Shakespeare Notebooks

The Shakespeare Notebooks were a record kept by William Shakespeare over several years which were described by The Shakespeare Notebooks as a scrapbook containing early drafts and key scenes and moments from his plays as well as other observations, and previously unknown material, including several sonnets. The Doctor appeared in various guises throughout and it was speculated they formed the basis of an epic work in which Skakespeare planned to present the adventures of the character.

The Skakespeare Notebooks called its source material priceless in literary terms. There was some doubt over the authenticity of the Notebooks in the academic world and the publication invited the reader to "to determine whether you believe the Shakespeare Notebooks are indeed genuine, or an elaborate hoax" for themselves. They were supposedly first put together in late 1599 and continued to be updated until Shakespeare's death. (PROSE: Preface to the First Edition)

Contents of the Notebooks
The single page explanation at the front of the Notebooks was considered by many to be the most "intriguing and enigmatic" feature of the work. In it, Shakespeare speaks of the "strange and unsettling events" of the first only only performance of Love's Labour's Won and of a mysterious stranger known as the Doctor. He adds that now freed from the influence of the Carrionites he came to realise that several other strangers who had influenced his life might all be the same man. He states "it is as if the Doctor has somehow traversed my life in retrospect, removing any references and allusions to himself and to the strange world of wonders and magick that is his habitation". (PROSE: Prelude to the First Edition)

An early draft of Hamlet featured in the Notebooks where the ghost of Hamlet's father is of a rather different aspect than the finished product. A magician who calls himself a Lord of Time appears to Hamlet from a blue box to tell him of his father's murder. The magician also mentions Koquillion and his "foul crimes done in the War of Time". (PROSE: Notes on a Play)

An early draft of a famous speech from As You Like It appeared without explanation in the Notebooks. The speech was spoken by an unnamed individual, a "wand'rer in the fourth dimension" and Time Lord in his "seventh age". He mentions Fenric and Vulcan and speaks of his previous lives as "the ancient", "the stovepiped clown", "the gent", "the scarf" and "the youth". (PROSE: Exits and Entrances)

Alternative versions of scenes from Macbeth with some omitted material appeared in the Notebooks giving credence to the idea that the play was originally going to feature an additional subplot with three new characters. The Shakespeare Notebooks speculates they were cut for reasons of staging, dramatic unity and plausibility. The three characters were called the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe and they travelled in a Tardis that "navigate[d] by stars". The trio inadvertently became the Weird Sisters from the finished play after meta-fictionally referencing Macbeth by Shakespeare within the narrative and using that to guide their adventure. (PROSE: The True Tragedie of Macbeth)

In an early draft of Cymbeline that appeared in the Notebooks, the Doctor appeared and fought Imogen whom he revealed to be a Skarasen which he described as "milky worms" and "roaring beasts" from a "torrid world". (PROSE: Cymbeline)

An extract from Shakespeare's diary from 1601 concerning the creation of Twelfth Night also featured. Shakespeare spoke of a third man that joined the conversation with himself and Richard Burbage who is only referred to as "He" or "Him" although the implication is clear from its in inclusion within the Notebooks. (PROSE: Diary Extract)

What was described as one of the strangest extracts from the Notebooks was a "dream diary" in which Shakespeare recorded characters, situations and images that had come to him in his sleep. The entry from 24 June 1594 seemed to inspire A Midsummer Night's Dream. It started with a scene featuring a Butterfly king and queen with their children riding upon giant ants and accompanied by giant grubs on Vortis in the Isop Galaxy. In another part of the forest a group of "war-goblins" who call themselves Sontarans enter intending to create a dramatic reconstruction of "The Most Glorious Defeat and Most Deserv’d Death of the Trifling Rutan Foe at Fang Rock". Kryntz casts himself as Colonel Skinsale, Stormbot as the Doctor ("a most heroic warrior that shows no mercy"), Flaxis as Leela ("the Doctor's boy assistant who taunts the Rutan"), Starvel as Vince "the light-house keeper", Stoun as Lord Palmerdale and Snarg as the Rutan. The white-haired old Doctor overhears this and disables the Stormbot's metamorphic field (who is actually a disguised Rutan) and he appears as a "green-eyed monster". This causes the Sontarans to evacuate Vortis, leaving the Doctor to wonder where he left Steven and Dodo. (PROSE: The Dream)

A variant version of the prologue of Henry V play in the Notebooks. In the finished version, the Chorus explains to the audience that the Battle of Agincourt between the English and the French is beyond the representation of a little group of actors in a wooden theatre. The variant version described a war even further beyond the realm of feasibility. The Chorus mentions a Warlike Doctor, the Meanwhiles and the troops of Neverwere, the Nightmare Child, the Horde of Travesties, the Skaro Degradations and their kin, the plains of Gallifrey, bowships, the fall of Arcady, Daleks, saucers, trans-solar discs, the transduction barrier, a Whitepoint Star, Kasterborous and Rassilon. (PROSE: A Prologue)

One of the longer pieces in the Notebooks was an alternative ending to Romeo and Juliet. After being pressured by Burbage to "make dark tragedie light" Shakespeare prepared a second version of the play which he described as "the story as it did truly unfold, by misfortune unmarred". This happy ending turned the play into an out-and-out comedy. The Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory who travelled to Verona in a blue box called the TARDIS stopped Romeo from committing suicide upon discovering Juliet's lifeless body and replace them with a Sontaran clone of Romeo and the Teselecta taking Juliet's form. The two corpses are discovered which unites the warring Montague and Capulet families. Romeo and Juliet then reveal that they are still alive. The Doctor then reveals that Tybalt and Paris are not deceased either as they were replaced by a Zygon and a Nestene duplicate respectively with the latter now in love with Rosaline instead of Juliet. Friar Laurence also admits his secret love for Juliet's Nurse which she reciprocates before the Doctor, Amy and Rory leave. (PROSE: The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet)

What appears to be the working notes for The Tempest is included in the Notebooks. This extract had been cited more than any others for anachronistic proof that the Notebooks were not genuine. In it, a man claiming to be "the Doctor" gave Shakespeare advice on how to finish his play by writing on it from the future. Notably, he gave him a Forbidden Planet DVD and Blu-ray player to watch and draw inspiration from. Shakespeare also draws up "Sycorax" as the name of a witch based upon something the Doctor once said and "Alonso" as a name when the Doctor bids him farewell on the working notes with the words "Allons-y Alonso". (PROSE: The Tempest – A Work in Progress)

An alternative draft of Act III Scene III of The Winter's Tale is featured in the Notebooks in which Antigonus states that he "must haste return to Gallifrey" before the stage directions call for him to hear a "great wheezing and groaning" before "exit[ing], into the blue box, which then vanishes amid great clamour" in contrast to the original direction of "Exit, perused by a bear". The Shakespeare Notebooks notes it is amusing to think that the latter could have been the replacement so the audience would find the scene more plausible. (PROSE: Exit, by Another Means)