3.2: The Shakespeare Code
Synopsis: The Doctor brings Martha to London, 1599. William Shakespeare announces a new play, "Love's Labours Won," but the manuscript contains mysterious words that Shakespeare doesn't remember writing.
Aliens known as Carrionites are driving much of Shakespeare's actions and work. Their power comes from the number fourteen, and from the right words (like the way humans use mathematical equations to discover and accomplish things). In Shakespeare, they have found a boon - a human whose mind can create the right words for them. With "Love's Labours Won" the words will give them power enough to bring their entire race into being, and take over the planet.
As the play is being performed, the Carrionites begin to gather in the Globe, and the Doctor pushes Shakespeare to the front of the stage, insisting that he has the words to stop it. Fortunately, the Doctor is right, and Shakespeare's monologue confines the aliens.
As a coda, the Doctor and Martha run into Queen Elizabeth I, now in her 60's, and she is none too pleased to see the Doctor, and in fact, attemps to have him beheaded. Our heroes escape, the Doctor having absolutely no idea what has made the Queen so angry...
Golden Comic Moment: We realize that we've already pointed this out, and have gone down this Golden Comic road with Rose's atrocious Scottish accent, but it's such a cute running joke (to us, anyway), that we have to point it out again. When Martha first meets Shakespeare, in spite of the fact that he speaks to her in "modern" English (perhaps the TARDIS feels the need to translate even Elizabethan language), she tries to pick up what she perceives must be the lingo of the era. "Verily. Forsooth, egads!" she says. The Doctor looks at her sideways, and mutters, "No, no, don't do that. Don't." And in fact, this is the very scene in which the Doctor states that he hates starting from scratch, and we are reminded that it's tricky sometimes living in the Doctor's world.
Though being Martha fans, we're also constantly reminded throughout this episode, starting at this moment, that the Doctor is hyper-aware that she is not Rose.
Golden Fangirl Moment: When Lilith, the strangely attractive Carrionite, threatens to turn the Earth into an empire of blood, the Doctor tells her that she'll have to get past him in order to do it. Lilith sidles up very, very close and coos, "Oh, that should be a pleasure, considering my enemy has such a handsome shape," while stroking his perfectly-sculpted sideburns.
This could be considered the Golden Fangirl moment for two reasons.
1) Because it's always interesting to consider what happens when the hero's adversary wants to shag him, or vice versa. This is an area of the fandom that would be beaten to death later in the season with the appearance of the Master, as though it was the first time the concept had been explored. Well, hardly! In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom (of which I am a lifetime card-carrier, but is admittedly a more adult-oriented series than is Doctor Who), it is a phenomenon, a question, a dalliance which pervades the entire series, from the moment when it is first revealed that Angel is a vampire. A little devil inside us wants to see him and Buffy get it on even when he's evil! And it's pervasive because it's hot! Hate and passion are both a kind of burning, and there is a truly thin line sometimes. It's all very well to long for the Doctor to shag his Companion, but a very small, normally concealed, perverse part of us really wants Lilith to lay a good snog on him at that moment, just to rattle his cage. You know he'd like it.
2) Because the Doctor responds to Lilith's pass with "now, that's one form of magic that's definitely not going to work on me." This gives us fodder for discussion. The Doctor's sex drive has always been ambiguous, rather hot-and-cold. As we've said, the Tenth Doctor can make no claim on having behaved particularly asexually, and Madame de Pompadour proved that he's not immune to being manipulated himself... so who does he think he's kidding?
Cringeworthy Moment: "There's something I'm missing, Martha. It's staring me right in the face and I can't see it. Rose would know. A friend of mine, Rose, right now, she'd say exactly the right thing. Still, can't be helped - you're a novice. Never mind. I'll take you back home tomorrow." Exhibit B in the case entitled The Doctor is a Blunt Instrument. A tool, if you will.
However, we have said before that in good storytelling, some cringing is good because it is evocative of emotional angst. This is not a random cringe that only we Martha fans happen to experience here, this moment was crafted as it is.
But on a completely different, less academic note, what the hell makes the Doctor think that Rose would know what's happening? If he doesn't understand how a human could generate and wield that kind of power, then how could he assert that "Rose would know?"
Golden Moment: When the Doctor, Martha and Shakespeare visit Peter Streete in Bedlam, Doomfinger the Carrionite appears and scares the bejeezus out of them. Even the Doctor, for a startled moment. Once Doomfinger kills Streete, however, it spurs him into action, and he begins metacogitating, thinking (shouting) aloud, doing the thing he does best. "There's a power in words... If I can find the right one, if I can just know you... Now, think, think think! Humanoid female, uses shapes and words to channel energy... Ah! Fourteen! That's it, fourteen! The fourteen stars of the Rexel planetary configuration! Creature, I name you: Carrionite!" which sends her screaming into some kind of violent ball of light. He tells Martha, "The power of a name, that's old magic." Horrified, Doomfinger tells her compatriots, "He knows us! He spoke our name!"
