The Girl in the Fireplace

В“The monsters and the Doctor. It seems you cannot have one without the other.В”

In the build-up to series two, I found myself getting very excited about early episodes like “School Reunion” and “Rise of the Cybermen.” Others, such as “Tooth and Claw” and “The Girl In The Fireplace” I didn’t know all that much about and thus didn’t have great expectations of them. Nevertheless, the superb trailer for “Tooth and Claw” literally had me salivating yet when I came to see “The Girl In The Fireplace”’s rather bland trailer (combined with writer Steven Moffat’s “guarantee” that it would not be as good as “The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances”) I sat down on Saturday evening expecting little more than a witty little filler episode. How wrong I was…

В“The clock on the mantle is broken. It is time. Doctor! Doctor!В”

The pre-credit sequence was all that it took to engage my interest. The creepy noise of the clockwork robots; the brilliant period music and costumes; the beautiful cinematography; the mysterious woman that В“lovesВ” the Doctor! Who is she? How does she know him? How does she know heВ’ll come? Moffat had me hooked from the start.

В“IВ’m not the tin dog. I wanna see whatВ’s out there.В”

3000 years later, Mickey Smith strolls out of the TARDIS onto a derelict spaceship. В“ItВ’s so realistic!В” he says, God love him! After В“School ReunionВ” I was really looking forward to seeing Mickey join the TARDIS crew proper, and although he (and Rose) are often neglected in this very Doctor-centric episode he still manages to entertain. His action-man roll had me in hysterics as did the scene with the eye - В“Are you lookinВ’ at me?В” В– brilliant! HeВ’s still scared of his own shadow, but at least heВ’s starting to cut the mustard. IВ’m really looking forward to seeing what he gets up to on the parallel Earth next week; hopefully a two-parter will allocate him a bit more of the action.

Speaking to my sister after watching the episode, she told me that she enjoyed В“The Girl In The FireplaceВ” but found it slow. After the frenetic В“School ReunionВ” I can see where she is coming from, but I found MoffatВ’s quite complicated, more contemplative story every bit as compelling as any other story this season and I certainly do not think it lacked pace. The science-fiction idea behind the episode is fascinating; a 51st century spaceship contains several В“time windowsВ”, each leading directly into various times in one particular 18th century womanВ’s life. For some unknown reason, clockwork robots are constantly harassing this woman, scanning her to see if she is В“completeВ” so they can nick her brain and use it to run their space ship! And just in case that isnВ’t enough for you, Moffat chucks in a horse!

В“YouВ’re not keeping the horse,В” says Rose, scalding the Doctor.
В“I let you keep Mickey!В”

At heart though, “The Girl In The Fireplace” is a love story that pushes fantasy romance to its limits. A Fireplace…“a magic door”… call it what you will; it brings together a lonely Time Lord and a French aristocrat in the most intense, surreal set of circumstances. The first meeting of the Doctor and Reinette (Sophia Myles… David Tennant’s bird) is lifted straight out of a fairytale and then turned on its head. A little girl sleeps with a monster under her bed, and then the man that the “…monsters have nightmares about” comes to her rescue. The ‘monster’ as it were really is the stuff of nightmares. The clockwork robot under Reinette’s bad combines the creepy, relentless tick / tock of a unstoppable machine with a nightmarish masque that plays on all those terrible fears about what lies beneath - these robots are how “The Robots of Death” should have looked; art-deco monstrosities. I also found its voice extremely unsettling – I can’t be sure (though with hindsight it would make sense) but it sounds like Sophia Myles’ voice put through a modulator. What lies beneath the masque, ironically, is actually a thing of beauty to the Doctor’s eyes – a piece of “…space age clockwork.”

В“Reason tells me you cannot be real.В”
В“You donВ’t want to listen to reason.В”

The DoctorВ’s third meeting with Reinette is the pivotal one. Now all grown up, the Madame de Pompadour is a ferociously intelligent, sexy and formidable woman. When she leapt upon the man she had dismissed as an В“imaginary friendВ” I was completely taken aback В– I really didnВ’t see it coming. Even more surprisingly, it worked beautifully. The Doctor clearly enjoyed the kiss; afterwards he was running around like a kid on Christmas Day yelling В“IВ’m the Doctor, and I just snogged the Madame de Pompadour!В” Moreover, ReinetteВ’s forwardness shocked me. Her regal, almost austere countenance sort of tricked me into thinking that she would be prim and proper В– I guess what they say about posh birds is true, even in the 18th century!

