Doctor Who: 15 Real Historical Characters The Doctor Has Met
13. William Shakespeare (Twice)
Like our previous entry, the Bard's first appearance in Doctor Who occurred as part of the simply weird Hartnell era episode 'The Chase', but thankfully this is not his only appearance on the show. Shakespeare's first encounter with the Doctor occurred in the second episode of the third series of the modern era of Who in 'The Shakespeare Code'.
The episode takes a lot of liberties with the character's portrayal, Dean Lennox Kelly presenting Shakespeare as a mix between a lead singer in a rock band and Richard Branson. The whole thing didn't sit too well with many viewers, especially when thrown in with a convoluted script featuring actual witches.
The most disappointing aspect of the episode is that Shakespeare comes across as a bit of a git, a womaniser with very few redeeming qualities. Without Tennant's Doctor constantly telling us what a genius he is, the Bard just would have looked like a prat. The ending does undo some of the damage, a clever finale in which the new verses Shakespeare recites proves to be the undoing of the witches.
The banter between the Doctor and Shakespeare is fine, but the repeated gag of the Doctor stating a famous line from a play with Shakespeare retorting "that was good, I'll use that", gets tired quickly.