A Groatsworth of Wit (comic story)

A Groatsworth of Wit
Doctor:	Ninth Doctor
Companion(s):	Rose
Featuring:	Greene, Shakespeare
Main enemy:	Bloodfinger, Woodscrape
Main setting:	London, 1592 and 21st century
Key crew
Publisher:	Panini Comics
Editor:	Clayton Hickman & Scott Gray
Writer:	Gareth Roberts
Penciller:	Mike Collins
Inker:	David A. Roach
Colourist:	James Offredi
Letterer:	Roger Langridge
Release details
Number of parts:	2
Printed in:	Doctor Who Magazine 363-364
Release date:	10 November - 8 December 2005
Cover date:	7 December 2005 - 4 January 2006
Traded in:	The Cruel Sea
Format:	Comic
DWM comic stories
← Previous	The Cruel Sea
Next →	The Betrothal of Sontar

A Groatsworth of Wit was a Doctor Who Magazine comic story featuring the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler.

It served as the Ninth Doctor's last regular appearance in the publication, although he would later receive one more DWM outing fifteen years later in Monstrous Beauty.

Summary

The Shadeys are a race that draws on negative emotions. They choose Robert Greene as a host for powerful negative emotions. By manipulating the dying Greene they turn his hatred, bile, and jealousy of Shakespeare "up to eleven", giving them enough power to crush the planet.

Plot

to be added

Characters

• The Ninth Doctor
• Rose Tyler
• Robert Greene
• Uncle Bloodfinger
• Woodscrape
• William Shakespeare
• Ty Baxter
• Liz Golding
• John Naps
• Matt

Referenced only

• Tina

Worldbuilding

• Rose unfavourably compares Shakespeare to Joseph Fiennes.
• In Books Unltd, there is a Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince poster and Doctor Who annuals.
• After seeing Greene's rampage, Rose likes how she once stamped her foot in jealousy over her neighbour Tina's Play-Doh Mop Top Hair Shop playset — but got over it.

Notes

A Groatsworth of Wit title card.

• This marks the final appearance of the Ninth Doctor in regular comic strip format. His final lines in his comic book tenure are, "Everybody gets forgotten in the end, Rose. Best to make the most of life while you're still around. I s'pose it'll happen to me one day..."
• The name Uncle Bloodfinger is very similar to Mother Doomfinger and Mother Bloodtide, two characters who featured in The Shakespeare Code, an episode released two years after the comic, where three "witches" attempt to free the other members of their race, the Carrionites. The dialogue and presentation of the enemies speaking while watching the writer work is similar to several parts of The Shakespeare Code. Both were written by Gareth Roberts.
• A tavern sign features a picture of a wolf's head and the initials "B.W.", a reference to the Bad Wolf story arc resolved in the television story The Parting of the Ways.
• No specific date is given in the scenes set on Charing Cross Road, inside the Books Unltd. bookstore, nor in Leicester Square. In Part One, Bloodfinger takes Robert Greene forward in time "four hundred years" from 1592, while a text box at the beginning of Part Two places the Leicester Square part of the story in the "present day".
• Despite Books Unltd clearly being located in the United Kingdom, the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince poster in the store depicts the cover artwork for the North American edition, rather than the British edition.

Continuity

• The Ninth Doctor mentions the "big row" he and Rose had over interfering with time. (TV: Father's Day)
• The Doctor is already acquainted with Shakespeare, but notes that Shakespeare hasn't met him yet. (TV: City of Death)