A beautifully packaged episode, you can see the money in every single shot, every department has worked in harmony to produce one of the most lavish and sumptuous pieces of television I have seen this year. Colours bled from my television set, opulence shone, costume glittered, sets sparkled…. my sense went into critical overload…

…and yet I’m not entirely satisfied. I think I’m a bit ungrateful to complain when this is clearly a superior slice of television but something niggled at me during this episode, just like it did during Father’s Day, something that wasn’t quite right.

I think I was expecting a bit more fantasy romance and less science fiction. I wanted to see fabulous balls and emmerse myself in the culture of France in the 1700’s rather than hopping back to that drab old spaceship every five minutes. The glimpses of historical accuracy we saw were fantastic, scenes such as Pompadour and friend taking in the grounds, filmed with a sense of romance that quite took my breath away. Another problem was Mickey and Rose who were entirely superfluous to the episode, especially Mickey whose first trip in the TARDIS is skipped over in favour of the Doctor’s romance. Rose was okay but she is getting a little generic this year, devolving into a standard companion rather than the unique and feisty piece of work she was last year. Lets hope we see her step back into the limelight in the next episode. It seems to me as though the writers got this script and School Reunion the wrong way round, with Rose acting like a jealous girlfriend and getting awfully bitchy towards the fabulous Sarah Jane and yet all she does in this episode when the Doctor has a genuine romance is throw a worried glance his way when he goes scuttling off after Madame Pompadour. Hmm, consistency people, consistency.

Clockwork soldiers, what a fine idea and pulled off with magnificent style, the terrifying ticking and those nasty grinning faces, combining the Soldiers (from the Mind Robber) and the Robots (from Robots of Death) to superb visual effect. Unfortunately looking scary is all they can do because we are pre watershed and thus all we witness is them stalking about brandishing cutting tools. We hear of them to cutting open people and adding them to the processes of the spaceship but that is no where near as scary as seeing it. And for those who moan that we can’t see this sort of thing as it is too scary for the kiddies I say I bet they wont be as squeamish next week with the Cybermen, I expect we’ll see some of or all of a Cyber conversion which is just as frightening. Clockwork killers is not a new idea in Doctor Who, unfortunately we have also had their appearance in this months Big Finish. Alas neither of the audio or the visual attempts hold a candle to the Jonathan Morris’ Anachrophobia, which was brave enough to take the idea to its limit, having a character attempt suicide by slashing open her wrists to find cogs and wheels grinding inside and later having a character have his chest ripped open to discover a pendulum swinging inside a glass case rather than his heart beating. That is scary. What we see here is pretty.

Whilst I’m whinging the idea of the Doctor visiting a person at separate moments in their life has also been done before and (dare I say it) it was even more touching than it was here. Justin Richards’ Glass Princess from the Big Finish Short Trips: The Muses featured a story where the Doctor visited a princess throughout her entire life, a different incarnation for each visit until the eighth Doctor visits and takes her outside her home for the first time and tells her a story of a beautiful Princess and kisses her as she dies in his arms. So originality is not this episodes strong point either.

Oh my word what a total absolute moaning, miserable Tegan-wanabee git I have been! An entire page complaining and griping at a piece of television I really enjoyed! Summing up (and it’s the last negative thing I will say) I will just say that I am disappointed that the series can’t push its horror angle further (never stopped them in the past) and the show isn’t quite as boundary pushing as I had hoped, I guess plunging the audience into a romantic drama without any SF elements would be a little too alienating. But I really miss the pure historical and I thought this might be the first since Black Orchid.

What about the amazing chemistry between David Tennant and Sophia Myles (and I should hope so too considering what they get up to behind the scenes). I for one have absolutely no trouble with the Doctor having a romance and a good snog and however snide it might sound Doctor Who has evolved out of the fans hands these days and the show demands a romance for its loyal female (and soppy male) population. Just because those anal fans of the old series could never get a girl, no reason why the Doctor shouldn’t, especially not somebody as shaggable as David Tennant. Cor, if he materialised in my bedroom like he did Pompadour’s the Doctor wouldn’t have stood a chance! And whilst it was a borrowed idea, the thought of the Doctor progressing through this amazing woman’s life is agonisingly poignant, not ageing a day whilst she grows in leaps and bounds (beautifully capitalising on his tender admission in School Reunion), psychically and emotionally. Her devotion to him through the years, her willingness to take ‘the slow road’ to meeting him again is lovely and it is worth watching just to see her face when he promises to show her the stars. The final ten minutes are a total change of pace for the series, not climaxing with the Doctor saving the ball from the sinister soldiers but concentrating instead on the Doctor’s relationship with this amazing woman and how much he is affected by her beauty and intelligence. The last scene is achingly sad (although I have to say I wept more at the end of the School Reunion…sentimental attachment to Sarah Jane!) where the Doctor stands alone in the console room, again following up his admission that he is always alone (even when his friends are in the next room). Reading a farewell letter from the one woman he let into his head, revealed his secrets too, had my choking back the tears.

