William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was known as the greatest poet and playwright in the history of England and one of the greatest in human history . The Doctor considered him the most " human " human that ever lived . He also had numerous encounters with the Doctor and was attracted to Martha Jones and possibly the Tenth Doctor himself . ( TV : " The Shakespeare Code " ) One of his plays , " Hamlet " , was written with help from the Doctor . ( PROSE : " The Stranger , The Writer , His Wife and the Mixed Metaphor " , TV : " City of Death " , AUDIO : " The Foe from the Future " ) According to the Dalek version of Earth history , he was , throughout his entire productive life , a covert Dalek agent . All of his work was in fact written by the Dalek Emperor . ( COMIC : " City of the Daleks " ) Biography . Shakespeare was born in 1564 . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) The Fourth Doctor claimed that Shakespeare as a boy was " very taciturn " and that he said to him , " There ' s no point in talking if you ' ve got nothing to say " . ( TV : " City of Death " ) The Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard met a young Will Shakespeare who had been taken out of his rightful time ( 1572 ) by Viola Learman and brought to New Britain in the early 21st century . ( AUDIO : " The Time of the Daleks " ) The three of them briefly ended up in Asia Minor , where they encountered the Doctor ' s previous companion , Vicki , calling herself Cressida , and her husband Troilus . The Doctor was afraid that Will would learn too much about his future play , " Troilus and Cressida " , but learned that Shakespeare had not invented the story . ( PROSE : " Apocrypha Bipedium " ) The Doctor eventually dropped Shakespeare off in Warwick in his own time period . ( AUDIO : " Foreshadowing " ) Shakespeare was an uneducated rural actor , later turned playwright . In 1592 , the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler encountered an older Shakespeare , where he was to perform the lead part of his play " Richard III " at The Rose theatre . At the Doctor ' s request , Rose agreed to distract Shakespeare from the stage " with a hey nonny nonny " in an attempt to stop Robert Greene from murdering him . He dismissed an attempt by Shadey s to destroy the Earth as a trick - show , and did not let it interfere with his future career . ( COMIC : " A Groatsworth of Wit " ) In 1597 , the Fifth Doctor shared a drink with Shakespeare ; he later stowed away in the TARDIS and began to attempt to influence the reign of King Richard III of England to more closely resemble the account in his play " Richard III " . This adventure ended with Shakespeare being killed in King Richard III ' s place at the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485 , and Richard returning to 1597 to take Shakespeare ' s identity and place in history . ( AUDIO : " The Kingmaker " ) In 1599 , the Tenth Doctor encountered Shakespeare when the witch - like Carrionite s wanted the wordsmith to complete the play " Love ' s Labour ' s Won " to free the rest of their kind . With the help of the Doctor and Martha Jones , the three Carrionites and their sisters were banished back into the Deep Darkness . During this encounter , Shakespeare developed an attraction to the Doctor and Martha , whom he addressed as his " Dark Lady " ( TV : " The Shakespeare Code " ) . Via the Time - Space Visualiser , the First Doctor and his companions watched William Shakespeare in conversation with Queen Elizabeth I about " Hamlet " . ( TV : " The Chase " ) The First Doctor collaborated with Shakespeare between drafts one and two of " Hamlet " . ( PROSE : " Byzantium ! " ) The Fourth Doctor claimed that he helped Shakespeare transcribe " Hamlet " as Shakespeare had sprained his wrist writing sonnets . The Doctor claimed that he had warned Shakespeare that Hamlet ' s line " to take arms against a sea of troubles " was a mixed metaphor , but Shakespeare would not listen . ( TV : " City of Death " , PROSE : " The Stranger , The Writer , His Wife and the Mixed Metaphor " ) In 1609 , Shakespeare , acting as an agent of the Crown , encountered the First Doctor , Irving Braxiatel , and Galileo Galilei in Venice , and was reunited with Christopher Marlowe , whom he thought was dead . The Doctor forcibly made Shakespeare take a retcon - like drug to erase his memory of the events that he had witnessed . Shakespeare died in Stratford - upon - Avon in April 1616 , having been poisoned on the orders of Sir Walter Raleigh who had been released from the Tower of London only five weeks earlier . Braxiatel visited the playwright on his deathbed and restored the English man ' s memories of his time in Venice . ( PROSE : " The Empire of Glass " ) Shakespeare continued being a successful writer in his second life in the City of the Saved . He wrote the hit soap opera " The Prosperos " , which lasted about fifty years . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) References . The Monk believed that his meddling would enable Shakespeare to have " Hamlet " premiere on television . ( TV : " Checkmate " ) After 1938 , Orson Welles made several Shakespearean films but the Eighth Doctor did not believe that they were terribly subtle adaptations . ( AUDIO : " The Time of the Daleks " ) In October 1987 , Alek Zenos cited Shakespeare among others as an example of Britain ' s rich culture of artists . ( AUDIO : " We Are The Daleks " ) During his tenure as lecturer at St Luke ' s University in Bristol , the Twelfth Doctor kept a bust of William Shakespeare in his office . ( TV : " The Pilot " ) In the 25th century , the work of Lynda La Plante was more highly regarded than that of Shakespeare . ( PROSE : " The Plotters " ) The Fourth Doctor told Leela that Shakespeare was the greatest poet in the English language " with [ his ] assistance . " ( AUDIO : " The Foe from the Future " ) He considered Shakespeare a " charming fellow , " but a " dreadful actor . " ( TV : " Planet of Evil " ) Conversely , the Fifth Doctor later described him as a " hack " to his companions Peri Brown and Erimem . ( AUDIO : " The Kingmaker " ) The Sixth Doctor quoted " Hamlet " to and the Rani . He called him " the Bard " and intended to meet him again . ( TV : " The Mark of the Rani " ) By the time of his tenth incarnation , his opinion of Shakespeare ' s work had considerably improved as he spoke of it in glowing terms to Martha . ( TV : " The Shakespeare Code " ) The Fifth Doctor ' s companion Turlough studied Shakespeare ' s works while at Brendon Public School in 1983 but hated them . ( AUDIO : " The Emerald Tiger " ) While travelling with the Sixth Doctor , Peri Brown found the original draft of an unknown play by Shakespeare , " Mischief Night " , in the TARDIS . ( COMIC : " Changes " ) Martha Jones told Tallulah that she had done a bit of Shakespeare when asked if she had ever been on stage before . ( TV : " Daleks in Manhattan " ) Personality . Shakespeare was notable for being one of the few humans who , without receiving any known sort of psychic training , was not fooled by the Doctor ' s psychic paper . The Doctor was very impressed by this fact and applauded him , stating it was proof that he was a genius . ( TV : " The Shakespeare Code " ) The Ninth Doctor told Rose Tyler that , despite rumours , Shakespeare was very much heterosexual . ( COMIC : " A Groatsworth of Wit " ) In spite of this , he still flirted with the Tenth Doctor , to which the Doctor commented , " academics just punched the air . " ( TV : " The Shakespeare Code " )