NuWho Review: Series 2 Episode 4 "The Girl in the Fireplace"

By: Steven Moffat

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

           How wonderful it is to have two amazing stories back-to-back! The last episode was School Reunion where we saw the return of Classic companion, Sarah Jane Smith, and where Mickey decided that rather than staying home as the surveillance tin dog, he would join the TARDIS crew and go on some travels of his own. And lucky for Mickey, his first adventure in The Girl in the Fireplace is one of the best from this series. This episode, more than any other in the Davies era, has a resemblance closer to a fairy tale than to traditional what most people think of when they hear the term 'sci-fi'. It is written by Steven Moffat (usually a plus) and literally has something for everyone. If I have to recommend an episode for a person newly interested in Doctor Who to start with, The Girl in The Fireplace is always on that list as it showcases some of the best elements of the show. 


Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- I love the way this episode opens with the period pieces and the mysterious, almost mythical dialogue. Just as in The Unquiet Dead, the costumes, sets, and general feel of this episode are all perfect and the opening has just enough action and intrigue (with the screams and the calls for The Doctor) so as to act as the perfect hook to get watchers invested.

- 3000 years after the screams sounded at Versailles, The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey land on a deserted spaceship that smells like barbecue. It is the 51^st Century and Mickey is delighted that his first trip landed them on a real, proper spaceship. The Doctor opens the observatory windows and Rose proudly introduces Mickey to the universe.

- The awed mood is quickly broken, however, as The Doctor (suavely tossing his coat to one side) goes to inspect an eighteenth century fireplace which is apparently built into one wall of this ship. Upon further examination, he concludes that it is actually a time window that literally leads back to the eighteenth century and is satisfied that he has solved the mystery of where all the excess power the spaceship was generating is going. The Doctor makes up some fancy, technobabble name for the fireplace, just because he didn't want to say 'magic door'.

- The Doctor and his two companions then see a little girl through the dancing flames. Her name is Reinette and she confirms to The Doctor that the fireplace is a time window by telling him politely that she lives in Paris and that the year is 1727. 

- There is an interesting implication inserted here that it may be The Doctor who translates for the TARDIS rather than the other way around (which would certainly explain The Christmas Invasion) as he bewilders his companions by knowing what language Reinette is speaking (French) while Mickey and Rose only hear English because of the translation circuits.  

- The Doctor discovers that the magical fireplace is also a revolving door which, when rode around, lets him into Reinette’s bedroom. Only it is months after their earlier conversation, due to a loose connection. 

- The actress playing Reinette is just gorgeous. She's a cute kid and actually good at what she does (unlike some of the unhappy child actors who will feature as the show goes on). It is a warm, friendly scene until The Doctor notices that, despite the clock on the mantel being smashed, he can still hear a resonant, ominous ticking...

- Moffat is at his finest, making broken clocks into something scary now. He is a writer that manages to tap into the fears of childhood quite effectively in order to create his Who villains. He gave us the fear of losing one’s parents with The Empty Child and now he gives us monsters under the bed which actually exist Not only do they exist, but they are scanning a child's brain for some (doubtlessly unpleasant) purpose. *shivers*

- The Doctor gets the chance to play the epic saviour as he confronts the clockwork man and says one of the best lines ever written about The Doctor's job description...
     Reinette: “What do monsters have nightmares about?”
     The Doctor: “ME!”

- The way he deals with the clockwork man is typical Doctor: unusual, but extremely effective. After making a dramatic exit through the revolving door he grabs an ‘ice gun’ (actually a fire extinguisher) and promptly freezes the clockwork man and rips off its mask.

- I agree with The Doctor, that clockwork is beautiful. I half wish that I had something like that in miniature to put on my bureau. Of course, that workmanship doesn’t stop The Doctor from whipping out his handy dandy screwdriver and threatening the thing with dismantling. 

