Doctor Who 3.2: The Shakespeare Code
Apr. 9th, 2007 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayOut of the cut, I can promise that this episode was a fun ride. Inside the cut...
This episode was, at heart, a fun romp and I loved it for that. It was supposed to give us Martha's first proper adventure and just be tremendous fun and it completely fulfilled those purposes. I haven't done a re-watch yet, but I don't think that it was designed to be any kind of deep and meaningful thing and that's the way I watched it.
Having said that, there was one moment that said quite a bit about Martha and the Doctor's growing relationship. It was the scene on the bed, with Martha being rather flirty and the Doctor just failing to notice and managing to say everything wrong. For me, this was a scene that showed Martha that she's not yet become an important part of his life and emphasises how much the Doctor is still holding onto Rose. I have a feeling that the theme of the next couple of episodes will be waking the Doctor up to the fact that life is going on and he needs to find a new human to be attached to. I didn't see the scene as a shippery one, although I'm sure the Martha/Doctor shippers will, but more of a sad moment with two people who aren't quite connecting yet. That lack of connection is, I think, due to the Doctor and it's going to be interesting for me to watch how that pans out.
With the Doctor and Rose, there was this instant bond between them that only strengthened and it was something they were both aware of. With the Doctor and Martha, I think it's going to be the kind of friendship that takes a while to develop and neither of them will be completely aware of it until something forces them.
I think in large part this is due to the character of Martha: she's happy with her life as it is, fulfilled, and going along with the Doctor to see what's out there. She's only seeing this as a temporary thing, though, and she'll go back to her life happily while Rose was looking for a way out of her life.
It's going to be interesting.
As for the episode: fun romp sums it up and I adored it. I loved the idea of Shakespeare as a sixteenth century rock god type. The fact that we know so little about him, as pointed out in the Confidential, gives us a lot of leeway to imagine almost anything and I loved the fact that the writers took that idea and ran with it. The idea that he's one of the greatest genius' for words that the world has ever seen, so great that aliens want to use that power, was also great fun.
And when you think about it, there is a point there. What separated Shakespeare from all the other playwrights of his time? Why is it his works that we still study, perform and re-work? Many of his subjects weren't original ideas and he plundered history in rather the same manner that Dumas did two and a bit centuries later. It's his words that we remember, though, and it has to be the genius of the man that gave us those words.
Aside from my literary pomposity...
As soon as I spotted the three witches at the start, I knew this would be a terrifically fun episode. I'm not that up on my Shakespeare chronology, but I have no doubt that this was set before he wrote MacBeth with its three witches :-) The exchange of lines between the Doctor and Shakespeare, although corny in places, was in keeping with the pitch of the episode and some of them left my family and I calling out plays (and playwrights) trying to work out where they all came from. Always fun :-)
Everyone seems to have enjoyed making this episode, particularly the actor playing Shakespeare, and that really came through in their performances. I also loved the idea of the aliens needing words to be free.
I am wondering whether there is some theme building up here. The aliens from the Runaway Bride were also from the dawn of the universe: is this going to be where this season's really big bad comes from, too? And if so, what has been releasing these creatures?
Hmm...
Anyway, really fun episode and I liked it. Which means next week will probably be rather distressing and tense :-)
This episode was, at heart, a fun romp and I loved it for that. It was supposed to give us Martha's first proper adventure and just be tremendous fun and it completely fulfilled those purposes. I haven't done a re-watch yet, but I don't think that it was designed to be any kind of deep and meaningful thing and that's the way I watched it.
Having said that, there was one moment that said quite a bit about Martha and the Doctor's growing relationship. It was the scene on the bed, with Martha being rather flirty and the Doctor just failing to notice and managing to say everything wrong. For me, this was a scene that showed Martha that she's not yet become an important part of his life and emphasises how much the Doctor is still holding onto Rose. I have a feeling that the theme of the next couple of episodes will be waking the Doctor up to the fact that life is going on and he needs to find a new human to be attached to. I didn't see the scene as a shippery one, although I'm sure the Martha/Doctor shippers will, but more of a sad moment with two people who aren't quite connecting yet. That lack of connection is, I think, due to the Doctor and it's going to be interesting for me to watch how that pans out.
