The Shakespeare Code

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184 - The Shakespeare Code
Doctor	David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Writer	Gareth Roberts
Director	Charles Palmer
Script editor	Simon Winstone
Producer	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	3.2
Length	45 minutes
Transmission date	7 April 2007
Preceded by	Smith and Jones
Followed by	Gridlock

The Shakespeare Code is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 7 April 2007,^[1] and is the second episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. Originally entitled "Love's Labours Won",^[2], the episode was retitled, referencing The Da Vinci Code.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 3 Cast 4 Continuity 4.1 References to other Doctor Who episodes and stories 5 References to other works 5.1 References to Shakespeare's life and works 6 Production 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The Doctor takes Martha on her first trip in the TARDIS. Arriving in Elizabethan England, they meet William Shakespeare who is writing his play, Love's Labour's Won. However, evil, witch-like Carrionites plot to end the world by placing a code in the new play's closing dialogue. Shakespeare will have to give the performance of his life in order to save the Earth.

[edit] Plot

A young woman is serenaded from her balcony by a lute-playing suitor, Wiggins. She bids him enter the house, but to his shock he finds it full of witching artifacts. The woman, Lilith, kisses Wiggins — but, pulling away, he finds her transformed into a wrinkled hag. She introduces her two "mothers", Doomfinger and Bloodtide, who appear, cackling, and lunge at the screaming youth, apparently devouring him.

Meanwhile, the TARDIS lands in Elizabethan London. Martha questions whether it is even safe to walk around in the past, citing the terrible implications of time travel that she has seen in films. She wonders whether something as small as stepping on a butterfly really can drastically change the future, and frets about the potential consequences of killing her own grandfather. The Doctor is nonchalant — since she is not setting out to kill her grandfather, he says, she shouldn't worry about it. He deduces that they have arrived in London in 1599 and, after Martha worries that, being black, she might be seized and taken into slavery, advises her to walk around like she owns the place — it usually works for him, he says, and he is not even human. He decides to take her to a performance of Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe Theatre. At the end of the play, Shakespeare announces that there will soon be a sequel called Love's Labour's Won, and when asked by the audience "When?" he tells them not to rush a genius. Lilith, using a poppet, influences Shakespeare to declare, rashly, that the new play will premiere the following evening. Martha asks why she has never heard of Love's Labour's Won. The Doctor, curious, decides to find out more about this "lost" play, and extends Martha's "one trip" in order to do so.

The two go to the Elephant, the inn where William Shakespeare is staying. They chat with the playwright, who intends to finish writing the final scene of Love Labour's Won that night. Shakespeare tries to woo Martha, describing her as "a queen of Africk" or a "Blackamoor lady". The Doctor claims she comes from 'Freedonia' to explain her strange clothing and modern attitudes. Shakespeare also sees past the Doctor's psychic paper, the only explanation for this being that he is a "genius".

Lynley, Master of the Revels, demands to see the script before he allows the play to proceed. When Shakespeare offers to show him the finished script in the morning, the official leaves, proclaiming that the play will never be performed. The trio of witches watch the scene in a cauldron. Lilith, who works at the inn, secretly takes some of Lynley's hair and makes another poppet, which she plunges into a bucket of water. The Doctor, Martha and Shakespeare hear a commotion in the street and run out, where they witness Lynley vomiting water. Lilith stabs the doll in the chest, and Lynley collapses, dead. The Doctor is calm, announcing that Lynley has died of an imbalance of the humours, whispering to Martha that any other explanation would lead to panic about witchcraft. Martha asks what did kill Lynley, and the Doctor nevertheless responds "Witchcraft".

Martha and the Doctor stay overnight in the inn. Meanwhile, Lilith entrances Shakespeare and, using a marionette, compels him to write a strange concluding paragraph to Love's Labour's Won. She is discovered by the landlady, whom she frightens to death. The Doctor, hearing another scream, runs in and finds the body; Martha, at the window, sees a witch fly away on a broom.