- Under threat of disassembly, the droid decides to do the smart thing and beats a hasty retreat by teleporting away. Then The Doctor tells Rose and Mickey not to wander off and goes back through the fireplace to make sure Reinette is all right.

- Clearly time had passed once again because, where before the room had been all full of the shadows and candlelight of evening, it is now flooded with bright sunlight. One of the amazing things about this scene is that, before we ever seen that Reinette is all grown up now, it is very obvious that no small amount of days has passed simply by the look of the room. Not only are the drapes different and a new coverlet on the bed, but there are different pieces of furniture as well (most notably a large harp that The Doctor thoughtfully strums). And then he sees Reinette, no longer a frightened child, but a mature, beautiful woman who laughingly teases him about his persistence as her imaginary friend.

- We know from history that Reinette was a very intelligent, accomplished young woman and that is showcased wonderfully here by Sophia Myles. She makes Reinette into more than just a historical figure. We feel a real connection with this little girl who grew up dreaming of the dashing fireplace hero and who now sees him standing in her bedroom in broad daylight, proving that he is flesh and blood rather than mere fantasy. She puts real warmth and kindness into the role as well as coming off as very smart and very witty. No wonder The Doctor fell in love! 

- Sophia Myles and David Tennant have wonderful chemistry throughout this episode too.

- Some people have complained that the kiss was out-of-place since The Doctor had been her childhood imaginary friend. Well, I have to disagree The last time Reinette saw The Doctor was that night when he saved her from the clockwork man, getting in a bit of a boast as he took the creature back through the fireplace portal with him. So The Doctor is not only an imaginary friend; he is an imaginary hero. And as Reinette grew up and thought about him, it is completely feasible that she could come to have a crush on the mysterious man who rescued her from the monsters. That's what I think she was feeling here. I think she was shocked that he was indeed real and experiencing a bit of a crush. I don't think they were 'in love' until later in the story, but it is plausible that she could indeed feel a romantic spark for the hero of her childhood.

- Reinette runs out of the room as her mother calls for the third time and a manservant comes in to find her and instead finds The Doctor leaning against the mantel in a daze. Of course the man demands to know what this stranger is doing in Mademoiselle Poisson’s bedroom. That snaps The Doctor out of his thoughts as he realizes just who Reinette is, namely Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, mistress to King Louis XV. This realization prompts a rather manic laugh and the declaration: “I’m The Doctor and I just snogged Madame de Pompadour!” That poor manservant looked quite befuddled!

- Sounds like The Doctor is rewriting his rule book when he comes back through the fireplace to find Rose and Mickey gone. Rule 1 is now “Don’t wander off”. Too bad no one told the horse that. Yeah, you heard that right; The Doctor (while searching for his errant companions) meets a new friend in the shape of a white horse.

- Mickey and Rose working together is a treat to watch within this episode. I wish that their relationship had this sort of friendly camaraderie in the earlier episodes (especially in the ones where he was still definitely her boyfriend). They also make some important discoveries as they snoop around the ship, finding a camera that is actually an eyeball and a human heart wired into the ship’s engines. That’s nasty stuff and, if you’re at all squeamish you will want to avoid the shots of the heart.

- While Rose and Mickey are poking their noses into things, The Doctor is playing Follow-The-Leader with his new friend, the horse. We need more Doctor-Horse interactions like this, just like we need more Jack Harkness. Not only is it some of the best animal acting, but Tennant’s reactions and the way he says his lines is quite comical.  While looking for the window that this horse wandered through, The Doctor enters a fashionable lawn where Reinette and a friend (played by Angel Coulby) are walking and gossiping about the imminent death of the king’s mistress.

- The Doctor’s watching Reinette would be just slightly creepy if he wasn’t so boyishly cute while doing so. It’s less like a stalker and more like a little kid with his first crush, sneaking covert glances across the cafeteria.



