched as if in surrender, in exactly the same way that the Doctor faced him at the episode's start, so of course we realize exactly what he's about to do. It's a great demonstration not only of Robin's cunning, but also just a what a quick study he is. I like Riley's green leather costume, too, with its feathered cap and laced jacket and trousers; it's intricate and flattering, and completely evocative of the character while still being an original design. I enjoyed Riley's delivery of literally every line, but the real standouts included: his wink at the Doctor, "But... I was afraid", his hilarious timing on "There is no contest!", his deliberate attempt to annoy the Doctor with a jovial full-body "Ha! Ha! Ha!", the way Robin's faked moans of agony turn into angry growls when the Doctor describes him as a "shivering little mouse", his mirth over the ornamental plant stand, and his startled reaction when the spaceship door explodes inward. Naturally, it turns out that I was wrong last week about Robin being the titular robot... I knew it seemed too obvious! In my defense, Gatiss was very sneaky with the title... I wasn't expecting there to be more than one robot! (I'm glad I didn't see this week's movie poster before the episode aired, or I'd have been spoiled on the robots' identity.)

It helps, too, that we see this story through Clara's eyes. Her wonderment and irrepressible glee at being in the presence of Robin Hood are infectious, and it's exactly the kind of reaction that I love to see when a companion travels into history. It also firmly establishes her as the audience surrogate, so when she actually gets to learn archery from her childhood hero, the legendary Robin Hood himself, it's an exciting moment for her and for us. Clara's given more good proactive moments this week, including her attempt to come to the Doctor's rescue with a pike, the way she leaps to Robin's defense when she thinks the Doctor's willing to let him die, and most especially the fantastic way that she squares off against the Sheriff. She's so very clever to pretend that she saw "those mysterious lights in the sky" in order to draw the truth out of him, and she plays to his ego skilfully enough to have him practically eating out of her hand. Once she's learned what she wants to know, Clara's impressively gutsy and confident to admit to his face that she was lying; she doesn't seem to be at all concerned that the Sheriff might decide to run her through with his sword! But those aren't her only skills: we also learn that she's apparently studied tae kwon do, although why we've never seen evidence of this before, I've no idea. You'd think it might have come in handy from time to time! And it's nice to clarify that Clara's specifically from Blackpool. (Wonder if she ever tried playing any video games at any funfairs when she was little...? Or not, because, ack, Clara wouldn't even have been born at the time of The Nightmare Fair.) Loved Coleman's delivery of "Oh, you see?!", "Might be a... a little bit much, but — ooh! — what do you reckon, Doctor?", "Oh, yes, I have always known her.", "Thank you, Prince of Thieves. Last of the Time Lords?", "Mmm, I should think they are.", "Oh... but I do not have one. I was lying.", "Hiya!", and "Admit it: you like him."

While I'm on the subject of Jenna Coleman, Clara's dress deserves its own paragraph. I already knew, from its appearance in the teaser, that I was going to be a big fan, but wow. It's absolutely one of my all-time-favorite companion costumes. That iridescent scarlet velvet is so flattering on Clara, and I love the design of the dress, with its long flowing sleeves, the silver lining, the lace-up bodice, the silver tasselled cord belt, the delicate floral pattern on the interior sleeves and the outer skirt, and that gorgeous metal circlet that Clara has inexplicably managed to affix to her forehead... it's stunning. High praise to the stylists, too, who have given her a gorgeous hairstyle of loose curls, and makeup that really brings out her eyes.

However, while there were elements of the story that I really liked, I found the plot itself to be unnecessarily confusing. So many details were either left ill-defined, or inserted with no explanation whatsoever, that I found myself getting exasperated because I couldn't figure out exactly what was going on or why. There were, in fact, so many of them that I feel the need to enumerate:

