Doctor Who IV - Everything Whovian - Would you like a jelly baby?

[saul_on_the_road_to_damascus]

Ben Miller definitely looked like a cross between The Master and Simon Callow as Charles Dickens in "The Unquiet Dead".

Thats who he reminded me of.

[Crimson Knight]

Reaching. He just looks like the Sheriff of Nottingham.

I really don't think he looks like most of the Sheriffs you've posted, especially not the last one, with so little hair and all. But the second, for sure.

I don't think they're reaching when they said they think he looks like a former Master actor, just that, when posted together, they sort of do.

Unless you mean thinking he is the Master, perhaps, which they never said.

[Kyer]

Robots of Sherwood:

Con: seemed to run a bit long.
Pros: The Doctor was funny. The Sheriff reminded me of the classic, charismatic Master. Robin reminded me of Jack Harkness (especially Jack bantering with Nine.) Patrick Troughton! Although I doubt that was quite what Tom Baker The Curator meant about revisiting 'old faces'. Shadows of Pompeii alien stone computer circuits. The Promised Land. Please tell me the spoon was Seven's.

If only that lady in Into The Dalek hadn't ended up in 'heaven'. She wasn't a cyborg was she? Otherwise The Promised Land seemed to be about cyborgs. Unless she was a cyborg tech?

Did they explain why Sherwood forest was not as heavily wooded as it should have been?

[Jim Kelly]

If only that lady in Into The Dalek hadn't ended up in 'heaven'. She wasn't a cyborg was she? Otherwise The Promised Land seemed to be about cyborgs. Unless she was a cyborg tech?

Gretchen was nano-sized inside the cerebral circuitry of a Dalek at the time of her death. Seems cyborg-ish to me.

I wonder if we'll ever see Kamelion again?

The only thing that I found long about this episode was all the bantering when they were captured, since they weren't doing much but talking. However, I enjoyed that a lot, so I'm not complaining.

I gather the reason the ending seemed rushed--and thus why I was a bit unclear on just what the Sheriff was supposed to be (all robot, robot/human, all human)--is that they edited it. The Sheriff's head was supposed to be cut off, thus exposing his true nature as a robot. But this was edited out for obvious reasons given the current world situation.

[Cyke]

Anyway, I finally got around to watching it, and I have to say, I enjoyed it more than the previous two episodes -- the premiere was okay but I was bored with Into the Dalek. I realize that I might be in the minority about it, and even AV Club disagrees with me, but that's okay.

Finally, we get the Malcolm Tucker-style witty comebacks and reparte (sans the swearing, of course), but it took a rival to get that out of Twelve. Also, the actor who played the Sheriff could easily play Anthony Ainsley if there was ever a behind-the-scenes movie about his run on the show (he just needs to talk as if he bit his tongue and is trying his best to talk without touching the wound).

Kinda gruesome to show the Sheriff's hands coming out of the gold vat, but the original cut had decapitations, so I guess it counts.

I don't doubt that Robin Hood made that nearly-impossible shot with the golden arrow, but the idea that the itty-bitty arrow simply touching the ship was enough to push it to the max was hard to stomach, especially since the arrow compensated for, what, 18% efficiency, compared to those vats and vats of gold. If that's all it took, there'd be no need to mold it, or even melt it.

Another thing that really took me out of the episode was that, when the TARDIS disappeared, Marian didn't give it a second thought. Hell, Robin Hood at least had a few questions about it when it appeared in front of him, but Marian ran straight to Robin because it made for better TV. Even if the Doctor and Clara explained the TARDIS to her, it's not fair for the viewer to try to rationalize it on behalf of the writer, because then they're doing the writer's work for them.

However, all in all I enjoyed the episode. Yes, I want a darker Doctor, but this kind of lighthearted adventure is always a nice respite.

Interestingly, AV Club points out that this is the first "historical" episode since Vincent Van Gogh four years ago, which is a bit jarring to think about since RTD had at least one per season. And while I'm generally not the biggest fan of these types of episodes, they tend to do a good job of showing legend vs. "reality" (at least as far as fiction goes), in that what we learn in schoolbooks tends to be very different from the real person.

[Spike-X]

I don't doubt that Robin Hood made that nearly-impossible shot with the golden arrow, but the idea that the itty-bitty arrow simply touching the ship was enough to push it to the max was hard to stomach, especially since the arrow compensated for, what, 18% efficiency, compared to those vats and vats of gold. If that's all it took, there'd be no need to mold it, or even melt it.

That was absolutely freakin' ridiculous.

[Jim Kelly]

The golden arrow didn't make sense, but I took it as one of those impossible things that's possible in the world of DOCTOR WHO.

