The Girl in the Fireplace

Being a Doctor Who fan can be something of a double edged sword, on the one hand one shares a more intimate involvement with the show and its characters than the casual viewer, on the other such an involvement often means that one has greater foreknowledge of each episode than is sometimes healthy. From hearing a story title, to seeing stills from the set, previews and finally the next time trailer, one tends to build up a mental picture of the story, one that will very rarely if ever be much like the transmitted program.

In building up that mental picture one often builds the image of the perfect episode one would like to see, crafted from the information available. Seeing the final transmitted episode nearly always leads to a slight sense of deflation as one realises that it wasn’t that perfect image and in reality could never hope to be. And that is the curse of being a fan, no matter how much we try to leave our hopes, anticipations and fears outside the door, we always carry them through, we will never have that sense of detatchment that the casual viewer has. Being a fan however inevitably leads to the compulsion to rewatch an episode no matter how good or bad it maybe, and it is on that second viewing that I think the Girl in the Fireplace holds much of its appeal. Much like Ghost Light used to be cited as a story which improved on repeated viewing, so I think Girl in the Fireplace will join its ranks.

If I am honest I really didn’t know what to make of this episode on first viewing. It was so different from the last 3 stories and to most tv drama as we know it, that I wasn’t really sure whether it worked or not. On the surface it shares some very close similarities to Steven Moffat’s story from last year which attempted to mesh a more cerebral concept within the Russell T Davies template. For this viewer the Empty Child didn’t quite gell, with the first episode feeling a bit leaden and the story only really coming to life towards the end. With Girl in the Fireplace the new Doctor Who seems to be maturing, realising that it doesn’t have to be thrill or joke a minute, that it can have an intelligent story which keeps the viewer guessing and doesn’t lay all plot developments on with a trowel. The pace at times felt totally at odds with the first 3 episodes and that was a little disconcerting on first viewing, but I think it is good that every once in a while the new series can be comfortable with its success and not be afraid to try a quieter more contemplative episode.

The clockwork droids were probably the best old Doctor Who monster there never was, the idea and execution were so classically Doctor Who, that you cant believe the idea hadn’t been thought of before. Unlike some of the other writers Steven Moffatt seems perfectly in tune with that surreal creepiness which writers like Robert Homes excelled at, if anything I think this new series should be creating a whole new generation of bed wetters. The robots were only let down only by the fact that it was never explained what they really were or who created them.

The episode really though belonged to the Doctor, and perhaps out of all Doctor Who ever, provided the most intimate portrayal of the character. A Doctor Who romance is always going to be a bone of contention for fans, and I must admit a few years ago I would have been aghast at the idea. The Paul McGann movie had a romance angle which was very poorly shoehorned in, and would have made many a producer very wary of attempting the idea again. But rightly or wrongly Russell T Davies has introduced the fact that the Doctor is seemingly not as asexual as we may have thought and indeed does long for phyical intimacy whether that be female, male, alien or whatever. The fact that the Doctor has always been assumed to be asexual could be looked upon as an unwritten assumption which was misinterpreted by various production teams over the years and quickly became fact. In 1963 the stern professor like character portrayed by William Hartnell was not likely to set many pulses racing, so such issues were neatly sidestepped, and when the Doctor regenerated into Patrick Troughton the reality of a Saturday afternoon childrens adventure series meant that there was no pressing need to even address the issue. Lets face it relationships per se were barely touched upon in the original series at all, so the general assumption reached by Joe public was that if the Doctor wasn’t getting his leg over, he couldn’t be too bothered about that sort of thing. So I suppose Russell T Davies had to ask the question: why in the 21st century would it be so unthinkable? and the fact that this has so far been handled in a fairly subtle manner, has not detracted too much from the mystique of the character.

Girl in the Fireplace didn’t really have enough screen time to suggest why the Doctor and Renette formed such a bond, but within those constraints feasibly recreated the Doctor as a romantic hero. The new series has always played slightly on the fact that rather than being an intrepid adventurer, the Doctor’s lifestyle is born partly out of necessity. He is an alien nomad destined to never really belong in a time and place, he must always move on, and this episode much as Father’s Day did, suggests that perhaps deep down he hankers for a mundane normal existence. This is somewhat at odds with previous incarnations, Pertwee would have been off into space in two minutes flat and away from the cosy cofines of Unit given half the chance, but once again distanced from the old series this approach offers a much deeper motivation for the character, even if he does become a little more human in the process.

Rose took a slightly back seat in this episode and following School Reunion, we got the impression that the character is on a gradual journey of realisation that she is not the centre of the Doctor’s universe she had assumed herself to be. Noel Clarke made a worthy addition to the Tardis crew, but wasn’t really given a great deal to do on his first galactic outing.

Despite the plot occasionally seeming to drift off at tangents at some moments, creating a rather uneven pace, the story managed to maintain its momentum and ably enhanced by Murray Golds nearly always superb incidental music and Euros Lyns direction, by the end the story had taken on a lyrical almost fairy tale quality. The ending was both poignant and perhaps the saddest so far in the new series. Fortunately avoiding the gross sentimentality of Cassandra’s death in New Earth, the fact that the Doctor didn’t use the Tardis to go back made the ending all the more stronger. Much as with Sarah Jane in the previous episode, we find that the Doctor has missed the moment and must move on once again, popping in and out of lives but always as Renette put it, unable to take the slow path.

I didn’t see the ending coming and I must admit it was a pleasant surprise, but unfortunately shared the same problem as many new series episodes in that it raised more questions than it answered. Exactly why did these supposedly advanced droids think that the head of Madame de Pompadour would repair the ship just because it had the same name? The plot device is pretty much the same that Mofatt used on his earlier story, the idea that highly advanced technology can make a huge glaring error based on following simple logic, but the revelation was not enough to quell all questions raised, and much like Ghost light, one feels we will probably have to wait for a DVD commentary to gain a full insight into the logic of the plot.

Beautifully shot, a good central performance from Sophia Myles as Madame Pompadour and some rather weird but wonderful ideas made this an episode which will I think always be a neglected gem. Straddled in the middle of werewolves, K9 and Cybermen it was unlikely ever to be a huge crowd pleaser, but will always be an episode for which each new viewing holds something new.