In the morning the Doctor, Martha and Shakespeare proceed to the Globe Theatre, where the Doctor asks why the theatre has 14 sides. Shakespeare replies that the architect thought it would make sound carry well and mentions that he eventually went mad and talked of witches. The three then visit the architect, Peter Streete, in Bedlam Asylum. The Doctor helps Streete to emerge from his catatonia for long enough to reveal that the witches dictated the Globe's design to him, and to tell the Doctor that they were based in All Hallows Street.

The three witches observe this interview through their cauldron. Doomfinger transports herself and appears in the asylum cell, and kills Peter with a touch. She threatens the other three but the Doctor works out who the 'witches' really are. He names the creature as a Carrionite, which causes her to be teleported back to her room.

Back at the Elephant, the Doctor explains that the Carrionites produce their "magic" through a science based on the power of words. They intend to use the words of a genius — Shakespeare — to break their species out of eternal imprisonment and begin a new empire on Earth when Love's Labours Won is performed. The Doctor tells Shakespeare to stop the play whilst he and Martha go to All Hallows Street to thwart the witches. Shakespeare bursts on to the Globe's stage to halt the play, but two of the Carrionites are already there and use one of their dolls to render him unconscious. The actors carry the playwright off stage and the performance proceeds.

The Doctor and Martha reach All Hallows Street and confront Lilith, who is expecting them. Martha, mimicking the Doctor's actions at Bedlam, tries to neutralize her by speaking her name, but Lilith mocks her, since naming only works once. Instead, she names Martha Jones, rendering her unconscious.

Lilith tries to do the same to the Doctor, but it fails to affect him, as she is unable to discover his real name. She attempts to weaken him by naming "Rose", but he assures her that that name 'keeps him fighting'. She then gets up close and steals a lock of his hair. Taking flight through the window, she attaches the hair to a doll and stabs it in the heart, whereupon the Doctor collapses. Assuming that the Doctor is dead, Lilith flies to the Globe. Martha wakes, and helps the Doctor restart his left heart. The duo race to the Globe.

There, the actors have already spoken the last lines of the play, which contained a series of directions and instructions which have opened a portal allowing the Carrionites back into the universe. The Doctor tells Shakespeare that only he can find the words to close the portal. Shakespeare improvises a short rhyming stanza but is stuck for a final word. Martha comes up with "Expelliarmus" and the Carrionites — together with all the extant copies of Love's Labour's Won — are sucked back through the closing portal. Martha, Shakespeare and the actors from the play are left to take the applause of the audience who believe it all to be special effects.

In the morning Shakespeare flirts with Martha, and reveals his deduction that the Doctor is not from Earth and that Martha is from the future. He comes up with the sonnet "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" in Martha's honour, but is interrupted when two of his actors burst in, heralding the arrival of the Queen, who enters, recognises the Doctor as her "sworn enemy" and declares "off with his head!" The Doctor is surprised at her outburst, since he has not yet met the Queen, but comments that he is looking forward to finding out what he will do to offend her — that being the beauty of time travel. He and Martha flee to the TARDIS, shutting the door just as an arrow embeds itself in the ship's outer door.

[edit] Cast

• The Doctor — David Tennant
• Martha Jones — Freema Agyeman
• William Shakespeare — Dean Lennox Kelly
• Lilith — Christina Cole
• Wiggins — Sam Marks
• Doomfinger — Amanda Lawrence
• Bloodtide — Linda Clarke
• Dick — Jalaal Hartley
• Kempe — David Westhead
• Dolly Bailey — Andree Bernard
• Lynley — Chris Larkin
• Jailer — Stephen Marcus
• Peter Streete — Matt King
• Preacher — Robert Demeger
• Queen Elizabeth I — Angela Pleasence