1. Who crewed this spaceship, and what happened to them when the ship crashed? And, given that this is apparently yet another time-travelling ship, did it have a purpose in travelling from the 29th century back to the 1100s, or was it an accident? (I would guess that the Promised Land is at specific temporal as well as spatial coordinates, but if that's the case, then either the Deep Breath droids or the Robot of Sherwood droids overshot their destination.)
2. We know that when the spaceship landed, it merged with a castle (or built one up around it as a disguise), and apparently created the robot knights in order to blend in. So is the Sheriff a human being who took advantage of the crashed spaceship, or was he created by the spaceship like the knights? There's evidence for each supposition. On the side of the Sheriff being human: he eats, he wants to mate, he feels pain, he prefers to conquer London than go to the Promised Land, and he claims to have witnessed the spaceship's landing (unless he was built with false memories?). Also, a bit of (regrettably unsubstantiatable) conjecture: the Sheriff is vague about how long ago the ship crashed, and Robin is vague about how long ago he arrived in Nottingham, but the story implies that the spaceship crashlanded around springtime at the latest (otherwise the "benevolent climate" would presumably have wiped out the previous winter, which the characters surely would have noticed), so if Robin Hood has been in the area battling the Sheriff for longer than six months, that would provide additional evidence that the Sheriff predates the ship's arrival. On the side of his being a robot: he's adept at using the ship's holodisplay, he apparently wishes to alter the course of history (which presumes that he knows what the course of history entails), and he was able to survive the vat of molten gold long enough to attempt to climb out. Every other hint in the story could be interpreted either way; even the Sheriff's description of himself as "the first of a new breed: half man, half engine!" could imply that he was partially cybernetized by the robot knights. I understand now that the beheading scene would have ultimately clarified that the Sheriff was a robot, so I'll give Gatiss a pass on this one, since my confusion wasn't his fault.
3. Why do the ship's memory banks contain the Robin Hood legend, especially since it would appear that the ship didn't create Robin after all? Was this detail meant to explain where the ship conjured the idea of the Sheriff from? (But, as the Sheriff himself says, "Why would we create an enemy to fight us? What sense would that make?" The same applies in reverse: why would the ship think to itself, "Why look, there's the real-life Robin Hood just outside my walls! You know, what he really needs is an arch-enemy to fight. Hey, I've got an idea, how about if the Sheriff of Nottingham is our captain? We'll be able to repair my engines much faster if Robin Hood is trying to steal back all our gold.")
4. "If he tries to fly his ship," worries the Doctor, "it'll explode and wipe out half the country." Later, he clarifies: "If you try and take off, you will wipe out half of England." Weeeelll, this turns out not to be true at all. Taking off isn't the problem; it's a matter of whether the ship has enough power to clear Earth's atmosphere before it explodes.
5. If the Doctor believes that the ship is likely to explode upon takeoff and destroy half of England, then what good does it do to have everyone flee the castle? They need to flee the whole island, is what they need to do. Worse yet, the Doctor shows no inclination to try to avert this fate. Instead of staying to watch the fight between Robin and the Sheriff, why doesn't the Doctor take advantage of the distraction to rush off and shut down the engine? And why, having decided to waste so much time, is he content to flee the castle and then stand watching the takeoff from a nearby hillside vantage point — where there's nothing he can do to stop the explosion — knowing full well that if it blows up, it'll take them all with it? This demonstrates a worrying lack of forethought.
6. Perhaps the most inexplicable plot detail of all: how does embedding a golden arrow in the hull of the ship help to repair the engine? Even if I suspend my disbelief, this requires considerably more explanation than we get. I would need to know, for example, that the gold doesn't have to be incorporated into the engine; the ship simply requires a critical mass of it onboard. Or that the ship is all one entity, and it can absorb things from the hull to use in its systems. But if either of these explanations were true, you wouldn't think the Sheriff would need to bother with melting down all the gold and casting circuit boards... he could just leave it around in piles, or fling coins against the ship's hull and let it do all the work. Or, better yet, let the ship extend some roots down into the ground, find and absorb some gold ore deposits, and repair itself.
7. Where on earth does Marian come from?! Did the Doctor somehow transport her from Loxley in the TARDIS between scenes? Did he find a way to let Marian know where Robin was hiding? And if so, why has she been standing behind the TARDIS all this time? And how did the Merry Men fail to notice her strolling up to it? Did he dematerialize the TARDIS around her in a reverse manoeuvre of the way he rescued Journey last week? (For more on this question, see below...)

Drat! I was hoping I wouldn't have to put in another one of these for a while, and this time I can't blame Steven Moffat. At least, in Clara's defense (and Gatiss'), numbers 2 and 3 are actually somewhat justified.