В“There comes a time, Time Lord, when every little boy must learn how to dance.В”

It is quite refreshing to see an episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor is genuinely smitten with a woman; he may have had, what, 3 snogs in the millennium before this episode but each and every one of those had some kind of get-out clause. В“Oh, she kissed himВ… Oh, he was only sucking the time vortex out of herВ… Oh, she kissed him, and she was possessed anywayВ…В” Moving from such puritanical abstinence to having the Doctor hiding behind a wall spying on his fancy piece is an absolute joy to watch; giving the Doctor a heart (no, not a third one, IВ’m talking figuratively!) opens up so many storytelling possibilities and most interestingly, it really throws open the whole В“what actually is going on with the Doctor and Rose?В” story. The DoctorВ’s mind-meld of sorts with Reinette is another terrific scene as she surprises him by being able to look into his memories. Does this mean she knows who the Doctor is? Is this why he develops such feelings for her? В“ItВ’s more than just a secret isnВ’t it.. В“

I can see why the Doctor would fall for such a woman; after forty-four minutes I was in love with her! Not only is she brilliant, sexy and quite naughty but also sheВ’s a brave woman with some quite romantic ideals. She barges past Mickey through a time window, stepping straight from a palatial room 1752 Versailles into a 51st century spaceship in one beautiful shot. This other world that she sees frightens her, but that only strengthens her resolve В– В“The Doctor is worth the monsters.В” On top of that, she manages to not only grasp the difficult concept that the days of her life are В“pressed togetherВ” from the DoctorВ’s purview, but she accepts it that it is her fate В– her duty В– to walk the В“slower path.В” Her speech in the ballroom when she is assailed my clockwork killers really shows her mettle; even when it appears that the Doctor has forsaken her, she shows nothing but strength. Of course, the Doctor hasnВ’t forsaken herВ…

In any other TV show would you see ever someone come flying through a mirror on a horse? В“WOWВ” simply doesnВ’t do it justice. Fair enough, the clockwork men suddenly ceasing to function because they are suddenly cut off from their ship is a bit rushed and a bit rubbish, but quite frankly it doesnВ’t matter. A horse went through a mirror! The Doctor deliberately marooned himself in 18th century Earth to save Reinette. More to the point, he doesnВ’t seem to care; nor does he seem to spare a though for Rose and Mickey, stuck on that space ship in their far future. The Doctor even seems quite pleased with his fate, even if he is a tad concerned as to where heВ’ll get money from. В“HereВ’s to the slow path!В” He really is getting oldВ…

I thought that maybe Moffat was going to doing something completely madcap like have the Doctor live out the next 3000 years on Earth, and then suddenly show up on the space ship not looking a day older, but thankfully the Doctor managed to use the one surviving time window to get back to the future. He promised that he would come back for Reinette; he promised her that he would show her the starsВ… obviously Time Lords have no concept of monogamy! When the Doctor went back for Reinette, six years had passed and she had died. For the second week in a row, we have a tearjerker ending; this one perhaps even more powerful than the last. As fantastic as the endings to В“School ReunionВ” and В“The Girl In The FireplaceВ” are, IВ’m aching for a good olВ’ fashioned cliffhanger!

And so the Doctor has loved and lost. Rose and Mickey can tell heВ’s upset but they arenВ’t sure why, and so Mickey prudently makes an excuse to leave the Time Lord alone with his thoughts and the letter that Reinette wrote to him. That look on David TennantВ’s face as he extinguishes the time windowВ… Brilliantly written; brilliantly acted; brilliantly shot and produced. The Doctor В– the real weary traveller В– goes on. As the TARDIS dematerialises it all comes together В– the space ship was the SS Madame de PompadourВ… that is why the clockwork repair droids thought only her brain would be compatible. Absurd. Fantastic.

One final note - I donВ’t know whether it was deliberate or not but I think that the placing of this episode in the season is an absolute masterstroke. The clockwork repair droids using the body parts of their crew to repair the ship wonderfully foreshadows В“The Rise of the CybermenВ” В– the amalgamation of flesh and machine.

В“We did not have the partsВ…В”