The Girl in the Fireplace

I am trying to enjoy this series, I really am. I'd love to recapture the excitement I felt during the majority of last season's run; the scariness, the pathos, the humour, the sheer imagination rooted in deep soul...

But I'm sorry to say that when the Doctor reincarnated he seemed to lose his soul. Poor soul. To be fair, I don't think that this is Tennant's fault, he is a very good actor, and has the capacity to be a great Doctor, if only the scripts, and the stories allowed.

Okay, this started well. The ship, the fireplace, the girl; all very atmospheric and mysterious, this appeared to have the markings of a classic. And it ran well until we realised that the plot didn't really hang together that well, and because the plot didn't hang together that well, the supposedly "scary" bits failed to either shock or provide the necessary goose bumps. The premise that Madame de Pompadour's life was being observerd until she was "ready" was very scary, and I liked the way time was allowed to progress at a rapid pace from the Doctor's perspective but not from hers, it really gave the piece a sense of the ethereal. It was a fairytale in which a child has to face monsters under the bed , combined with Alice's adventures in wonderland. A truly lovely idea, which could have been truly moving, scary and sureal. However, the Monsters turned out to be pretty typical androids lost in space; only "carrying out orders, sir!" Okay, the clockwork mechanism was a nice touch, but it could have been used far more spookily, if only the writers hadn't gone down the predictable Sci fi path of providing easy answers.More of which later.

Humour! I love humour, I relished the way the last series used humour to great effect, particularly during it's darkest episodes. But for some reason this season appears to have turned into a Blackadder / Hitchhikers hybrid, both of which I love, but I don't think this approach really works for the Doctor, at least not in an episode not written by Douglas Adams (R.I.P, I love ya!)

The ship was apparently called the "SS Madame de Pompadour" Well, it's a bit Douglas Adams, but without the style or the wit. This was an easy answer to a promising question, and a lazy plot.

I really hope the Cybermen deliver.