SHUT-UP COUNTER: 4 1.   (08:51)   Doctor: "Could be a theme park from the future. Or we might be inside a Miniscope!" Clara: "Oh, shut up."   2 — 3.   (18:44)   Robin: "Guard!" Doctor: "Guard!" Clara: "Will you two shut up! Do either of you understand, in any way at all, that there isn't actually a guard out there?" Doctor: "Oh." Robin: "I did, in fact." Doctor: "No you didn't." Clara: "I said, shut up."   4.   (19:46)   Clara: "Okay, Robin, you first." Doctor: "Why him?!" Clara: "Doctor, shut up. Robin? Your plan."

The Doctor is in quite a sour temper this week, isn't he? It's a bit unrelenting; as unrelenting, in fact, as Robin Hood's ebullience, which is probably the point. I'm not sure that I like his personality being taken to this extreme... it's a bit much, for example, when he starts demanding that the guard execute Robin. Seriously? Otherwise, the childish rivalry between the Doctor and Robin Hood is rather cute, and made me laugh despite myself. His sword-versus-spoon battle with Robin is adorable, especially when Robin turns the tables by sneaking up behind the Doctor and pushing him into the river too. Again, this scene shows off Capaldi's physicality: the fight is choreographed smoothly but naturally, and the Doctor gets in a lot of good shots! It's so much fun to see him best a master swordsman using nothing but cutlery, and the moment when he raps Robin on the back of the neck with his spoon is both triumphant and funny. There's another great physical moment later when the Doctor apparently uses Venusian aikido, complete with "Hai!", to disarm Robin. I continue to see lots of Jon Pertwee in Capaldi, which is understandable since Pertwee was Capaldi's Doctor (and Gatiss'); I only hope, given my lesser degree of fondness for Pertwee's era, that I continue to perceive this influence as a good thing! (If the Doctor starts stealing Clara's sandwiches, my opinion toward him could yet turn...) I approve of his distaste for bantering, which yet again is a marked contrast from his predecessors, and I'm intrigued that he seems to take Marian's kiss quite seriously. I'm reminded of the Buffy episode Who Are You?, in which Faith rescues a woman purely because it's expected, but the woman's heartfelt gratitude gets under Faith's skin, making her question whether being good might be more rewarding than evil. Might this kiss mark a change in the Doctor's attitude? (And, do I even want a change in attitude? Generally speaking, no, but it might make for an interesting character arc.) And like the ninth Doctor, I'm glad that Capaldi is getting to switch up his shirt colors; it adds variety to his costume. I enjoyed his delivery of "Just passing the time. Hey! What about Mars?", "I am the Doctor, and this... is my spoon!" and "He had the most enormous... ego!", but my favorite this week was: "It definitely would be me though, wouldn't it?"

Another real highlight of the story for me was Ben Miller as the black-hearted (and caped) Sheriff of Nottingham. I warmed to him almost immediately, probably because he channels Anthony Ainley on the line "You shall live to regret that." Actually, Miller would've made a fantastic Master too, but at least he gets to portray one iconic English villain in Doctor Who. At times, his villainy is played for laughs (like his unwise decision to punch one of his robot knights), but otherwise he presents a formidable threat. I loved Miller's very funny delivery of Gatiss' very funny line "Mine... mine... mine."

All of the Merry Men are fun characters, but only one really stood out for me: Ian Hallard as Alan-a-Dale, the group's minstrel. I loved his various facial expressions, his lovely singing voice, and his entertaining line deliveries, like "Ow!" and "I am real...!"

Oh! I had not realized, until looking over the cast list, that Sabrina Bartlett played both Quayle's ward and Marian. Even then, I had to stare at it for a moment wondering "why did they re-use the same actress to play Marian?" before I realized that Marian was Quayle's ward! Heaven help me, I'm dense. I guess that explains where the Doctor found his "goodbye present", eh? But gosh, that was not clear to me at all. In my defense, both her hairstyle and clothing are completely different as Marian. Anyway, Bartlett is quite good in the role; her Marian is intelligent and compassionate, and Bartlett is convincing at portraying Marian's fear, anguish and delight. I especially liked her performance in the scene of the peasants destroying the last robot; Bartlett makes it seem as though it takes a great effort to hold her platter in place against the robot's onslaught of purple energy bolts.

The knight-robots are a well-designed and frightening adversary. Their true metal faces, behind the helmets, are impassive yet pretty, and I really love their cross-shaped targetting sensors, which project a purple cross on their target like a laser sight. Their method of execution creeped me out, too. The pile of smoking rags that remains of the incinerated peasant put me in mind of Earthshock... even though the effect wasn't nearly as gory, I still found it to be very effective. (I'm surprised Marian was able to watch him die! She must be made of stern stuff.)

