The Tempest

The Tempest was a romantic comedy play by William Shakespeare. (PROSE: The Tempest – A Work in Progress)

Writing process
Shakespeare was inspired to write a shipwreck story out of a desire to "cash-in" on Strachey's Sea Venture, though he first made sure to check Thomas Middleton wasn't already doing something similar. In his working notes, before settling on The Tempest as the title for the play, Shakespeare considered many other candidates, including: The Shipwreck, All At Sea, The Storm, The Strong Wind, The Very Strong Wind, The Gust, The Extremely Strong Wind, The Squall, and The Very Strong Tempest. He also listed several items Blackfriars had which could be used, such as nets, lobster pots, and a sand dune backdrop previously used in Pericles and The Winter's Tale. However, he made a note to himself to make sure they did not use real fish on this occasion on account of it having a bad smell and being a waste of fish. (PROSE: The Tempest – A Work in Progress)

During the course of an unrelated adventure, a version of Shakespeare native to 1597 attempted to force the Fifth Doctor to take him back to Richard III's home time of 1485. While Shakespeare threatened the Doctor and his companions with what he believed to be a Sontaran grenade, a publisher's robot from the 64th century materialised in the TARDIS and told him that his second draft of The Tempest was 7103 years overdue for delivery. It chased him out of the TARDIS and into the raging Battle of Bosworth, where Shakespeare was mistaken for King Richard and killed, with the real Richard ultimately replacing Shakespeare in 1597 to preserve the course of history. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker) In the 2010s, Adrian Davies acknowledged "the fascinating enigma of [the play]'s not-finishedness". (TV: The Caretaker)

Legacy
At Coal Hill School in the 2010s, The Tempest was studied by sixth form students as part of a Shakespeare module. At one point, Clara Oswald and Adrian Davies spent time specifically discussing The Tempest in light of changes which had been made to the module. (TV: The Caretaker)

Behind the scenes

 * The title of the audio story Full Fathom Five is a reference to the line "Full fathom five thy father lies" from The Tempest Act 1, Scene 2.
 * The title of the short story What's Past is Prologue is a quotation from The Tempest Act 2, Scene 1.