The Girl in the Fireplace
- Thread starter Gojira
- Start date
This is one of my three or four favorites.
Yes. Even after the awesomeness that was "The Doctor's Wife", "The Girl in the Fireplace" remains my favorite episode of Doctor Who. The chemistry between Tennant and Sophia Myles was far more believable than that between Tennant and Piper (and, obviously, was reflected offscreen for awhile). It was a great story, well-acted, and generally well done.
Never been a huge fan. I think it's a very good episode (and features one of my favourite Gold sountracks) but I don't think its that brilliant. The fact that Rose goes from being jealous of a woman the Doctor has no real romantic interest in one week to shoing zero reaction to one he's clearly smitten by the next always struck me as odd, and the clockwork robots might look gorgeous, but they're not remotely threatening. Sophia Myles is great though!
I don't think "The Girl in the Fireplace" is the one of the episodes evah!!!!1 either. That would be "The Doctor's Wife." 
When I first saw it, it became my favorite episode of all time (and I've seen nearly all of them going back to 1963 - surviving stories, anyway). It's still in the top 3 or 4 as it was surpassed by Blink and The Doctor's Wife.
My only complaint with the story is they should have made it a two-parter. Or held onto it for a Christmas special and made a longer episode. It was such a cool premise - cool enough for Moffat to revisit with River Song - and it also broke so many rules when it came to the Doctor, but did so in such a way they got away with it.
The only problem I have with the episode is it was hard to buy 100% into the idea of the Doctor falling in love with Reinette when the series up to that point (and afterwards) spent so much time establishing that the Doctor was in love with Rose. I think the episode would have been far stronger as a post-Rose storyline from that respect. But then we might not have gotten Blink, so I'm happy where it is.
Alex
My only complaint with the story is they should have made it a two-parter. Or held onto it for a Christmas special and made a longer episode. It was such a cool premise - cool enough for Moffat to revisit with River Song - and it also broke so many rules when it came to the Doctor, but did so in such a way they got away with it.
The only problem I have with the episode is it was hard to buy 100% into the idea of the Doctor falling in love with Reinette when the series up to that point (and afterwards) spent so much time establishing that the Doctor was in love with Rose. I think the episode would have been far stronger as a post-Rose storyline from that respect. But then we might not have gotten Blink, so I'm happy where it is.
Alex
It is possible to have feelings for more than one person at a time. I do think Rose was a bit under-used in this episode. More jealousy from her would have been more realistic.
I love this episode. It's the one I tend to put on when I'm in the mood for some Who, and it's the one I've tried to use to get people interested in the show (It's maybe not the best choice for that. I'm thinking that I may have better luck with The Eleventh Hour.). To me it's one of Tennant's best performances.
I agree that it's odd that the Doctor just seems to shove Rose aside in favor of
Reinette, but then he's had companions come and go for centuries. Certainly Rose doesn't appear thrilled by the whole thing. The week prior she meets Sarah Jane and then this. She may have been realizing just how easily she can be replaced.
I agree that it's odd that the Doctor just seems to shove Rose aside in favor of
Reinette, but then he's had companions come and go for centuries. Certainly Rose doesn't appear thrilled by the whole thing. The week prior she meets Sarah Jane and then this. She may have been realizing just how easily she can be replaced.
I think that was the point I was working towards. The Doctor never really realized he was in love with her until Bad Wolf Bay - that much is made clear in Doomsday. So I was more talking about the handling of Rose. I think the problem is in the timing - they probably should have run this episode before Mickey joined, because in Fireplace Rose is distracted by having Mickey around and as such the "triangle" aspect was underplayed. Granted, Moffat still managed to give us the brilliant "The Doctor is worth the monsters" exchange between Reinette and Rose, so what's there is fantastic.
It's probably why the episode is held in high regard. The other "big three" episodes - Blink and The Doctor's Wife - have loads of faults, too. But it's because they work so well on the screen that they are beloved in spite of the faults.
Alex
I think the only real faults with The Girl in the Fireplace is that it wasn't long enough. But seeing what they did with most 2 part stories I have a feeling in early DW it would have fallen apart if it were a 2 parter. I understand the criticisms about the ep by those that say it wasn't enough of a story for the doctor to fall in love with Reinette but that's the constraints you have a little less than 45 minutes for an episode. But it also showed a little bit of the early 10th doctor's maniac tendencies.
I'ce always enjoyed the all too brief scenes of Mickey and Rose playing around on the ship.
Yeah, Mickey was super cool in this episode! Actually, I really cannot complain about anything in this episode, it works on all levels.
I also liked Rose warning the clockwork robots about The Doctor being "the Oncoming Storm" and the Doctor comes in rather tipsy and looking like a young Keith Richards with that bandana on his head!
I also liked Rose warning the clockwork robots about The Doctor being "the Oncoming Storm" and the Doctor comes in rather tipsy and looking like a young Keith Richards with that bandana on his head!
Moffat also reused some of the premise in "The Eleventh Hour," with the story taking place over the course of a few hours for the Doctor but many years from the perspective of Amy/Reinette.
Now that I think about it, I think the story might have worked better during the Martha era than the Rose era.
It's certainly among my favorite David Tennant episodes, slightly below "Blink" & "Midnight." But I'm not sure it accurately compares to the best Matt Smith episodes ("The Eleventh Hour," "Amy's Choice," "Vincent & the Doctor," "The Lodger," "The Doctor's Wife") or even Christopher Eccleston's great highlights ("Dalek," "Father's Day").
I totally agree i love this episode aswell the story was really good.
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