I always enjoy the rarity of an episode that's set prior to the 1800s; they generally incorporate interesting cultural details, lovely costuming (like THAT DRESS), and sumptuous sets. Robot of Sherwood gets an extra lift from its forest setting, and Fforest Fawr is a gorgeous filming location for the episode. It feels like a really long time since we've actually seen the TARDIS materialize somewhere scenic — has it been since The Angels Take Manhattan? — so this materialization shot really tickled my fan heart. The log-bridge over the river is idyllic looking, and the cliff-face with the cave mouth is a stunning location. The thatched-roof village really helps to sell the 1190 setting, as does the castle with its tents and pig's heads and medieval finery. Much of the episode is filmed on location, but there are some nice sets on display too. The castle dungeon, in particular, is very atmospheric, with sunlight streaming in through the cross-shaped windows. I continue to enjoy the new details in the TARDIS set, like the addition of a pair of chalkboards to the library section of the console room promenade, and director Paul Murphy utilizes this part of the set well, giving us some interesting angles that we don't typically see during scenes set in the TARDIS console room. In general I found his direction to be solid, if not flashy; I liked the shot of Robin's arrow splitting the Sheriff's, the two-shots of the Sheriff and Clara, and as soon as the guard entered the dungeon and the wide shot turned into a two-shot of the Doctor and Robin, I knew Clara was going to be selected as "the true ringleader".

I thought it was very sensitive and kind of the production team to excise the beheading scene, particularly since the journalists murdered were both American rather than British, so the episode wasn't likely to upset their families. (The edit was very well-done, too; I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the scene might originally have been. Presumably the Sheriff initially survived his dip into the vat of gold?) I hope the scene in question will be available on the DVD release, but I totally support their very thoughtful decision. I did wonder, though, why they excised one beheading but not the other (when Marian deflects a robot knight's blast, decapitating it in the process), or the Doctor's rather graphic imagination about Robin's execution ("I'd like to see if his head keeps laughing when you chop it off!"). Surely that line, especially, was potentially more disturbing?

Given that the robot knights are basically the only sci-fi element in the story, there aren't a lot of effects to speak of, but I really liked the shot of multiple purple blasts ricocheting around the circle of platters before striking the robot. (I'd love to have seen some purple bolts flying past Robin and Clara as they dived out of the castle window, but alas, it was not to be.) I suspect that this is one of those stories where most of the effects go unnoticed — like, for example, the wide-shot of the castle keep during the archery contest, which I strongly suspect was augmented with some digital trickery even though I couldn't pinpoint what or where. Which is exactly as it should be. The overworked peasant's transformation into a cinder, too, was a very effective practical effect. I love that we finally get an explanation for why all these arrows in the TARDIS exterior never leave a mark! (Initially I thought the hole in the TARDIS outer shell disappeared when the Doctor rubbed his thumb over it, which would have been cute, but ultimately I think it's less ambiguous that we see the TARDIS repairing the damage herself.) But, oh dear, sound effects people: why does the Sheriff's sword make a metal-on-metal sound when he wipes it with a handkerchief? Gold's music this week is pretty unobtrusive, except for one scene in which it clashes with Alan-a-Dale's victory song, which makes it sound as though Hallard is singing off-key. Tsk tsk.

So I may have some issues with Mark Gatiss' plot in this story, and to some degree his characterization, but he does a lot of things right. I was absolutely not expecting the twist that Robin Hood is a genuine historical figure, whose memory over time was transformed into legend. (I also hadn't realized, until reading up on the character after this episode, that there's quite a case to be made that Robot of Sherwood is exactly right about Robin's historicity. Although perhaps not about the circumstances of his life.) Gatiss includes some lovely nods to the past, like the mention of Ice Warrior hives, Richard the Lionheart (who might be visiting with the first Doctor and Vicki at this very moment), Cyrano de Bergerac, a Miniscope (funny, I'd have thought we'd get that reference last week), and the aforementioned Venusian aikido. I like that Gatiss pokes fun at the Doctor's tendency to use his sonic screwdriver for everything these days, and I very much appreciate that the Doctor doesn't always resort to it in this story. His choice of a spoon as a weapon against Robin's sword feels very true to the character, and it hearks back to Peter Davison's wish for the Doctor to use his intelligence and the contents of his pockets to get himself out of scrapes. This is exactly how it should be.