With the Doctor and Rose, there was this instant bond between them that only strengthened and it was something they were both aware of. With the Doctor and Martha, I think it's going to be the kind of friendship that takes a while to develop and neither of them will be completely aware of it until something forces them.
I think in large part this is due to the character of Martha: she's happy with her life as it is, fulfilled, and going along with the Doctor to see what's out there. She's only seeing this as a temporary thing, though, and she'll go back to her life happily while Rose was looking for a way out of her life.
It's going to be interesting.
As for the episode: fun romp sums it up and I adored it. I loved the idea of Shakespeare as a sixteenth century rock god type. The fact that we know so little about him, as pointed out in the Confidential, gives us a lot of leeway to imagine almost anything and I loved the fact that the writers took that idea and ran with it. The idea that he's one of the greatest genius' for words that the world has ever seen, so great that aliens want to use that power, was also great fun.
And when you think about it, there is a point there. What separated Shakespeare from all the other playwrights of his time? Why is it his works that we still study, perform and re-work? Many of his subjects weren't original ideas and he plundered history in rather the same manner that Dumas did two and a bit centuries later. It's his words that we remember, though, and it has to be the genius of the man that gave us those words.
Aside from my literary pomposity...
As soon as I spotted the three witches at the start, I knew this would be a terrifically fun episode. I'm not that up on my Shakespeare chronology, but I have no doubt that this was set before he wrote MacBeth with its three witches :-) The exchange of lines between the Doctor and Shakespeare, although corny in places, was in keeping with the pitch of the episode and some of them left my family and I calling out plays (and playwrights) trying to work out where they all came from. Always fun :-)
Everyone seems to have enjoyed making this episode, particularly the actor playing Shakespeare, and that really came through in their performances. I also loved the idea of the aliens needing words to be free.
I am wondering whether there is some theme building up here. The aliens from the Runaway Bride were also from the dawn of the universe: is this going to be where this season's really big bad comes from, too? And if so, what has been releasing these creatures?
Hmm...
Anyway, really fun episode and I liked it. Which means next week will probably be rather distressing and tense :-)
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-09 06:16 pm (UTC)I picked up a copy of LLL in Blackwell's this afternoon, and had a look at the chronology. It was interesting to see that LLL was actually written in 1594, and another 6 plays were produced by 1599 (and yes, it does predate Macbeth by a couple of years).
Somebody else (
no subject
Date: 2007-04-11 11:29 am (UTC)I hoped I was right about Macbeth :-)
You're right about Rose, she would have said absolutely the wrong or inappropriate thing then. She probably would have made a comment about being boring at school and followed it up with comments of a personal nature about Shakespeare :-)
I think that either the Doctor will keep pushing the Rose stories until Martha snaps (and I'm joing in the wish to see Martha yell over that *g*) or something will happen to Martha that will wake the Doctor up. It's got to be one or the other, I think.
Temeraire
Date: 2007-04-11 11:40 am (UTC)So far, I'm about a third of the way in, and have had an utter laugh-out-loud moment (which even pTerry doesn't get out of me very often), at the introduction of the second dragon, and the revelation that Temaraire's intelligence is unusual. I just love the image of a dragon having a blonde moment, and sitting there saying "Uh, like, whatever!"
Re: Temeraire
Date: 2007-04-11 03:08 pm (UTC)That didn't amuse me when I was trying to find the third book a couple of weeks ago - particularly as I was able to pick up a copy in Waterstones down the road *sigh*
I love that little courier dragon :-) I have the same laough out loud reaction every time it appears! There's a little dragon in the third book that also made me LOL :-) I think that's one of the things I love about the Temeraire books - the ideas are solid, the writing is great and she keeps you right there in the story, but it's the characters that really finish it off for me. They make me care about the story and what's happening and she gives the dragons quite individual personalities.
Hope you enjoy the rest of the book :-))