Blast From the Past with Carrie Vaughn

We all love to talk about our Favorite Things, but it’s not always the latest and greatest that charms us. Sometimes it’s those foundational favorites, the works that shaped us, that we find ourselves returning to again and again. Here at Speculative Chic, we decided it was way past time to create a dedicated platform to shine a spotlight on these longtime gems. Welcome to Blast from the Past.

Today we bring you werewolf psychologist Carrie Vaughn, who not only is continuing the story of Robin Hood with not just one, but two novellas this summer, but she’s also teaching at the Odyssey Writing Workshop this year. To learn more about how you can learn from the feet of this particular master, check out the information below. But first, learn more about why Carrie Vaughn has moved from werewolves and vampires (oh my!) to the Prince of Thieves with The Ghosts of Sherwood and The Heirs of Locksley. 

In Which Our Intrepid Author Rediscovers the Most Influential Robin Hood Since Errol Flynn

Here’s a fun game: walk into a room of Gen X geeks and say, in a breathy Clannad singing voice, “Ro-bin, Ro-bin,” and see how many people call back, “THE HOODED MAN.” You will have found a tribe, and you will not hear the end of Robin of Sherwood discussions for, like, ever.

Backing up a little. Last year, I became obsessed with Robin Hood. I mean, I always liked Robin Hood stories. But after seeing a couple of terrible movie versions, I suddenly had to know: why are some Robin Hoods awesome, and some just… aren’t? I read a whole stack of novels and watched a ton of movies and TV. My investigations led me inevitably to a Blast from the Past.

Robin of Sherwood was a British TV show that ran from 1984 to 1986. In the U.S. it aired on Showtime and PBS. I can’t say I watched it religiously as a kid. But I saw a few episodes, and I remembered them vividly. You really only need to see it once to remember it, because it’s just that distinctive. It’s… kind of weird. In many episodes the villains are Satanic cults operating in abbeys, with nuns ripping off their habits to reveal diaphanous gowns as they work their terrible rites to summon the Dark Lord. Wizards and witchcraft abound. Templars with mysterious artifacts invade Sherwood. (My research tells me that Richard Carpenter, the show’s creator and writer, did not work for Hammer Films. But I seriously wondered. He definitely must have grown up watching Hammer horror. Or maybe just borrowed some of those diaphanous Satanic rite gowns.) Robin and his Company get some of their power through the patronage of Herne the Hunter, God of the Forest. Except it’s not actually a god, it’s a guy wearing a deer head who lives in a cave but I guess he’s actually Herne? Or an avatar of Herne? He often appears suddenly in the mist and Robin and Company immediately kneel to him. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on there but it’s magical and spooky and kind of weird but also kind of cool.

Like I said, you only need to see a couple of episodes of this and it will stay with you forever.

This time, I watched the entire series, all the way through. And I must say it’s delightful. In addition to all the supernatural weirdness, we have a tight-knit company of interesting people who came together in hardship and made a family. If you like found-family stories, this is fantastic. In one episode, Will Scarlet (a young and burly Ray Winstone) declares, “I would give my life for every one of you!” and you feel that. Another delightful thing about this is playing actor guest-appearance bingo. John Rhys-Davies appears in one episode as Richard Lionhart. Matt Frewer appears in another as a villain of the week. They’re all so young and low-budget and wonderful.

Details have been accruing to the Robin Hood legend for something like 600 years now. Friar Tuck and Maid Marian were not part of the original legend. The whole Norman vs. Saxon conflict didn’t become part of it until much later, and Robin himself started out as a low-born yeoman and not Baron of Locksley. (Robin of Sherwood replicates this — the first Robin, Michael Praed, is a villager. His replacement, played by Jason Connery, is the son of the Earl of Huntingdon.) Part of the interesting thing about studying Robin Hood is discovering when certain details enter the stories — and why.

What’s really kind of great about Robin of Sherwood is how much of it almost instantly became part of the Robin Hood canon. Robin of Sherwood is the first time a Middle Eastern character (Nasir, played by Mark Ryan), becomes part of Robin’s Company. That detail shows up again a few years later in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and is almost ever-present after. That whole witchcraft thing? Also in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Robin of Sherwood’s Sheriff is sneering and despotic and funny years before Alan Rickman made the role his own. Almost everything interesting about the Costner film is borrowed from Robin of Sherwood. This show defined Robin Hood for a generation.

How something can be so 1980s — Repetitive Clannad soundtrack! Satanic panic! Mullets! — and so timeless at the same time is a mystery. But here we are.

I find it completely fascinating that when you see lists of “greatest Robin Hood movies and TV shows,” the number one entry on every single list is still, eighty years after it appeared in theaters, Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood. Somehow, that’s still the gold standard, and no amount of modern grimdark retellings, or even a Mel Brooks skewering, can replace it as the ideal perfect Robin Hood. That’s a hell of a run. And its 1938 anti-fascist messaging is so, so relevant right now it’s disconcerting.

Why do some Robin Hood adaptations earn a place on those “best” lists, and why are some so egregiously awful they reset how low the bar can really go? (Taron Egerton, I’m so sorry.) Robin of Sherwood, in combination with The Adventures of Robin Hood, remain two of the best, most influential visual adaptations of the story, and it’s pretty clear why. They have heart. They have comedy. They have good people who look out for each other, who want to do what’s right. The characters begin fighting for justice for themselves and end up fighting for everyone else. They’re super earnest, and they somehow manage to take themselves seriously, but not too seriously. They’re stories about found family and how powerful that support can be. They’re not grimdark, and I love that. I’m so glad I went back to explore this show, so I can appreciate its full impact.

My obsession has led somewhere. This summer, I make my own contribution to the Robin Hood genre with two novellas, The Ghosts of Sherwood and The Heirs of Locksley. Rather than try to retell a story that has been told so well already, I’m trying something a little different: moving the story forward, and telling about Robin and Marian’s children. On the one hand, writing a Robin Hood story feels very daring and dangerous. How much hubris does it take to think I can add to this mythos! On the other, Robin Hood is clearly a giant playground that has room for just about everyone. How could I not want to go there?

The Odyssey Writing Workshop is a six week writing workshop for science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors, and it is currently accepting applications for its 2020 session. The workshop will be held from June 1st through July 10th, 2020 and feature the daily teachings of Jeanne Cavelos and the following guest speakers: Brandon Sanderson, Yoon Ha Lee, Scott H. Andrews, J.G. Faherty, Sheila Williams, Barbara Ashford, Carrie Vaughn, John Joseph Adams, and E.C. Ambrose. To learn more and discover how you can apply, click here. Applications are due by April 1st, 2020.

Carrie Vaughn’s work includes the Philip K. Dick Award winning novel Bannerless, the New York Times Bestselling Kitty Norville urban fantasy series, and over twenty novels and upwards of 100 short stories, two of which have been finalists for the Hugo Award. Her most recent work includes a Kitty spin-off collection, The Immortal Conquistador, and a pair of novellas about Robin Hood’s children, The Ghosts of Sherwood and The Heirs of Locksley. She’s a contributor to the Wild Cards series of shared world superhero books edited by George R.R. Martin and a graduate of the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop.  An Air Force brat, she survived her nomadic childhood and managed to put down roots in Boulder, Colorado. Visit her at www.carrievaughn.com.

Author Photo by Helen Sittig Photography

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