Sophia Myles is just the sort of big name star the show needs to keep attracting, not just because she is stunningly beautiful (almost enough to turn a guys head from his chosen lifestyle!) but because she brings so much to the episode she stars in. It is a textured, sensitive portrayal, one which stands out because clearly the writer was as invested in the character as the actress and together they have created a memorable and striking figure to reveal much about the Doctor. It is the side of him that comes out around Pompadour that makes her so special. To Myles’ credit it is not a part I can imagine anybody else playing, so distinctive is she in the part.

It is an amazing showcase for David Tennant’s range too, allowing him to express all manner of emotions throughout. He shifts mood in this episode more times than Eccleston did in an entire season. I wasn’t crazy about the mock drunk scene but that is just because I know far too many people who act like total dickheads when they’ve had one too many but it was certainly a clever ploy to finish off one of those clockwork nasties. His reaction Pompadour reading his mind was priceless, horror, shock and then slow admittance and enjoyment…its all their in Tennant’s face. His performance throughout the episode enhances the climax because after his manic energy earlier on (including that spine tingling moment when he bursts through the mirror on horseback) his eerie quietness in the TARDIS as he pilots the ship and reads her farewell letter is magnificently portrayed. This is an amazing actor we have at the helm of our show, lets never forget that.

I think the biggest credit for this episode however deserves to go to Euros Lyn who, after Tooth and Claw and this has now proven himself as the best director on the show. Frankly it is assembled by genius, the storytelling his sharp and bold but it means nothing if the director doesn’t stamp his mark and this piece was dramatic, funny, romantic, exciting, tear jerking and visually mouth watering. He cuts scenes back and forth brilliantly, never letting the audience get bored, dazzling us with special FX, gorgeous costumes and sets but still remembering it is the actors that we need to connect with and driving some phenomenal performances from them. I wouldn’t say the direction here was better than Tooth and Claw, but it was easily as good and so stylish that it is noticed.

The Girl in the Fireplace is an odd beast, clearly better than anything else that will be aired on TV this week, mixing horror, SF and history with effortless ease (in a way only Doctor Who can) and looking as though it had five times its budget and yet my niggly problems leave it inferior to the last two episodes. Keep up the excellent work but a little advice, don’t worry about scaring the kids (they love it) and remember you are supposed to be the boldest show on television, trust the audience if you want to dive in a dish up a pure historical.

Steven Moffat, writer of the wonderful Series One story В“The Empty Child/The Doctor DancesВ”, returns with a new tale for Series Two. Once again we have a story woven together with the finest elements of history, time and future concepts. This episode however, is quite different from MoffatВ’s previous tale and in fact, from past Doctor Who altogether.

If В“School ReunionВ” was played out to indulge the fans, В“The Girl in the FireplaceВ” will challenge them. This is a pity really, as it shouldnВ’t have to. For this is a Doctor focused romance and as some fans will tell you, it was proven by the 1996 Paul McGann movie that you simply donВ’t attempt such blasphemy.

Well, unless itВ’s done very well - like В“The Girl in the FireplaceВ”.

В“The Girl in the FireplaceВ” continues Series TwoВ’s central character evolution. This story offers a very different crew dynamic to previous outings in this season. This is not just because we have a new TARDIS crew member, RoseВ’s beau Mickey Smith, but because we are seeing a radically different relationship between the Doctor and Rose herself. Compared to the earlier episode, В“New EarthВ”, the Doctor and RoseВ’s relationship is decidedly different. Viewers who were put off by their sachrine sweet friendship in the season premiere will probably be pleased to see such a dynamic shift. Whether those same people will be thrilled by the Doctor falling in love with a famous historical figure.. well, that is another matter.

The story is fairly complex: Upon landing on a spaceship in the far future, the Doctor is caught in a technological intrigue which sends back and forth through 18th Century France. While Rose and Mickey battle to escape the clutches of the spaceshipВ’s robotic occupants, the Doctor must stop the same robots from taking one of FranceВ’s greatest women; Madame de Pompadour.

The production values remain consistent with the season so far. A lot of care has gone into contrasting the two centuries in which this story is set. The plot jumps between time zones thick and fast and both zones have their own unique aesthetic.

