Martha's first real adventure takes the Tardis back to Elizabethan London, for a fun and expensive looking episode that's chock full of in-jokes.
The Doctor (David Tennant) takes Martha (Freema Agyeman) to the Globe theatre for a performance of Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost. They are surprised when the man himself (Dean Lennox Kelly) appears on stage and announces that tomorrow night, they will put on the sequel, the now missing Love's Labours Won. Further investigations reveal that three 'witches' are influencing the writer and trying to bring a conquering army to our realm.
In an interesting parallel to his time with Rose, The Doctor again takes his companion on her first trip into history back to meet a famous author, indeed, there is lots of talk about Rose, particularly some blunt scenes when an oblivious Doctor tells Martha that Rose would have spotted the problem straight away. Gareth Roberts would become a regular writer for the show throughout the Davies and Moffatt era's and you can see why, based on a well written episode that ties in some real life historical situations, with some clever dialogue using lots of literary quotes and playing in the Doctors continuing grief over the loss of Rose and not quite being able to see Martha as anything other than a temporary replacement.
The visual effects for the witches was really well done, and there's some nice "Evil Dead" like movements in their reveals at the beginning, there's quite a large dressed set for the episode which is decent too, as well as interiors for Bedlam and some shooting inside the actual recreated Globe theatre in Southwark. The CGI work, with the witches flying and the cataclysmic portal over the Globe are nicely done too.
Overall it was a solid, amusing addition, even if the villains are a little underwhelming.
The Doctor (David Tennant) takes Martha (Freema Agyeman) to the Globe theatre for a performance of Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost. They are surprised when the man himself (Dean Lennox Kelly) appears on stage and announces that tomorrow night, they will put on the sequel, the now missing Love's Labours Won. Further investigations reveal that three 'witches' are influencing the writer and trying to bring a conquering army to our realm.
In an interesting parallel to his time with Rose, The Doctor again takes his companion on her first trip into history back to meet a famous author, indeed, there is lots of talk about Rose, particularly some blunt scenes when an oblivious Doctor tells Martha that Rose would have spotted the problem straight away. Gareth Roberts would become a regular writer for the show throughout the Davies and Moffatt era's and you can see why, based on a well written episode that ties in some real life historical situations, with some clever dialogue using lots of literary quotes and playing in the Doctors continuing grief over the loss of Rose and not quite being able to see Martha as anything other than a temporary replacement.
The visual effects for the witches was really well done, and there's some nice "Evil Dead" like movements in their reveals at the beginning, there's quite a large dressed set for the episode which is decent too, as well as interiors for Bedlam and some shooting inside the actual recreated Globe theatre in Southwark. The CGI work, with the witches flying and the cataclysmic portal over the Globe are nicely done too.
Overall it was a solid, amusing addition, even if the villains are a little underwhelming.