New Who Review for “The Shakespeare Code”
Posted By Kathleen David on July 18, 2007
(A reminder about Spoilers: I will put my spoilers behind the cut and remind those who wish to stay spoiler free that I do allow spoilers in the comments)
This was a fun episode. It had a famous figure, a mystery to solve, and good villains. It may have sung to me more than most since I have, in my time, almost stage-managed my way through the War of the Roses. I always enjoyed doing a Shakespeare play because it felt like I was adding to the history of the piece. Also “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is where I have created a couple sets of puppets for Tatiana and Oberon so when they go small, they become puppets.
This was the second time that the Doctor has encountered Shakespeare on screen. The first was in “The Chase”. Solid performances all the way around by the cast. The recreation of the Globe Theater was wonderful. The villains of the piece make logical sense by the end of the episode (or as logical as a Doctor Who episode can be)
Caroline Scare Factor: A couple of scenes were peeked at through her fingers. But over all she liked this one.
I am grateful for my knowledge of Shakespeare
I was so scared that this episode was going to kill a short story I have been working on for about 10 years in my head. I really need to buckle down and just write the doggone thing. But it doesn’t.
I call this one “Shakespeare in Lust”. It is the William Shakespeare of the film “Shakespeare in Love” meets the Doctor. Randy little bûggër wasn’t he? Martha gave as good as she got in witty repartee and Shakespeare saying that he is going to use lines that people give him in his plays (which is from his plays) gives that funny time circular logic.
I thought the idea that the three witches were actually aliens in disguise was kind of fun. And having Shakespeare write what they needed to release their brethren. And yeah, I was grooving on the poppet/puppet that was being used to make him write. (Sidenote: Christina Cole who plays Lilith in this was Cassie on the TV series Hex). The spell stuff was fun. And the title of the play “Loves Labors Won” is considered a lost Shakespeare play. We really don’t know how many plays we have lost since we only find occasional references to other plays that were not published.
Overall it was one of my favorite episodes of the season. I have watched it a number of times now.
There’s also a reference to another meeting between the Doctor and Shakespeare in “City of Death”. From what I understand, a line appeared in early drafts of the scripts obliquely acknowledging these prior meetings (something along the lines of, “See you earlier!”) but was dropped as being too obscure.
A friend of mine (who refuses to sample the classic series) says this is the best episode of Who she’s ever seen. She’s a huge Harry Potter fan, though.
Hmmm. This was a fun episode. Not one of the best of all time, but definitely a good investment of one television viewing.
By the way, in the Big Finish audio The Kingmaker http://www.doctorwho.co.uk/drwho_main/bf081_kingmaker.shtml
the Doctor encounters quite a different sort of Shakespeare. A good knowledge of Shakespeare plays definitely added to the enjoyment of the episode. In the commentary (you can get the commentaries over at http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/sounds/ ) they mention an historical inaccuracy that they made for dramatic purposes — The performance of “Loves Labors Won” would not have been done at the time of day as seen in the episode, but they thought it would look more dramatic that way. There are lots of nice bits about filming parts of the episode in different locations and taking 50 extras to make the Globe look full.
I wonder whether the bit at the end of the episode is foreshadowing for an historical episode next year or is something they’ll just let us wonder about. Quite a fun episode with Martha clearly enjoying her travel in time. A nice point in the episode was the Doctor still missing Rose, but Martha filling in quite nicely when it counted.
Neil
For those that don’t know, this ep’s writer Gareth Roberts also wrote the two-part comics story “A Groatsworth of Wit” in which Nine and Rose meet Shakespeare and encounter aliens quite similar to the Carrionites, tho’ they don’t take human form. This first appeared in DOCTOR WHO MONTHLY #363-364, and can also be found ‘The Ninth Doctor: The Collected Comics”.
“This was the second time that the Doctor has encountered Shakespeare on screen. The first was in “The Chase”.”
Just to clarify, the Doctor didn’t meet Shakespeare in “The Chase.” He (along with Ian, Barbara and Vicki) watched him interact with Queen Elizabeth on the Doctor’s Time-Space Visualizer.
