DW 03-02: The Shakespeare Code

A Guide to Classic Who references (and other references) in new Who and spin-off episodes.

Doctor Who Series 3 episode 2 (Story 24):  Martha and the Doctor meet William Shakespeare.

Warning: May contain Spoilers for 

"The Shakespeare Code"

• Children in Need - "Born Again" or Christmas Special 2005 - "The Christmas Invasion" (Suggested viewing - reintroduction of character.)
• Doctor Who [3-01] - "Smith & Jones" (Suggested viewing - introduction of character.)

References

[OLD] - Things that first appeared in the classic series (or the film.)  Episode List.

For context, the following are also covered:
[1ST] -  The first appearance of things in Doctor Who series.
[NEW] - Things that first appeared previously in the new series.
[OTH] - Things that appear in Doctor Who novels, comics, audioplays, etc.
[REAL] - Things that are real (most will be skipped).

Ongoing References...

The following references were also made in previous episodes of Doctor Who and so are listed again here.  To get to the new references, skip ahead.

• [OLD]  The Doctor - The main character.  Real name: unknown; actual age: unclear.  Status as a Medical Doctor:  Undetermined.  He is a Time Lord from the Planet Gallifrey.
• [OLD]  The TARDIS - The Doctor's time and space travel vechicle.  TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space.  Like a lot of Time Lord technology it is "bigger on the inside."  The Doctor stole his Tardis when fleeing Gallifrey.  It is an older model ("Type 40") and unreliable, often ending up in the wrong location and the chamleon circuit - designed to make the Tardis appear inconspicuous in any surroundings it appears has failed so it always appears as a police telephone box from 1960s England.
• [NEW]  Psychic Paper - Used by the Doctor as fake ID, first appeared in the new Who episode "The End of the World."  It was used as a way to contact the Doctor in "New Earth."  At least one employee at Torchwood One was trained to recognise it as psychic paper in "Army of Ghosts."
• [OLD]  Time Lord Telepathy - The First Doctor displayed limited telepathy (he told Ian that he sometimes knows what Ian's thinking) in "The Sensorites" (Season 1). Various incarnations of the Doctor had telepathic conferences in the Third Doctor story, "The Three Doctors," (Season 10) the Fifth Doctor story, "The Five Doctors," and possibly the Sixth Doctor story, "The Two Doctors."(Season 22) The Doctor used this form of touch telepathy on the Madam de Pompadour in "The Girl in the Fireplace."
• [OLD]  Two hearts - The fact that the Doctor had two hearts was first noted in "Spearhead in Space" (Season 7) the Third Doctor's first story.  Previously it seemed that the First and Second Doctor only had one heart.  Since then it is usually implied that Time Lords always have two hearts (with early references being retroactively regarded as goofs) although some non-televised sources claim that Time Lords have only a single heart in their first body (or the number changes).  Other non-televised sources state that the First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan actually had two hearts.   In the new Who episode "Dalek" Henry Van Statten discovered that the Ninth Doctor had two hearts and in "Smith & Jones" Martha made the same discovery.

 This episode...

• [OLD]  William Shakespeare - In the first episode of the First Doctor serial "The Chase" (Season 2) the Doctor fixes the Time Space Visualiser from the Moroks' Space Museum ("The Space Museum (Season 2)), allowing then companion Barbara Wright to view Queen Elisabeth I's court.  The incident they see is Shakespeare being brought before the Queen to discuss the character of Falstaff.  The Queen suggests Shakespeare writes "Falstaff in love" (The Merry Wives of Windsor) and Sir Francis Bacon suggests Hamlet.  In "Planet of Evil" the Fourth Doctor tells Sarah Jane Smith that he had met Shakespeare (but he was a terrible actor) and then in "City of Death" (Season 17) the he claims to have known Shakespeare as a boy and recognises his own handwriting on the first draft of Hamlet, claiming that Shakespeare dictated it to the Doctor after Shakespeare strained his wrist.  The Sixth Doctor remarks that he should visit Shakespeare again in "Mark of the Rani" (Season 22).

• [OLD]  Sir Doctor - A robot shape-changer, disguised as King John knighted the Doctor as "Sir Doctor." ("The King's Demon" (Season 20))  "Sir Doctor of Tardis" is title that Queen Victoria gave the Doctor in "Tooth & Claw" (280 years after this episode is set).  Coincidentally, the Doctor told Rose not to try to talk like the locals in that episode, too.

• [1ST]  Venusian Spearmint - First reference.  The Doctor's granddaughter, Susan, did tell Ping-Cho that Venus has metal seas in the First Doctor story "Marco Polo" (Season 1), but that's neither here nor there.

• [1ST]  Carrionite - First appearance of this race.

• [OLD]  The Eternals - Appeared previously in the Fifth Doctor story "Enlightenment." (Season 20)   The Guardians of Time offered Enlightenment to the Eternals who one a race through space.  In "Army of Ghosts" the Doctor mentions that the Eternals call the Void "The Howling."

• [NEW]  The Sycorax - The Sycorax were the aliens in "The Christmas Invasion."  In Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" Sycorax is Caliban's dead mother, a witch and former owner of the island that Prospero lives on.

• [OLD]  Queen Elizabeth I - Look, I covered her already in the William Shakespeare entry, above.  The Third Doctor (in "The Mind of Evil" (Season 8)) mentions sharing a cell with Sir Walter Raleigh after Raleigh got into some trouble with Queen Elizabeth.  He doesn't mention why he was in in the cell or if he had met the Queen himself.

~ DUG.

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The Time Crash blog was created to help New Who fans understand Classic Who references - and to know if something isn't a reference but a new idea.  If there's a reference I missed or a subject that you feel needs more explaining, please comment.