The Girl in the Fireplace

Dear sweet lord what a mess of an episode.

Last week was great fun, a romp perfectly suited to the 45 minute format. The Girl In The Fireplace suffered massively from it, feeling like a 2 parter butchered into one episode, robbing its most important scenes of any weight whatsoever.

Let me give a little perspective before you start flaming me in the forums. I love Doctor Who. I love what RTD did to bring it back to our screens, and I adore all the hard work that BBC wales put into every episode, which is why it's such a shame that so much is rammed into each episode that all the hard work and detail goes by in too much of a flash. This had the potential to be incredible, just as Moffat's two parter in the previous season was. The Girl in The Fireplace had some beautiful, poignant moments that would have been legendary had they been given more time to play through, but alas 45 minutes was all we got, and back we go into gung-ho territory. A story of filmic proportiions reduced to a jumble of quick cuts and soundbytes. Another snog. Another mention of the phrase 'Doctor Who'. Thankfully no Torchwood pimping this week, but hey, it probably got lost with half the plot during the edit to get it down to 45 minutes.

The tenth Doctor appears to be lacking any noticeable character in the episode, and as the tale went on, he seemed less and less like the Doctor in any way. Some huge moments of stupidity, a stream of romantic goo and at the end of it the Doctor, of all fictional heroes, gives up and seems ready to take the long route through time with madame de Pompadour, which completely contradicts not only last episode's gorgeous speech about leaving people behind, but the character's history since the beginning! He is coming across as incredibly lightweight and silly, and if it hadn't been for School Reunion I wouldn't be tuning in at all any more. This isn't very Doctor Who at all. Yeah, that'll get me some nasty comments, but it's not even along the same lines as the last series! The Doctor has always had a childlike element, but at the moment he's more of a gibbering toddler.

*phew* deep breaths, its only a TV show, its only entertainment. I know this, but it's been a big part of British culture for over 40 years now and its sad to see it eschewing its unique flavour for hackneyed romantic subplots. I sell Doctor Who (and other SF) merchandise for a living and spend all day every day pimping the new series to kids eager for something unique. So far, this series isn't it.

I really hope next week's is better. The Cybermen 2 parter had better be amazing or I for one will lose all interest in how the series turns out, and that'd be a shame as I was really looking forward to it. Of course, this is just my opinion. I watched TGITF with my band mates who loved it, so each to their own. If you enjoyed it, I'm really pleased as it means the series will continue. I just wish it had got the Doctor in it somewhere.

Roll on next week. Keep me watching.