#The Shakespeare Code

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

David Tennant talks about filming Good Omens and Doctor Who at the Globe

David Tennant at Fan Expo Dallas 2024, 9.6.2024

Fan: Two of your most iconic roles, the Doctor and Crowley, they have scenes that span all of history, and I was just wondering, what was your favourite historical era to portray yourself in and why for both characters?

David: Well, both characters got to visit Shakespeare's Globe, and both times we got to film in Shakespeare's Globe, which exists in London - for anyone who wants to know - they rebuilt the theatre that Shakespeare would have performed in with his company of players, it's been rebuilt in the banks of the Thames, close towhere it would have been, and it's been rebuilt in as much historical detail as possible. And it now runs as a theatre. It's got a full cycle of plays. You can go to London tomorrow and se a show there. And as a set to film on it's the most extraordinary thing. It's completely realised. So you stand in this kind of circular place and you look around and you're in Elizabethan England. It's fantastic. So we got to film there on Doctor Who, which was wonderful, and we got to for Good Omens as well. So both those characters were filming those scenes which were supposed to take place in that time in the most extraordinary sense, that could never be... no production would be able to make it in such extraordinary detail. That was a real treat. So that was for both of those characters that would be... for me I'd say that was the most kind of immersive experience anyway.

[notyoujamie]

[greeneyed-thestral]

Doctor Who 3x02 | Staged 1x01

[crookedfivefingers]

Doctor Who | S3E2 | The Shakespeare Code

[ohmerricat]

the Carrionites from the shakespeare code are really a fascinating concept to examine in light of The Post Salt-Line Era (disclaimer: i don’t like the episode as a whole for obvious reasons). powerful witches from the before-times, applying word-magic as a science. words that rhyme or sentences constructed with a specific intent have enough power to stop one of a timelord’s hearts and potentially open a space-time portal. something to keep in mind vis a vis the repeated wordsmithing motif we’ve got going on in s14: spoor “that’s a nice word”; smelted “i’ve never used that before”; ruby was was foundled “what a funny word, foundled”; semperdistans.

if ruby really is a changeling… much as to the carrionites (who were evidently modelled after historical witchcraft folklore), words hold tremendous power to the fae. that’s why there’s all this mythology of faeries “stealing names”: to them, there is no difference between signifier and signified, between a word and the real-life object that word represents, so a name is the person’s actual identity, their personhood itself.

therefore, if ruby really is a faerie child, it makes total sense for her to accidentally be affecting reality through verbal expression in the way she’s been doing throughout the whole series. in space babies, she mentions star trek and suddenly the crew appear in star trek esque uniforms. in the devil’s chord, she mentions strictly come dancing and suddenly they’re dancing opposite two strictly judges. obviously, her word-magic comes to a head in 73 yards: she reads out “i miss you” on the clifftop and the doctor disappears. she reads out “rest in peace, mad jack” and in 20 years gwylliam’s up there on the screen calling himself mad jack (we can presume the original note wasn’t about gwylliam, but an actual villager called jack). ruby speaking messages out loud manifests them into reality. she’s got faerie blood.

[thirdeyeblue]

The Shakespeare Code

Doctor Who | Series 3, Episode 2

[cactiaintracist]

Time travel tropes/concepts in Doctor Who:

Stepping on a butterfly

Grandfather paradox

Living proof

The Shakespeare Code (2007) // Space Babies & the Devil’s Chord (2024)

[casasupernovas]

is there any better summary of the doctor in s3 than when martha asks him what their sleeping arrangements are going to be in 'the shakespeare code' considering they only just met and the doctor replies that they'll manage...and proceeds to PLONK himself right in the MIDDLE of the bed.

[katoska]

I guess the Doctor just didn't walk around like he owned the place well enough this time around.

[legok9]

When the Doctor is played by a Scottish actor, their companion asks about the Butterfly Effect

The Fearmonger (2000):

The Shakespeare Code (2007):

Thin Ice (2017):

Space Babies (2024):

[starscream1998]

Recent Doctor Who episode really said "actually no some people really can't and shouldn't be saved" and it was exactly the kind of biting episode I needed from this era. Also Doctor, you owe Martha another apology. "Just walk about like you own the place." Yeah doesn't seem to be that straightforward in your current body does it now Doc?

[generalmelchett]

it really made me laugh (because I'm a loser) that Disney Doctor responded to Ruby saying the world can't end in the past by taking her back to the TARDIS, then to the same spot in the future to show her the destroyed Earth against the vastness of space to demonstrate that even though she exists now, the world could still end in 1963. I laughed because it reminded me of basically the same conversation that takes place in season 3, where the Doctor asked Martha ‘have you seen back to the future?’ while they kept walking through Elizabethan London.

I think it illustrates an interesting bit of the budget disparity. Not only do they have the money for new, big, expensive sets and monsters and special effects, but they can also apply all of that to the repeating, necessary conversations the Doctor has to have with the companions.

I can see that way of 'showing and not telling' it's more expensive, definitely. But the thing is, I don't know if it's any better? Maybe I am simply an old lady.

[notyoujamie]

Guess what I've got, Donna?

[doctorwhogirlie]

Doctor Who - The Shakespeare Code

[crookedfivefingers]

I love how Ten is obsessed with Shakespeare; a total fanboy throughout this entire episode

To the point that he's feeding the man lines left and right

Then, to bring it all together, we find out that this iconic sonnet—one he's likely read ten thousand times—was about his new mate Martha all along

And my dude is stunned

[jamiethenerd]

this scene was my roman empire