The Shakespeare Code does the one thing no Doctor Who story should do - be forgettable. The story is so bland, the monsters are so boring, and most of the characters save Shakespeare are written in a pretty mediocre way. I do like how they presented Shakespeare as a sort of every-man - which probably challenges a lot of people's perceptions of him in what seems to be a historically accurate way. I feel like this person has a lot of interesting potential to be depicted in Doctor Who yet production here did so in the most simplified way possible.

The Carronites as I said are boring but at least aesthetically fit with stuff like Macbeth nicely. Even Martha and the Doctor here felt disappointing - like a weaker version of Ten and Rose which already was a bit too romanticized for my tastes. Martha really doesn't feel well used here - serving as mostly a love object of sorts and her identity as a MD is basically forgotten already. I'm not a big fan of this episode overall.