Doctor Who and Robin Hood

[watervole]

 I don't think this consitutes spoilers...

I loved it to pieces and was laughing far  too much of the time.

Errol Flynn's incarnation of Robin Hood (with a slight touch of Dread Pirate Roberts), and a Sheriff of Nottingham that surely owed something to Alan Rickman.

Lots of great banter -and I loved the Doctor's horrified reaction to it. 

And the dialogue and competition between the doctor and Robin!  Yay!

And the arrow...  Oh Lord, that archery competition.  I have no idea how it was supposed to have happened, but it was very, very funny.

As someone who is actually interested in the history of Robin Hood, I can tell you it wasn't historically accurate, but I DON'T CARE.  It was FUN!

Comments

[lexin]

This was pretty much my view, too. I wasn't at all bothered by the historical accuracy of lack of it, I was having a good giggle.

[matgb]

Gatiss had clearly watched Robin of Sherwood more than once with some of th enods, but also nods to so many other portrayals was rather good.

But yeah, clearly innacurate, not a Yorkshire accent in sight. (I would love to see a new version of the story with decent production standards but attempting some sort of historical versimilitude, even if not actually "accurate" for obvious reasons. Set in the forests of the north, naturally, not centred around Nottingham)

[inamac]

I think there's a very fine line between 'fun' and 'silly' and for me this fell on the 'silly' side (it was the spoon/sword fight that did it). I've never liked slapstick humour - though I know it's very popular. This was the New Who episode that finally had me switching off. I've just bought the first series of Game of Thrones on DVD and may watch that on Saturday evenings (I suspect that it will not have much slapstick humour in it).

[selenay]

I loved this. It hit exactly the right level of silly for me :-D

The archery comp thoroughly charmed me. I've witnessed accidental Robin Hoodings (although never multiple arrow splittings - heh), so I was just giggling away happily during that. And the spoon fight was just fantastic.

[watervole]

It all depends on which ballads/stories you take from which period. I know the earliest ones are from Yorkshire, but the later ones aren't.

And, of course, different characters were added in at different periods.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I thought the Sheriff portrayal was more Basil Rathbone than Alan Rickman. Also, as others have pointed out, Ben Miller would make a good Master.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Yes, I loved it too. Very Errol Flynn and all the Robin Hood tropes included. In fact, could they have squeezed any more of them in there? The sheriff possibly owed more to Nicholas Grace than Alan Rickman, but then Alan Rickman's sheriff was clearly influenced by Nicholas Grace as well. (Don't get me started on how much the Costner Robin Hood owes to Robin of Sherwood - from locations and horsemaster to the Saracen!)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes... Ben Miller as the Master. Perfect!

[xenaclone.livejournal.com]

From my friend in Nottingham, "We would have loved to have room in the city for a proper medieval castle and moat!"

Handwaved in that it's a spaceship in disguise :-)

[eledonecirrhosa.livejournal.com]

Oh yes it was marvellous. The previous two episodes were 'meh' to me (nice touches now and then but the stories were pants), but this was lovely.

I loved the Sheriff's list of places he wanted to conquer.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Drat. I envy you all - not available here. Will look for it on Youtube...