Fans of MoffatВ’s Series One contribution will see some similar themes popping up. Beyond the aforementioned plot elements, we have some more Moffatesque references; the Doctor dances once more; we have more references to companions off on a wander and this time; more future technology running amok and most importantly, the flirtatious interplay of Rose and Captain Jack has been replaced by The DoctorВ’s romantic intrigue with a certain Madame de Pompadour.

As with Queen Victoria in В“Tooth And ClawВ”, I cannot attest to historical accuracy, but the character is certainly well scripted and well acted - she feels real even if she is for the most part, ficticious. She is delivered as a character with integrity, depth and oddles of colour. Such rich interpretations of history can only make the subject more interesting for the kids. IВ’m sure there are children - who are as I type - are doing some background reading on Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson. Actress Sophia Myles plays her with grace and presence. SheВ’s a perfect bit of casting and her chemistry with Tennant sparkles.

Once again, Tennant takes centre stage in this adventure which is very welcome. Rose is a wonderfully crafted character, but she does lack that ability to regenerate her character. So while Rose remains Rose, the ninth Doctor has become the tenth and IВ’m sure all the audience - new and old - are still very keen to see some exploration of this new man. As with В“School ReunionВ”, Tennant is flawless. Certainly, TennantВ’s Doctor is a little more eccentric than Eccleston's and almost definitely more human, nevertheless, that lonely man is still present.

В“The Girl in the FireplaceВ” takes us through a relationship touched with gentle beauty that resolves a romance before it can even begin. Following the DoctorВ’s remarks in В“School ReunionВ” about not wanting to watch those he loves wither and die, this seems even more pertinent when put alongside this episode.

While the Doctor engages in his attempts to unravel the mysterious clockwork plot to take Madame de Pompadour, Mickey and Rose work together to find more pieces to the puzzle in the far future. The companion story is fairly muted and for this episode it has good reason to be so as this is very much the DoctorВ’s story. The companion role is this episode is fairly Old School Doctor Who; they hunt for clues, get captured and ask В“whatВ’s happening Doctor?В” on more than one occasion. Despite over thirty years of similar Doctor/companion formula, this actually feels rather refreshing. This is probably because the new series has had some very companion intense stories. Mickey Smith makes a solid third companion to the TARDIS crew and helps give RoseВ’s character some decent interaction while the Doctor plays Romeo. He adds a little comic value to the team without being too contrived. He and the Doctor play off some refreshing and glib dialogue in regards to some of the more technological story plot points.

Something I found particularly interesting in regards to character interaction, was an element the story made no actual narrative reference to: the DoctorВ’s lack of interest in Rose. ItВ’s curious how quickly the Doctor forgets Rose, being how important she is to him. While this isnВ’t directly mentioned, there are some nice beats within the tale where itВ’s evident that Rose is noticing the lack of intensity as well. The Doctor truely is in love with Madame de Pompadour and if the relationship between himself and Rose felt deep before this, it will be interesting to see how his deep affections for Jeanne-Antoinette will challenge the Rose/Doctor interplay in later episodes. As with Series One, there is a clear character arc going on throughout Series Two and it helps keep the show from feeling stale or formulaic.

In regards to the episode construction, we are seeing a different narrative approach to В“The Girl in the FireplaceВ” compared to the past three stories. The teaser is set in the 18th Century, the first act opens in the far future. We leap from time zone to time zone faster than Alice can make it through the looking glass and my crass analogy certainly pertinent; watch out for one of Doctor WhoВ’s most ambitious effect shots later in the story. The scene is very non-Doctor Who and satisfyingly welcome.

With a thirty year old series, boundaries have to be pushed. To stop a show going stale it has to evolve. Not just to fit in with a new generation of viewers, but to give the concept itself momentum. The Doctor/Madame de Pompadour romance will irritate some fans as there is no ambiguity here; Tennant plays a Doctor in love. It took me a second to get into gear for this concept, but it makes sense. The Doctor can love. Time Lords can love. That has been established within the Doctor Who universe - no matter how much it irks some fans. As each regeneration conveys different facets of the DoctorВ’s character, it seems totally rational that some facets may be more affectionate than others. On top of that, the Doctor is now a great deal older and as the last of his kind, company will be far more attractive. So there you go, IВ’ve given some reasons as to why enraged fans should simply embrace this move within the show. You can either go with the flow and enjoy the show or fester in a corner. I would hope youВ’ll all find the former more rewarding.

As a romantic interest, Madame de Pompadour. is certainly more the kind of lady IВ’d expect the Doctor to fall for. Even at the end, when she knows she could keep the Doctor in her time, she gives him an outlet. Far less self absorbed than Rose. Madame certainly comes across as an enchanting lady that even a Time Lord would be hard pressed not to adore.

