Robot of Sherwood Review

The Promised Land and the Gatekeeper definitely seem to be the story arc for this season. How many more mentions there are going to be throughout the season, I don't know. I am curious as to how this is all going to tie back into the search for Gallifrey. There really isn't enough information to form a hypothesis on that yet, but I'll try to figure something out after the season is over in my Doctor Who Future Continuity post. Maybe Gallifrey is the Promised Land...

The gold circuitry in this episode seems awfully similar to the stone circuits seen in The Fires of Pompeii. Both circuits were made of a solid material and were going to be used to repair a damaged space craft. Both craft were piloted by non-organic beings (in the former case, stone and in this case, robots). Not only that, but both episodes featured Peter Capaldi. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a connection. The only problem is that the story of the Pyroviles and Pyrovillia was already properly explained.

Clara seems to have gotten quite adept at managing villains. This marks the second time this season that she's managed to manipulate the bad guy into giving up information. The first time, she did it by calling his bluff and this time, she pretended to already know it. I'm really looking forward to how she'll face off against the Gatekeeper in the finale.

Throughout the filming of this episode, I kept hearing that it starred Robin Hood and his Merry Men. I refused to believe that could actually be possible, since Robin Hood isn't a real person. It also didn't help that I failed to realize that Nottingham is actually a real place. I guess the concept of mythologized history explains the what happened. In case you're not familiar with the concept, a historical tale is told and retold and somewhere along the line, someone fails to realize that it actually happened. They think it was just a story that was being told and retell it as such.

Also, what was holding Clara's headpiece up? That little piece of forehead jewelry seemed to be supporting its own weight. It must have been considerably heavy (assuming it's solid metal), yet there is clearly slack in the chain to either side. That slack indicates that it is holding the chain up, rather than the other way around. The only explanation I can come up with is that she stuck it there with double-sided tape.