[edit] Continuity

• Shakespeare has appeared in Doctor Who before and the Doctor has also indicated that they have met off screen in the past. He was previously glimpsed in the Time/Space Visualiser in The Chase; in Planet of Evil, the Doctor mentioned having met Shakespeare before; and in City of Death he claimed that he helped transcribe the original manuscript for Hamlet.
• Shakespeare has also appeared in the Virgin Missing Adventures novel The Empire of Glass and in the Big Finish Productions audio drama The Kingmaker. In another drama, The Time of the Daleks, a child was revealed at the drama's conclusion to be Shakespeare. Finally, the Bard has also appeared in the Doctor Who Magazine Ninth Doctor comic A Groatsworth of Wit (also written by Gareth Roberts). One of the Doctor Who Annual 2007 comic strips implies that the Doctor has met Shakespeare, and in a Doctor Who Adventures comic, the Doctor apparently misquotes Shakespeare, but the context implies that he wasn't; Rose says, "Maybe he was misquoting you." However the canonicity of all non-television sources is unclear.
• In an interview with Lizo Mzimba, Russell T. Davies stated that these past references to meeting Shakespeare would be neither referenced nor contradicted in this episode.^[3] Similarly, Gareth Roberts told Doctor Who Magazine that The Shakespeare Code "neither confirms nor denies what's already been said."^[4] He also noted that an early draft of The Shakespeare Code contained "a sly reference to City of Death", but it was removed because "it was so sly it would have been a bit confusing for fans that recognized it and baffled the bejesus out of everyone else."^[4]
• The Sixth Doctor quotes from Shakespeare's Hamlet in The Two Doctors, while lamenting the death of Oscar Botcherby, who also quotes from the play as he dies.
• The Doctor reveals that he took and failed a test to pilot the TARDIS.
• The Doctor humorously parallels aspects of Elizabethan life with those of 21st century life, notably "recycling", "a water cooler moment", "global warming" and "entertainment".
• Current scholarship has not reached consensus as to how many sides the original Globe Theatre had. Written descriptions, contemporary illustrations, and archeological evidence do not lead to any agreement. Gareth Roberts apparently took artistic license to give the Globe 14 sides.
• The number 14 is also the traditional number of the Great Vampires in the BBC Books novel Vampire Science by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman. "One more life - if you can call it that - than a Time Lord." Both the Great Vampires and the Carrionites are ancient enemies of the Time Lords.
• The Doctor states he has never seen a man drown on dry land before, though he witnessed the after-effects of a similar event in the Third Doctor story The Mind of Evil.
• At one point, the Doctor produces a toothbrush from an inside pocket. The Fourth Doctor was also shown to carry a toothbrush in The Seeds of Doom (1976).

[edit] References to other Doctor Who episodes and stories

• One of the lines of Love's Labours Won, "the eye should have contentment where it rests", is taken from episode three of the 1965 serial The Crusade.^[5]
• The episode resembles Tooth and Claw in several ways. Martha tries to fit into the Elizabethan past by speaking in 'period' clichés (as Rose attempted to do in Scotland, using stereotyped Scottish phrases). Irritated in each case, the Doctor implores, "No, don't do that". He also reprises his title as "Sir Doctor of TARDIS". In addition, at the end of each respective episode, it becomes clear that The Doctor is seen as an enemy by each of the reigning queens (Victoria and Elizabeth I, although how he has made an enemy of Elizabeth I is not revealed).
• The Doctor finds a skull in Shakespeare's prop store that reminds him of the Sycorax from The Christmas Invasion. (Shakespeare says that he will use the name — a witch named Sycorax is mentioned in The Tempest.)
• The drowning closely resembles the death of Estelle in the Torchwood episode Small Worlds, who is also killed by drowning on dry land, due to an ultra-localised rainstorm.
• Lilith refers to the Eternals from Enlightenment as the Doctor had previously done in Army of Ghosts.
• The (many) Carrionites flying round the Globe theatre echo Redpath's Grandmother's Gelth (single) ghost flying round the theatre during Dickens' recital in The Unquiet Dead.
• The Doctor uses his Time Lord psychic abilities to improve Peter Streete's mental state. This ability was previously seen in The Girl In The Fireplace and Fear Her.
• The Carrionites' contribution to Love's Labour's Won is an incantation that reads:

The light of Shadmock's hollow moon doth shine on to a point in space betwixt Dravidian Shores and Linear 5930167.02, and strikes the fulsome grove of Rexel 4; co-radiating crystal activate!

