The Legend of Robin Hood is Real as The Sheriff Has Sinister Plans: ROBOT OF SHERWOOD

The Doctor takes Clara to meet Robin Hood when they discover the Sheriff of Nottingham rules the land with an army knights.

Cast

Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Jenna Coleman (Clara), Tom Riley (Robin Hood), Roger Ashton-Griffiths (Quayle)

Sabrina Bartlett (Quayle's Ward), Ben Miller (The Sheriff of Nottingham), Ian Hallard (Alan-a-Dale)

Trevor Cooper (Friar Tuck), Rusty Goffe (Little John), Joseph Kennedy (Will Scarlett), Adam Jones (Walter)

David Benson (Herald), David Langham (Guard), Tim Baggaley (Knight), Richard Elfyn (Voice of the Knights)

UNCREDITED CAST: Steve Coussens, Kai Murphy, Philip Bailey, Andrew Sweet, Thomas Taylor (Knights)

Dale Henry, Joseph Tellett (Sheriff's Human Guards), Matthew Dale (Little John's Big Guy)

Richard Allen, Robert Arthur, Simon Challis, Jeremy Harvey (Archers)

John Morgan, Steve Chaloner, Mustapha Khassouani, Stephen Heburn, Maurice Spring, Courtney Taylor

Alan Goodliffe, John Britton, Moraine Ferguson, Howard Howell (Male Peasants), Volent Lloyd, Shyama Norton

Sarah Mairwen Blyth, Leena Mooneeram, Yvonne Gordon, Lynn Thomas, Jo Colwill, Sorrell Golding

Beverley Frater, Rebecca Donovan-Morgan (Female Peasants)

a full list of the uncredited cast members (this is just a snippet) can be found in various books, magazine and internet databases

Broadcast

EPISODE	DATE	TIME	VIEWING FIGURE	CHART POSITION	APPRECIATION INDEX
1	06/09/2014	7:30-8:20pm	7.28M	10th	82

Connections in the Who-Niverse

Trevor Cooper was previously in classic Doctor Who, where he played Takis in Revelation of the Daleks. Tim Baggaley was the Headless Cybermen for The Pandorica Opens.

Uncredited Simon Challis can be seen in the backgrounds of many Doctor Who episodes: The Idiot's Lantern, Daleks in Manhattan, Human Nature/The Family of Blood, The Next Doctor, The Day of the Doctor and Deep Breath. Extra Jeremy Harvey appeared in dozens of episodes and has played many monsters: Ood/Natural

Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. They think they look so cool

for Planet of the Ood, the Orange Dalek for Victory of the Daleks, a Weevil for The Pandorica Opens, another Dalek for Asylum of the Daleks, and a Chamber Droid for Deep Breath; other background appearances came with: New Earth, Forest of the Dead, A Good Man Goes to War, The Bells of Saint John and The Woman Who Lived, plus others. Uncredited Howard Howell can be seen as a supporting artiste in: The Power of Three, The Bells of Saint John, The Rings of Akhaten, The Time of the Doctor, Deep Breath and Death in Heaven

Death the Constant Companion

Quayle is murdered by the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Sheriff of Nottingham falls into a vat of molten gold, and is presumably boiled alive, or perhaps he drowns. Walter is blasted by a robot Knight and is reduced to a pile of smoldering ash. The Herald is killed by one of the robot Knights. The Robot Knights (do robots have souls) are all destroyed when their spaceship explodes above Earth's orbit

Fun Facts

(1) The archer tourement was partially inspired by ballads: A Gest of Robyn Hode and Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow; (2) It seems an early idea saw the Headless Monks work with Robin Hood, The Doctor and Clara would have convinced Robin Hood and his Merry Men to fight against them; (3) An episode featuring Robin Hood was

The Doctor is not impressed some has been using the TARDIS as target practice. Again -

originally slated in for Season 16. It would have been written by Ted Lewis and was called 'Shield of Zarak;' (4) One character who was dropped from the storyline was the antlered Hunter. The Hunter was going to be the interface of the crashed spaceship who was disfigured in the crash; he was eventually dropped from the episode; (5) Originally Quayle was a female, who didn't have a Ward, and Robin Hood was going to be gay and in a relationship with a man; (6) The Sheriff originally meet his end by being beheaded and falling into the spaceship engines. It was rewritten where he fell into a pool of liquid pool

Recording Days

Robots showing off the latest fashions in 12th Century Nottingham. A little out of place perhaps

Robot of Sherwood was recorded as part of block three for series 8 alongside The Caretaker. Production lasted 17 days between Tuesday 25 March - Wednesday 11 June 2014. The production team used many locations to recreate twelfth-century Nottingham. A single day of recording was carried out at the Cosmeston Lakes Medieval Village (on Tuesday 8 April), followed by two days at Fforest Fawr Woods(Monday 14 - Tuesday 15 April), and then three days at Caerphilly Castle (Wednesday 16 - Friday 18 April). The team spend may days at BBC Roath Lock Studios - Studios 2,3 and 4 were used for all studio sessions. Two more location days occurred late in the production schedule: Pont Melin-fach (Friday 2 - Saturday 3 May). The team spent nine days in the studios in total: Tuesday 25 - Wednesday 26 March, Saturday 19 April, Monday 28 April - Thursday 1 May and Tuesday 10 - Wednesday 11 June.

Verdict

The Doctor shows off in everything he does because he does not like to think there is someone cooler than him in the Universe. Everything feels very rushed with horribly pushed clichés, over the top acting filled with shouting and moaning and distasteful death scenes. The whole affair seems to be in the wrong order, with scenes which are just plain stupid. The supporting cast are mixed with some of the worst acting seen in a long time, from Ian Hallard’s awful singing and prancing around the place with little sense of the character he is playing. Gorgeous filming locations and production design are evident, but a few little more aesthetic details would have finished them off. The danger is all expositional and nothing visually happens to explain what is happening and the resolution is also very expositional. Enjoyable at least but not brilliant. ***​