Doctor Who: Series 8 Episode 3 "Robot of Sherwood" (REVIEW)

written by Justin Prince (@prince_justin)

Another episode of Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor with another adventure into the past. This time, at the request of Clara, the Doctor and his companion take a jaunt to the past, all for the sake of meeting Robin Hood.

The episode turned out to be a bit of a love/hate thing. I wasn't a fan of the entire setting and the comedy surrounding the Doctor constantly questioning the validity of Robin Hood being real got old fairly fast. What I loved about the episode sat solely on Jenna Coleman's Clara. While "Into the Dalek" showed a bit more of her influence over the Doctor, this episode more than solidified how much the Doctor values Clara's opinion of him.

Clara was my driving force for the entire episode, and with the revelation of a sci-fi/intergalactic element (not a spoiler, the episode title did have "robot" in it) the Who-like element was in full play. I can't say this has been my favorite episode this season so far, but having to follow an episode featuring the iconic Daleks can't be easy. It wasn't bad, but felt that rather than continuing with the flow of the episodes thus far... it fizzled a bit in my eyes.

The mention of The Promised Land was thrown in again, further solidifying that whatever this Promised Land is and whoever that mysterious woman was in the previous two episodes will factor heavily into the plot of the entire season.

Not going to mention whether Robin Hood was real or fake, but the way they resolved it felt a bit like a cop-out. I cant fathom what else they could have done, and maybe this was the best they could do when introducing a legendary literary figure... but this third episode of the current series felt more or less "meh" to me... hopefully they can pick up the pace come next episode.