Shadmock was a hybrid character in The Monster Club who killed by whistling. Dravidians were mentioned in The Brain of Morbius, Solon's servant Condo having been found in the wreckage of "a Dravidian starship". Rexel 4 was the planet depicted in the mind-changing pictures in The Tomorrow People episode "The Blue and the Green".

• The Doctor uses his psychic paper, which has not been seen since the second series episode Doomsday. The paper fails to work on Shakespeare, who only sees the blank page. The only two other occasions in which the psychic paper proves ineffective are in the first series episode The Empty Child, in which Captain Jack Harkness and Rose Tyler fail to make it present the right information to each other, and in the second series episode Army of Ghosts, in which Dr Rajesh Singh of the Torchwood Institute is not fooled when Rose presents the psychic paper, having undergone basic psychic training. This is the first time the paper has failed to work for the Doctor.
• There is no reference to Mr. Saxon, the arc word for the third series, in this episode.

[edit] References to other works

• The name Lilith refers back to ancient middle-eastern mythology. One tradition of Midrash holds that Lilith was created at the same time as Adam and had supernatural powers. Adam complained to God about the competition and Lilith was banished. Eve was then created from Adam's ribs.
• At one point, Martha says "It's all a bit Harry Potter." This prompts the Doctor to claim that he has read Book Seven (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), although he does not state the title itself (as it had not been named when filming took place). He claims the book made him cry.
• At the end of the episode, Shakespeare, the Doctor and Martha cry out "Expelliarmus!" and the Doctor cries out "Good old J.K.!". This word implies that Martha is familiar with the Harry Potter books and/or films (although in Harry Potter, the word is a disarming spell (i.e. 'expel arms', such as a wand) rather than a banishment or exorcism, as it is used here).
• Further connections with Harry Potter are that David Tennant appeared as Barty Crouch Jr in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Russell T. Davies had also approached J.K. Rowling to write an episode of Doctor Who for the 2005 series, but she declined the offer.
• The scene in which the Carrionites "drown" Lynley is very similar to one in the 1987 film version of The Witches of Eastwick. In the film, Veronica Cartwright's character vomits cherry pits and dies after being supernaturally force-fed by witches in another location.
• Martha refers to the effect of the classic time paradox of stepping on a butterfly. This is an allusion to Ray Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder" where a time traveller steps on a butterfly in the pre-historic past, causing a cumulative domino effect on the time stream. Although the ideas are similar, it is not a reference to the Chaos Theory butterfly effect, which is concerned with the potential of a trivial event (e.g. the beat of a butterfly's wings) to have massive, unpredictable consequences (e.g. a tropical storm).
• Martha also mentions the grandfather paradox when she first steps out from the TARDIS into 1599. The effects of altering a personal timeline were explored in the Ninth Doctor episode Father's Day, where Rose inadvertently causes a time paradox by saving her father from dying.
• The Doctor also attempts to explain how history could be changed with devastating results by referring to the movie Back to the Future.
• The Doctor claims Martha comes from Freedonia (a fictional country in the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup).
• The Doctor quotes Dylan Thomas - "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" but warns Shakespeare he can't use the line as it is "somebody else's".