- Moffat’s writing is witty as always. In these early days the name 'Steven Moffat' before an episode pretty much meant that it was going to be full of legitimate scares; deep, complex villains, snarky writing, and tight plots with virtually no holes and nearly all loose ends being tied up in a satisfactory fashion. The Girl in the Fireplace is no exception. Many people have complained about the ending, asking why The Doctor didn’t just use the TARDIS to travel back and fix everything. Well – within this section of the episode there is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it explanation to close that plot hole. “We can’t use the TARDIS. We’re part of events now.” This is why Moffat’s episodes cannot be casually watched. If you miss even a single line something later in the episode will not make sense.

- The Doctor finds Mickey and Rose who are standing by another time window (this one in a mirror). They watch Reinette’s first meeting with King Louis and then The Doctor, grabbing the fire extinguisher from Mickey, dashes through the mirror to save her from yet another clockwork robot. This time, though, he gets Reinette to order the creature to answer his questions and proceeds to grill it about what it’s doing and why it wants Reinette. 

- The phrase “We did not have the parts” has never been so sinister as it is when Rose realises that the reason the crew of the spaceship is missing was because the repair droids (programmed to use anything at hand) had used the crew for spare parts. Calls back the nanogenes, doesn’t it? Once again we have a piece of advanced technology, just doing its job, but gone horribly wrong. 

- The design of the droids’ masks also help in making them more frightening – like with the autons there is something terrifying about a blank face and empty eyes. After disposing of that droid, The Doctor sends Mickey and Rose back to the ship to look for it and then gently scans Reinette's brain to see what the clockwork men were checking for.

- See? This is why they connected so quickly. Seeing inside each other’s minds is as extremely intimate experience.

- He was also doubtlessly impressed by her finding a way to look into his memories, even though at the time it shook him up a bit. That was another example of Reinette’s intelligence and her sad acceptance of the contents of The Doctor’s memories both surprised and elated him. The question “Doctor Who?” has never sounded more tender than when Reinette said it, implying in the same breath that The Doctor’s name is something more than just a random secret. 

- She proved here that she is more than a match for the Time Lord. After they share minds (that's the only way I can think of to describe it, other than 'Vulcan Mind Meld') Reinette asks The Doctor to come and dance with her. He protests that tonight is her night to dance with the King to which Reinette laughs and declares that she must first make him jealous because "There comes a time, Time Lord, when every lonely little boy must learn how to dance." At that, The Doctor caves and allows Reinette to take his hand and lead him to the ballroom.

Meanwhile on the spaceship…

- Oh great, Rose has been captured again! To be honest, this is becoming a regular thing for Rose to do. It has happened in The Christmas Invasion, New Earth, and Tooth & Claw...not to mention all of the times it happened last series. I don’t mind a bit of kidnapping the companions, but when it happens for almost four episodes in a row (School Reunion was brave and broke the trend) then it just begins to get a bit stale. 

- Not just that, but it also makes the character getting kidnapped look extremely Princess Peach-y. At least Mickey got caught here too and they were grabbed from behind, rather than just standing and staring in stupefaction like Rose did during Tooth & Claw.

- Fortunately here the tension is raised by the fact that Rose and Mickey are threatened with a bit more than a possible Extermination. The droids actually have their little rotor saws out and whirling mere inches from Rose’s throat before their designated driver finally makes his dramatic (and loud) entrance.

- The Doctor is actually drunk? Huh. I didn’t know that was even possible for Time Lords. I guess you learn new things every day! Glad to see The Doctor hasn’t lost his love of bananas when he regenerated. He also lets his gob go full-force as he lets the droids have the rough side of his tongue. 

-“You’re so thick. You’re Mr. Thick-Thick-Thickity-Thickface from Thick Town, Thickainia…and so’s your dad!”

- Apparently the droids take offence to this astute comment because they then teleport away...again. The Doctor snaps to attention as he realizes that one of the droids must have still been out there and was calling in the troops because it had found the time window through which Reinette had reached the time in her life when she was ‘complete’.  He metabolized that alcohol pretty quickly once he discovered that! Must be ‘superior Time Lord biology’ or something. He and Mickey run off to find the window while Rose is sent on a little mission of her own.