I have no idea how the gold works for the robot ship, so the same pseudo-science might explain why the golden arrow worked. I would imagine that most of the gold objects they had in the 12th century were not pure gold--perhaps 14 K. The Sheriff said there was something special about the arrow when it was presented to Robin Hood--so it could be 24 K or even impossibly 48 K. Maybe there's something about its ionization energy that lends enough energy of force to propel the ship out of our atmosphere.

The golden arrow also reminded me of the silver arrow in "Silver Nemesis"--so maybe it has some mystical properties.

[Lexrules]

Awesome first 3 episodes of Capaldi Doctor. Peter is doing a wonderful job making the Doctor his own and Jenna Coleman is really excelling with him. I hope she signs on for another season as she really is coming into her own now.

[Enigmatic Undead]

Does anyone think we'll see Rusty (and possibly Journey Blue) again? Unlike Metaltron, Dalek Sec and the human-Dalek hybrids Rusty actually survived at the end.

[Jim Kelly]

Does anyone think we'll see Rusty (and possibly Journey Blue) again? Unlike Metaltron, Dalek Sec and the human-Dalek hybrids Rusty actually survived at the end.

I can see it now--Rusty, Kamelion and Handles--sharing a bedsit in Torquay.

[Cyke]

The golden arrow didn't make sense, but I took it as one of those impossible things that's possible in the world of DOCTOR WHO.

I have no idea how the gold works for the robot ship, so the same pseudo-science might explain why the golden arrow worked. I would imagine that most of the gold objects they had in the 12th century were not pure gold--perhaps 14 K. The Sheriff said there was something special about the arrow when it was presented to Robin Hood--so it could be 24 K or even impossibly 48 K. Maybe there's something about its ionization energy that lends enough energy of force to propel the ship out of our atmosphere.

The golden arrow also reminded me of the silver arrow in "Silver Nemesis"--so maybe it has some mystical properties.

The franchise is drowning in pseudo-science, so that's about on par, but there was nothing in the episode to hint at any sort of mystical work at play (other than perhaps the Promised Land, but we don't know its true nature just yet). But it's interesting to note that the last time the TARDIS was shot with an arrow, it was in an episode about magic that was eventually quantified by science. So rather than handwaving it (ironic), the writers fully embraced magic and went to great lenghts to give it a science-y explanation.

Awesome first 3 episodes of Capaldi Doctor. Peter is doing a wonderful job making the Doctor his own and Jenna Coleman is really excelling with him. I hope she signs on for another season as she really is coming into her own now.

I quite liked Matt Smith as Eleven, but Coleman is doing better with Capaldi than Smith imo; and in the past, I found her really bland and boring and too dependent on the Doctor, but now she's showing a greater deal of wit, inquisitiveness, and bravery. She's one of the sharper of the nuWho companions and she's starting to step up to the plate more. Unfortunately, it was announced that she'll be leaving after this year's Christmas special.

[Carabas]

Incidentally, a spaceship that scans the surroundings and disguises itself to blend in... Not the first hint there's TARDISey tech in the Promised Land.

[Cyke]

Incidentally, a spaceship that scans the surroundings and disguises itself to blend in... Not the first hint there's TARDISey tech in the Promised Land.

Oooh, great point. This is probably coincidence as well, but the Doctor stating that the ship would blow up half the country (even though the explosion ended up not being nearly as big) reminded me of Time Crash, when the TARDIS was on the verge of creating an explosion the size of Belgium, disappointingly. BUT ANYWAY, a ship exploding and destroying a nation sounds TARDISey to me, too.*

*and yes, I'm aware that other ships on the show have threatened to blow up countries too, but if the Doctor says the TARDIS can do it, then it's TARDISey.

[Carabas]

Something else... Those robots had laser-crucifixes.
Between that and Heaven. The Promised Land, and Missy who goes by 'Gatekeeper Of The Nether Realm', which is a religious title if I ever heard one, and saves (if that's what she did) that doomed soldier in visually exactly the same way the Doctor saved Journey.

I smell Church Of the Papal Mainframe, AKA Church Of The Silence, who we known do have pseudo-TARDIS technology.

[Cyke]

Something else... Those robots had laser-crucifixes.
Between that and Heaven. The Promised Land, and Missy who goes by 'Gatekeeper Of The Nether Realm', which is a religious title if I ever heard one, and saves (if that's what she did) that doomed soldier in visually exactly the same way the Doctor saved Journey.

I smell Church Of the Papal Mainframe, AKA Church Of The Silence, who we known do have pseudo-TARDIS technology.

Your theory went from awesome to ugh real quickly (that is, I admire the work you put into it, it's just that I'll be disappointed if Moffat uses the Silence again. Don't they need a break? Though, it *was* cool when it turned out that they needed the Doctor's help to fight off the Daleks, showing that sometimes the new Big Bads give way to the classics).