The Girl in the Fireplace
ItВ’s difficult to sit and write a review of something you adored, because you run the risk of simply gushing out a list of everything you liked about it, which quickly becomes very boring for the reader. If they agree with you then youВ’re simply telling them things they knew anyway and not giving them any reason to carry on reading the review. If they disagree with you then your constant in-your-face trumpeting of everything they disagree with is also going to turn them off very quickly.
Which is why it is a little hard for me to sit here and type this, because I absolutely loved The Girl in the Fireplace. I suspect most of you will either agree with me and stop right there, or wonder how I can possibly hold such an opinion of such a terrible episode not worthy of the diamond logo, and also stop right there. This episode is going to turn out, in the long-run, to be a bit like the film Moulin Rouge, or Apple Macs В– those who love them adore them and canВ’t shut up about them, those who dislike them think theyВ’re a complete waste of time. ItВ’s divisive, IВ’ll give it that, but Doctor Who has always been a series that rises to the occasion when it tries something a bit new and a bit different. And this is certainly rather new territory, Doctor Who as a romance.
LetВ’s get the love story angle out of the way first, then. I say В“out of the wayВ” as if itВ’s something soiled and dirty, which is wrong, not only because itВ’s the very heart of the episode but also because itВ’s rather touchingly written, especially as itВ’s made to seem not all that out of character for the Doctor. I will hold my hand up and admit I am not generally a big fan of love and romance in reality or in fiction, and certainly not in Doctor Who, but with Steven MoffatВ’s skill as a scriptwriter it just seemed to rise rather beautifully out of the situation and fit very well.
This is mostly to do with the main guest star this week, Sophia Myles as Madame de Pompadour. IВ’d never seen Myles in anything before watching this episode, but sheВ’s clearly an excellent actress, and she really makes you believe that this woman is something quite special and remarkable В– somebody the Doctor would be prepared to trap himself in the eighteenth century for. ItВ’s heartbreaking that she doesnВ’t get to see the stars with the Doctor, and only reinforces what he was telling Rose in last weekВ’s episode about human lives being so fleeting, how they pass so quickly and yet he lives on alone.
HeВ’s left alone at the end here, reading her letter in the TARDIS, and curiously for such a modern and up-to-date example of the series in terms of style and execution, I was reminded of the end of The Aztecs, which featured one of the DoctorВ’s previous, somewhat less obvious, romantic attachments, to Cameca. At the end there the Doctor seems about to discard the brooch she gave him, then cannot bring himself to do so and takes it with him into the TARDIS. A subtle and doubtless unintentional thematic link, but the scenes did seem to echo one another to my fanboy eyes at least.
ItВ’s very much, perhaps, the DoctorВ’s episode, and David Tennant is well up to the task. The only time I wasnВ’t completely sold on him was the pretending-to-be-drunk sequence, which wasnВ’t as embarrassing as it could have been but still undermined some of the authority the character usually conveys even in his lighter moments. IВ’m more than prepared to let that pass, however, for some of the nice character moments we got the Doctor. My particular favourite was Reinette reading his mind. IВ’ve probably said more than enough times in my reviews of various episodes that I enjoy it when thereВ’s a bit of mystery and enigma about the Doctor, the suggestion that we know very little about him really. I suspect that Moffat enjoys, or is at least intrigued by, the same sort of ideas, as having Reinette comment on his lonely childhood and the enigma of his name nicely dangles some questions hopefully never to be fully answered.
Unlike last week, however, the appearance of a significant woman in the DoctorВ’s life doesnВ’t take over the entire episode at the expense of the plot. Whereas School Reunion suffered from being purely a vehicle for some В– admittedly excellent В– scenes between the Doctor and Sarah and an exploration of the DoctorВ’s attitudes to love and loss, here similar themes are explored and characterisation created in tandem with the plot, without overloading it or making it suffer. ItВ’s a real step up in quality as a result, and while ReinetteВ’s fate will likely never be as moving for the hardcore fans simply because she lacks the associations of Sarah Jane Smith in our affections, for the general audience I suspect this may well have been even more satisfying.
One of the reasons that Steven MoffatВ’s scripts are always so enjoyable, aside from their sense of fun and his grasp of characterisation, is the fact that the plots always seem to slide so beautifully together. He is obviously a man who takes a lot of time over his storylines and has a great attention to detail which pays off. Purely in story terms, I would say that this is by far the strongest episode of the second series thus far. It just all seems to work В– the reason for the clockwork droids being obsessed with Madame de Pompadeur, the time windows, and organic repairs to the ship. It all comes together and just clicks.
If there is an element of the script that can be criticised, it is probably the sidelining of Rose and Mickey, which does seem a little unfair on poor old Noel Clarke given that this is his first episode as a bona fide companion. Rose gets one great scene with Reinette and MickeyВ’s initial wonder at arriving on the space ship is well conveyed by Clarke, but apart from that both he and Piper are pretty much on a hiding to nothing as they are overshadowed by the Doctor and ReinetteВ’s love story. Which, I have to say on a personal level I didnВ’t mind as I found the story far more interesting than Rose and Mickey, but I can see how shoving two series regulars off to one side could be a little off-putting. But as long as you donВ’t do it every week, I think it can stand to be done, although it is interesting to note that Rose seems far less central to many of the episodes than she did during the course of the first series.
All this appreciation and IВ’ve not even started on the contributions of those behind the cameras other than Moffat. Euros Lyn proves just what a multi-talented director he is, following his hand-held, visceral style of Tooth and Claw, with lots of lovely, traditional BBC period drama swooping pans here. The design was lovely too, across the board В– the space ship in CGI exterior and the construction of the interior sets, the French settings and the exterior they found to represent Versailles looked suitably gorgeous too.
IВ’d better stop, or else there is a danger I will just carry on gushing about how much I enjoyed this episode for far too many pages. There was just so much to love В– the story, the performances, the dialogue, and the knowledge that itВ’s the type of thing only Doctor Who could have done. Where else do you get a Lord of Time riding to the rescue of his 18th century French girlfriend on the back of a horse, crashing through a mirror on the other side of which is a 51st century spaceship.
Barmy. But brilliant. And beautiful.