Written by: Gareth Roberts
Directed by: Charles Palmer
This is an odd episode, it feels like it could have been more than it was. The focus on magic feels a lot like the approach taken in the latest series, and I think there’s definitely something there but I’m still not quite sure what the witches were meant to be doing.
The witches themselves felt to cartoony. The makeup looked far too stereotypical, and the hissing and gesturing reminded me in a bad way of the early depictions of ferengi as these weird cave goblins rather than scheming powerful beings.
Martha has the opportunity to be great in this episode. Shes even presented as very cultured enjoying theatre. but after the episode briefly touches on medicine of the time, bedlam, even race, theres not a whole lot there. She does get a few med community jokes in like “I work the late shift”, which is a nice way to set her to as less squeamish than some other companions.
Some parts are alright. Tennant is a Shakespeare actor so it’s fun watching it in kind of a meta way. The general concept of language and magic as an alternative to science is good, and I did like the doctor trying to hide that fact to prevent unrest when the man drowns. We get introduced to another of 10s upset royals, which is a nice running joke. A line or two imply that Shakespeare may be bi, which feels on topic. The CGI scenes are decent.
But none of these things are given a lot of time to shine as the central important part of the episode. So a lot going on, but maybe not enough of a focus for the episode.
I’m still not quite sure what the witches were meant to be doing.
They really are just stereotypical witches doing stereotypical things, aren’t they?
The Sycorax blood magic in “The Christmas Invasion” was a much better execution of the idea - equally vague in motivation, but at least it had some flair.
I was prepared to come in with a half-assed gag about how this is one of the episodes of all time…but I disliked it even more than I remembered.
It’s not silly enough to be a romp, and it’s not scary enough to be a horror (despite seeming like a Halloween episode, this one apparently aired in April). It doesn’t really engage with the time period or Shakespeare himself in a meaningful way. It’s just blandly there, for the most part.
It’s not very kind to Martha. The Doctor dismisses her concerns about being a Black woman in Elizabethan London. She doesn’t get to do any meaningful doctoring, which would have given her some agency in the story. They didn’t even make her a theatre nerd - she seems to have about as much familiarity with Shakespeare as the average person. But hey, she got to feel sad about the Doctor being hung up on Rose. Character development.
Shakespeare himself doesn’t get much, either - I actually think his initial “rock star” introduction is pretty fun, but he’s little more than a series of gags after that. Much is made about his genius, and his grief over losing Hamnet, but neither comes through in the writing or performance.
Sprinkle in too many references to Rowling that have aged like milk, and we’ve got an episode that I have no desire to revisit again any time soon.
I was anticipating the painful jk jokes. I do think that the ‘just wait until you read book 7’ line was actually a really good sci fi time travel joke. But aside from the obvious association with Rowling, it also dates the show unnecessarily because it picked a book that was obviously going to be released at some point.
