The Shakespeare Code apparent ontological paradox by inspiring Shakespeare to borrow phrases that the Doctor quotes from his plays. Examples of this include the Doctor telling Shakespeare that "all the world's a stage" (from "As You Like It") and "the play's the thing" (from "Hamlet"), as well as the name Sycorax from "The Tempest". However, when Shakespeare himself coins the phrase "To be, or not to be", the Doctor suggests he write it down, but Shakespeare considers it "too pretentious". In a different version of the joke, the Doctor exclaims "Once more unto the breach", and Shakespeare initially likes the phrase, before realising
The Shakespeare Code first trip in time and space. They arrive in 1599 near the Globe Theatre in Southwark, where they meet the playwright William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is being bewitched by three witch-like Carrionites to rewrite the ending to his play "Love's Labours Won" so that the performance will create the right words to free the rest of the Carrionite race from imprisonment. The episode begins with a young man romantically serenading a young woman named Lilith. Invited inside, the young man discovers that she is in fact a wrinkled hag. She introduces her two mothers, Doomfinger and Bloodtide, who rush at the