This is Golden because, again, it is what the Doctor does best. He processes, talks a hundred miles per hour, deduces, identifies, and then vanquishes. Sometimes it takes him a whole episode, and sometimes it takes him ten seconds. It's a fabulous moment, even though the Carrionite Doomfinger isn't exactly vanquished, only temporarily incapacitated. In some ways, this lies at the crux of the story, and is certainly a turning point for the Carrionites and their agenda.
And the Doctor is able to do this because he must share some kind of kindred understanding with the Carrionites. For, as much as Doctor Who is revealing of humanity, the fact remains that the hero at the centre of it is not human, and he himself is very much shrouded in mystery. Extraordinary as he is, he walks around with a non-descript title, and when he is asked to give a name, he chooses the most ordinary name imaginable: John Smith. Even though the naming is linked to the fact that the Carrionites use words as equations (spells), there is a similarity there with the Time Lord(s). There is a very similar scene in Forest of the Dead in the following season, when the Doctor is the one who yields to the power of the name. There is something, in this universe, about hitting our heroes and villains "where they live," as it were, by knowing their names, therefore knowing them.
As an extension of this Golden Moment, partly because I absolutely love Christina Cole's performance as Lilith, I will point out the effectiveness of, "As for you Sir Doctor... fascinating. There is no name. Why would a man hide his title in such despair? Oh, but look, there's still one word with a power that aches...your heart grows cold, the north wind blows and carries down the distant Rose." It's a beautiful delivery and a scene that deepens the Doctor's mystery - why don't we know his name? But then it all comes crashing down into stab-us-in-the-gut-with-Rose territory when the Doctor exclaims, "Oh, big mistake, 'cause that name keeps me fighting!"
Why I Beg to Differ: Bizarrely, DWM thinks that the moment when the two actors are in the Globe rehearsing Love's Labours Won and have no idea what Shakespeare meant when he wrote these words down, is Golden. The reasoning is that Shakespeare had the power to baffle the masses back then just as he does now, and that going along with the theme of the episode itself, Shakespeare knew better than anyone that words have more power than just their literal meaning.
Well, this is all too much of an academic response for me! Lest we forget that the series is about a deeply disturbed time traveller in a brown suit who fights aliens, not, finally, about Shakespeare. We know that we've pointed out many a time that the face-value of an episode is rarely "the point," but to take the Golden Moment of a Doctor Who episode and make it literally about the Bard on a wider scope is sort of missing the point altogether. Even our Golden Queen Victoria Moment last year was about the tragic human condition, not about the condition of the Queen herself.
So, we prefer to have our Golden Moments be Golden within the context of our series and our characters. And the Power of the Name is very, very relevant to the Doctor in the twenty-first century! Just ask Professor Song.
Aliens known as Carrionites are driving much of Shakespeare's actions and work. Their power comes from the number fourteen, and from the right words (like the way humans use mathematical equations to discover and accomplish things). In Shakespeare, they have found a boon - a human whose mind can create the right words for them. With "Love's Labours Won" the words will give them power enough to bring their entire race into being, and take over the planet.
As the play is being performed, the Carrionites begin to gather in the Globe, and the Doctor pushes Shakespeare to the front of the stage, insisting that he has the words to stop it. Fortunately, the Doctor is right, and Shakespeare's monologue confines the aliens.
As a coda, the Doctor and Martha run into Queen Elizabeth I, now in her 60's, and she is none too pleased to see the Doctor, and in fact, attemps to have him beheaded. Our heroes escape, the Doctor having absolutely no idea what has made the Queen so angry...
Golden Comic Moment: We realize that we've already pointed this out, and have gone down this Golden Comic road with Rose's atrocious Scottish accent, but it's such a cute running joke (to us, anyway), that we have to point it out again. When Martha first meets Shakespeare, in spite of the fact that he speaks to her in "modern" English (perhaps the TARDIS feels the need to translate even Elizabethan language), she tries to pick up what she perceives must be the lingo of the era. "Verily. Forsooth, egads!" she says. The Doctor looks at her sideways, and mutters, "No, no, don't do that. Don't." And in fact, this is the very scene in which the Doctor states that he hates starting from scratch, and we are reminded that it's tricky sometimes living in the Doctor's world.
Though being Martha fans, we're also constantly reminded throughout this episode, starting at this moment, that the Doctor is hyper-aware that she is not Rose.
Golden Fangirl Moment: When Lilith, the strangely attractive Carrionite, threatens to turn the Earth into an empire of blood, the Doctor tells her that she'll have to get past him in order to do it. Lilith sidles up very, very close and coos, "Oh, that should be a pleasure, considering my enemy has such a handsome shape," while stroking his perfectly-sculpted sideburns.
This could be considered the Golden Fangirl moment for two reasons.
