Doctor Who Robot Of Sherwood: 8 Continuity References You Might Have Missed
3. Richard The Lionheart
The Doctors spoon-on-sword duel with Robin Hood packs in a lot of very fast comedy moments. In the space of just over a minute we get an almost d*ck joke, the Doctor subtly flipping off Robin as he puts on his glove, and some trademark namedropping as the Doctor claims to have trained with Cyrano de Bergerac, Richard The Lionheart, and Errol Flynn. The challenge here is spot the odd one out. Because while the good Doctor has yet to meet Bergerac and Flynn (take notes, Moffat), he has encountered Richard The Lionheart. In the partly missing First Doctor story The Crusade (1965), the Tardis lands in Palestine in 1190 AD just as Richard The Lionheart is being attacked by a group of Saracen (a contemporary term for Muslim) warriors, and the Doctor and Ian end up helping to fight them off. We dont see the Doctor sparring with King Richard at any point during this story but he does have a tendency to both make friends with and tick off historical figures in equal measure so its more than likely that they crossed paths again at some point. The Doctor has also encountered Richards younger brother John shortly before the signing of the Magna Carta. Well, sort of. A shape-shifting robot imposter controlled by the Master still counts, right?
JG Moore is a writer and filmmaker from the south of England. He also works as an editor and VFX artist, and has a BA in Media Production from the University Of Winchester.