I'm of a divided mind about the episode's tone. I'm not usually one who says "ooh, story X and story Y should be moved further apart in the season because they're too similar" — you might remember that season 6's swap of The Curse of the Black Spot and Night Terrors left me scratching my head — but in this case, especially knowing that the remainder of the season is meant to be darker in tone, I really felt like Robot of Sherwood would've been better served had it been moved to the latter half of the season, after we'd had some time to get immersed in our darker Doctor and the Hinchcliffe-era style, when a bit of light-hearted fun would've been a welcome change. Right now it feels like we were given a brief glimpse at a more somber storytelling style, but now we're right back to the status quo. Even two or three more episodes in, I think I'd have welcomed it more. I don't think it helped that the story seemed to be more concerned with providing scenes of amusing oneupmanship than with actually advancing the plot. But, on my second viewing, I decided to start thinking of Robot of Sherwood not as a questionably-timed comedy in need of a meatier plot, but as harmless fluffy light entertainment, and I found that helped me get into the right frame of mind, as does Mark Gatiss' observation that Robot of Sherwood is next-of-kin to The Androids of Tara. (How did I not see it before? Sun-dappled rivers and forests, swordfighting, horses, a castle lorded over by an evil local tyrant, a suave villain who threatens to marry the Doctor's assistant, a master swordsman diving into the moat, and a swoon-worthy companion outfit... Did I have any objections to this story, again?) Because truly, if you can get past the fact that the plot is sometimes inexplicable, with numerous scenes that don't further it at all, it's really a fun, lighthearted hour of television.

Minor points:

• Haven't we been through "your choice: wherever, whenever, anywhere in time and space" with Clara already? I suppose it's only fair to give her the opportunity again, since she avoided making a choice last time and now she's had ages to think of something really good, but has the Doctor really been choosing their destinations all this time? Why is he only just now giving her another chance to pick? Perhaps a little bit more context to his offer might have been helpful. (I get the impression that she's been waiting for the chance to ask to visit Robin Hood, since this time she doesn't have to think about it for even a second!)

• I wonder what the Doctor was eating with his spoon? We see him lick off remnants of something that's apparently edible. I'm guessing either yogurt, or vanilla frosting. Although this Doctor really doesn't seem like the vanilla frosting type (too sweet). I bet he prefers un-iced gingerbread.

• One would imagine that "Ice Warrior hives" would not be Clara's first choice of destination...

• Wow, the TARDIS materializes right next to Robin Hood, in the prime of his life, while he's still living in Sherwood Forest and fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham??? The TARDIS must have changed her mind about Clara, because, man, that was a major assist.

• Capaldi's delivery made me laugh!

  Doctor: "You're not serious?"
  Robin: "I am many things, sir, but I'm never that. Robin Hood laughs in the face of all! Ha ha ha!"
  Doctor: "And do people ever punch you in the face when you do that?"

• Loved Robin Hood's reaction to Clara emerging from the TARDIS, clad in dazzling velvet:

  Robin: "Are there any more in there?"

• When Robin lunges at the Doctor with his sword, what would have happened if the Doctor hadn't feinted? Was Robin really planning to skewer him with his blade? Swords, after all, don't seem very well suited for playfighting. Or was he, perhaps, going to cut off... another button???

• Why does the Sheriff tell Marian, "You may also prove useful", as if he's only just thought of carting her off along with the gold? Isn't she already trussed for transport to the castle?

• A sweet quote, delivered with tender adoration by Coleman:

  Clara: "When did you stop believing in everything?"
  Doctor: "When did you start believing in impossible heroes?"
  Clara: "Don't you know?"

• During the archery contest, I'm not sure that knight was wise to run in front of the target after setting it down! The Sheriff had already drawn his bow, and I'm not sure he would've had any compunction against firing before that poor fellow was out of the way...

• How cute! The Doctor's arrow has multicolored fletching! That just seems appropriate. However, this brings up Minor Plot Issue #1: I can accept that the Doctor whipped up a homing arrow in order to win the prize, but he fires twice and hits the target dead-on both times. So if he only fitted one arrow with a homing device, how do both arrows hit the mark? (Either he was overly vague when describing how many arrows he customized, or he's more talented than he's letting on...) Mind you, this cheating is a nice way to make him seem less infallible, and more Hartnellesque!

