William Shakespeare

Played by Dean Lennox Kelly

"All these years I've been the cleverest man around. Next to you, I know nothing... It's marvellous"

Widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in human history, William Shakespeare was a playwright who first met the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones in Elizabethan England after they attended a performance of 'Love's Labour's Lost' in 1599.

Following a string of mysterious deaths and witch sightings, Shakespeare helped the Doctor uncover the dark secrets behind the design of the Globe Theatre. Eventually, he discovered his own role in the plan of three Carrionites (Mother Doomfinger, Mother Bloodtide and Lilith) to free the rest of their race from the Deep Darkness, take over the Earth and establish the Millennium of Blood. Having had his words weaponised and finally understanding their true power, Shakespeare defeated the Carrionites by improvising a verse to banish back into the Darkness.

Dramatic and passionate, he was a terrible flirt, swiftly making Martha his new muse. He quickly deduced that the Doctor was not human but an alien traveller in time and space, and they parted on friendly terms, recognising one another as equal intellects.