1) Because it's always interesting to consider what happens when the hero's adversary wants to shag him, or vice versa. This is an area of the fandom that would be beaten to death later in the season with the appearance of the Master, as though it was the first time the concept had been explored. Well, hardly! In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom (of which I am a lifetime card-carrier, but is admittedly a more adult-oriented series than is Doctor Who), it is a phenomenon, a question, a dalliance which pervades the entire series, from the moment when it is first revealed that Angel is a vampire. A little devil inside us wants to see him and Buffy get it on even when he's evil! And it's pervasive because it's hot! Hate and passion are both a kind of burning, and there is a truly thin line sometimes. It's all very well to long for the Doctor to shag his Companion, but a very small, normally concealed, perverse part of us really wants Lilith to lay a good snog on him at that moment, just to rattle his cage. You know he'd like it.
2) Because the Doctor responds to Lilith's pass with "now, that's one form of magic that's definitely not going to work on me." This gives us fodder for discussion. The Doctor's sex drive has always been ambiguous, rather hot-and-cold. As we've said, the Tenth Doctor can make no claim on having behaved particularly asexually, and Madame de Pompadour proved that he's not immune to being manipulated himself... so who does he think he's kidding?
Cringeworthy Moment: "There's something I'm missing, Martha. It's staring me right in the face and I can't see it. Rose would know. A friend of mine, Rose, right now, she'd say exactly the right thing. Still, can't be helped - you're a novice. Never mind. I'll take you back home tomorrow." Exhibit B in the case entitled The Doctor is a Blunt Instrument. A tool, if you will.
However, we have said before that in good storytelling, some cringing is good because it is evocative of emotional angst. This is not a random cringe that only we Martha fans happen to experience here, this moment was crafted as it is.
But on a completely different, less academic note, what the hell makes the Doctor think that Rose would know what's happening? If he doesn't understand how a human could generate and wield that kind of power, then how could he assert that "Rose would know?"
Golden Moment: When the Doctor, Martha and Shakespeare visit Peter Streete in Bedlam, Doomfinger the Carrionite appears and scares the bejeezus out of them. Even the Doctor, for a startled moment. Once Doomfinger kills Streete, however, it spurs him into action, and he begins metacogitating, thinking (shouting) aloud, doing the thing he does best. "There's a power in words... If I can find the right one, if I can just know you... Now, think, think think! Humanoid female, uses shapes and words to channel energy... Ah! Fourteen! That's it, fourteen! The fourteen stars of the Rexel planetary configuration! Creature, I name you: Carrionite!" which sends her screaming into some kind of violent ball of light. He tells Martha, "The power of a name, that's old magic." Horrified, Doomfinger tells her compatriots, "He knows us! He spoke our name!"
This is Golden because, again, it is what the Doctor does best. He processes, talks a hundred miles per hour, deduces, identifies, and then vanquishes. Sometimes it takes him a whole episode, and sometimes it takes him ten seconds. It's a fabulous moment, even though the Carrionite Doomfinger isn't exactly vanquished, only temporarily incapacitated. In some ways, this lies at the crux of the story, and is certainly a turning point for the Carrionites and their agenda.
And the Doctor is able to do this because he must share some kind of kindred understanding with the Carrionites. For, as much as Doctor Who is revealing of humanity, the fact remains that the hero at the centre of it is not human, and he himself is very much shrouded in mystery. Extraordinary as he is, he walks around with a non-descript title, and when he is asked to give a name, he chooses the most ordinary name imaginable: John Smith. Even though the naming is linked to the fact that the Carrionites use words as equations (spells), there is a similarity there with the Time Lord(s). There is a very similar scene in Forest of the Dead in the following season, when the Doctor is the one who yields to the power of the name. There is something, in this universe, about hitting our heroes and villains "where they live," as it were, by knowing their names, therefore knowing them.
As an extension of this Golden Moment, partly because I absolutely love Christina Cole's performance as Lilith, I will point out the effectiveness of, "As for you Sir Doctor... fascinating. There is no name. Why would a man hide his title in such despair? Oh, but look, there's still one word with a power that aches...your heart grows cold, the north wind blows and carries down the distant Rose." It's a beautiful delivery and a scene that deepens the Doctor's mystery - why don't we know his name? But then it all comes crashing down into stab-us-in-the-gut-with-Rose territory when the Doctor exclaims, "Oh, big mistake, 'cause that name keeps me fighting!"
Why I Beg to Differ: Bizarrely, DWM thinks that the moment when the two actors are in the Globe rehearsing Love's Labours Won and have no idea what Shakespeare meant when he wrote these words down, is Golden. The reasoning is that Shakespeare had the power to baffle the masses back then just as he does now, and that going along with the theme of the episode itself, Shakespeare knew better than anyone that words have more power than just their literal meaning.
Well, this is all too much of an academic response for me! Lest we forget that the series is about a deeply disturbed time traveller in a brown suit who fights aliens, not, finally, about Shakespeare. We know that we've pointed out many a time that the face-value of an episode is rarely "the point," but to take the Golden Moment of a Doctor Who episode and make it literally about the Bard on a wider scope is sort of missing the point altogether. Even our Golden Queen Victoria Moment last year was about the tragic human condition, not about the condition of the Queen herself.
So, we prefer to have our Golden Moments be Golden within the context of our series and our characters. And the Power of the Name is very, very relevant to the Doctor in the twenty-first century! Just ask Professor Song.