Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/Robot of Sherwood

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This page is for discussing the ways in which Robot of Sherwood doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

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• why does Robin Hood have a locket containing a photo of Marion if they didn’t exist in 1190AD and neither did photographs?

There's actually very little historical information on when exactly the locket, and using one to store a memento of a dead or missing loved one, was first developed, so it seems a little presumptuous to confidently assert that they "didn't exist" at the time of the story (there are examples of lockets in Britain dating back to at least the 1300s, so placing one a few centuries earlier isn't exactly a huge anachronism in the scheme of things). As for the "photograph", this is more likely a production limitation or error; it was presumably supposed to be a painting of Marion (portraits were often used for lockets before the development of the photograph), but the production presumably lacked the budget or time to commission a specially-painted piece of period-appropriate artwork and so unsuccessfully edited a photograph of the actress to try and make it look like a painting.

• What keeps Claras head gear attached to her forehead? It defies gravity!
• How does Clara know what type of life the Doctor was born into? According to her, she has been there since he started running, which means either since he took the TARDIS or (according to the 10th Doctor) since he looked into the Time Vortex.

It is highly likely that the Doctor simply told her at some point, although in a Doylist sense, that line could have just been a soft metaphor for the Doctor being born a Time Lord who later saw and sympathized with the plight of lesser races. It doesn't have to be strictly literal, but if it is then it isn't much to assume that the Doctor just told her.

Don't forget that she saw, and was inside, the doctor's timestream so it's likely she saw the whole of his life, including what sort of upbringing he had, while in his timestream.

Even if he never told her directly, he calls himself a Time Lord. The use of "Lord" heavily implies membership into some kind of aristocracy and, therefore, a pretty high level of privilege. All of which is further reinforced by his general manner and bearing. It's hardly a huge leap for her to make.

• How does firing the golden arrow at the side of the robot's ship mean the the engine then has enough gold leave the atmosphere?

It's possible that even the proximity of gold would give some power to the engines, albeit not as much as if it had been applied like most of the gold.

• Why would robots need slaves? Aren't they essentially an expendable workforce?

They don't necessarily view themselves as such. They are also on a quest to fulfill their mission of reaching "the promised land".

• I see noone else has asked, so I feel as though I may have missed something, but how does the doctor use his screwdriver to blow up the archery target? First, the screwdriver does not "do wood." While the target is not entirely wood, I should say wood makes up a goodly part of it, combined with paper and straw. And unless I haven't been paying enough attention, the screwdriver has never been effective against those materials either. Second, even assuming that the screwdriver could be used as a heat source or spark in some fashion to cause a fire, it certainly wouldn't make it explode.

The Doctor used special arrows with homing device. He exploded homing device, not archery target itself.

• How and when did the Doctor fit the homing device onto the target? The arrows had to home in on something!
• Where does the peasant get the key to unlock the Doctors chains?
• Why did the Robot/Sheriff blow open the door to the ship? - it wasn't locked.

He likes making an entrance.

• Where did all the prisoners get the large plates?
• Really? I'm all for flights of fancy and suspension of disbelief, but to declare with utter certainty that the gallons and gallons of molten gold is "not enough gold" and it will "never going to make it"to orbit," and then turn around and believe the 10 ounces or so in the shape of an arrow could be enough to push it over the edge just defies all logic and sense. All all this is setting aside the arrow-dynamics (ha!) of such a weighty projectile, and the fact that even assuming it reached the ship, it would be able to land in such a way, and provide any actual benefit in its unprocessed form, is akin to throwing a bucket of raw crude at a moving car from 50 feet away, somehow getting it inside the gas tank, and then hoping that it somehow converts or gets processed into usable gasoline.

While I admit it is a stretch, it's also unreasonable to think that folks from the 12th (or 21st) century would understand operation of technology from the 29th century enough to really comment on it. The panel they aimed for and hit may well have been able to rapidly assimilate the gold into the panel.

• Patrick Troughton is a real person in the Doctor Who universe?

Why not? He presumably was never cast in Doctor Who, but there's no reason that the actors who portrayed the Doctor can't also exist within that fictional reality, albeit with almost certainly different career paths.

Nope, not necessarily. Patrick Troughton exists in-universe, as does the entire Doctor Who multi-media franchise!. There is no need for in-universe Pat to have a different career path.

• The Doctor asks Marian, "What are you looking at?" and her eyes flicker upward. What was she looking at?
• Why would an alien robot ship have detailed files on the history of Robin Hood?