The Girl In The Fireplace (2006) Review

 

Just casually chatting with a kid in the past via a fireplace.
Peak Doctor Who.

The Girl in the Fireplace is contrived, but greatly enhanced by its terrific guest star and memorable twists. 

WRITTEN BY

Steven Moffat, before his ego ran amuck. 

PLOT

The TARDIS crew find themselves on a mysterious 51st century spaceship containing time portals to the 18th, specifically different moments in the life of Madame de Pompadour. As the Doctor investigates the purpose of the temporal interference, his own interference with the life of the Madame results in an unlikely romance... 

ANALYSIS

Moffat's fondness for playing with expectations and formula may have garnered him as much enemies as fans, but it's not difficult to see why he was selected to be the showrunner. There's a genuine spark of creativity in his early Doctor Who episodes, a kind of joyful madness that can only come from a talented writer who's been unleashed to fulfil all his dreams. He thrives on introducing the most absurd puzzle pieces and putting them all together into a perfect final product in front of a baffled audience. That is Moffat at his best. At least, in theory. 

In truth, whether or not a Moffat episode works depends entirely on how well he is able to sell the emotional side of the story. Because the puzzle side of it is almost always dependent on leaps of logic and his ability to distract the audience with humor. If we're having a good time (and indeed I was), we're willing to just 'go with it', because we like the characters, the setting and the plot. But on a purely objective level, Moffat has always been a fantasy writer in the most literal sense - he doesn't really bother with logic so long as he gets the gist of the story across. And if he has no real story to tell, he just makes some nonsense up on the fly... which is how we got most of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor eras. 

But to get back to Girl in the Fireplace, what I liked most from the get-go is how low-key the story is. It's a simple murder mystery in the far future (although I doubt Moffat realised this, as he undoubtedly would have lampooned Agatha Christie tropes if he had), and there isn't really even an antagonist. The clockwork droids are a great example of machine horror. One could almost consider this episode as being more of an aftermath to the actual story, which is the crew's unseen plight and death at the hands of these robot servants just trying to keep the ship together. 

Obviously the main strength of the episode is the story of Reinette and how she figures into everything. To tell a compelling romance in just 45 minutes is quite a feat, and it's our investment in her story and the attraction between her and the Doctor that gives Fireplace its heart. And its pace, really. With how much needs to be accomplished, the episode zips along at a fast pace, but it never feels too breakneck either. Everything just happens at just the right time for it to feel as satisfying as possible (although the classic Who fan in me would of course prefer the story to be four 25-minute parts for a richer experience). 

On the negative side of things are the aforementioned logic gaps. The Doctor's refusal to use the TARDIS to aid Reinette doesn't really make any sense, especially after the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors used it to jump around in the timeline all the time, willy-nilly. The droids conveniently take all the time in the world before trying to kill anyone, and fail to do so. They can also just reactivate themselves and the ship without any explanation after the Doctor shut everything off (to the point where we see a giant lever move on its own, and get no answers as to how that could happen). Plus other moments that are less egregious, but still feel like the writer just having things happen for his own convenience, without any basis in the story. 

CHARACTERS

David Tennant has often been described as the lovesick puppy of the Doctors, and it is especially true in this one. His real-life attraction to Sophia Myles is patently obvious, and probably makes this an awkward rewatch for his family lol. 

Now, there are fans who would question the ethicality of the Doctor falling in love with someone so much younger and lesser in terms of intelligence, but given that very few writers throughout the show's run have actually written the character to be of a vastly greater mind (honestly, only the Seventh Doctor era and bits of the Fourth did it) and most prefer to treat him as a normal human with a big IQ, I'm willing to let it slide here. More importantly, the Doctor neither asked for nor encouraged this romance. It's just something that happens quite naturally. Furthermore, I don't think we're meant to assume that the Doctor actually loves her. After all, he only knew her for a day. I think it's more that he likes being loved, and is affectionate towards Reinette because he recognises her positive qualities. 

But let's talk about Sophia Myles. She is a powerhouse in this episode, doing an excellent job at playing up both the commanding presence and wisdom of Madame de Pompadour, as well as wit and adoration of the Doctor. The adoration in particular is just palpable, and makes for a nice contrast with the typical New Who companion, who loves tiresome bantering and 'one-upping' the Doctor and generally being a nuisance (a perfect example being Rose and Mickey's decision to immediately ignore his instructions and investigate this alien ship with no real idea of how to take care of themselves or what to watch out for). 

I would have loved to have seen the Doctor and Reinette travel instead, with the latter's Zoe-like skills of deduction serving as a nice complement to the Tenth Doctor's teaching habit and overconfidence. And of course, with the respect she has for the Doctor. They would've made a great pair. Alas. 

NOTES

• What's with the jolly score as the Frenchmen are being attacked by the clockwork droids? Murray single-handedly killed any tension that scene might have.
• Whilst I criticise a lot of Moffat's handwaving, I must say that his decision to explain the time windows only by setting the story in the 51st century (previously established as the era of the Time Agents) and letting the audience connect the dots themselves is awesome. 
• Why does the Doctor investigate 18th century France before checking over the rest of the ship? I feel like that would be a far better way to find answers. 
• Mickey's little yelp under the observation of the eyeball camera is amazing. 
• How does the droid just pour out the Doctor's "anti-oil"? Wasn't it supposed to stick him in place?
• Nobody in the Royal Court of France made any note of the clockwork droid invasion? Really?
• I must admit, I did chuckle when the English-accented Sophia Myles patriotically announced "we are French!"
• Seriously, there is NO reason for why the Doctor shouldn't be able to use the TARDIS to rescue Pompadour. The explanation that "we're already part of the sequence of events" is one that's taken directly from Parting of the Ways, except there it was in the context of going back in time to alter the present. Here, the existence of the time windows means that the 51st and the 18th centuries are linked . It's not like the Doctor is going to prevent any of this from ever happening, he's just being picky over a mode of transportation. And it happens just so we could have the sad ending of Madame de Pompadour dying without reuniting with the Doctor. An absolutely unearned gut punch. 

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

• Mickey teases Rose with the Doctor's many 'conquests'. One of the names he picks is Sarah Jane Smith, whom he met in the previous episode, School Reunion. 
• Dancing is once again used as an euphemism, just as it was in The Doctor Dances (it's possible that Pompadour specifically picked it out of his mind). 
• Rose refers to the Daleks calling the Doctor "the Oncoming Storm", which she learned in Parting of the Ways. 
• The Doctor once again expresses his fondness for bananas, as his previous incarnation did in The Doctor Dances. 
• The Doctor searches for zeus plugs, which he used as castanets during a party in the 18th century. He previously used them to try and repair the TARDIS in The Hand of Fear. 

BEST QUOTE

MICKEY: "You said this was the 51st century..."
DOCTOR: "I also said this ship was generationg enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I think we just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink."
MICKEY: "What's that?"
DOCTOR: "No idea. Just made it up. Didn't want to say magic door."

CONCLUSION

I wish I knew how to dance.