Hamlet

Hamlet was a play written by William Shakespeare.

The idea for Hamlet was first discussed at the court of Elizabeth I. (DW: The Chase)

The Doctor helped Shakespeare write down the final draft of Hamlet after he sprained his wrist writing sonnets. This manuscript was acquired by Scaroth in the 20th century (DW: City of Death)

The Doctor and Martha Jones inspired Shakespeare to write about father-son relationships, which is the main theme of Hamlet. Shakespeare also confused the name of his deceased son, Hamnet, with Hamlet. This is a nod to the theory that Hamlet's name was inspired from Hamnet. (DW: The Shakespeare Code)

The Daleks quoted various lines from Hamlet while working on a time machine with Professor Osric. (BFA: The Time of the Daleks)

Behind the scenes

• The play has at least two real-life connections to Doctor Who. In 1980, Derek Jacobi played Hamlet and Lalla Ward played Ophelia in a BBC TV production of the play, opposite Patrick Stewart as Claudius. In 2008, David Tennant took on the role of Hamlet in a Royal Shakespeare Company mounting of the play -- opposite Stewart who once again played Claudius. Tennant's involvement in the play was cited as the rationale behind the BBC deciding to produce 5 specials during 2008-2009 rather than a full season, though this was not true and the 'gap year' had been intended since the end of Revival Series Two, and it was during his run in the play that Tennant made the announcement that he would be leaving the series. Tennant is to star in a television movie adaptation of Hamlet in Autumn 2009.

Tennant's Announcement

• Hamlet has become notorious with Doctor Who fans because David Tennant announced his departure from Doctor Who in-between playing Hamlet. On the night of the National Television Awards, when the award was won by Tennant, it was accepted by Catherine Tate (who played then-companion Donna Noble) and David Tennant gave a short speech through a live feed during the interval (timed so that the two were simultaneous) of the night's 'Hamlet' performance in which he made the announcement. Due to the brevity of the interval, he gave the announcement holding a dagger, flanked by two men presumebly playing guards and in full costume (however, the adaptation is set in the modern day so Tennant's costume was a suit not unlike the one his character, The Doctor, is sometimes seen wearing, e.g. Age of Steel). He ends by mentioning, as a nod to the peculiar way he is giving this announcement, that he now has to go and "kill Patrick Stewart", who was (once again) playing Claudius.