Robot of Sherwood
Sep. 9th, 2014 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatI'm struggling to think of another Doctor Who story that is as knowingly silly as Robot of Sherwood. ed_rex compared it to The Pirate Planet which is probably about as close as Who has previously got to this kind of thing.
It was rather good once you bought into the ridiculousness of it all. Not-so-small child enjoyed it immensely, especially Clara putting both the Doctor and Robin Hood in their places (I suspect Clara is a major part of the show's sudden attraction for not-so-small child). In fact it was nice that the story chose to make neither the Doctor nor Robin Hood clearly superior to the other instead allowing them to face off on a more or less equal footing.
The set pieces were well done, particularly the mirrored fights between the Doctor and Robin on the log across the stream and later between Robin and the Sheriff on the beam above the boiling cauldron. A good deal of publicity (possibly more than was warranted) was given to the fact that a beheading scene was cut from the story for reasons of sensitivity and good taste. I assumed that the beheading was basically set dressing that could be lived without however,sir_guinglain linked to the missing footage on Facebook, and it turned out there was a plot point embedded in it and I was impressed that the cutting managed to excise it so easily. However, once I'd seen it, it did explain the Sheriff's words before he landed on the beam for the final fight.
Ben Miller was good as the Sheriff though, knowing how good he can be at put-upon sarcasm, my fannish heart sort of wanted him to have more "I am surrounded by fools" moments. In fact it was clear that all the actors were relishing the opportunity to ham up the swashing and buckling for all it was worth and one of the stories strengths was the conviction with which it delivered the staples of the genre. The fights on beams and logs; swinging down curtains; the villain leching after the heroine; the dive into the castle moat... In fact its quite impressive how many genre conventions were squeezed into 45 minutes while delivering a pretty coherent plot, and playing with the rivalry between the Doctor and Robin.
If I'm nitpicking it seemed a little inelegant to place so much emphasis on gold and then have robots that weren't cybermen. I also wasn't at all clear what was supposed to have happened to Marion since the final reveal was that she had presumably been living quite happily in the local village all the time until shortly before the Doctor arrived. I found Robin's laugh irritating, but then that was kind of the point.
There were a lot of funny lines. The story had the good sense not to belabour the comparisons between Doctor Who and Robin Hood making its point about myths and heroes at the end with a light touch. Doctor Who would be a very different show if it regularly had stories like this, but one of the joys of Doctor Who is that it can stretch to encompass all sorts of things every once in a while and this was definitely my favourite story of this season so far.
ed_rex compared it to The Pirate Planet which is probably about as close as Who has previously got to this kind of thing.It was rather good once you bought into the ridiculousness of it all. Not-so-small child enjoyed it immensely, especially Clara putting both the Doctor and Robin Hood in their places (I suspect Clara is a major part of the show's sudden attraction for not-so-small child). In fact it was nice that the story chose to make neither the Doctor nor Robin Hood clearly superior to the other instead allowing them to face off on a more or less equal footing.
The set pieces were well done, particularly the mirrored fights between the Doctor and Robin on the log across the stream and later between Robin and the Sheriff on the beam above the boiling cauldron. A good deal of publicity (possibly more than was warranted) was given to the fact that a beheading scene was cut from the story for reasons of sensitivity and good taste. I assumed that the beheading was basically set dressing that could be lived without however,
sir_guinglain linked to the missing footage on Facebook, and it turned out there was a plot point embedded in it and I was impressed that the cutting managed to excise it so easily. However, once I'd seen it, it did explain the Sheriff's words before he landed on the beam for the final fight.Ben Miller was good as the Sheriff though, knowing how good he can be at put-upon sarcasm, my fannish heart sort of wanted him to have more "I am surrounded by fools" moments. In fact it was clear that all the actors were relishing the opportunity to ham up the swashing and buckling for all it was worth and one of the stories strengths was the conviction with which it delivered the staples of the genre. The fights on beams and logs; swinging down curtains; the villain leching after the heroine; the dive into the castle moat... In fact its quite impressive how many genre conventions were squeezed into 45 minutes while delivering a pretty coherent plot, and playing with the rivalry between the Doctor and Robin.
If I'm nitpicking it seemed a little inelegant to place so much emphasis on gold and then have robots that weren't cybermen. I also wasn't at all clear what was supposed to have happened to Marion since the final reveal was that she had presumably been living quite happily in the local village all the time until shortly before the Doctor arrived. I found Robin's laugh irritating, but then that was kind of the point.
There were a lot of funny lines. The story had the good sense not to belabour the comparisons between Doctor Who and Robin Hood making its point about myths and heroes at the end with a light touch. Doctor Who would be a very different show if it regularly had stories like this, but one of the joys of Doctor Who is that it can stretch to encompass all sorts of things every once in a while and this was definitely my favourite story of this season so far.
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(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 09:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-10 10:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 05:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 06:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 05:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 06:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 06:20 pm (UTC)But my main problem was the presence of the science fiction elements at all. Hartnell era fan that I am, I thought this would have worked just as well - no, better - as a straight historical romp in the style of The Romans and The Smugglers, especially given Ben Miller's excellent performance. I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that we'll never get a pure historical on TV again, but this was so tantalisingly close that I got annoyed once the robots were revealed.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 06:35 pm (UTC)It is a shame about the pure historicals. The Randomizer currently has us viewing The Time Meddlar and I've been trying to figure out how surprising the sudden intrusion of watches and gramophones must have been into an apparently historical story.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 06:57 pm (UTC)I've been trying to figure out how surprising the sudden intrusion of watches and gramophones must have been into an apparently historical story.
Audience research at the time reported some viewers intrigued by them, but others baffled and critical. I think I wrote about it at length here.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 07:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 09:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 07:32 pm (UTC)Mind you, I have still to bond in any way with Capaldi's doctor or Clara, who seems to lack any personality.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 07:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-10 09:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-10 10:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 07:34 pm (UTC)with apologies to the owner of this journal, of whom the question was asked
Date: 2014-09-09 10:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-10 04:45 am (UTC)Re: with apologies to the owner of this journal, of whom the question was asked
Date: 2014-09-10 09:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-09 08:58 pm (UTC)Ben Miller looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself hamming it up. At the end of the episode I texted my friend and said something along the lines of, "I can't decide whether that was awesomely ridiculous, or ridiculously awesome!"
I think perhaps it was a little from column A, and a little from column B... :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-09-10 09:45 am (UTC)