The Doctor (The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)
The Doctor was a character in a second version of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.
The Doctor and his friends Amy and Rory appeared towards the end of the play in Acts IV and V, travelling from scene to scene in a blue box called the TARDIS, which was apparently bigger on the inside. The trio mainly served to alter the original version which ended with the death of Romeo after he discovered Juliet in a state of apparent death and the death of Juliet after she awoke and found Romeo dead. One publication noted the reason for this plot point was due to Shakespeare finding himself under pressure from James Burbage to "make dark tragedie light", compelling him to write "the story as it did truly unfold, by misfortune unmarred". The Doctor was clearly based upon the Eleventh Doctor while Amy and Rory were blatant versions of his companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams. It was their prominent role which merited the inclusion of this alternative draft in the Shakespeare Notebooks. (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)
Fictography[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor, Amy and Rory first appeared in Act IV Scene III, just as Juliet took her sleeping draught and fell unconscious on her bed. The Doctor called out for her to wait and not sip the draught but it was too late. Upon examining her, Amy suggested she might be roused from her sleep with a slap on the cheek or a touch of ice, though the Doctor stated this would not work as Juliet had taken enough potion "to stun an elephant". Rory then asked what they should do, noting the risk of staying to be discovered with Juliet's corpse. The Doctor agreed and the trio left, bound for a street in Mantua.
They reappeared in Act V Scene I, arriving seconds too late once again. This time they were unable to prevent Romeo from purchasing poison from an apothecary, which he planned to use on himself in the Capulet tomb so he could lie with his "dead" love. The apothecary was initally unwilling to answer the Doctor's questions but happily told him of Romeo's plans after he gave him some gold. In response, the Doctor and his friends rushed to the TARDIS again, bound for the tomb.
They were able to arrive just in time on this occasion, during Act V Scene III, emerging from behind an altar as Romeo was preparing to drink the poison. The Doctor asked him to stop his present course of action and explained to him that Juliet was not dead, telling him what a "grave tragedy" it would be if she awoke to find him dead. Amy added that she would most likely take Romeo's dagger and "do herself in". The Doctor assured him she would "soon stir" and she awoke as predicted after Romeo kissed her. Proclaiming that "fate ha[d] been re-writ", 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". Romeo spoke up about how he believed such a thing was now impossible at which point the Doctor unveiled 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 and healed their rift as a result, the Doctor emerged from the TARDIS. He claimed that the bodies were not those of Romeo and Juliet but Montague assumed it must have been him who murdered their offspring and ordered the guards to seize him. The Doctor reiterated no one had been slain at which point Romeo and Juliet revealed themselves, the latter explaining their counterparts were but effigies in their likeness. Although they celebrated, Romeo noted the demise of both Tybalt and Sir Paris by his sword was "still a blemish on [their] joy". He asked to be banished from Verona but the Doctor revealed they also lived, as the Paris which Romeo had slain was really a Nestene duplicate. Tybalt, as he later quietly explained to Amy and Rory, was not the human original but a Zygon, who the Doctor had previously saved from burning as a witch, now returning the favour owed. With all the couples "set to wed", and telling his friends "their work [was] done", it was the Doctor who closed the play in this alternative draft. He stated 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)
