‘Doctor Who’ season 8, episode 3 review: Mark Gatiss makes ‘Robot of Sherwood’ magic

“Doctor Who” has already delivered a classic three episodes into this season, and it is one that combines almost everything we love about the show. It starts with the time travel, and the simple premise that Twelve wanted to travel back to the 1100s just to prove to Clara that Robin Hood did not actually exist.

First of all, “Robot of Sherwood” was just a fun idea from the start. “Sherlock” co-creator Mark Gatiss came over to pen this story about time travel, Robin Hood, and so much more.

From here, every element of the episode was an unexpected twist. Sherwood Forest was terrorized by a Sheriff of Nottingham who was not in the slightest what he claimed to be. He was a shrewd man with a robot army bent on domination, and also someone who The Doctor suspected of creating Robin … mostly because he refused to acknowledge that the man was actually real.

Sure, the story was a little out of left field, and we could sit here and nit-pick the historical accuracy of it all even beyond the robots. That’s not exactly the point, though, is it? The real charm of this story is more how The Doctor managed to save the past, and preserve Nottingham, but taking out a villain in an unexpected place. It was strictly a fun episode. It didn’t pull our emotional heartstrings in the way that some episodes in seasons 6 and 7 did, but we don’t really mind that so much when we enjoy how we get from Point A to Point B. We watch this show sometimes for the whimsy, and tonight, we felt like we were a part of the adventure. Grade: A-.

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Photo: BBC