Doctor Who: 9 Most Underrated Episodes Of The Revived Series
7. The Shakespeare Code (Series 3)
Fighting witches with Shakespeare. That had to be a Doctor Who episode at some point, didnt it? Yet it deserves a little more appreciation than it gets. The Shakespeare Code is packed to the brim with jokes, based on Shakespeares various plays, with the Bard unknowingly calling his own famous to be or not to be speech pretentious arguably the funniest line of the lot (at least, for anyone who's been forced to study Hamlet in a dusty classroom). While this humour element does become somewhat diminished after subsequent watches (jokes often arent as funny the second time), they do manage to increase the fun value, especially when watching it as a family and with people who know a little bit about Shakespeares life. Despite the dodgy prosthetics, theres also a fairly good performance from the central villain. Christina Cole, one of the stars of Hex, finds just the right balance of charm, threat and camp to make for an interesting adversary for the Doctor. Dean Lennox Kelly also puts in a solid performance as Shakespeare and David Tennant is at his peak as the Time Lord (a peak that lasts for a long, long time, admittedly), pulling off both the humour and the serious tones that the script requires and showcasing just how good a Doctor he is. Fans also got to explore the consequences of time travel in a condensed form, albeit through the use of a Back to the Future reference, when the Doctor tells us that everything in Earths history, post the 1500's, will change if the Carrionites win. This helps to widen the rules of the universe as well as upping the stakes of every historical adventure to come as we know that the Doctor has to win so our future doesnt ultimately change. This means that The Shakespeare Code is quite a valuable episode to watch for an further understanding of the show's mythology. It's also heaps of fun, too.
