In London in 1599, a young man serenades a a woman a night. She is receptive to his singing, and invites him into her house.
The young man enters the house and finds that it looks more like a witches' lair than a normal house. He addresses the woman, and it's revealed that her name is Lilith, which is a pretty clear give-away.
Lilith kisses him, and when they break away, her face is now wrinkled and she has fangs instead of teeth. She tells him that a suitor should meet his beloved's parents, and two similarly visaged older women appear and attack the young man. The attack happens mostly off-screen, so we don't see what happened, but the sound effects give a pretty good indication as to what's going on.
After a bumpy flight, the TARDIS arrives in London in 1599. The Doctor and Martha walk around for a bit, before the Doctor shows her the newly-opened Globe Theatre, and the two of them set off for the theatre in the hope of seeing Shakespeare.
The two of them watch a play, and once it's over Martha starts up a cry of “Author”, which is picked up by the crowd. Shakespeare comes on to the stage, watched by Lilith, who is sitting in a box dressed in fancy clothes. She takes out of a pouch what appears to be a voodoo doll, although it's probably technically not one as I don't know if what she does is actually voodoo.
Lilith mutters an enchantment before Shakespeare begins to speak about the play. He tells the audience that the play they've just scene, Love's Labours Lost, stops abruptly, but the audience will find out what happens.
Lilith kisses the doll and Shakespeare stumbles before telling the audience that Love's Labours Won, the sequel to Love's Labours Lost will be performed the following evening. The cast, who are on stage with Shakespeare, look a bit alarmed.
As they're leaving the Globe, the Doctor explains to Martha that Love's Labours Won is a lost play of Shakespeare's, which is mentioned in lists of his plays, but never turns up and no one knows why. The Doctor says that he was only going to give Martha a quick trip in the TARDIS, but they could probably stay a little longer.
The Doctor and Martha arrive at the inn where Shakespeare is staying. Shakespeare initially dismisses them, saying that he's not giving autographs and they can't be sketched with him. However, he changes his tune when he sees Martha, and invites them to join him.
The Doctor attempts to introduce himself and Martha using his psychic paper, but Shakespeare sees the page as blank, which the Doctor takes as confirmation of Shakespeare's genius. The Doctor introduces Martha as being from a land called Freedonia, and this conversation is being watched by Lilith, who is posing as a servant.
Lynley, the Master of the Revels, enters and demands to see a copy of the script so that it can be registered and approved. When Shakespeare says that it will only be ready in the morning, Lynley says that will mean that the following evening's performance will be cancelled.
On his way out, Lynley bumps into Lilith, who is able to surreptitiously cut off some of his hair. As she wraps the hair around a doll, she contacts her mothers and tells them that someone wants to stop the performance, and one the other witches says that it must be performed the following evening.
Lilith tells them to chant with her, and they recite a rhyme relating to water before Lilith dunks the doll in a barrel of water. As Lynley walks away, he begins to choke.
Inside the inn, the Doctor and Martha hear screams, and going outside see Lynley standing in the middle of the street, spitting out water. As they run over to him, Lilith removes the doll from the water, stabs its heart and then rips off its head. Lynley falls to the ground, dead.
The Doctor tells the onlookers that Lynley died of an imbalance of the humours. When Martha asks him why he said that, he replies that if he told them the truth they'd panic and think it was witchcraft. She asks what is was, and the Doctor tells her it was witchcraft.
In the witches' house, they finish brewing a potion which will apparently have some effect on Shakespeare as he tries to finish off Love's Labours Won. Meanwhile, at the inn the Doctor and Martha bid the playwright goodnight and leave him to work on the play.
In their room, the Doctor tells Martha that it looks like witchcraft, but isn't. It could be psychic energy, but a human wouldn't be able to channel it with a generator large enough to be spotted quite easily.
The Doctor says that he's missing something which is staring him right in the face but he can't see it. At the point he says this, he and Martha are lying face-to-face on the room's only bed.
The Doctor says that Rose would know and say exactly the right thing, but it's not Martha's fault that she's a novice. Martha isn't too happy about this last bit, and angrily blows out the candle.
