Doctor Who: All Of Series 8 And Last Christmas Ranked

11. Robot Of Sherwood

First off, there's nothing wrong with having a comedy story in Doctor Who. The jokes in this episode were even funny, as might be expected when Mark Gatiss is the writer. Especially noteworthy was the Doctor's battle with Robin Hood for which the time traveller was armed with only a spoon. The guest cast was also good, with the Sheriff of Nottingham being suitably despicable. The reason why this adventure languishes near the bottom of the rankings is not the jokes but rather the plot. Robots trapped on Earth? OK. Robots make a pact with a local bigwig to get what they need? Fine. Robots need gold to make circuits that will repair their ship? Hmm, that's a little too much like The Fires of Pompeii, but whatever. The Doctor has an unconvincing fight with the robots for which he uses a mirror to deflect their fire? No, that's just awful. The Doctor shows he's a good man by warning the robots their plan won't work? Sure. The heroes must get extra power to the ship so it doesn't explode so close to the Earth? Well, OK. So, they fire a gold arrow at the robot's ship... Sorry, at that point the audience winces and collectively points out, "Even if the arrow could hit the ship at that range, just bouncing the tip off the hull wouldn't achieve anything". Having jokes be the main point of a story is perfectly acceptable. What's not acceptable is failing to polish the actual plot the jokes are attached to.