The Shakespeare Code

Information

Writer: Gareth Roberts
Director: Charles Palmer
Script Editor: Simon Winstone
Producer: Phil Collinson
Executive Producer(s): Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner

Originally Broadcast: 7th April 2007
Duration: 45 mins
Viewing Figures (in millions): 7.23m
Production Code: 3.2
Monsters/Villains: Carrionites
Year Set: 1599
Location: London, Earth


Synopsis

For Martha's first trip in the Tardis, the Doctor takes her back in time, to Elizabethan England, as the third series of Russell T Davies's Doctor Who continues.

When they find William Shakespeare under the control of deadly witch-like creatures, they must battle forces from the dawn of the universe to stop history being changed for ever.

Cast

The Doctor – David Tennant

Martha Jones – Freema Agyeman

Shakespeare - Dean Lennox Kelly

Lilith - Christina Cole

Wiggins - Sam Marks

Doomfinger - Amanda Lawrence

Bloodtide - Linda Clark

Dick - Jalaal Hartley

Kempe - David Westhead

Dolly Bailey - Andree Bernard

Lynley - Chris Larkin

Jailer - Stephen Marcus

Peter Streete - Matt King

Preacher - Roger Demeger

Queen Elizabeth - Angela Pleasence

Monster File: The Carrionites

Home Planet: Rexel 4
Life Form: Witch-Like Humanoid

The true form of a Carrionite resembled a female with wrinkled skin and large clawed hands, with sharp canine teeth. However, Carrionites could assume a near-Human form, and the Carrionite Lilith was able to assume the form of a beautiful young woman. Carrionites could fly, dematerialise and rematerialise at will, communicate with other Carrionites from a distance and use voodoo dolls to cause odd deaths in enemies. Though their abilities were described as witchcraft, it was actually based on a word-based science, as opposed to the mathematics of most species. This technology relied on the right words and the right places, such as the Carrionite's use of Globe Theatre's structure. The Carrionites waged a war on a species called the Hervoken who had similar powers. However, the Eternals banished them and the Hervoken to the Deep Darkness. Several billion years later in the late 1500s, a group of three - Bloodtide, Doomfinger and Lilith - escaped using words of power from the plays of William Shakespeare, partly the result of the writer's grief at the death of his son. They influenced the design of the 14-sided Globe Theatre, based on the planets of their star system, and planned to use his new play, Love's Labours Won, to free the rest of their race from the Darkness and take over Earth, to establish the "Millennium of Blood". The last few lines of the play were written by Shakespeare in a trance to be a spell said by one of the cast of the play to open a portal from the Deep Darkness to this universe. The portal was closed and the race of witches and all copies of Love's Labours Won vanished into the Darkness, thanks to the Doctor.

Preceded by: Smith and Jones - Followed by: Gridlock