‘Doctor Who’ season 8, episode 3: BBC removes ‘Robot of Sherwood’ beheading scene

The BBC has chosen to err on the side of caution and of sensitivity when it comes to their upcoming episode of “Doctor Who” season 8 on Saturday.

The network confirmed today that due to some beheadings that have taken place in Iraq and Syria in the past week, which have become major headlines all around the world, a beheading sequence has been removed from this weekend’s episode “Robot of Sherwood,” penned by Mark Gatiss. A spokesperson said that the move was done out of respect for recent events.

We are certain that there will be some out there who bemoan this, and claim that the network jumped the gun a little bit on a move just for the sake of being politically correct. If this was a series with a different target audience, we may agree. However, many young children watch “Doctor Who,” and it is a show about imagination and ingenuity above all else. We also prefer that there are no beheadings included on the show in the first place, since they may be a distraction from everything else that the series does well (and it does so many things well).

In the end, we cannot imagine anyone being too horrendously upset by this news, mostly because you have not seen the episode, anyway. We have a hard time imagining that not seeing something on screen about this would be an enormous detraction from the rest of the story.

Just as you would expect, we will have some further coverage of this episode as we get a little bit closer to it airing. Stay tuned. Also, you can sign up today in the event you want some more news on everything we cover sent to your email, or click here to watch a video preview right now.

Photo: BBC