Juliet Capulet

In an alternative version of the play, the Doctor, Amy and Rory rush to prevent Romeo from poisoning himself over Juliet's lifeless body. (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)

Juliet Capulet was one of the two titular characters in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.

One publication noted it was generally agreed that Romeo and Juliet had taken its main inspiration from Arthur Brook's poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet. (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet) Shakespeare had actually been inspired after meeting Tia Kofi. (WC: Tia Kofi Enters the Time Fracture!) The play, as reproduced in Quarto and Folio, closely followed the narrative of the poem, using the same character name for Juliet and giving her the same fate. In this version, her lover Romeo committed suicide when he discovered Juliet in a state of apparent death, although she had only taken a sleeping draught, with Juliet also choosing to end her own life after awaking to find that Romeo had died. (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)

However, several more light-hearted versions of the play were proposed and subsequently written, (PROSE: Swamp of Horrors (1957) - Viewing Notes, The Smallest Spark) one by Shakespeare himself. Under pressure from James Burbage to "make dark tragedie light", he wrote "the story as it did truly unfold, by misfortune unmarred". It featured characters based upon the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams, and ended with the couple "set to wed". (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet) In the City of the Saved, a version of the play featuring a wedding scene for the title characters in Act VI was one of BardCorp's earliest hits. (PROSE: The Smallest Spark) Adrian Cooper, an actor who refused to allow any character he played show weakness, starred in a 1953 film adaptation of the play and demanded rewrites which resulted in the survival of both Romeo and Juliet. (PROSE: Swamp of Horrors (1957) - Viewing Notes)

Fictional biography

Shakespeare's comedy

At some point in the play, Juliet had married Romeo, despite the fact Sir Paris "wish[ed]" Juliet was his. She later had Friar Laurence send a letter to Mantua for Romeo before taking the sleeping draught so he knew that she was not really dead, although he never received this.

In Act IV Scene III, Juliet briefly thought she saw her cousin Tybalt's ghost seeking out Romeo, who had "spit his body upon a rapier's point". She told him to stay and then drunk the draught, falling upon her bed. The Doctor, Amy and Rory suddenly arrived following this, just too late to prevent her from taking the potion. Determining they could do nothing to wake her as she had taken "enough to stun an elephant" and fearing the consequences should they be caught with Juliet's corpse, the trio quickly left, bound for Mantua.

Although they missed Romeo by seconds in Mantua, the Doctor and his friends caught up with him in the Capulet tomb during Act V Scene III just as he was about to drink a poison to end his life. They were able to convince him that Juliet was merely feigning death and Amy told him to kiss her in order to rouse her from her sleep. This worked and, after a short reunion, Juliet suggested they "flee this place and start a life far from Verona's walls. The Doctor vetoed this idea, however, telling them 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 stated that now she and Romeo lived this hypothetical reconciliation was undone but Amy revealed they had a "cunning plan" and proceeded to unveil a second Romeo and Juliet, actually a Sontaran clone and "a borrow'd Teselecta" respectively. The two doubles took up their positions as if they had been killed and the Doctor ushered everyone into the TARDIS where they remained out of sight until the bodies were discovered.

After Romeo and Juliet's fathers, Montague and Capulet respectively, saw their children's bodies laying together, they healed their rift, with Montague even vowing to raise a statue of Juliet in pure gold. All five of those concealed in the TARDIS then emerged, Juliet explaining their doubles were "but effigies in [their] likeness". Juliet's father embraced her and she and Romeo joined hands. To everyone's surprise, the Doctor then revealed that Tybalt and Paris also lived, the latter no longer yearning for Juliet, having found love with Rosaline. Celebration ensued and the Doctor closed the play, stating that though it was often said "no tale could hope to overset the love of Romeo for Juliet, never was there a more joyful story than that of Amy Pond and her dear Rory". (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)

Shakespeare's tragedy

With the Doctor, Amy, and Rory absent for the version as performed, the play became a tragedy instead of an "out-and-out comedy". They were not present in the Capulet tomb to dissuade Romeo from poisoning himself, resulting in Juliet awaking from her slumber to find him dead. Juliet's fate after this was alluded to by Amy in the comedic rendition when she suggested to Romeo that Juliet "would do something rash like take [his] dagger and do herself in" should he drink the poison.

As also referenced in the alternative draft, their deaths taught Montague and Capulet the consequences of their hate towards one another, leading to peace in Verona. (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)

On 12 January 1605, the real Amy Pond and Rory Williams went to see a performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre as part of their honeymoon. In a postcard to the Eleventh Doctor, Amy described it as "v. romantic (even though London theatre audiences stink and the play ends with loads of death)". (PROSE: Honeymoon Horrors)

Lucie Miller compared Kalkin and Sararti to Romeo and Juliet. When Tayden asked if that was good, Lucie replied "Er - actually, no, come to think of it". (AUDIO: Immortal Beloved)

Adaptations

Juliet appeared in Romeo and Juliet in a Snowstorm, a film from the early days of television produced by the BBC to solve the problems surrounding the difficulties of maintaining a clear picture. During the balcony scene, she asked "Where the devil art thou Romeo?", a genuine question as he was standing in the middle of a thick blizzard. (COMIC: The (Final) Doctor Who History Tour)

David Owen's 1953 film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet starred Adrian Cooper as the lead. Cooper refused to allow any character he played to show weakness which resulted in him demanding script rewrites. This ensured that he "not only lived, but ended up getting the girl". (PROSE: Swamp of Horrors (1957) - Viewing Notes)

In the early days of the City of the Saved, the news was full of romantic stories about couples tearfully reunited after death and resuming their lost relationships. BardCorp's Romeo and Juliet, one of their first hits, was edited to fit this theme, with a wedding scene for Romeo and Juliet part of a newly-added Act VI. Francis Bacon claimed to have been the actual writer of Mercutio's "famously bawdy" best man's speech. (PROSE: The Smallest Spark)