Should the Doctor be a romantic character? He already is to some extent. The lonely wanderer. The champion of time. The homeless man with a bucket of mystery. I think as with all shows, romance can be a story danger. If the chemistry, writing and pacing isnВ’t there, romance can seem forced resulting in disaster. There is no fear in this episode of that happening and of course, as with all the best love stories, В“The Girl in the FireplaceВ“ is tainted with tragedy. The last ten minutes are some of the most touching and evocative moments IВ’ve seen in Doctor Who. Yes, more than В“School ReunionВ”. Well, maybe.

Any quibbles? Those against the 45 minute format may have a reason to grumble, It does feel uncomfortably mixed on occasions with there being so much to do in so little time. We race from time zone to time zone and sometimes it feels as if those periods want to breathe a little more than they do.

The Clockwork robots were wonderfully designed and their introduction is a wonderful В“behind the sofaВ” moment. However, they do lose their menace fairly quick which is a pity and drift too far into the plot to really stand out.

Perhaps my only other quibble would be the music which was a little thick and intrusive in some of the comedy moments.

Overall a very different type of Doctor Who. YouВ’ll leave it feeling you know the Doctor slightly better than you did when you started. Older fans may need to give it a couple of watches to appreciate the formula and character dynamics. It certainly is a romance, but it is beautifully handled, and if you find THE kiss a little too much at the start, keep watching because IВ’m sure the end will certainly move you.

I wondered if this episode could top В“School ReunionВ”, and yes, maybe it has. So again I must pose the question for a second week running: Next episode - can you top this?

I loved this episode right from the first scene, with a teaser that skips ahead in the Doctor's narrative to show us Reinette talking into her fireplace, calling for the Doctor to come help her from the monsters that are attacking. Most importantly, it's beautiful and intriguing at once and serves as a perfect thesis for the whole episode. Secondly, I can't recall the original TV series ever skipping ahead to near the ending like this before, although it has been heard many times in Big Finish audios, and is another example of great ideas from the wilderness years being folded into the new TV series.

The rest of the episode is likewise wonderful to behold and difficult to predict as it goes. This is mainly because, as in "The Empty Child," Steven Moffat has based the whole science fiction problem around a mistake by technology. If there were a logical reason for everything to be the way it is, it would also be predictable and therefore dull and boring. If, however, things are the way they are because of a very false premise on the part of the antagonist, then the root cause of it is both difficult for us to guess and yet entirely logically connected to everything else in the story that follows from that false premise, and so it all does make sense to us in the end. First he did it with nanogenes that didn't know what a human should look like, and this time it's a robot repair system that's had its chips scrambled so that it thinks the woman for whom it is named is therefore its perfect replacement central processor. (The way this was all finally revealed in the very last shots of the episode was brilliant as well.) It then of course naturally follows that it'd send its robots to try and get that spare part, and that the time windows and the fireplace and so on could be the means to that end, and as Reinette tells us, a door once opened can be walked through in both directions, and so it makes sense there'd be a horse on the spaceship and so on. These are all exquisite romantic images as well, and half the reason that they are is the same reason why anything truly beautiful in nature is, because it's all what logically follows from a single flawed premise. It's like the crystals on a snowflake. They're extremely complicated and beautiful at the same time, and they all come from moisture freezing around a single, imperfect piece of dust that was just floating in the air. Unintelligent design is often better than things intelligent designers come up with, and is certainly never predictable. Each snowflake is a masterpiece in itself for although it forms by the same rules and laws of physics as all the other snowflakes, each core piece of dust is itself an unpredictable and unique "flaw" in the air. Can you tell I love this way to build a story yet? Of course, now I'm onto it, I'm afraid it means I might be able to see what's coming in Steven Moffat's next story next year, but perhaps not, if the mistaken dust particle in that one is random enough.

The design and direction crystallized around the script utterly perfectly as well. The art direction, costume design, and cinematography in the France scenes is the equal of any award-winning period piece movie, lending the whole thing an air of class that "Doctor Who" rarely, if ever, has achieved before this. My favorite images though were, in no particular order, anything that Reinette was wearing, the ballroom itself, the nearly seamless CG done on the location shots to make them look like France of the period, the exquisite clockwork inside the robots' transparent heads, the spaceship exterior which didn't look like any other spaceship I've seen, and of course, the shot of the Doctor riding the horse through the mirror, smashing it as he goes. There's so much attention to detail everywhere you look, and I'd like to highlight the "spring/summer/autumn/winter" motif they had going on as the Doctor makes each visit to Reinette at different stages in her life. There was a similar trick used to good effect for Rivendell in the "Lord of the Rings" movies, but I don't care if I've seen that trick once before, for it really fits here just as well, perhaps better. The shot selection by Euros Lyn was just as good as that which he gave us in "Tooth and Claw," and yet of a very different style, and I'd now put him alongside Douglas Camfield or Graeme Harper on the list of the best directors "Doctor Who" has ever had.

