A Prologue (short story)

A Prologue is the seventh story in The Shakespeare Notebooks, featuring a representation of the War Doctor.

Summary
This fragment appears to be a variant version of the opening of Henry V'', Shakespeare's play about the events before and after the battle of Agincourt in 1415. The Chorus is the first character to appear, and explains to the audience that the lifelike depiction of such a conflict is beyond the means of a little group of actors in a wooden theatre. However, the battle described here is fought by agents other than the French and the English - combatants such as the Daleks, the Nightmare Child and the Time Lords are mentioned. This war would seem to have conducted on a scale even further beyond the possibility of representation with a small cast and modest set of props.''

Characters

 * The Chorus
 * Warlike Doctor

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor is compared to the Greek god of war, Mars.
 * Bowships were used in the Time War.
 * The Daleks used trans-solar discs.
 * The War Doctor has fought against the Nightmare Child, the Horde of Travesties, the Meanwhiles and the troops of Neverwere, the Skaro Degradations and their kin.
 * "A tale as long as Rassilon's" is mentioned.

Continuity

 * A Whitepoint Star is mentioned as being attached to a plan to "scourge Creation with its light". (TV: The End of Time)
 * The Daleks are depicted as "soar[ing] in squadrons through Kasterborous". (TV: The Day of the Doctor)