The Shakespeare Code

[owl]

My review, spoilers under cut.



-Well, I suppose now we know where the idea of three witches came from in the Who-verse. The dawn of the universe must have been a busy place, races getting banished and imprisoned left, right and centre: Beelzebub (and Abbadon, or are they the same thing?), Spiderwoman, and now the evil witch people. And who were the Eternals? I don't know what they were on about in the Confidential, not female villains, have they forgotten the Christmas Special already?

-The idea of words having an inherent power is a very old idea, and fits in neatly to a story about Shakespeare. And the true name as power, also old; of course it doesn't work on the Doctor, no-one knows his name!

-Mancunian Shakespeare. Ah, well. And he never seems to do up his doublet either. You're right Martha, he doesn't look like his portraits. And he's a big flirt (fits right in with you and the Doctor, then). Apparently Hey nonny nonny is the 16th century version of Phwoaar!

-I had a feel that Martha was going to end up the original of the Dark Lady. Poor Martha, 16th century political correctness isn't exactly what you're used to. No-one apart from Shakespeare copped that she was wearing trousers either: given all those boys dressed as girls dressed as boys in the plays it would have been understandable for a bit of confusion there :-P And there was an excuse to have a companion in a skirt for a change, picking her out of a party. Evidently the TARDIS can project a Somebody Else's Problem field as well as the language translation. I'm not exactly happy with the Doctor's whole 'Everywhere is much the same as the 21st century, really' line. If it is, why bother travelling? And the way that New Who has done historicals and futures in the past doesn't give me much hope he'll be proved wrong.

-Okay, the audience would never have believed that something that spectacular could have been a special effect. But throwing Expelliarmus! in there was, to quote Ron, bloody brilliant!! And loved the Book Seven reference (bet that was written before the Deathly Hallows title was announced), although really seeing as Martha's timeline must be in about 2009 to allow for all the alien invasions, she should have already read it. I love that the Doctor is a Harry Potter fan.

-I bet the Doomsayer guy was really disappointed that it wasn't the end of the world after all. I could picture him with a sandwich board.

-Ten is such a fanboy! Although it doesn't say much for Shakespeare's genius that the Doctor was feeding him all his best lines in a classic temporal paradox. Though I did like the 'Hey, that's one of mine!'. I thought having him not fall for the psychic paper was nice, although working out that he's an alien and she's from the future without turning a hair is a bit of a stretch.

-It just had to be Love's Labour Won, didn't it? If that play ever does turn up a thousand stories will be Jossed (or Willed, rather).

-Martha continues good. I loved her , "Yes, and then I'd get sectioned" line. She does doctor stuff and she gets shouty about Bedlam even before Ten does. And she was a bit worried about being black in England's past (I never got the impression that Rose thought she didn't fit in anywhere, sorry, sorry, odious comparisons, I know), though I'm sure there are worse places to be black than London, being a port. She's getting used to time travel fast; I liked her instant pick-up on when are we instead of where, and that she's not blind to the possible dangers of grandfather-killing. Argh, Doctor, now you've just compared yourself explicitly to Back to the Future. You couldn't tell what the heck's going on with Sam Tyler and 1973 while you're at it, could you?

-Taking of Tylers, how many Rose mentions was that this week? Surely you've exceeded the most generous quota of Previous Companion Shout-Outs; poor Sarah Jane got none until she actually turned up! Ah, that name keeps you fighting. Bless. Bleagh. Why not Gallifrey, if she really wanted to make you jump? We all know all about Rose ad nauseam already. Okay, subtext ahoy, talking about the ex when you're in bed with the new girl. Staring you right in the face, yes, Doctor, are you listening to yourself? Stop comparing the poor girl to Rose. BTW, why are you sleeping in a probably flea-ridden inn when you could spend the night in the TARDIS?

-Ten really does not have a good track record with the queens of England. That's two out of five out for his blood. And she's Queenie 'Off with his head!' I love that so much!!

-Expelliarmus! I was so thrilled with it that I had to mention it again.



They're pushing next week back to 7:40 because of the football, bother them.

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

And who were the Eternals?

Old skool race from a Fifth Doctor story; they're even more powerful than the Time Lords ("are there lords in such a small domain?") This is the second time they've been mentioned in New Who, hmm...

[owl]

Oh, I though I'd heard it somewhere before.

[tree_and_leaf]

I susp;ect the author may have been reading Terry Prachett, but.

[owl]

Wyrd Sisters crossed with Lords and Ladies? I know I was thinking of it a bit.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

It also has mild similarities to the fictional part of The Science of Discworld: The Globe.