There were a few other parts to the story that also looked familiar to this Big Finish listener. The time windows are _very_ like those used in the audio "The Time of the Daleks," and there's even carriage clock clockwork running it as there, only not quite so directly. Here it's running robots that then run the windows. The juggling of time in the narrative as well as in the events in the story is another Big Finish trademark. And the books get a great shout-out as well with the Doctor's saying that he's the thing the monsters have nightmares about, which is directly from Paul Cornell's NA book "Love and War," as admitted to by Grand Moff Steven in the podcast commentary for this episode. (and Paul had reused it himself in his BF audio "The Shadow of the Scourge") I'm all for this kind of picking off the fruits of the trees from the wilderness years, and rumor has it there's more of this to come next week...

The episode is, at its core, about what a romance between the Doctor and a human woman might be like, and at the same time about why that's not possible for him and why he avoids it. Sure, the kissing and the partying and the "dancing" is all well and good, but for the Doctor, it's all too fleeting. As he told Rose last week, humans grow old and wither and die, while he doesn't, and so his relationships with us must always be short, which is why he normally cuts them off. He finally meets a woman who could match him in every respect and could perhaps really be a true equal partner to him, and at the same time he's meeting her in a way which magnifies his central problem of the humans always living too short a time for a Time Lord. When he reads that letter she wrote to him as she lay dying, you can almost see his hearts sinking through the floor as the weariness and loneliness and sadness gets to him in a way that hasn't been seen quite so well before. I almost wonder if perhaps the TARDIS could've shown us some sympathetic reaction where her lights dim at this point or something... nah, I think not. That'd just pull focus off the best scene David Tennant has recorded as the Doctor yet, and the one where at last the Doctor's great age really shines through with what Tennant is doing. That's the one thing that's been missing from the Tenth Doctor up until now, that sense of eternity, and I didn't quite realize we hadn't seen it yet until this scene. It's there now, and it's as if the whole Doctor is back with us again, in a way I don't think I've felt since I don't know when. Well-played, David Tennant, well-played. You're my favorite now.

Another favorite I have is Sophia Myles, who turns in what I think is the best guest star role so far this season. Yes, better than Elisabeth Sladen or John Leeson or even Anthony Head. And I'm not saying this because of how she looks physically, which is tremendous of course, or at least, I'm only saying it about how she looks with her eyes. The eyes are what tell you how intelligent a character (and the actress behind the character) is, and with every look Sophia Myles has something going on behind her eyes that screams "look out, Doctor, I'm just as clever as you are." Roger Delgado used to use that "look" to hypnotize people in an evil way that made you believe he really could do hypnotize people just by looking at them. Sophia has a good and (of course) feminine eye-stare that makes you believe she really can root around inside the Doctor's mind just as he's doing it to her. And what a look she gets too... I _adore_ that line she has that goes "Doctor... Who? It's more than just a secret, isn't it?" And that's something else I hadn't quite realized was missing from the entire new series at this point and is now back as a result... restating the "Who" in "Doctor Who"... re-emphasizing that the Doctor was different from the other Time Lords even before they were all killed and he wasn't. If the series starts to earnestly bring that sort of thing back up again more often, then we'll _really_ be cooking with gas...

If the episode has any drawback at all, it's only that Rose and Mickey were sidelined a bit, and still what little time the story had for them was very good quality time, particularly when we see Rose have these jealous pangs towards Reinette but which then turn to sympathy and sadness for her and her situation, and when Mickey is the one who spots how the Doctor needs time to be alone at the end of the episode after Reinette has died. Oh, and the caption on the scene that establishes the spaceship should've said "3293 ± 50 Years Later" instead of 3000. Or something like that.

And I'll save my last comments for Mr. Murray Gold, who turned in a fantastic score again this week. He implied in DWM that perhaps not all of the music we heard in the 2005 season was what he himself wanted to write but was asked to write. Based on how much he's improved in these last four episodes, it sounds to me like the leash has been let go, because the scores have been so much improved on last season.

Here's hoping that freedom is continued to be encouraged in future.

11 out of 10 for "The Girl in the Fireplace." I did really love it that much. It's an instant "classic." Well done everyone.

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.

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”

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.