[edit] References to Shakespeare's life and works

• Just before the Doctor steps out of the TARDIS, he exclaims "Brave new world", from Act V Scene I of The Tempest.
• The Doctor and Martha make numerous references to the Chandos portrait: Martha wonders why he isn't bald, the Doctor says he could make his head bald if he rubs it and later gives him a neckpiece to keep.
• In an early scene a sign is glimpsed for an inn named "The Elephant". This is the name of a recommended hotel in Twelfth Night.
• Shakespeare flirts with Martha multiple times during the episode. At the end, he composes Sonnet 18 for her, calling her his "Dark Lady". Sonnet 18 is in fact numbered among the Fair Lord sonnets. The dark lady is the subject of sonnets 127-152.
• At one point, Shakespeare flirts with the Doctor as well, to which the Doctor replies "57 academics just punched the air". Sonnet 57, like many of Shakespeare's sonnets, including Sonnet 18, is widely believed by Shakespearean academics to be addressed to a man, and there is a sizable body of scholarship on Shakespeare's sexuality.
• The Doctor tells Shakespeare that "all the world's a stage". This line appears in the famous Act II monologue in the play As You Like It. The Doctor, who sees Shakespeare as "his hero", uses some of his phrases, only to find that they were in fact coined by himself and used by Shakespeare, creating a predestination paradox.
• The Doctor also tells Shakespeare "the play's the thing", a line from Hamlet.
• Before heading to visit the Carrionites, the Doctor exclaims "Once more unto the breach". Shakespeare initially likes the phrase, before realising it is one of his own from Henry V, which was probably written in early 1599.
• The Doctor claims that an animal skull reminds him of the Sycorax, prompting Shakespeare to say "Nice word. I'll have that!". Sycorax is the mother of Caliban in The Tempest. She is a witch (though she does not actually appear on stage in the play).
• Shakespeare says "To be or not to be" which the Doctor suggests he write down, although Shakespeare considers it "too pretentious".
• Martha makes a joke about Shakespeare entering a pub and being told "you're barred", punning on his nickname The Bard. Shakespeare replies that he has no idea what she is talking about.
• The three witches are an allusion to the Three Weird Sisters from Macbeth. Like those witches, the Carrionites use trochaic tetrameter and rhyming couplets to cast spells, (coincidently, the reason that the superstition of saying Macbeth on-stage was bad luck is because of an apparent curse cast by three witches because Shakespeare stole their spell, Macbeth was written after the setting of this episode.)
• When regressing the architect in Bedlam, The Doctor uses the phrase "A Winter's Tale".
• The architect of the Globe whom the Doctor visits in Bedlam is allusion to Tom o'Bedlam in King Lear. The reference to 'Bedlam' makes this clear, as does the fact that Peter Streete talks about himself in third person and calls himself 'Poor Peter' (all of which echo the character and lines from King Lear).
• Lilith credits the Carrionites' escape from the Eternals' banishment to 'new...glittering' words. Shakespeare is credited with adding two to three thousand words to the English language (e.g. 'assassination', 'eyeball', 'leapfrog' and 'gloomy').
• Kempe is William Kempe who was a highly regarded comic actor of the era, and was a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men along with William Shakespeare, and Richard Burbage.

[edit] Production

• Gareth Roberts began his professional writing career on the Virgin New Adventures, a series of Doctor Who novels, with "The Highest Science" (1993). He went on to write several more books for Virgin Books and further Doctor Who spin-offs while also developing a TV writing career. With the new TV series, Roberts again produced a tie-in novel ("Only Human", 2005) and then various smaller jobs for the TV show, including the Attack of the Graske digital television interactive mini-episode. This is his first regular episode of the show.
• Scenes for this episode were filmed in Coventry,^[6][7] Warwick^[8] and at the recreated Globe Theatre in London.^[9]
• In SFX magazine #152, producer Phil Collinson calls this episode the "most expensive ever".
• The shot of the Doctor and Martha looking at the Globe Theatre and the Doctor saying "The Globe Theatre" was changed between the Series Three preview at the end of The Runaway Bride and this episode; the edge of the Globe Theatre has been replaced with a CGI shot of a village and the distant theatre itself.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Series 3 Trailer.