[owl]

Ah, yes, I knew I'd forgotten something! I don't own the SoD books, so that would explain it.

trundled in from New_Who

[tmpe5t.livejournal.com]

Yupperoonie, Hey Nonny-No is a euphemism for sex, as is the constant use of the phrase 'to die' in madrigals and sublike - it means orgasm, so "Hey nonny-no then we die" is rude... :_D

I wonder if the TARDIS translation thingy translated all the 'thee thou' stuff..?

Re: trundled in from New_Who

[owl]

Well, the sandwich-board type guy who was telling everyone at the start that they were going to burn was going 'I told thee so!' while the Globe was being CGI'd, so if it was translating it wasn't doing it consistently. It certainly does seem to to leave different registers intact—look at Queen Victoria's vocabulary.

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

No-one apart from Shakespeare copped that she was wearing trousers either: given all those boys dressed as girls dressed as boys in the plays it would have been understandable for a bit of confusion there

Probably gambling on trousers not being invented till the early nineteenth century. Those jeans didn't look much like anything sixteenth century so probably did get filed under "Wacky Moorish Fashion".

[owl]

Yes, good point. I suppose it's poss that Shakespeare was thinking trousers+black=harems, though I may be getting mixed up with Terry Pratchett with Nobby's disguise in Jingo, and I don't think I want to think about this any more :-P

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

The thought for which brain bleach was invented?

BTW, jadesfire2808 Has written these very good Torchwood/Pratchett crossovers, all gen. (http://jadesfire2808.livejournal.com/46618.html)

[owl]

Thanks for the rec!

[significantowl.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose now we know where the idea of three witches came from in the Who-verse.

Hey, curious, do you mean that there are other sets of three witches in Who, or are you referring just to these? I was wondering as I was watching if this was the first time the Doctor had met witches.

The Rose mentions definitely got gratiutious, there. I was okay with the first one, but then they just had to slip another one in...

[owl]

Oh, I meant where Who-verse Shakespeare got his idea from, sorry.

Yes, how many Rose references have we had now?

[significantowl.livejournal.com]

I thought you might mean that, and then I thought, but maybe she knows something I don't. :)

Three? I was doing all right until the last one, but now I'm ready not to ever hear her name again. Which is sad.

[owl]

Don't forget the references in the Christmas Special, she got a couple there, too.

I mean, I liked Rose, mostly. But could the scriptwriters move on, now, please?

[leeflower.livejournal.com]

I almost fell off of the couch, I was laughing so hard about the expiallarmus thing.

By far my favorite line was "59 academics just punched the air" though. And yes, the Harry Potter line was priceless. The Doctor is a fanboy in general these days-- he was fanboying on Dickens back in series one (Though that was Doctor Nine).

And ok, I haven't seen the end of series two. What happened between the Doctor and Rose? Because we're two episodes in and the Rose shoutouts are already getting annoying, and she's clearly not dead, so what happened that he's so "OMG ROSE=PERFECT" all the time?

[owl]

How far into s2 did you see (it gets repeated all the time on BBC3, you could maybe catch it sometime).

Okay, basically the Cybermen cross the Void from the AU London where they left Mickey and Rose's dad. Torchwood 1 (they hang out in the Canary Wharf tower) is investigating and accidentally enable them to do this. Everyone thinks that the shadowy Cybermen they can see are ghosts. There's a mysterious thing like a giant Malteser which turns out to be a Time Lord prison ship full of, you guessed it, Daleks. There's a huge battle between Cybermen and Daleks. Then the Doctor realises that anyone who has crossed the Void will be drawn back to it if he forces open the gap. He sends Rose, her parents and Mickey over to the alternative universe, but Rose won't leave him and comes back to help him. They open the Void, but Rose is sucked in, though her dad manages to snatch her back to the AU so she doesn't get stuck in the Void.

The Doctor manages to make a projection across the Void so that he can say goodbye to her, the last we see is on with Mickey, her parents and a new little Tyler on the way. (Jackie's, not Rose's!)

[leeflower.livejournal.com]

oh, ok. That makes a lot more sense than what he tells Martha (she's fine & with her family, which vaguely suggests that she told him she was sick of the time travel) as far as the him being horribly upset.

But still, Martha's awesome. He needs to get over himself and start appreciating the awesome.

[(Anonymous)]

According to the Radio Times website (which isn't always accurate thank God) if the football over runs Doctor Who might be pushed back to the following week

I also loved the Harry Potter references Fantastic

[owl]

NOOOOOO!! Why can't they put the football on BBC 2 or something??

[unfeathered]

"BTW, why are you sleeping in a probably flea-ridden inn when you could spend the night in the TARDIS?"

I thought that too :-)

[owl]

They should have shown them scratching the next day :-P