BWW Recap: Robin Hood to the Rescue in This Week's DOCTOR WHO

On this week's episode of DOCTOR WHO we have more robots, gold powered ships, and Robin Hood! Don't continue reading, however, if you have yet to watch "Robot of Sherwood," because there are major SPOILERS below.

The episode begins in the TARDIS with The Doctor asking Clara to choose where to go next. Clara says the one person she's always wanted to meet was Robin Hood. Of course, The Doctor responds with a quip about him not being real. After some pushing, Clara gets him to set the destination for the "Sherwood Forest 1190AD-ish." They arrive, and just when The Doctor is about to make a comment about how he was right, an arrow is shot at the TARDIS, and a man, exclaims, "You called for me?"

Robin Hood compliments The Doctor on his "magic box" and then threatens to take it from him. Robin draws a sword and when he tells The Doctor to draw his, he responds, "I don't need a sword, because I am The Doctor, and this is my spoon!" Not surprisingly, The Doctor proceeds to beat Robin Hood with only the spoon. We then cut to a village where a young woman is chained up and taken prisoner by The Sheriff.

We head back to Robin Hood and Clara and The Doctor, and Robin is introducing them to his friends. The Doctor is still unconvinced that the people are real, and takes things like hair and blood samples to see it they are. He believes the only explanation is that they are at a "theme park from the future" or that they're inside a "miniscope." Clara asks Robin why he looks so sad, and he tells her that he lost the thing most dear to him, Marian. The Doctor proceeds to point out that the Forest looks too sunny and green for Nottingham. Clara asks him when he stopped believing in everything, to which he rebuts, "when did you start believing in impossible heroes?" and she answers his question indirectly by saying, "Don't you know?" (When she met him).

We transition to the archery contest that Robin Hood spoke about, the contest that is a trap. The two finalists are Robin Hood, under an assumed name, and the Sheriff. Robin wins the contest, but then The Doctor splits Robin's arrow to become the winner himself. Robin refuses to take the loss and splits The Doctor's arrow. The two of them then start on a silly competition to see who is really the winner, but The Doctor gets impatient and blows up the target with the sonic screwdriver. The Sheriff tells his men to take The Doctor, to which Clara and Robin come to protect him. Robin cuts off the arm of one of the Sheriff's men, and what falls off is revealed to be a robot arm! The Sheriff tells his robots to "take them and kill the rest." The Doctor purposely surrenders because he says, "The quickest way to find out anybody's plans, get yourself captured."

We then are reunited with the young woman from before. She tries to help an old man, but the robots kill because his "usefulness expired." We cut back to the three of them in the dungeon. Robin and The Doctor are bickering with each other until Clara yells at them to shut up. Clara asks "The King of Thieves" and "The Last of the Time Lords" if they have plans, which of course they don't. A guard comes in and says he is to take the lead to The Sheriff, and while The Doctor and Robin are fighting over who is the real leader, the guard takes Clara, who we all know is actually in charge.

Meanwhile, Robin's men are planning to rescue him. One of the men points out how odd it is that when The Sheriff is looting he only ever takes gold, no other precious items. We then see the robots and their slaves melting the gold down and pouring it into a mold that looks like a circuit board.

The Sheriff asks Clara about The Doctor's screwdriver and asks her if they are from "beyond the stars" Back in the dungeon, Robin starts moaning in order to get the attention of the guard, and when the guard comes in and comes close enough, Robin knocks the guard out, but they knock his keys into the sewer after fighting over them. Kids, I tell you.

Clara tries to coax The Sheriff's story out of him, and using her wits, she gets him to tell her. He tells her that a sky-ship came to Earth and the "mechanical men" followed his direction. He then asks Clara for her story, and she tells him she's lying.

The Doctor and Robin break out and find the spaceship. He finds out the ship was headed to "The Promised Land." (Doesn't that sound familiar, a la our restaurant robots from episode one). The Doctor notices the ship is leaking radiation and also that the ships memory bank has all fairytales in it, including Robin Hood. The Doctor accuses Robin of being a robot, but at that same moment The Sheriff comes in to get them, but Robin, taking Clara, jumps out the window into the water to survive. The Doctor realizes The Sheriff and his mechanicals are using the gold to make a matrix to repair the engine's circuitry. The Doctor tells them there is too much damage to the ship and that it is going to end up being a giant bomb. A robot knocks The Doctor out and when he wakes up he is in chains next to the young woman. The Doctor tells her that they need to stop the Sheriff. He tells her to spread that word that the gold will deflect the robot's laser beams, and to start a riot. They destroy all the robots and the peasants escape. The young woman kisses The Doctor on the cheek before she goes, which causes The Doctor to linger for a moment, an odd moment for The Doctor. The Sheriff tells The Doctor that Robin isn't a robot, and at that moment Robin and Clara come to save the day. Robin and The Sheriff fight and Robin is disarmed, but taking a move from the Doctor, he tricks The Sheriff and The Sheriff falls into the vat of gold. The ship is about to blow and The Doctor takes the golden arrow, and after we find out he cheated in the archery contest before, he, Clara and Robin to shoot at the ship. The arrow is enough gold to get it into the atmosphere before it explodes.

Before they go, Clara and The Doctor say goodbye to Robin Hood and his men. Clara tells Robin not to give up on Marian. Robin then asks the Doctor if it's true that he's forgotten as a real man in the future, and when The Doctor says he's still having trouble believing Robin is real, Robin points out the similarities in his and The Doctor's stories. Robin leaves The Doctor with a bit of wisdom, that even if they both aren't heroes, if they pretend to be, others might be heroes in their names. The TARDIS disappears and in his place is the young woman, who we find out to be Marian. Robin's happy ending comes at last!

This week's episode was very entertaining, but had little to give for overall season plot. The only tidbit we got was that the ship's destination was "The Promised Land," like the robot ship from the first episode. Except this time when The Sheriff falling to his death he wasn't saved by Missy like characters from the past two episodes. There are a lot of unknowns surrounding what seems to be our main focus for this season.

This episode, Peter Capaldi really comes into his own as The Doctor. From wielding a spoon as a weapon to using a homing device to shoot a bow and arrow and getting into arguments with almost everyone, the 12th Doctor is becoming quite funny and also a very fiesty. I enjoy his "take no BS" attitude towards everything, as well.

Leave your comments below about what you thought of this week's episode, and don't forget to check back next Saturday for another recap from yours truly!

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