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Doctor Who - The Girl In The Fireplace
Insanely late, I know, but I have managed to scribble it before Saturday.
So. The Girl In The Fireplace. Mmmm. Firstly: it's nowhere near as good as School Reunion. That episode, I think, will probably stand unchallenged in my ranking of these episodes. And there's a lot wrong with this one. I'm not so fussed about the bad science, although, why can you have conversations through the fire in real time, but time slips Narnia-style when you're on the other side for any length of time? And also why don't stupid amounts of time pass for Rose and Mickey when the Doctor's at Versailles? But yes, not that fussed about that. It's television sci-fi, and more than that it's Doctor Who. We don't actually sign up for consistent scientific realism. All I'd really have wanted is some token, some bit of technobabble to explain it.
More than that, though, I'm fussed about Sophia Myles' acting. It's not great. No, really, it isn't. I wondered if it's bad because that's how she's written, but that's not true - she's consistently characterised and she's got some great lines - it's because she can't act very well. And I don't like that, it seems such a silly thing to slip up on when the three leads are so good.
And then I could quibble that a lot of Reinette's dialogue is sledgehammery in tone, but it might not be that bad, actually - bad acting again - or at least could have been rendered better. And I think the kiss scene happens out of sequence, actually. I know it needs to happen when it happens to set up the "I just snogged Mme de Pompadour!" joke, but still, it doesn't quite make sense there. It would have worked the second time she's seen him in adulthood, not the first. It's a tad weird. I don't know. Enough of that. There's a lot wrong with this episode.
But. But but but. You can ignore all of that. You really can, because it makes it easy to ignore it all, by being such a lovely, wistful tale of love and loneliness. What it's got in spades is humour and charm. I may not like it as much as School Reunion, but it's loads better than the first two episodes. It's lovely.
Stuff I liked specifically:
-Mickey. Oh, Mickey. I love him now and I honestly never did before. I love how excited he is - "I got a spaceship my first time out!" - and how delightfully clueless - "It's so realistic!" - and later, how sweet and tactful. Well, sort of. "He called her Cleo!" I actually get the feeling, there, that he's not needling Rose about the Doctor's supposed relationship with her because he's jealous, at least not any more. He sounds here as though he's genuinely teasing her, over anything else. I don't know. Others may disagree.
-The setting. The ship is really nicely done - it's only some funny lighting and equally funny bits sticking out of the ceiling, but it really feels labyrinthine and futuristic and rather cool. I liked it.
-the Doctor and the broken clock. Moffatt is very good at making small things sinister - the ticking was creepy in the same way as the Empty Child was creepy - and I jerked a bit when the clockwork thing emerged from under the bed. They are simple, and that's why they're scary.
-the Doctor getting snogged. Yes, I griped above. But the Doctor gets snogged! There's nothing not good about that! And look at him with his big eyes and parted lips and... um, yeah. He doesn't throw her off. He opens his mouth and gets into it. So to speak. And he's starstruck by her. I think all these are pointers.
-the horse. The horse was absolutely fabby. Heee. And trust the Doctor to want to keep it. (Pity it got stuck in eighteenth-century France! But I guess that's where it came from. On that note, if there are horses wandering about, why not confused people? Reinette had no trouble following Mickey into the ship. I guess the droids cannibalise them.)
-the odd little "mind-meld" scene. I liked it, mostly unreservedly. It is a bit sledgehammery - yes, we get it, the Doctor's lonely - but I'm willing to forgive for the delicious image of the Doctor wandering Reinette's memories, with her coquettishly hiding behind doors. And I knew it would go both ways. It's interesting that in doing that, Reinette has found out more about the Doctor than any of his companions, and all at a stroke. And more interesting still that she should see his childhood. "A lonely little boy" has appeared before in connection with the Doctor - in last year's Moffatt episode, The Empty Child, there's a momentary parallel between the Doctor and Jamie left out in the cold - and I absolutely love the fact that we're getting the Doctor has issues even beyond the Time War stuff. Or maybe it's not PTSD any more, as it was with Nine, but the Doctor coming to terms with the fact he's survived the war, he's even survived the survivors' guilt, but he's still the last Time Lord in the universe. He's still, yes, lonely.