Shakespeare is busy writing in his room, and Lilith flies up to the room and enters through the window from the outside. She blows the fumes of the potion she had brewed earlier towards Shakespeare, and he breathes them in before collapsing at his desk. Lilith produces a puppet on strings and uses it to take control of Shakespeare, who begins to write while in a trance.
As Shakespeare finishes the play, the innkeeper enters. Lilith turns around, with her face in witch mode, and grabs the innkeeper's broom.
The Doctor and Martha are woken by the innkeeper's scream, and they go running to Shakespeare's room. The find the innkeeper's body on the floor, having died of fright, and Martha sees Lilith flying away on the broom.
Later on, when discussing the recent deaths, Shakespeare mentions that Peter Streete, the Globe's architect, spoke of witches. The Doctor insists that they visit the Globe, and once they get there he wonders why it has fourteen sides.
Shakespeare said that Peter Streete thought that would be the best shape to carry the sound. The Doctor decides that they need to talk to him, and Shakespeare tells him that Peter Streete went mad after the Globe was finished, and is now in Bedlam, a mental hospital.
As the three of them leave the Globe, they encounter two of the actors, and Shakespeare hands the play to them. The actors begin reading through the play, and one of them recites the closing monologue, which he admits doesn't make much sense to him.
As he speaks, a dark cloud forms in front of him, and a robed figure appears in the cloud. He stops speaking, and the figure disappears. The actors decide not to speak of what they just saw, for fear of ending up in Bedlam themselves.
At Bedlam, the Doctor and Martha in particular are disturbed to find it more like a jail than a hospital, with each inmate locked in their own cell. The Doctor uses his telepathic abilities to get Peter to tell him about the witches, and Peter says that they whispered to him in the night and got him to build the Globe to their design.
In answer to the Doctor's question, Peter tells him that he saw the witches in All Hallows Street. Before he can say anything else, one of the witches appears and kills Peter by touching his chest and stopping his heart.
She threatens to do the same to the others, but the Doctor is able to identify her as a Carrionite. She disappears with a scream, and reappears at her house, visibly shaken.
Back at the inn, the Doctor, Martha and Shakespeare discuss what the Carrionites might want. Martha asks Shakespeare what he was doing the previous night when Lilith was there, and he replies that he was finishing the play, although he doesn't actually remember writing the last few lines.
The Doctor realises what has happened. The right combination of words, spoken at the right place with the shape of the Globe as an energy converter will act like a spell. He tells Shakespeare to stop the play, while he and Martha go to All Hallows Street to confront the Carrionites.
Shakespeare arrives at the Globe and rushes on to the stage, declaring that the play must be stopped. The Carrionites who are watching use the doll to cause Shakespeare to collapse, and the actors pass it off to the audience as Shakespeare being drunk, before carrying on with the play.
The Doctor and Martha arrive at All Hallows Street, and Martha points out that she's living proof that the world didn't end in 1599. The Doctor uses Back to the Future as an illustration, and explains that Martha and the entire human race will fade away if they don't stop the Carrionites' plans in 1599.
They look around, wondering which house is the Carrionites', when a door opens. They enter and there encounter Lilith.
Martha tries naming Lilith as a Carrionite, but to no effect. Lilith says that the power of a name only works once, and she in turn names Martha and puts her to sleep.
Lilith comments to the Doctor that Martha's name has less impact as she's somehow out of her time. Lilith tries to name the Doctor, but she is unable to determine his name.
Lilith then tries the one name that would have an impact on the Doctor – Rose. The Doctor tells Lilith that she made a mistake as that name keeps him fighting.
He asks what the Carrionites want, and Lilith obliges, just like every other Doctor Who villain. She tells the Doctor that the Eternals found the right word to banish the Carrionites, but three of them were able to escape using the the words produced by Shakespeare when he was full of grief from losing his son.
Lilith says that the play that night will restore the remainder of the Carrionites. The Doctor says that first she'll have to get past him.
