| THE GIRL IN THE FIREPLACE by Steven Moffat |
| Story 15 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands on a deserted spaceship in the 51st century. The Doctor is puzzled by an antique fireplace, and sees a young girl on the other side. He works out how to pass through, and saves the girl, Reinette, from a clockwork man. Puzzled, he assures her she's safe then goes back to the spaceship. Rose and Mickey find that mechanical parts have been augmented by human parts, such as an eye and a heart. The clockwork creatures are after Reinette's brain. The Doctor realises they use time windows to access her life. When he returns to her, she has grown up to be Madame de Pompadour, mistress to King Louis XIV of France. She kisses him, and he finds himself attracted to her. The Doctor works out the clockwork creatures are Repair Droids, waiting until their target is 37, believing that is when her brain will be ready. The human parts they have already used came from the missing crew. On the night in question, the droids block the Doctor's path into Versailles. He breaks through a mirror by riding a horse, breaking the access link to the spaceship, defeating the purpose of the droids, which collapse. The Doctor believes he is trapped, but Reinette reveals she had the fireplace brought and reconstructed, and the Doctor uses it to get back to the ship, believing access has been solved. But when he goes back, Reinette has just died, aged 43. A saddened Doctor returns to the TARDIS, and Rose and Mickey join him on the spaceship, still unaware why the creatures chose Reinette as their target. The spaceship was SS Madame de Pompadour. |
| Review:- Romance at last? But the course of true love never did run smooth. Opening in the middle of the story (oh, like that's so clever, how did they do it, yawn), we have strange intrigue in 18th century Paris. Cut to the future, where a spaceship is linked back in time, and the Doctor is swept off his feet by a whirlwind romance... whilst Rose and Mickey find some grisly evidence of the truth behind the spaceship. And there's a horse. Repeat. In many ways, this is a very good adventure. The villains are obvious in their intentions, even if their motives are hidden. Reinette is presented as a likeable person whom the audience wants to see saved, and interesting enough to explain why the Doctor might become so mutually attracted to her. The Doctor gets plenty of opportunities to show style, intelligence and courage. Rose and Mickey make a good team, which is a vast improvement for her character, and they make some worthwhile discoveries about the ship, before being imperilled. The sets are clever, and the script cleverly presents two contrasting worlds, if you like, each of which is simple to follow and nice to look at, and gives a fun mix of historical interest and science fiction. The time windows reminded me of The Tomorrow Windows, although I guess it's more just a fancy name for a "magic door". The time-jumping fireplace allows for the silly title, and the chance for the Doctor to save a child from a nightmare under her bed (bit of blatant audience identification that), and then swiftly to bring in the glamorous guest star of the week. That Sophia Myles is also David Tennant's off-screen girlfriend <at time of writing> probably helps the believability of the romance. Some have complained that the whole event happens in roughly 30 minutes for the Doctor, but these are possibly the views of loveless miseryguts (though the "dancing" metaphor is still not funny). That Myles is visibly a much better actress than Piper is also crucial to the success of this story. This was probably Rose's least involved episode, possibly ever. Her teaming with Mickey suddenly gave her character more depth and interest. Mickey didn't get much to do on his much-vaunted full debut as a travelling companion, but he did it well anyway. If I had to pick some fault, it would be that after the Doctor makes his dramatic rescue of Reinette that destroys the link back to the future (!) and destroys the droids, his apparent sacrifice is reversed with crazy ease. Surely there had to be no links to the spaceship for the droids to die? Then, after this, the Doctor offers her the stars, then goes back to the ship, returning through the fireplace. If he was serious, why did he not travel in the TARDIS? Wouldn't Rose or Mickey have mentioned Reinette's brief horror of the spaceship when she saw it? Either way, she dies, and he gets his heart broken. It's a subtle but welcome nudge when Mickey gets Rose to leave the Doctor alone in the console room when he needs it. But overall, a spirited and engaging adventure, with a superb and well-judged closing shot. |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |