The Shakespeare Code

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.

Three years in and the celebrity historical is a non-negotiable for each new series of Doctor Who. Whilst William Shakespeare’s appearance doesn’t quite reach the heights of Dickens, it certainly trumps Queen Victoria, it being especially funny when The Doctor casually uses his full name.

The trio of witches are a good match for this era, Gareth Roberts would have had to work harder to bring them into a contemporary setting. They efficiently help him tap in and out of an understood threat within 45 minutes.

The sexual energy in this production is something else. Wiggins and Lilith, Lilith and the script inspector, Martha and Shakespeare, Shakespeare and the wench, Martha pining after The Doctor… I’m sure there’s more! It fuels the show with a cheeky energy.

It’s been often said but I think Russell pushed Martha’s pining too far. Two episodes into her run, you’d hope The Doctor would stop mentioning Rose by now, but it’s one of the series’s returning themes. I understand plot wise why he is doing it, after “falling in love”, to be true to the character he can’t just forget her, but I think The Runaway Bride / Smith and Jones covered this base sufficiently.

It’s a fun, stylish, well plotted story. The “power of words” ending would usually not be enough to go on but Roberts puts in decent groundwork with the Carrionites’ use of “words as magic” - they get away with it.

Queen Elizabeth chasing The Doctor in an outrage is a particularly fine way of signing things off - even without a payoff yet planned!