Inspirations: Robot of Sherwood

The clue is in the title. There have been many, many adaptations of the Robin Hood story - either on the big screen or the small. 

According to Wikipedia, there are some 20 movies, not counting early silent shorts, and 10 TV series.

One of the best of the small screen versions was the HTV series Robin of Sherwood, which debuted in 1984. The first series starred Michael Praed as Robin. He was lured to Hollywood to appear in Dynasty and his character actually killed off, so a second Wolfshead was introduced for Series 2, played by Jason Connery. He played a different person altogether, named Robert rather than Robin, but the role was the same.

The mystical Herne the Hunter (John Abineri) was a significant character in the series, and early drafts of this Doctor Who story included him. We should also note that Season 22 of Doctor Who suffered badly against Robin of Sherwood.

The most famous screen version - and the one which influenced the writer the most - is undoubtedly 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn in the title role and with Basil Rathbone as the wicked Guy of Gisbourne, but other popular iterations include the 1955 TV series starring Richard Greene (in which The Daleks' Alan Wheatley played the Sheriff of Nottingham), BBC adaptations in 1975 and 2006, and more recent cinema outings starring Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe and Taron Egerton. Disney delivered an anthropomorphic animated version in 1973, with Robin as a fox, and Mel Brooks made his spoof version (Robin Hood: Men In Tights) in 1993 - as much a spoof of the Costner movie specifically as of the old legend.

In addition to films and series specifically about Robin, the character has also popped up in other guises, in other series, including an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The earliest British TV series about the outlaw of Sherwood Forest was another BBC adaptation. On screens in 1953, it starred future Second Doctor Patrick Troughton as Robin.

This, and the Errol Flynn iteration, can be seen in this Doctor Who episode when the Doctor accesses the robots' database.

Thanks to these many versions, a number of plot elements have become standardised across the majority of them - and some of these make it into Mark Gatiss' script. He has basically made this a bit of a Robin Hood Greatest Hits. A fight on a narrow bridge over a stream is usually between Robin and Little John, when they first meet each other. The Sheriff hosting an archery contest which Robin enters incognito is another staple of the legend.

The episode was going to end with the arrival of King Richard I. Sean Connery, who had played an older Robin in 1976's Robin and Marian, had a famous cameo as Richard in the Kevin Costner film.

Gatiss intended his episode as a more "frivolous" episode from the start, though not necessarily an outright comedy.

Robot of Sherwood sees Clara wishing to meet Robin, believing him to have been a real character, or at least based on an historical figure who held his same values of fighting oppression and robbing the rich to give to the poor. The Doctor, however, dismisses him as an entirely fictional character.

Robin does first appear in literature in the 1370's, featuring in the poem Piers Plowman, and an early 15th Century proverb mentions him in a way that suggests he was already a well-known figure in popular folklore.

The Doctor persists with his belief that Robin is not real, even after encountering him - Robin firing an arrow into the TARDIS. We previously saw an arrow embedded in the Police Box in Silver Nemesis and at the conclusion to The Shakespeare Code. This leads into the fight above the stream which is usually reserved for Little John in most versions.

The Doctor later believes the Merry Men to be androids or Auton replicas, and that this is all part of an amusement park - or they are trapped inside a Miniscope, as in Carnival of Monsters.

Only later does he find out that there are indeed robots about, but it's the villains who aren't all they seem.

The ending was changed significantly very late in the day due to current affairs. A pair of British hostages had been beheaded by the ISIS group shortly before broadcast and it was felt that it would be wrong to show a similar fate happening to the Sheriff, perhaps upsetting to relatives. The Sheriff was to have been shown having his head cut off by Robin - only to reveal that he was also a robot, but instead we simply get him falling into a vat of molten gold.

The script was one of three leaked prior to broadcast, as was a rough B&W copy which contained the deleted scenes.

The idea of including Robin Hood in Doctor Who goes right back to Season 16, as an abandoned Key to Time storyline by Ted Lewis ("The Shield of Zarak") might have seen the Doctor encounter Robin, only to discover that he was the exact opposite to his legend.

Next time: Listen up...