But we knew that, didn't we, from last week? The Doctor's beginning to realise that the life he's made for himself, travelling with his "entourage" of human, alien and mechanical companions, is all very well, but he'll always be alone. And this is true. This is a very natural conclusion to draw, and I like how they're addressing it.
Also, there is a secret regarding the Doctor's name. My suspicion is that the secret is simple: he's forgotten it. Because she emerges seeing things he hasn't wanted her to see, but still doesn't give any indication of knowing it. Instead, she starts calling him "Doctor". (I maintain that "Fireplace Man" is probably the best alias the Doctor has ever used.)
-Rose and Mickey being tied up and ready to be dissected, and in comes a drunken Doctor with a tie round his forehead. Classic, classic moment. I started giggling helplessly round about "...of Thicktown!" and didn't stop for the rest of the scene. It was funny, not cringemaking as I suspect it might have been if written by RTD, and so sweetly-off-the-wall. I do like the Doctor inventing the banana daquiri several centuries early (and please, no one explain to me why he has a banana fetish, I don't think I want to know), and the legendary party-throwing capability of the French, and the very charming reveal that it isn't wine in the glass. I love the Doctor in most incarnations, but I really do love Ten more than Nine. Forgive me.
-Did the Doctor and Reinette have sex. Did they did they. And my answer would be: yes, I think they did. First of all there's the mind-meld, which is quite astonishingly intimate and yet only the prelude to the evening. There's the fact the Doctor is definitely high off something, even if it's not alcohol in the glass. And, most tellingly of all, Moffatt, who spent two episodes last year dropping increasingly more wonderful hints about dancing as a metaphor for sex, includes the line: "There comes a time, Time Lord, when every lonely little boy must learn to dance!"
THEY DONE SEX. Oh yes.
-the scene where Rose talks to Reinette. I have to say, I think Rose is wonderful in all of this. She's certainly not this seething core of jealousy that some people are making her out to be. She talks to Reinette with compassion for the predicament, they even bond a tiny bit over the Doctor. It's almost as she's learned from the Sarah Jane experience.
-Reinette deciding that actually, she doesn't want to be taken away and have her brain removed. I LOVED her there. She tells them to go away and leave her alone, and she's so fearless and so wonderful and yes. I like her. And she's so unsurprised when the Doctor and Arthur make their entrance. My favourite bit of that scene is the closeness of it, with just the two of them, in silence, holding hands.
-Rose. Oh, Rose. I don't really ship Doctor/Rose, but Rose who has been so likeable, so understanding throughout this episode, just standing there and realising the Doctor is gone for good.
-"the slow path." I actually wondered if they'd do a Red Dwarf and have the Doctor come back to Rose and Mickey the long way round, waiting three thousand years, because it could happen. And I thought it was a bit convienent, having the fireplace to take the Doctor home, but the whole bit is redeemed by the single moment when the Doctor says, "Wish me luck!" and Reinette says: "No."
-"Pack a bag." / "Am I going somewhere?"
Oh, too sad. Too, too sad. Inevitable, but not less depressing for it. Louis XV was a nice touch, though somewhat expositional. I think that last bit only really works when the Doctor is back in the TARDIS, leaning over the console and looking a bit broken.
-Mickey! Tactful Mickey hauling Rose off! I love him. And, although he doesn't do much, I really think that in terms of the dynamics of it, this episode wouldn't have worked without him.
And, finally, Reinette, her lonely angel, and the Doctor. I fully agree that this is a love story for the Doctor. It's a study in contrast - for her, he's her childhood friend before her lover, her lover before her saviour, and although he never ages, he grows with her over the years. For him, it's an exercise in intensity - he falls for her, and I think he really does, over the space of hours, days, and he's going to carry the knowledge he was too late to save her in the end for a very, very long time.
So despite the quibbles up above, I liked this for the underlying spirit of it, the love story and the themes of loss. Wonderful episode.
