S3E02: The Shakespeare Code

Let's start with a correction: this was the first script outing for Gareth Roberts, who wrote The Sarah Jane Adventures pilot, and it was pretty solid.

He says Martha's not replacing Rose but Her first two trips are into history to meet a famous writer and the furthest into the future that the Doctor has ever been - the exact same moves He put on Rose two years ago. Smooth.

Elizabethan England looks fab but I'm glad we don't have Smell-O-Vision.

Never mind what the natives will make of a black woman in 1599... what do they think about a blue box materialising in a busy street? Is it supposed to be cloaked like the elevator in Torchwood?

"No autographs, no, you can't have yourself sketched with me and please don't ask where I get my ideas from."

Martha knows about the grandfather paradox and the butterfly effect but She's never heard of Bedlam? Methinks that line was written for Rose.

Super Hans from Peep Show is the architect of The Globe! Is that mead a bit more-ish?

I could have slapped Him for hurting Her feelings in the bedroom scene. But it rang true that He was completely oblivious to the intimacy of the situation and all the consummation going on around Him because He had more important things on His mind.

If the flying C.G.I. things are what the Carrionites really look like and they can disguise as human if they want to, what's the deal with choosing to half-transform into witches?

"How to explain the mechanics of the infinite temporal flux? I know: Back To The Future. It's like Back To The Future."

Letting Shakespeare use "Sycorax" in his work after the writing team borrowed it from The Tempest for an alien race in 2005 was a nice touch. There was dialogue fun all episode for anyone clued up on Shakey.

The deliberately unresolved ending with Queen Elizabeth was reminiscent of Queen Victoria last year. That came back to bite Him in the ass and I expect this will too. At least, it (along with last week's little stunt) is whetting the appetite for more time paradox malarkey by season's end.

Next week it's a Fifth Element-style future New York with Ardal O'Hanlan and the rumoured return of a monster last seen in 1967. No flipping!