Caliban

"Caliban" is a title based upon conjecture.

Check the behind the scenes section, the revision history and discussion page for additional comments on this article's title.

A character with a name possibly anagrammatic of "Canibal" featured in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

Fictional biography

In his early working notes for the play, Shakespeare deemed it to be "missing something" and considered possible additions he could make. He first thought about pirates, then primitives who worshipped a giant squid. However, he concluded this was "impractical" and that he could do monkeys. After this, his mind moved on to cannibals, then cannibals who worshipped a monkey and finally to cannibals who worshipped a bear. Shakespeare left a note to himself alongside this last suggestion, warning himself to use a man in a bear suit rather than a real bear "after last time".

At some point, the Tenth Doctor became aware Shakespeare was struggling to write his play. He sent him a battery-powered Blu-ray player and a copy of Forbidden Planet to draw inspiration from, reasoning that it was "not stealing" because the film was based upon the version of The Tempest Shakespeare was about to write.

Shakespeare's first idea with regards to a "baddie" for the piece upon watching it was that the monster could be an ancient alien who built a machine, or perhaps a primitive. He decided this character needed a "cannibally name" and urged himself to "think anagrams". Asking the question in his notes of whether this could be a whole tribe or only one, he reminded himself to check the budget. Shakespeare later settled on a witch who had been exiled to an island instead of a ancient alien machine. This witch had a son and servant named "Canibal" who was left alone on the island after her death.

In his notes on more specific details, Shakespeare opted to pair up Canibal with the clown double-act. He also specified that Canibal would get drunk on wine and dress up in "hilarious trousers" as part of one of Ariel's magic pranks. Coming to the play's conclusion, Shakespeare outlined that the three plot lines, including the comedy business with the clowns and Canibal, would all be "sorted out" by Prospero and Ariel. He briefly wondered whether this was "too easy" and if he could claim it was a deliberate Deus ex machina to impress Johnson, but he ultimately brushed aside these concerns, writing in his notes his belief that he was "nearly there" and that the rest of the story would "write itself". (PROSE: The Tempest – A Work in Progress)

Behind the scenes

Although The Tempest – A Work in Progress falls short of explicitly identifying Caliban by name, the fact he is not called Canibal in the final version of the play is alluded to. Shakespeare encourages himself to "think anagrams" in reference to the character needing a "cannibally" name, with Caliban being an anagram of the Spanish word caníbal, the source of cannibal in English.