The Girl in the Fireplace (TV story)

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The Girl in the Fireplace was the fourth episode of Series 2 of Doctor Who.

Synopsis

The Doctor, Rose and Mickey arrive on a spaceship in the far future and find that the Clockwork Droids who run the ship are fixated on Madame de Pompadour, a girl from the 18th century and have been opening up time windows so they can interact with her. The Doctor travels back to France through the time windows to save her, falling in love during the process.

Plot

18th century Versailles, a starry night: Panic is in the castle as people run from an unseen enemy. Madame de Pompadour (a.k.a. Reinette) stands at an 18th century fireplace with her lover, King Louis of France. Reinette explains to the King about a mysterious man called the Doctor who promised to come to her rescue on this night. Desperately, she calls for The Doctor through the fireplace.

Three thousand years later, the Doctor's TARDIS arrives on a seemingly abandoned space ship. The Doctor discovers that as well as being in a state of disrepair the ship is generating extreme excesses of power even though the space ship is stationary. "Enough to punch a hole in the universe," he comments. Shortly afterwards, The Doctor, Rose and Mickey, who is on his first trip in the TARDIS, find an 18th century fireplace. Although the other side of the fireplace should be the outer hull of the ship, there appears to be another room with a little girl. The girl informs the Doctor that she is in her bedroom, in Paris, and that the year is 1727. When Mickey comments that the Doctor said that they were supposed to be in the 51st century, the Doctor explains that due to the large excess of power that can "punch a hole in the universe" there is a "magic door" between them in the 51st century and Reinette in 1727. When Mickey asks about how he can understand French, Rose explains that the TARDIS translates languages.

The Doctor decides to explore further and, using a switch on the fireplace, rotates the door allowing him access to Reinette's bedroom. A startled Reinette informs the Doctor that even though it has been mere seconds for him, for her it has been months since they last spoke. The Doctor then discovers that the clock in her bedroom has been broken so the ticking noise they can hear must be coming from somewhere else. He traces the noise back to Reinette's bed and has a look underneath. He is attacked by a mysterious ticking creature in period dressing. The Doctor notes that the creature has been scanning the girl's brain and asks it why, however, the creature only answers questions asked by Reinette.

He manages to trick the creature into going back through the door where he freezes it with a futuristic fire extinguisher. Removing the period dress, the Doctor discovers that the creature is in fact an android made of clockwork. It teleports away, however, before the Doctor has a chance to disassemble it. Warning Rose and Mickey not to go looking for it, he returns to Reinette's bedroom. Ignoring the Doctor, they go looking for the droid anyway.

Back in Reinette's bedroom, the Doctor discovers that the girl is now, in fact, a young lady. They share a passionate kiss before she leaves the room to join her mother in the cart. The Doctor returns to the space ship laughing at the fact that he has just kissed Madame de Pompadour.

While complaining about Rose and Mickey wandering off, the Doctor discovers a horse on board the ship which has wandered in through one of the windows in history.

Meanwhile, Mickey and Rose discover a camera with a human eye in it and a human heart wired into machinery before rejoining the Doctor and the horse at another window in history. The Doctor explains that the windows to Reinette's history are all over the ship. He also explains that Reinette plans on becoming the King's mistress as they watch her flirt with him through a mirror. Spotting a clock-work droid in the corner, the Doctor crosses through the window and freezes it again with the extinguisher. The Doctor asks Reinette to order the droid to answer his questions explaining that the droids will only do what she says. Using the droid he quickly discovers that the droids used the crew of the space ship to fix it when it broke down. This explains why Rose and Mickey saw a heart and an eye earlier. The droid then explains that they require a part of Reinette for the ship as "they are the same" however she is not ready yet. Horrified, Reinette orders the droid to leave. Obeying, it teleports away. Rose and Mickey pursue it, taking the horse with them. Using his Time Lord abilities, the Doctor examines Reinette's brain, having a look at her past experiences. It's not long before the Doctor realizes that Reinette is also using this opportunity to have a look inside the Doctor's mind at his lonely childhood. When he questions Reinette about how she managed that, she explains that "a door once opened may be stepped through in either direction." She then invites the Doctor to dance with her at the ball.

Meanwhile, back on the ship, Mickey is taunting Rose about how many women the Doctor knows. Suddenly, Rose spots a Clockwork Droid coming up behind Mickey. She tries to warn him, but he is seized by the neck by the droid, who injects a liquid into him, knocking him out. Rose attempts to aim her gun at the droid, but another one appears behind her, grabbing hold of her from behind and pulling her down backwards. Rose struggles but it will not let her up. The droid injects her with the sleep liquid, and she falls unconscious in the droid's clutches.