• Very Minor Plot Issue #2: how come the Doctor's allowed to swoop in and claim the prize when he hasn't been competing in the contest thus far?

• Very Minor Plot Issue #3: why does the Doctor want to steal the arrow from Robin? (especially since he doesn't actually want the arrow itself, but rather "enlightenment", by which one assumes he means information about the castle?) Is he just that petty? Or does he really think he can't find out what he wants to know about the castle by any means other than winning the contest?

• How I should have been able to figure out that this was a Mark Gatiss script, even if I had not known: the Sheriff's line "An intriguing gallimaufry..."

• Great delivery by both actors:

  Robin: "Soiled myself?!"
  Doctor: "Did you? That's getting into character."

• This line, and Miller's committed delivery, really cracked me up:

  Sheriff: "Nottingham is not enough."
  Clara: "It isn't?"
  Sheriff: "After this... Derby."
  Clara: "Right."
  Sheriff: "Then... Lincoln."

• The story arc gets a tiny look-in here, when we discover that "the Promised Land" wasn't just a myth for the clockwork droids. This aspect doesn't interest me as much as Missy herself, and I don't quite know if we needed an arc tie-in to this episode, but I suppose it's a contractual requirement... At any rate, I am intrigued that non-droids (one assumes) are trying to reach the same legendary place.

• Minor Plot Issue #4: the Doctor's idea for why the ship would create a Robin Hood droid seems pretty sound to me — as an excuse to give the peasants hope and keep them docile — so why does he later change his mind? Especially since, as I've already pointed out, the Sheriff's rationale is potentially even more nonsensical!

• When the ship announces "Engine capacity at 48%", the Doctor says, "It's not enough. They'll never make orbit!" So how much would be enough? It eventually rises to 83%, but apparently that's not high enough either. Did the ship ever stand a chance of not exploding? And why didn't the robots, or the ship itself, run any safety checks before disembarking? Were they so slaved to the Sheriff's orders that they followed them without question or analysis?

• Minor Plot Issue #5: How does Marian manage to release the Doctor from his shackles?

• I'm not sure how wise it is for the peasants to hold their platters at chest height, since the robots typically aim for the head!

• Minor Plot Issue #6: Why does the Sheriff toss the decapitated robot head into what is apparently part of the metal-melter? He only wants gold, not whatever the robots are made of. (Or is that recess actually the furnace underneath the crucible? That makes even less sense; you wouldn't think a heater would work better when it's covered in molten steel.)

• A well scripted line, and again, great delivery on the part of both actors:

  Doctor: "He's a legend!"
  Robin: "Too kind."

• The Sheriff's death is extremely horrific, if you really think about it, which I prefer not to. I'm reminded of my first visit to Las Vegas, when I decided to take a tour of the Grand Canyon by plane, and wound up stuck on an airport shuttle in front of two strangers who, upon discovering that they both worked for health and safety, spent the entire shuttle ride swapping horror stories about bizarre gory deaths they'd encountered on the job. And laughing about them! I suppose you have to cultivate a morbid sense of humor in that line of work to get through the day, but sheesh. I will never be able to scrub those images from my head, and one of them involved an exploding vat of molten lead. It was not pretty, people, even hearing about it thirdhand.

• Ohhh, the only thing about Clara's fantabulous costume that annoys me is that occasionally, the chains on either side of her circlet do not appear to be dangling symmetrically. Aaaaahhhhh!!!! Someone even them out! (It's times like this when I know that I do have at least a tiny little bit of OCD inside me.)

• Ooohh, what a clever line:

  Robin: "And remember, Doctor... I am just as real as you are."

• Hasn't anyone ever told Robin that one really shouldn't shoot arrows into the air willy-nilly? Oh well, I don't suppose there were very many people strolling through Sherwood Forest to be in harm's way.

The more I watch it, the more I appreciate this story's gentle charms. Honestly, that Androids of Tara comparison really helped, plus I have to admit that my initial reaction was influenced by some confusing editing that wasn't entirely the episode's fault, and my own hankering for more frightening stories, which I shouldn't take out on poor Robot of Sherwood, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even making those allowances, I have enough issues with the plot to keep it from rising to my toplist, but there's still plenty to cherish: the loveable characters, the amusing repartée, that sumptuous location filming, and that even more sumptuous dress. Seriously, I'll watch this again just for that dress. Did I mention I like the dress?