If I ever have time ever again, I might try a short Ten/Reinette. Mmmm.
So. The Girl In The Fireplace. Mmmm. Firstly: it's nowhere near as good as School Reunion. That episode, I think, will probably stand unchallenged in my ranking of these episodes. And there's a lot wrong with this one. I'm not so fussed about the bad science, although, why can you have conversations through the fire in real time, but time slips Narnia-style when you're on the other side for any length of time? And also why don't stupid amounts of time pass for Rose and Mickey when the Doctor's at Versailles? But yes, not that fussed about that. It's television sci-fi, and more than that it's Doctor Who. We don't actually sign up for consistent scientific realism. All I'd really have wanted is some token, some bit of technobabble to explain it.
More than that, though, I'm fussed about Sophia Myles' acting. It's not great. No, really, it isn't. I wondered if it's bad because that's how she's written, but that's not true - she's consistently characterised and she's got some great lines - it's because she can't act very well. And I don't like that, it seems such a silly thing to slip up on when the three leads are so good.
And then I could quibble that a lot of Reinette's dialogue is sledgehammery in tone, but it might not be that bad, actually - bad acting again - or at least could have been rendered better. And I think the kiss scene happens out of sequence, actually. I know it needs to happen when it happens to set up the "I just snogged Mme de Pompadour!" joke, but still, it doesn't quite make sense there. It would have worked the second time she's seen him in adulthood, not the first. It's a tad weird. I don't know. Enough of that. There's a lot wrong with this episode.
But. But but but. You can ignore all of that. You really can, because it makes it easy to ignore it all, by being such a lovely, wistful tale of love and loneliness. What it's got in spades is humour and charm. I may not like it as much as School Reunion, but it's loads better than the first two episodes. It's lovely.
Stuff I liked specifically:
-Mickey. Oh, Mickey. I love him now and I honestly never did before. I love how excited he is - "I got a spaceship my first time out!" - and how delightfully clueless - "It's so realistic!" - and later, how sweet and tactful. Well, sort of. "He called her Cleo!" I actually get the feeling, there, that he's not needling Rose about the Doctor's supposed relationship with her because he's jealous, at least not any more. He sounds here as though he's genuinely teasing her, over anything else. I don't know. Others may disagree.
-The setting. The ship is really nicely done - it's only some funny lighting and equally funny bits sticking out of the ceiling, but it really feels labyrinthine and futuristic and rather cool. I liked it.
-the Doctor and the broken clock. Moffatt is very good at making small things sinister - the ticking was creepy in the same way as the Empty Child was creepy - and I jerked a bit when the clockwork thing emerged from under the bed. They are simple, and that's why they're scary.
-the Doctor getting snogged. Yes, I griped above. But the Doctor gets snogged! There's nothing not good about that! And look at him with his big eyes and parted lips and... um, yeah. He doesn't throw her off. He opens his mouth and gets into it. So to speak. And he's starstruck by her. I think all these are pointers.
-the horse. The horse was absolutely fabby. Heee. And trust the Doctor to want to keep it. (Pity it got stuck in eighteenth-century France! But I guess that's where it came from. On that note, if there are horses wandering about, why not confused people? Reinette had no trouble following Mickey into the ship. I guess the droids cannibalise them.)
-the odd little "mind-meld" scene. I liked it, mostly unreservedly. It is a bit sledgehammery - yes, we get it, the Doctor's lonely - but I'm willing to forgive for the delicious image of the Doctor wandering Reinette's memories, with her coquettishly hiding behind doors. And I knew it would go both ways. It's interesting that in doing that, Reinette has found out more about the Doctor than any of his companions, and all at a stroke. And more interesting still that she should see his childhood. "A lonely little boy" has appeared before in connection with the Doctor - in last year's Moffatt episode, The Empty Child, there's a momentary parallel between the Doctor and Jamie left out in the cold - and I absolutely love the fact that we're getting the Doctor has issues even beyond the Time War stuff. Or maybe it's not PTSD any more, as it was with Nine, but the Doctor coming to terms with the fact he's survived the war, he's even survived the survivors' guilt, but he's still the last Time Lord in the universe. He's still, yes, lonely.