Rose awakens to find herself flat on her back on an operating table. To her alarm, she finds that she is strapped in place so that she cannot get up. Mickey, lying on a table next to Rose, has received the same treatment. The droids, looming over them, threaten to dissect them, and Rose and Mickey try in vain to reason with the droids. They wrestle in their bonds, but to no avail. Luckily, the Doctor appears pretending to be drunk. He explains to his captive friends that the droids are waiting for Reinette to turn 37 as this is the age of the space ship and that they also need her brain to replace the broken command circuit of the ship. He then pours Anti-Oil over one of the droids which causes it to stop moving. He stops the other droids from moving by using a lever from a nearby console. Finally he deactivates the tables, allowing Rose and Mickey to sit up. All three of them escape.

When the Doctor tries to close the gateways he discovers he that he can't - one of the droids is still in France. This droid sends a message to the droids on the ship which spring back to life and teleport.

The Doctor sends Rose to warn Reinette that the droids will return to her sometime after her 37th birthday. Reinette then comments that it seems that wherever the Doctor is, monsters are too. Mickey then comes to inform Rose that the Doctor has found the correct time window. Reinette rushes through the time window and hears her own screams from the future as the Doctor fixes an audio link to the window. Reinette decides to take the "slower path" and returns to France.

Rose and Mickey return to the Doctor, who has discovered that the droids have sealed off the time window to prevent him from following them. The Doctor then uses the horse to break through the seal ultimately breaking the connection between France and the ship. The Doctor then explains to the droids that they are no longer needed and, seeing that the Doctor is correct, they cease functioning and collapse to the floor and shatter.

Just when the Doctor thinks he is trapped in France, Reinette shows him the fireplace where they first met. She explains that she had the fireplace moved there. Because she moved the fireplace, the window was offline when the link broke so there is still a connection. Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor reactivates the link. Before rushing back to the TARDIS, the Doctor promises Reinette through the fireplace that he will come back for her and take her somewhere in the universe.

Upon his return, he meets the King, who informs him that he is too late. Reinette has died not so long ago. He hands the Doctor a letter that she wrote to him shortly before her death, which the Doctor saves for reading back in the TARDIS. The letter tells of her love for the Doctor and how she fears that she may never see the Doctor again as she grows weaker and weaker.

As the light in the fire dies, the TARDIS dematerialises revealing that it stood in front of a picture of Reinette. As the TARDIS leaves the scene the name of the ship can finally be seen on the outside: SS Madame de Pompadour.

Cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

Story notes

  • This is Mickey's first trip in the TARDIS in the capacity of a companion. Despite this, his name does not appear in the opening credits; the first triple opening credit would not occur until John Barrowman returned temporarily as a companion in Utopia the next season.
  • In a Production Notes column for Doctor Who Magazine #363 (November 2005), writer Steven Moffat stated that the working titles for the episode were Madame de Pompadour, Every Tick of My Heart and Reinette and the Lonely Angel.
  • Sophia Myles and David Tennant started dating after working together on this story, according to an interview with Myles on GMTV (25 April 2006). It was rumored she carries a "Doctor Who" doll in her handbag. However, their relationship ended in 2007.
  • Although Reinette dies before she is able to accept the Doctor's offer of travelling in the TARDIS, she does briefly experience time travel when she steps through one of the holes in time and ends up, briefly, aboard the vessel bearing her name millennia later.
  • Throughout this episode, Mickey wears a T-shirt which has a picture of the Nintendo Entertainment System controller over the caption, "Know Your Roots". This particular T-shirt, a limited edition, could be obtained either by subscribing to the British Nintendo Official Magazine, or by being purchased at selected GameStation outlets. In Doctor Who Magazine #367 Noel Clarke admitted to being a Nintendo fan and to being the owner of a Nintendo DS console. He also comments upon the T-shirt in the commentary which accompanies the episode on the BBC Website. Appropriately, Mickey is involved in a video game-related adventure in the spin-off novel Winner Takes All.
  • As seen in the Doctor Who Confidential episode "Script to Screen", the horse was not allowed set foot in the ballroom in the climatic scene. The various elements of the Doctor riding Arthur through the mirror: the horse, the mirror breaking and the reactions of the extras in the ballroom, all had to be filmed at separate times and then composited together
  • There are possible sexual implications throughout this episode.
    • Reinette asks the Doctor to 'dance', a word used by Moffatt in DW: The Doctor Dances as a euphemism for sexual activity. It is not clear how far the implication is carried.
    • In the commentary for this episode, David Tennant remarked on the 'intimacy' of the mind-reading scene and the ambiguity of the scene where Reinette and the Doctor part, the bed in the foreground hinting at a possible seduction.
  • Radio Times credits Jonathan Hart as Voice of Clockwork Man and Emily Joyce as Voice of Clockwork Woman. The collective on-screen credit reads Alien Voices.