Lilith replies that it will be a pleasure because of the Doctor's handsome shape, and she runs her fingers down his face. The Doctor says that form of magic is not going to work on him, but that wasn't her intention.
Llith cuts off some of the Doctors and then flies outside. As she hovers in mid-air, she wraps the hair around a doll.
She stabs the doll in the heart, and the Doctor collapses. Lilith flies off to join the other Carrionites at the Globe, as Martha, who has now recovered, rushes to the Doctor's side.
Martha is initially concerned, but then she remembers that the Doctor has two hearts, and is still alive. Under his direction, she has to hit him in the chest and back in order to get his heart restarted, but he recovers completely and they make their way to the Globe, where the final scene is being performed.
The portal has opened and the Carrionites have entered through it by the time the Doctor and Martha arrive at the Globe. They find Shakespeare backstage, and the three of them take the stage.
The Doctor tells Shakespeare that he's the only one who can reverse the Carrionites' spell, by saying the right words. When Shakespeare protests that he doesn't know what to say, the Doctor tells him that when he's writing, words just come, and he must do a similar thing now.
Shakespeare begins to recite a typcially Shakespearean monologue, with a little help from the Doctor and Martha. The Carrionites are sucked back into the portal, along with the copies of Love's Labours Won. As the audience applauds, the Doctor retrieves the crystal ball that Lilith and her mothers had been using, but are now trapped inside.
The next day, the Doctor and Martha bid farewell to Shakespeare, and he reveals that he's worked out that Martha is from the future and the Doctor and the Carrionites from another world. Their farewell is interrupted by the actors who tell Shakespeare that Queen Elizabeth has turned up, having heard about the previous night and wanting to see the play performed again.
Queen Elizabeth enters the Globe and spies the Doctor. She orders her soldiers after him, saying that he is her sworn enemy. As they run back to the TARDIS, Martha asks the Doctor what he did to Queen Elizabeth, and he replies that he doesn't know as he hasn't met her yet, but he can't wait to find out.
Quotes
Martha: Do you have to pass a test to fly this thing?
The Doctor: Yes, and I failed.
Martha: But are we safe? I mean, can we move around and stuff?
The Doctor: Of course we can. Why do you ask?
Martha: It's like in the films. You step on a butterfly; you change the future of the human race.
The Doctor: Well, tell you what then, don't step on any butterflies. What have butterflies ever done to you?
The Doctor: When you get home, you can tell everyone you've seen Shakespeare.
Martha: Then I could get sectioned!
Martha: And those are men dressed as women, yeah?
The Doctor: London never changes.
The Doctor: Genius. He's a genius - THE genius. The most human Human that's ever been. Now we're gonna hear him speak. Always, he chooses the best words. New, beautiful, brilliant words.
Shakespeare: Shut your big fat mouths!
The Doctor: Oh, well.
Martha: You should never meet your heroes.
The Doctor: All the world's a stage.
Shakespeare: Hm, I might use that.
Martha: So magic and stuff. That's a surprise. It's a little bit 'Harry Potter'.
The Doctor: Wait till you read Book Seven. Oh, I cried.
The Doctor: "Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Shakespeare: I might use that.
The Doctor: You can't. It's someone else's.
The Doctor: Come on. We can all have a good flirt later.
Shakespeare: Is that a promise, Doctor?
The Doctor: Oh, 57 academics just punched the air.
Shakespeare: It made me question everything. The futility of this fleeting existence. To be or not to be... oh, that's quite good.
The Doctor: You should write that down.
Shakespeare: Hm, maybe not. A bit pretentious?
The Doctor: Once more unto the breach!
Shakespeare: I like that. Wait a minute... that's one of mine.
Shakespeare: And banished like a tinker's cuss, I say to thee
Martha: Expelliarmus!
The Doctor: Expelliarmus!
Shakespeare: Expelliarmus!
The Doctor: Good old JK!
The Doctor: Reminds me of a Sycorax.
Shakespeare: Sycorax. Nice word. I'll have that off you as well.
The Doctor: I should be on 10%.