Which never again showed up in the series.
That was Barbara’s test of the machine. Vicki used it to take a peek at four lads from Liverpool- though she hadn’t realized the Beatles played “classical music.”
But turning to “The Shakespeare Code”, I thought it was good (as I did the previous two episodes). And like the Doctor, I wonder what he’s going to do in the past to annoy a certain politically prominent individual (phrased thusly to avoid spoilers).
What I don’t like is that the Sci-Fi channel squishes the credits. That’s only slightly more annoying than the asinine commercials they play over and over and over and over again. If I ever become emperor, credit squishing shall become a capital offense.
Or maybe a lower case offense. If I decide to be a benevolent despot.
I much prefer watching Doctor Who on the CBC, which has neither commercials nor edits, but that means a longer wait. However, at least for the next week or so, I have access to the Sci Fi channel.
Hey, if someone asks me to stop by their house and water their plants while they’re on vacation, Friday’s a good a day as any to do so.
But I miss the good old days of 2005, when, because of my proximity to Canada, I got to see Doctor Who before most of the country- and on broadcast TV, too.
The Fourth Doctor wrote “see you earlier” to Da Vinci in “City of Death”, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d have done the same with Shakespeare, but the tenth Doctor has a different personality. I don’t know that he’d write or say that particular phrase.
For that matter, have the Fourth Doctor’s meetings with Shakespeare already taken place (assuming, of course, that it was the Fourth Doctor who met him, and that he wasn’t referring to an incident during a previous regeneration)? He claimed to have, if you will, taken dictation for a certain play, because Shakespeare had hurt his hand and/or wrist; but I don’t recall what play that was. It might be one that Shakespeare hadn’t yet written as of the events of “The Shakespeare Code.”
The Doctor’s positive review of the (for now) still unpublished book seven in the Harry Potter series was a bit amusing; but I’d actually forgotten that David Tennant was in one of the Harry Potter movies when I was watching that scene. A fact which makes it a bit more amusing. Of course, I haven’t seen the movies (except for a bit of one on TV a few months ago) nor read the books, but I did know of his association with them.
And I liked the Back to the Future reference. I wonder which incarnation of the Doctor went and saw it.
Actually, the Doctor’s Harry Potter review echoed a thought I had about a comment Marty McFly made in Back to the Future. As I said, I haven’t read the Harry Potter books, so I didn’t know how many book are in the series. I wondered, what if she doesn’t write seven, but stops at five or six?- not realizing that book seven is already written and coming out soon.
Similarly, Marty McFly’s statement that Reagan was president in (October) 1985 had me wondering, as I watched the film in the summer, what if Reagan didn’t make it to October? But anytime you make a prediction about a future event- even a near future one- it might not come true.
One of my favorite lines:
“What’s a butterfly ever done to you?”
Rick
oh won’t go into the story..but have to agree that somethingn eeds to be done about ruining the credits. not just on Doctor Who though…bugs me on everything!
thank God and fates and whatever else for PBS and the ablity to see the show the way its shown in the UK (as far as i know…i think its the same show ..no cuts and no freakin commericals!).AND you can read the credits!
By the way..i’m trying to patiently wait for tomorrow night’s show….kitties;) I think the people who did the Cat Nurse make up are doing this one as well..i loved those Cat Nurses;)
The play the Doctor took credit for in “City of Death” was Hamlet, first registered in 1602–three years after “The Shakespeare Code”.
And while I really hate credit squishing, I think it’s worth noting that even BBC1 has been known to do it during the programme’s UK broadcast.
(I tried to post something a few days ago, but it appears to have gone into limbo.) At least you can get the cast list and some other info from the BBC Facts File at http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2007/facts/fact_302.shtml
I believe the 5th Doctor meets a different type of Shakespeare in the Big Finish audio The Kingmaker
http://www.doctorwho.co.uk/drwho_main/bf081_kingmaker.shtml
It is an amusing audio. By the way, the commentaries for the episodes are available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/sounds/
For this episode it was done by Julie Gardner (Executive Producer), Gareth Roberts (Writer) & Charles Palmer (Director).
Neil