- I love the talk between Rose and Reinette. Here Rose is giving a chance to really shine as she warns the other woman of the coming danger, not showing petty jealousy (like she did in School Reunion, much as I liked her in that episode) as she does so, but truly connecting with Reinette as a person. The contrasts between 20th Century Rose and  Pre-Revolutionary Reinette are obvious, yet they’re also shown to be very much the same (young women who are in love with The Doctor).

- I also like the way Reinette (in beautifully written fairytale-like period language) makes sense of the ship Rose speaks about. That once again shows her intellect and, when she follows Rose back through the tapestry portal, this scene gives us a woman in 16th century dress standing in a 51st century spaceship. That represents just what is best about Doctor Who; exploring different times and places and mixing together time streams in a way that wouldn’t work in any other universe. While in the spaceship, Reinette hears the screams that are her future and resigns herself to taking the slow path to get there. Rose displays the first bit of true empathy that we have seen from her since Father’s Day and I bloody love it!

- In fact, I just love Rose in this episode, particularly the parts with Reinette and Mickey, which are usually the worst parts of an episode due to her poor treatment of her boyfriend and whichever female is ‘threatening’ her relationship with The Doctor, so it was a refreshing and wonderful surprise to see her displaying something other than her usual jealous, whiny self. Maybe this makes her more inconsistent than usual – but this episode gives us a glimpse of what Rose could have been.

- And then we’re back where we started from with Terror at Versailles and Reinette calling for The Doctor in desperation. One thing that I love about Moffat is that his episodes are usually quite tight and every plot point is used to its greatest potential (more on that later). 

- We are given a real sense of helplessness when The Doctor does not appear and the droids rather roughly escort Reinette and King Louis into the ballroom packed with trapped, panicked guests. The sense of helplessness is only strengthened when we see that The Doctor is watching from the other side of the time window (this time another mirror, mounted on the ballroom wall). He can see the disaster and needs to get there to solve it, but has been foiled by the droids taking the windows momentarily offline. He can smash his way through, but if he does that he’ll break the connection and be forever trapped on the other side.

- It is here that Rose gives The Doctor a look. It is a quick look, but it is also an important look. Here Rose seems to be saying: “I don’t care about the windows or about what happens to me – you go and save her.” This is what Rose should have been like all along. She clearly knows the consequences that will come to pass if The Doctor goes, but she silently urges him to do what is right anyways. Many fans have written about this story as though Rose felt betrayed by The Doctor’s falling in love with Reinette. I would humbly protest. While usually I am the first one to notice and admit Rose’s jealous tendencies, I honestly don’t notice any of those rearing their ugly heads within this episode. Even during the conversation with Mickey where he teases her about The Doctor and Cleo (Cleopatra), it’s more like an ongoing friendly argument where he’s just getting on her case the way good friends do than an actual jealousy-mongering smug fest.

- Anyone who says Moffat can’t write female characters has clearly never met his Reinette Poisson. When she is taken into the ballroom by the droids, she immediately takes charge and sets about calming down the hysterical nobles. While you can tell that she is indeed afraid (particularly when the droids shove her to her knees and pull out the saws) but she manages to put on a brave front and to keep her voice steady as she strongly rebukes the guests for descending into riotous clamour and then coolly informs the droids that she will not be going with them because she has seen their world and has no desire to set foot there again. The whole speech is delivered with great presence and Reinette somehow manages to keep her dignity, even while a clockwork monster is menacing her throat with a saw.

- All right, so maybe The Doctor riding to the rescue as a knight in pinstriped armor, mounted on a white steed (quite literally) was a bit corny...but within the romantic fairytale tone of this episode, it works. 

