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I had pretty low expectations going into this one, but it actually ended up being rather enjoyable. Most of the references to Shakespeare's plays went over my head, but I liked the pop culture references, like when the Doctor used Back to the Future as an example of how time is in flux.

I didn't like the witch make-up though. It looked kind of cheesy.

Maybe. I still think the witches didn't look effective. Not that they had to be more hideous or scary or whatever. I just didn't want them to look so... fake. razz

Queen Liz reminded me of Davros, for some reason. I hope someday we'll see what the Doctor did to piss her off. Then again, I'm still waiting to see the terrible Zodin...

Another passing reference to the Eternals in this episode. Last mentioned in Army of Ghosts. A bit of foreshadowing, perhaps?

Yeah, the quote in AoG was: "Imagine that. Nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down. No life. No time. Without end. My people call it the void, the Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it hell".

This week it was...
Doctor: The Carrionites vanished. Where did you go?
Lilith: The Eternals found the right word to banish us into deep darkness...

Interesting that both times the Eternals are mentioned, it's in relation to the darkness (the Void or whatever).

I loved it, but sat there twitching at points all the same.

whee I knew they wouldn't pass up a chance to comment on Shakespeare's sexuality. But if they'd been doing that they might as well have been more stringent in their use of "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?". I didn't like the idea of Martha as the dark lady, though I thought it was clever, and that sonnet was directed to a young man! Talk about recycling. D;

I've been studying Shakespeare for school, so I'm just being nitpicky.

AHA! That's RIGHT! I did notice that. lol This is just going to rile up all those "LET'S BRING ROSE BACK" people. XD

I thought this was a good episode, but the fast-pacedness of the show today makes telling a good concise full-circle story impossible. Im sure an extra 15 minutes of screentime could have made this story a Doctor Who gem. But now the Doctor knows-all. He comes on scene, and instantly knows whats going on and how to solve it. We never stop to think. The Doctor never has to work it out... theres always a quick fix. That's weak. crying

The explanations to the witch's powers was nothing more than a fob-off. The use fo a voodoo doll was a simple terminology recite with no conenction to its use in the story at all.

So this gets a 4/5 for the script defects.

(Im a scriptwriter and so I notice little things like this)

That was pretty fun! Oh, and by the way, Love's Labour's Won! Found it yesterday while looking up all sorts of things about Hamlet, the First Folio, and Shakespeare apocrypha.