The Girl in the Fireplace

Firstly this is one of the more imaginative titles to come out of new Who and as such for me promised a much-needed potential slice of more baroque scriptural cake. Unlike the majority of reviewers, I was not a massive fan of Steve MoffattВ’s highly rated The Empty Child/Doctor Dance, mainly because for all the intrigue and creepiness of the first episode, the gas-masked child and so on, and the later transformation scenes, twist of the young single mother, and final highly imaginative and satisfying resolution to the story, I felt overall the production was undermined by the Titanic-style cod-romance between Rose and Jack В– cue the nauseatingly Hollywood-esque Big Ben champagne scene В–, the intrinsically Brit-centric aspects, and the completely irrelevant and inappropriate bisexual subtexts. Not to mention the frankly ludicrous dance scene at the end В– Rock around the Console and all that. I did appreciate MoffattВ’s genuinely unusual concepts and ideas, but, in anticipating his second stab at the series, was mindful of this writerВ’s somewhat juvenile preoccupation with sexuality and flirtation (as distilled in his singularly puerile comedy series Coupling). That and the fact that extensive coverage pre-transmission hinted worryingly at the pivotal В‘romanceВ’ aspect to the approaching episode, unforgivably, involving the Doctor himself.

On all surface levels this extremely innovative and very un-Who-like episode was certainly highly impressive and intriguing. The sets and especially costume designs cannot be faulted at all. In particular, the beautifully crafted baroque masks of the robots, replete with creepily ambivalent painted smiles and cascading wigs В– a hybrid between the stunning art deco Kaldor Vocs in Robots of Death and the eerie clowns in Greatest Show in the Galaxy В– stood out as Who design classics, instantly gratifying to the eye, lusciously painted and tangibly affecting; the design team deserve a huge thumbs up for such brilliantly realized creations, no less disappointing when unmasked to reveal intricate clockwork mechanics within. The robotsВ’ voices too are uncannily similar to those from Robots of Death, metallic yet soft and strangely soothing, beautifully spoken. For these creations alone, this episode brands itself into the retina indelibly. Overall, its production standards could only be described as sumptuous; an immediately timeless addition to the many varied scenarios and historical/futuristic depictions of the seriesВ’ long colourful history. Some inevitable comparisons have already been made between these robots and В– as previously mentioned В– those of Robots of Death (still on a par with these design-wise) and the clockwork soldiers of The Mind Robber. Girl in the Fireplace, being essentially a fantasy piece, also harks back to other classic seriesВ’ oddballs such as The Celestial Toymaker, in its sheer eccentricity of realization. But the story for me which it most resembles is the Season 20 classic Enlightenment, both in terms of disorientating and incongruous juxtapositions of baroque historicism and futuristic sci-fi and in the narrative threads of love and romance: in Enlightenment, the Eternal Marriner is infatuated with the Ephemeral Tegan (who, it is hinted, and controversially we thought at the time, to be possibly smitten with the Doctor В– В‘The picture of him in your mind is quite intriguingВ’ (Wrack)), while in the Girl in the Fireplace, the ephemeral Madame de Pompadour is in love with the В‘eternalВ’ (seeing as the 13th regeneration business seems to be have been forgotten for the time being) Doctor. So the themes of time and love, originally unique to the beautifully written, Romantic story Enlightenment, have now been revisited far less subtly in The Girl in the Fireplace, with the inevitable new-Who progression of involving the central character of the show.

