Creators and Cast:

• Written by Gareth Roberts
• Directed by Charles Palmer
• Episode Cast:
  • David Tennant ... The Doctor
  • Freema Agyeman ... Martha Jones
  • Dean Lennox Kelly ... Shakespeare
  • Christina Cole ... Lilith
  • Sam Marks ... Wiggins
  • Amanda Lawrence ... Doomfinger
  • Linda Clark ... Bloodtide

Official Summary:

For Martha's first trip in the TARDIS, the Doctor takes her back in time, to Elizabethan England.

When they find William Shakespeare under the control of deadly witchlike creatures, they must battle forces from the dawn of the universe to stop history being changed for ever.

Key Moments:

Dean Lennox Kelly (from Shameless) makes a great Shakespeare, and his earthiness gives the Doctor, who's back in fanboy mode (as in "The Unquiet Dead," where he met a more erudite Charles Dickens), an amusing shock. Pleasantly, the show occasionally deals with the fact that Martha is black without making any kind of big deal about it: Here, visiting 17th-century London, she wonders whether she should worry about being carted off as property. The Doctor tells her to walk around as if she owns the place, which works for him. He's still mooning over Rose, though this may be meant as a challenge to get Martha to step up.

Doctor Backstory Revelation:

The Doctor says he cried when he read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which hadn't come out yet when the episode originally aired). This revelation is slightly less goofy than the climax, in which Martha helps Shakespeare banish the witches by shouting Expelliarmus!

All righty then.

Fun Guest Alien Factoid:

The Carrionites, who use words the way humans use numbers to organize and control nature, were banished from populated worlds by the Eternals (last seen in the Fifth Doctor episode "Enlightenment" but recently mentioned last year in "Army of Ghosts").

Season 3 Mister Saxon Reference:

None.

Bottom Line: Worth Watching?:

As a sort of sequel to "The Unquiet Dead," this is a nice depiction of the Doctor getting excited about geniuses other than himself. This episode opens the door to a rational explanation of letting magic "work," which might or might not be a good thing.