Juliet Capulet (Teselecta)

A Teselecta resembling Juliet Capulet, referred to in stage directions as the Second Juliet, was a character in an alternative version of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.

This Juliet did not appear in the play as performed, only in the variant which Shakespeare wrote while under pressure from James Burbage to "make dark tragedie light". Other additions included the Doctor, Amy and Rory, who were able to prevent Juliet and her husband Romeo Montague from both committing suicide in the Capulet tomb in Act V Scene III. After they were reunited, the Doctor stopped the couple from leaving Verona to start a new life together and said they had to help heal the rift between their two feuding families. He further elaborated that their deaths would have shown them "hate's consequence and [taught] them both to end their harsh discord and emnity". Juliet noted that this hypothetical reconciliation was now undone but Amy revealed they had a "cunning plan" and proceeded to unveil a second Romeo and Juliet.

Juliet called her and Romeo's doubles "witch-craft summon'd twins", asserting they could not be of "human flesh and blood" as they did not breathe. Romeo agreed, saying they were "like Proteus", and asked who it was "that walk and dost not speak and counterfeit the presentation of [their] dead likeness". However, Amy explained Juliet was "a borrow'd Teselecta" while Rory elucidated that Romeo was a "recently grown" Sontaran clone. The Second Romeo and Juliet then took up their positions as if they had been killed, with Romeo on the altar and Juliet lying across him. The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and the real Romeo and Juliet, retreated into the TARDIS upon hearing the watch approach, with it being the Chief Watchman who discovered the slain corpses. When he arrived at the scene, Juliet's father Capulet exclaimed "O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!" and observed that Romeo's dagger was "empty on the back of Montague and mis-sheathed in [his] daughter's bosom". Meanwhile, Juliet's nurse said the sight of her death was "a bell that warn[ed her] old age to a sepulchre". Romeo's distraught mother and father also attended the scene soon afterwards, with both patriarchs quickly ending their quarrel. At that point Romeo and Juliet emerged from the TARDIS, revealing the subterfuge involving their doubles, and celebration ensued. (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)

Behind the scenes

Although the Teselecta is the name given to a single vehicle in the "real" Doctor Who universe, this does not appear to have been Shakespeare's intent when writing Juliet's double into the new version of the play. Juliet's impersonator is described as "a borrow'd Teselecta", suggesting there may be more than one, and there are no discernible differences between the second Juliet and the other doubles seen, namely the Sontaran clone of Romeo and the Nestene duplicate of Paris.