The Sheriff of Nottingham and his army of Robot Knights fought Robin Hood and his Merry Men at an archery contest in England, 1190. The Twelfth Doctor and Clara arrived and discovered that the Sheriff was really a robot too and he was harvesting gold from the villagers to power his spaceship, hidden within his castle. With help from a golden arrow and Robin’s archery skills, the Doctor and Clara were able to defeat the Sheriff and his army of Robot Knights.

Robot of Sherwood

★★☆☆☆

TX: 06/09/2014

Written by Mark Gatiss    Directed by Paul Murphy

Clara Oswald asks the Twelfth Doctor to take her to see Robin Hood, even though he is fictional. The Doctor reluctantly obliges, although he is sceptical about the existence of Robin Hood. However, as soon as the TARDIS lands in Sherwood Forest in England, 1190, the pair immediately meet Robin Hood and the Doctor fights Robin with a spoon. The Doctor speculates that he and Clara are trapped inside a miniscope (Carnival of Monsters). Robin introduces the Doctor and Clara to his Merry Men in Sherwood Forest and they tell the Doctor that they are about to compete in an archery contest hosted by the Sheriff of Nottingham, with the prize being the golden arrow. However, during the contest, the Doctor enters and uses a special arrow with a homing device to cheat and win the competition. But the Doctor discovers that the Sheriff’s knights are secretly robots in disguise. The Robot Knights begin killing people in the crowd and the Merry Men flee. The Doctor uses Venusian aikido to knock Robin’s sword out of his hand and they surrender (Inferno, The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos, Colony in Space, Day of the Daleks, The Sea Devils, The Mutants, The Green Death, The Time Warrior, Death to the Daleks, World Enough and Time, The Ghost Monument). The Sheriff captures the Doctor, Clara and Robin. Clara is taken for interrogation by the Sheriff while the Doctor and Robin escape. Clara is very pretty and Jenna Coleman looks like a snack in this episode! The Sheriff has been harvesting gold from the peasants (including Maid Marian) in order to power his spaceship. The Doctor discovers that the Sheriff’s castle is really a spaceship in disguise and that they are also searching for the Promised Land (Deep Breath). The Sheriff and his knights arrive and they capture the Doctor, but Robin and Clara escape. Back in Sherwood Forest, Clara, Robin and the Merry Men plan an attack on the Sheriff’s castle. The Doctor and the other prisoners (including Maid Marian) manage to escape capture in the Sheriff’s castle and they use plates to reflect the Robot Knights’ laser bolts. The Doctor confronts the Sheriff who reveals that Robin is not a robot and was not part of their plan. The very real Robin and Clara show up and Robin fights the Sheriff in a sword fight. During the fight, the Sheriff reveals that he is a robot and Robin pushes him into a vat of molten gold which destroys him. The Doctor, Clara and Robin escape before the castle falls apart and the Robot Knights’ spaceship takes off. Robin uses the golden arrow to hit the ship and overload its engines so that it explodes once it enters the atmosphere. Robin says goodbye to Clara and the Doctor, but the Doctor leaves behind a present for Robin – Maid Marian. The Five Who Fans were at their peak during the Peter Capaldi era of Doctor Who.