I have to say that despite the В– equally В‘inevitableВ’ В– В‘snogВ’ scene between the two literally star-crossed protagonists, which was executed with all the subtlety of a farting Slitheen, this highly precarious plot thread was not as far-stretched (excuse pun) as I had timorously anticipated it might be. The fact remains, however, that this latest stylistic revelation regarding the emotional nature of the Doctor was rather unnecessary and, though not injurious to the plot itself, potentially injurious to the character of the programme, and largely superfluous. The plot itself could have easily been sustained without this romantic element; or it might have been simply toned down a little, so that the romance aspect was completely one-sided, i.e. Madame de PompadourВ’s unrequited infatuation with her В‘angelВ’. Instead we have it hinted that on some level the Doctor requites this В‘romanceВ’; having said this, I do give Moffatt credit for not over-magnifying this implication and leaving it open to speculation. However, on a second viewing, I found the snog scene even more excruciating than on the first viewing, striking me all the more as irritating and unwelcome due to its completely unnecessary inclusion in what is otherwise a fairly affecting and thought-provoking episode.

But the real bugbear of this story is the shambolic and even more unnecessary scene in which the Doctor stumbles back into the spaceship apparently drunk after having В‘dancedВ’ (the grating return of MoffattВ’s less-than-subtle sexual euphemism from The Doctor Dances) with de Pompadour. This scene has to rate alongside such timeless atrocities as Tom BakerВ’s В‘O my everything!В’ cavorting with Mandrels in Nightmare of Eden and Sylvester McCoyВ’s absurd pratfalls in the early scenes of Time and the Rani, as one of the most mis-directed and pointless moments in the seriesВ’ history. Why o why undermine the hitherto affecting atmosphere of this essentially imaginative episode with such a pointlessly camp moment? The Doctor feigning inebriation is one thing, but why over egg the pudding with his tie-bandana and inexplicably donned sunglasses? At best this was a feeble impersonation of Dennis Hopper from Apocalypse Now, with a bit of plagiarized third-rate Blackadder scripting thrown in: В‘Mr thicky from ThickaniaВ’! What on earth did Moffatt think he was playing at? This was diabolical scripting all the more painful for the fact that its vicissitude came in the middle of a reasonably well written episode. Gimmicks like this scene do nothing to enhance the credibility either of the new series or of its central character, so why do it? It simply isnВ’t amusing. Not to mention the fact that it is woefully derivative of the writings of Messrs Curtis and Elton, and not of their best efforts at that. Cut out the gimmickry and concentrate on the substance of the storyline and the characters (such as they are). And the line В‘IВ’m the Doctor, and I just snogged Madame de PompadourВ’ is unforgivably crass.

If Troughton was the Cosmic Hobo, Pertwee the Dandy, and Tom Baker the bohemian, surely Tennant is the Galactic Peter Pan? His youthfulness and manic naivety (В‘I could have danced all nightВ…В’) clearly enchants those around him in much the same manner as JM BarrieВ’s ageless hero, and in the Girl in the Fireplace, he is certainly perceived by the young de Pompadour as some sort of magical sprite who keeps appearing to her throughout her life, never ageing, just like Peter Pan. This conception of the central character is a fairly nice slant and might very well work in the long run. But I am still yet to be convinced by TennantВ’s Doctor, whose rasping tones and manic exhibitionism lack the gravitas of previous incarnations.

Onto the characters. In this episode we have a refreshingly muted contribution from the DoctorВ’s companions, putting Rose thankfully more in the background for a change В– bar her oddly placed scene later on explaining the time ramifications to de Pompadour В– and pitting her and Mickey in a limited sideline of wandering around very quiet corridors, reminiscent of Tegan and TurloughВ’s ponderous input in Terminus. This is very much the DoctorВ’s episode, but his persona comes across as rather impulsive and impressionable throughout, a bit like a cosmic Kenneth Williams in search of his true sexuality. Tennant has some reasonable moments, but overall this came across as a more lightweight and unaffecting treatment of his incarnation than the previous two episodes. He is genuinely very funny in the opening scenes when he chats very casually to the girl in the fireplace, concluding with a light В‘ok, enjoy the rest of the fireВ…В’ The imagery of the little girl talking from the other side of the fireplace is very intriguing, as is the scene in which the Doctor confronts the beautifully creepy masked robot in her bedroom. These scenes provide splatterings of genuine magic.