- In fact, it not only works but it is a brilliant climax as it is both dramatic and a bit humorous. According to Doctor Who Confidential, the scene where The Doctor comes riding through the time window mirror on Arthur (the horse from earlier) was terribly hard to film, involving days and days of separate shots, just to put together that one shot. How glad am I that they went ahead and toughed it out!

- True this scene has a heroic feel to it, but in true Moffat fashion there are also several witty quips slipped in as well.

- Watching The Doctor engage in a good old-fashioned game of one-upmanship with the King of France is quite amusing, especially since we all know that The Doctor will win (and he clearly knows it too...arrogant Time Lord that he is). But he soon settles down to business and sets about convincing the droids that their purpose is futile, since he smashed the time window and broke their connection to the ship.

- It takes some doing, but at last the droids’ clocks run down and they all slump over. Crisis averted, The Doctor turns gentleman and gently helps Reinette back to her feet as they all breath a deep sigh of relief.

- When the mirror smashed it didn’t just trap the droids, it also trapped The Doctor in 18^th Century France with no way to get home. He has doomed himself to 3000 years of waiting because there is no way that Rose or Mickey could fly the TARDIS to pick him up (and even if they could’ve flown it, they couldn’t have messed with the time stream that they were a part of by landing it). But you can tell that The Doctor is actually looking forward to the Slow Path with Reinette just a little bit.

- Reinette, however, has a little surprise for her hero. Years ago, when she moved from Paris to Versailles, she had the fireplace from her childhood bedroom moved into her new chambers in the hope that one day her fireplace man would come through once again. The Doctor is dubious at first, but as he performs a high-tech scan (by knocking on the wood) he discovers that this particular time window may still be functional. It’s explained away using a good deal of technobabble, but the general gist of the long spiel is that, because the fireplace had been moved, it was offline when the system crashed and so did not get destroyed alongside the others. One sonic screwdriver buzz later and the revolving door is as good as new.

- Here we get our first piece of evidence that The Doctor is a romantic idiot when he’s in love. Reinette is distraught that he seems to be leaving her again, so he tells her to pack a bag and have a look out of the window to “Pick a star, any star!” while he goes and checks on Mickey and Rose. By the time he returns for Reinette, it is no longer warm, flickering firelight in the room but the dull, grey light of a rainy afternoon.

- I always get a lump in my throat about the time the older King Louis shows up. I know my history, so I knew what was coming...much as I hoped against hope that her ‘death’ was just code for ‘disappeared’ so that she could get that trip with The Doctor. Reinette was beautiful, intelligent, and extremely good for him and, much as it is a beautiful, tragic ending, I still really hate the fact that she missed out on that chance.

- Why couldn’t he just use the TARDIS to go back and visit her? Because it would be crossing into both established events and his own timeline which are both big no-no’s by the rules of time travel. And if you’ll remember, this was explained earlier in the episode. 

- I love the fact that both Rose and Mickey have a lot of compassion for The Doctor as he mourns Reinette’s death and Mickey even leads Rose away so as to give The Doctor some privacy so he can read Reinette’s last letter to him. I always knew there was more to the tin dog than meets the eye!

- So after The Doctor slowly reads through Reinette Poisson’s final message to him, he places the letter in his jacket pocket and starts the TARDIS up. The camera then pans out to tie up the final loose thread of the story and we see the name of the spaceship. All explanations finished and every plot point complete, the end credits close the tale of The Doctor and Madame de Pompadour. 

   What do I personally think of this episode? I love it! The writing is tight and has an almost magical quality to it. You have to try really hard to find a plot hole and even then there is usually a line somewhere explaining it away, so you probably just weren’t listening closely enough. The sets and costumes are absolutely gorgeous and there is a nice contrast between the period language of 18^th Century Versailles and the modern Rose, Mickey, and The Doctor himself. Rose wasn’t annoying, Mickey was actually perceptive, and The Doctor fell in love with a woman who (while still quite young for him) is actually quite mature and wise. I give The Girl in The Fireplace a 5/5.

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?