Ratings

  • The Girl in the Fireplace - 7.4m viewers

Influences

  • Writer Steven Moffat states on Doctor Who Confidential that the clockwork people were inspired by The Turk, a clockwork man who played chess around the same period (and which was later revealed to be a hoax). The story of The Turk later inspired an ongoing story arc in the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
  • Casanova, with David Tennant in a French ballroom falling in love.
  • The Doctor Who novels Love and War and The Witch Hunters. Love and War is referenced several times (see continuity) while the whole romance with the Doctor changing time zones has a similar feel to the Doctor's relationship with Rebecca Nurse.
  • The Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode The Visitor in which Ben Sisko reappears at various points in his son's future culminating in Jake's death.
  • Audrey Niffenegger's novel The Time Traveler's Wife, which describes a romance between a man who randomly jumps in and out of a woman's life at various points along her timeline (including her childhood), while she has to live her life linearly. (Niffenegger's 2009 novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, includes a scene where the characters are watching this episode on television.)
  • It is possible that the "magic door" is inspired by C. S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia
  • The plot element involving Arthur bears a resemblance to an incident in the novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, written by former Doctor Who script editor Douglas Adams. In it, a horse ends up in 20th century Cambridge after accidentally wandering into a time machine belonging to Professor Chronotis. Chronotis, in turn, was originally created by Adams for the abandoned serial Shada.

Myths

  • Clips were seen of the clockwork droids during the promotional trailer of Season 2 which aired at the end of The Christmas Invasion. Many viewers and fans speculated that the droids were Autons due to the way they moved and the weapons coming out of their arms.
  • After the Doctor and Reinette experience their mind link, she invites him to "dance" with her. As episode writer Steven Moffat had previously established (in The Doctor Dances) that dancing is a metaphor for making love, and the Doctor and Reinette are next seen walking away, and that Reinette was a courtesan, there is fan speculation that some form of lovemaking occurs "off camera". When the Doctor is next seen he is hyper and pretending to be drunk after a great party; whether he and Reinette actually "danced" is left to the imagination.
  • The "Doctor Who" question is raised again, when Reinette uses the phrase when she discusses his real name. This myth stems from the fact Sophia Myles originally thought Doctor Who was the character's name, until she learned from David Tennant that it isn't his name, and to phrase the statement as a question.

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • The inside of the space ship can be seen before the Doctor fixes the link that is "still basically physical" in Reinette's old bedroom.
  • When a droid stops and another falls over the original one that stopped still stands.
  • When the Doctor read Reinette's memories in some views his left ring finger is above her ear and in others it is below her ear.

Continuity

  • This episode probably follows immediately after DW: School Reunion, with Mickey saying he got a spaceship on his "first go" as he exits the TARDIS with the Doctor and Rose.
  • The Doctor had previously responded to the question "What do monsters have nightmares about?" with "Me!" (NA: Love and War, The Dying Days and ST: Continuity Errors)
  • The Doctor had encountered (unrelated) clockwork robots before in NSA: The Clockwise Man and BFA: Time Works.
  • Bernice Summerfield (who is from the 26th century) used a quantum imager to recreate the life of a 20th century man, who then sees her as a ghostly figure appearing at key moments throughout his life. (BFBS: The Least Important Man)
  • The Doctor managed to convince a crowd of his skill at the harp once without a single note, later playing it, albeit briefly. (DW: The Romans, The Five Doctors)
  • The Doctor repeats his affection for bananas. (DW: The Doctor Dances)
  • Rose tells the Clockwork Droids that the Doctor is known to the Daleks as "the oncoming storm".
  • A line from this episode "You've had some cowboys in here" is repeated by the Eleventh Doctor. (DW: The Eleventh Hour)
  • Much of this episode's plot bears many similarities with The Eleventh Hour.
  • Reniette questions "Doctor Who?" continuing the long running in-joke.

Timeline

Home video releases

  • The Girl in the Fireplace (Ep 4) was sold on Series 2 Volume 2, along with "Tooth and Claw" and "School Reunion"
  • It was also sold as part of the Series 2 Box Set, which included all 13 episodes of Series 2, along with the "Children in Need Special" and "The Christmas Invasion"
  • It was also sold on Issue Nine of the Doctor Who DVD Files, which also included the episode "School Reunion", on the same DVD

See also

External links

Template:Series 2

Template:Wikipedia

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