Less affecting are the romance scenes between the Doctor and the grown up Madame de Pompadour. Though Sophia Myles plays the role perfectly well, her lines are rather limited and pedestrian overall, and the scripting of her character in no way puts across the real historical figureВ’s hinted-at uniqueness of character. This is rather disappointing. For me her inclusion seems rather superficial and we are not, in my opinion, gifted as interesting an insight into a historical figure here as we are in The Unquiet Dead and Tooth and Claw. This Madame de Pompadour is a comparatively flat creation, used as a feed for lines intended simply to ruffle the feathers of classic Who fans regarding the emotional and sexual makeup of the Doctor. She seems to serve little purpose otherwise, except for injecting a facile ingredient of historical celebrity into the scenario. The days of Who subtlety certainly died out with the likes of Robert Holmes. No more the suggested or alluded-to, now the blatantly stated and clumsily depicted.

While the concept of time windows is quite interesting and imaginative, and the juxtaposition of historical with futuristic settings likewise, the rather pantomime means of flitting between these two time periods is little ludicrous to say the least: the Doctor spends the episode sliding back and forth through a physical double-sided fireplace В‘setВ’ in a manner reminiscent of Indiana Jones. But in this scenario we are supposed to believe these are time portals. It might have been an easy option for the production team but it simply doesnВ’t convince as a fantastical means of time-travel. Something akin to the mirrors of WarriorsВ’ Gate would have been more convincing В– partially emulated in the DoctorВ’s rather over-blown grate-crashing of the 18th c. masque via a white stallion through a wall mirror. Presumably the horse had escaped from the 18th c. time zone onto the spaceshipВ… I donВ’t knowВ…

The plot itself is both bizarre and original, with the robots using the body parts of the В‘crewВ’ to keep the ship operative. By the end it is hinted that these body parts are in fact those of Madame de Pompadour, but the final shot of the spaceshipВ’s name doesnВ’t really explain things properly, and one is left at the end thinking В‘nice concept, but what exactly did it all mean?В’ The Doctor seems equally clueless at the end of the episode, muttering vaguaries about the robots getting confused and fixated on the correlation between de PompadourВ’s age and that of the spaceshipВ’s: 37 years. It did all rather come across as if Moffatt, with the brief from RTD, В‘do this and this, add in Madame de Pompadour for no particular reason, use as an excuse for romantic focus on Doctor to annoy older fans, somehow tie it all together and justify her inclusion by end of episodeВ’, did indeed have to end up blagging it by the end in the script itself in order to come even near to justifying all the oddities of the episode. He didnВ’t really succeed did he? The scene in which de Pompadour escorts the Doctor into her bedroom and talks of В‘itВ’ being a perfect replica in every detail while the viewer could see only a bed, was a very clever way of teasing the traditional fan with the ultimate horror: the Doctor having sex! Of course we soon discovered she was referring to the fireplace, and thank God the script was to resort to the essential storyline in an attempt to finally wrap up a fairly beguiling scenario. This was fairly well done, but as I say, with no real explanations for anything that had transpired.

The Girl in the Fireplace is a true Doctor Who fairy story, reminiscent in some ways of the far superior Enlightenment, but still a refreshingly imaginative addition to the Who cannon, and a generally thought-provoking and affecting distraction from the formulaic mediocrity of RTDВ’s new Who vision. Its visuals cannot be faulted; the robots are beautifully realized and the set pieces are excellent. Some of the shots, especially of a snowy night through de PompadourВ’s bedroom window, are breathtaking. The only thing is, none of it really makes that much sense and future re-visiting requires fast forwarding through the В‘snogВ’ and В‘bandanaВ’ scenes in order for one not to be distracted from the episodeВ’s true merits. More than any other one-episode in new Who so far, The Girl in the Fireplace needed two in order to do it full justice. With two episodes it may very well have been a classic story; but as it stands, it is more of a glimpse than a full exposition of something truly lasting.

7/10.