But we knew that, didn't we, from last week? The Doctor's beginning to realise that the life he's made for himself, travelling with his "entourage" of human, alien and mechanical companions, is all very well, but he'll always be alone. And this is true. This is a very natural conclusion to draw, and I like how they're addressing it.
Also, there is a secret regarding the Doctor's name. My suspicion is that the secret is simple: he's forgotten it. Because she emerges seeing things he hasn't wanted her to see, but still doesn't give any indication of knowing it. Instead, she starts calling him "Doctor". (I maintain that "Fireplace Man" is probably the best alias the Doctor has ever used.)
-Rose and Mickey being tied up and ready to be dissected, and in comes a drunken Doctor with a tie round his forehead. Classic, classic moment. I started giggling helplessly round about "...of Thicktown!" and didn't stop for the rest of the scene. It was funny, not cringemaking as I suspect it might have been if written by RTD, and so sweetly-off-the-wall. I do like the Doctor inventing the banana daquiri several centuries early (and please, no one explain to me why he has a banana fetish, I don't think I want to know), and the legendary party-throwing capability of the French, and the very charming reveal that it isn't wine in the glass. I love the Doctor in most incarnations, but I really do love Ten more than Nine. Forgive me.
-Did the Doctor and Reinette have sex. Did they did they. And my answer would be: yes, I think they did. First of all there's the mind-meld, which is quite astonishingly intimate and yet only the prelude to the evening. There's the fact the Doctor is definitely high off something, even if it's not alcohol in the glass. And, most tellingly of all, Moffatt, who spent two episodes last year dropping increasingly more wonderful hints about dancing as a metaphor for sex, includes the line: "There comes a time, Time Lord, when every lonely little boy must learn to dance!"
THEY DONE SEX. Oh yes.
-the scene where Rose talks to Reinette. I have to say, I think Rose is wonderful in all of this. She's certainly not this seething core of jealousy that some people are making her out to be. She talks to Reinette with compassion for the predicament, they even bond a tiny bit over the Doctor. It's almost as she's learned from the Sarah Jane experience.
-Reinette deciding that actually, she doesn't want to be taken away and have her brain removed. I LOVED her there. She tells them to go away and leave her alone, and she's so fearless and so wonderful and yes. I like her. And she's so unsurprised when the Doctor and Arthur make their entrance. My favourite bit of that scene is the closeness of it, with just the two of them, in silence, holding hands.
-Rose. Oh, Rose. I don't really ship Doctor/Rose, but Rose who has been so likeable, so understanding throughout this episode, just standing there and realising the Doctor is gone for good.
-"the slow path." I actually wondered if they'd do a Red Dwarf and have the Doctor come back to Rose and Mickey the long way round, waiting three thousand years, because it could happen. And I thought it was a bit convienent, having the fireplace to take the Doctor home, but the whole bit is redeemed by the single moment when the Doctor says, "Wish me luck!" and Reinette says: "No."
-"Pack a bag." / "Am I going somewhere?"
Oh, too sad. Too, too sad. Inevitable, but not less depressing for it. Louis XV was a nice touch, though somewhat expositional. I think that last bit only really works when the Doctor is back in the TARDIS, leaning over the console and looking a bit broken.
-Mickey! Tactful Mickey hauling Rose off! I love him. And, although he doesn't do much, I really think that in terms of the dynamics of it, this episode wouldn't have worked without him.
And, finally, Reinette, her lonely angel, and the Doctor. I fully agree that this is a love story for the Doctor. It's a study in contrast - for her, he's her childhood friend before her lover, her lover before her saviour, and although he never ages, he grows with her over the years. For him, it's an exercise in intensity - he falls for her, and I think he really does, over the space of hours, days, and he's going to carry the knowledge he was too late to save her in the end for a very, very long time.
So despite the quibbles up above, I liked this for the underlying spirit of it, the love story and the themes of loss. Wonderful episode.
If I ever have time ever again, I might try a short Ten/Reinette. Mmmm.