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The Shakespeare Code
The Shakespeare Code is where the awkwardness of the Doctor and Martha's relationship begins in earnest which is a shame because it is otherwise a fun episode with lots to like about it.
I'm not sure I want to discuss the Doctor and Martha in a lot of detail, in part because the dynamic was discussed a great deal at the time generating a mixture of heat and light. I'll say here that I think it was a mistake to extend the metaphor of the Doctor and Companion as boyfriend and girlfriend into "rebound companion". However, if you have decided to do this it is then disingenuous to make the first black companion the one who is treated as second rate by the Doctor, expected to justify her presence in the Tardis, and only grudgingly allowed to stay on board and not expect some viewers to read that as racist. I also think Freema Agyeman struggled to present that side of Martha which follows the Doctor around like a puppy, dropping hints about romantic relationships and then looking sad when rebuffed, in a way that fitted in with the rest of Martha's character as a confident young woman in her twenties. I'm going to try to leave the subject there. I think the whole thing casts a bit of a shadow over this season and over Martha's time as a companion but it has been discussed so often, in such detail, in so many places, that I'm not sure I've much to add to what has gone before.
The best thing about the episode is Dean Lennox Kelly's Shakespeare who is very much like the popular image of the man; brilliant, flamboyant and irrepressible. NLSS Child, despite only just having been introduced to Midsummer Night's Dream followed most of the jokes quite happily though she was mystified by the 57 academics reference - as was I, first time around. In fact I heard an explanation at the time that suggested it was some Who in-joke but, when I googled it just now, it turns out to be a reference to sonnet 57 which makes much more sense.
Making the carrionites a race that could create power from words, is a clever, if perhaps somewhat obvious, idea for an episode about Shakespeare. It gives Gareth Roberts lots of opportunities to pepper the script with jokes. A comparison between this and The Unquiet Dead is obvious - both episodes in which the Doctor meets a famous wordsmith of whom the episode's author is a fan and both episodes which introduce a companion to travelling in time. I think this is the more successful of the two. It's more self-assured and is having a lot more fun. I also really like the way the Doctor chooses to insist that Martha will be fine in Elizabethan England - even if she is a black woman wearing 21st century clothing - just if she acts like she belongs. It is a central conceit that has nearly always worked for the Doctor throughout the show and it is nice that this episode is not trying to reserve it as some special power of the Doctor alone.
In short, this is a fun episode with lots to like. Taken together with The Unquiet Dead and Tooth and Claw it's making me re-evaluate my previous impression that NuWho seasons tended to mark time a bit in the first few weeks, waiting for the arc plot to really get going. Instead we have some really nice episodes that benefit from not being too weighed down by portentious foreshadowing.
I'm not sure I want to discuss the Doctor and Martha in a lot of detail, in part because the dynamic was discussed a great deal at the time generating a mixture of heat and light. I'll say here that I think it was a mistake to extend the metaphor of the Doctor and Companion as boyfriend and girlfriend into "rebound companion". However, if you have decided to do this it is then disingenuous to make the first black companion the one who is treated as second rate by the Doctor, expected to justify her presence in the Tardis, and only grudgingly allowed to stay on board and not expect some viewers to read that as racist. I also think Freema Agyeman struggled to present that side of Martha which follows the Doctor around like a puppy, dropping hints about romantic relationships and then looking sad when rebuffed, in a way that fitted in with the rest of Martha's character as a confident young woman in her twenties. I'm going to try to leave the subject there. I think the whole thing casts a bit of a shadow over this season and over Martha's time as a companion but it has been discussed so often, in such detail, in so many places, that I'm not sure I've much to add to what has gone before.
The best thing about the episode is Dean Lennox Kelly's Shakespeare who is very much like the popular image of the man; brilliant, flamboyant and irrepressible. NLSS Child, despite only just having been introduced to Midsummer Night's Dream followed most of the jokes quite happily though she was mystified by the 57 academics reference - as was I, first time around. In fact I heard an explanation at the time that suggested it was some Who in-joke but, when I googled it just now, it turns out to be a reference to sonnet 57 which makes much more sense.
Making the carrionites a race that could create power from words, is a clever, if perhaps somewhat obvious, idea for an episode about Shakespeare. It gives Gareth Roberts lots of opportunities to pepper the script with jokes. A comparison between this and The Unquiet Dead is obvious - both episodes in which the Doctor meets a famous wordsmith of whom the episode's author is a fan and both episodes which introduce a companion to travelling in time. I think this is the more successful of the two. It's more self-assured and is having a lot more fun. I also really like the way the Doctor chooses to insist that Martha will be fine in Elizabethan England - even if she is a black woman wearing 21st century clothing - just if she acts like she belongs. It is a central conceit that has nearly always worked for the Doctor throughout the show and it is nice that this episode is not trying to reserve it as some special power of the Doctor alone.
In short, this is a fun episode with lots to like. Taken together with The Unquiet Dead and Tooth and Claw it's making me re-evaluate my previous impression that NuWho seasons tended to mark time a bit in the first few weeks, waiting for the arc plot to really get going. Instead we have some really nice episodes that benefit from not being too weighed down by portentious foreshadowing.
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While I have quite a lot of issues with the River Song romance, I think, if you must give the Doctor a love-interest, it works much better if they are not also a companion.
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Before then the Doctor had travelled with a female member of his own species without there being an overt romance (and even with there being a romance between Baker and Ward) between them, except in the minds of ficcers.
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But even classic Who had very occasionally flirted with the idea of a romance, mostly notably the First Doctor and Cameca (though it covered itself with the idea that the Doctor was unaware of the implications of his actions) and the production team definitely were aware of the possibility between the Doctor and Romana (hence some of the extra scenes in the Christmas blooper reels). I think, mostly, they thought the show didn't need the romance and were aware of all the extraneous issues one inevitably raises. But those were days when the direction was less driven by ideas about marketing.
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I thought I was well-read, but I assumed fifty-seven was a number picked out of thin air, or possibly a Heinz reference (I did get the rest of the joke).
This was about the only episode in the first half of the third season that I thought was any good, although fortunately things would improve in the second half.
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