Diary Extract (short story)

Diary Extract is the fifth story in The Shakespeare Notebooks, featuring the Fifth Doctor. The story concerned the creation of Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night.

Summary
William Shakespeare has brought Richard Burbage to an inn near the Globe Theatre to discuss his latest idea for a comedy. They are joined by the Fifth Doctor. Shakespeare begins his pitch by describing a story of a woman who pretends to be her brother, inspired by Of Apollonius and Silla by Barnabe Rich. The Doctor makes a face at this and remarks that he prefers the original version by Matteo Bandello.

Shakespeare continues by describing various other characters in the play, including a fat drunkard named "Sir Toby Belch", an uptight servant, a coward who is coerced into duelling, and a fool. Once Shakespeare gets into describing a love triangle between the cross-dressing woman, another woman, and a man which is interrupted when the cross-dressing woman's brother arrives and everyone mistakes him for her and her for him, but the Doctor interrupts a second time by remarking that the story is too confusing. Once Shakespeare says that the play will be called Twelfth Night, the Doctor interrupts yet again by saying that the title has nothing to do the story. Annoyed at the Doctor's frequent interruptions, Shakespeare storms out of the inn.

Characters

 * Fifth Doctor
 * William Shakespeare
 * Richard Burbage

Continuity

 * Burbage questions the Doctor's celery. (TV: The Caves of Androzani, Time Crash)