The Shakespeare Code

This is my Whosday; as this very day was this episode born. Give me thy ear, listener. Be thou my witness as we talk about Series 3, Episode 2: the Shakespeare Code!

[@DigiRangerScott]

Now this is gonna be a climax to listen for! Because ohhhhh boy 2007 we’ve got some bad news

[@JackChristmas]

Lovely episode. Hearing Shakespearian Daleks makes me really want Ian Doescher to do a "William Shakespeare's Doctor Who", like he's done with Star Wars and other properties. Come on, BBC, make it happen. The unfortunate kicker to the whole JK Rowling thing: the writer of this episode Gareth Roberts is also an open transphobe. His reputation has sunk so low that he was planned to have a story in a Doctor Who short story collection a few years back, but he was taken off it because other writers on the book threatened to withdraw their contributions. So we may think of "Good old JK!" as poorly aged, but if Roberts were writing the episode today not only would he leave it in, he'd probably crowbar in the Doctor crediting Rowling as a feminist icon for "fighting to protect women and girls from males invading their spaces" or some crap. (Of course if he wrote that today then Russell T Davies would edit it out, I'd hope.) It's a shame because Roberts is queer himself and he's written some good Who over the years, including the Shada novelisation, but good riddance.