"The Girl in the Fireplace" is the fourth episode of series two of the British science
fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 6 May 2006 on the British
Broadcasting Corporation, was directed by Euros Lyn and is the only episode in the 2006
series written by Steven Moffat. Sophia Myles guest-starred as the historical figure Madame
de Pompadour. The episode is inspired by Audrey Niffenegger's novel The Time-Traveler's Wife.
In the episode, the Doctor—an alien time-traveller played by David Tennant—and his companion
Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith find time windows on a 51st-century spaceship leading to 18th-century
France and a group of clockwork androids using them to stalk Madame de Pompadour throughout
her life. The programme's executive producer Russell
T Davies, who conceived the idea while researching for Casanova, described the episode as a love
story for the Doctor. The episode was filmed in England and Wales. It was well received
by most critics, was nominated for a Nebula Award and won the 2007 Hugo Award for Best
Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
Plot The TARDIS materialises on a seemingly derelict
spaceship drifting in space. The Doctor, Rose, and Mickey explore the ship and are puzzled
to find an eighteenth century French fireplace. When he looks through the fireplace, the Doctor
sees a young girl and asks who she is. She replies that her name is Reinette and that
she lives in Paris in 1727. The Doctor deduces that the fireplace is a time window, a device
that allows direct access to another time and place. The Doctor steps through the time
window and arrives in Reinette's bedroom only to find that months have passed there. He
discovers a ticking humanoid wearing eighteenth century clothing and a jester's mask hiding
under Reinette's bed. After it threatens him with a saw-like device that slides out of
its arm, the Doctor tricks the creature into returning through the time window to the spacecraft,
where he and his companions learn that it is actually an intricate clockwork android.
The android teleports away, and the Doctor warns Mickey and Rose not to go looking for
it. The Doctor returns to Reinette's bedroom while Mickey and Rose arm themselves and go
looking for the android. Returning to Reinette's bedroom, the Doctor discovers that she is
now a young woman. She flirts with the Doctor and they kiss, but she is forced to leave
to answer a summons. The Doctor then realises that she is Madame de Pompadour, the mistress
of King Louis XV. Back on the ship, the Doctor and his companions
find several additional time windows and learn that each leads to a different moment in Madame
de Pompadour's life. In one of them, the Doctor sees another clockwork creature menacing her
and steps through the window to defend her. The Doctor tells Reinette to give the android
orders, and it obeys her. It tells her that it is a repair android and that their spaceship
was damaged in an ion storm. The androids did not have the parts necessary to repair
the ship and killed the crew to use their organs for parts. The androids need one last
part; Reinette's brain. Confused, the Doctor creates a telepathic link with Reinette, but
is startled to find that she can also see into his mind. The androids capture Rose and
Mickey and are about to harvest them for parts when the Doctor rescues them. The Doctor discovers
that the androids plan to open a time window to Reinette's life at the age of 37, believing
that her brain at that age will be compatible with the ship's systems. The clockwork androids
appear at a costume ball and take Reinette and her guests hostage. At one end of the
room is an enormous mirror, which is actually a time window. The Doctor and his companions
can see through it, but they cannot enter without smashing the window and breaking the
connection as the androids locked it after the Doctor's previous interruptions.
The androids threaten to decapitate Reinette, but the Doctor on horseback crashes through
the mirror to save her. The androids give up and shut down when the Doctor tells them
that they now cannot return to their ship to finish the repairs. Reinette tells the
Doctor that she had her fireplace moved to Versailles in the hope that he would return.
The Doctor finds that the fireplace is still an operating time window and uses it to return
to the spaceship. He tells Reinette to pack a bag and prepare to leave. The Doctor returns
to the fireplace seconds later but discovers that six years have passed in Reinette's time.
King Louis XV finds the Doctor, tells him that Reinette has died and gives him a letter
in which Reinette expresses her hopes for the Doctor's quick return and confesses her
love for him. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and watches the time windows close before
leaving the ship. The TARDIS crew muse about the reasons the androids wanted Madame de
Pompadour's brain to complete their repairs, and the Doctor conjectures that the ship's
memory banks were damaged by the ion storm. When the TARDIS dematerializes, a portrait
can be seen stating the birth and death date of Madame de Pompadour. As the episode ends,
the lifeless ship drifts through space; its name is SS Madame de Pompadour.
Continuity While the episode appears to follow immediately
from the previous episode "School Reunion", Moffat says in the DVD audio commentary that
when he wrote "Girl in the Fireplace" he had not yet read the end of "School Reunion",
hence the lack of Rose's continuing animosity shown towards Mickey after he joins the TARDIS
crew. After reading the Doctor's mind, Reinette says "Doctor who?", a reference both to the
series' title and to the long-running mystery about the Doctor's actual name. She also says
that it is "more than just a secret", but does not elaborate further. Moffat said that
he added the dialogue because he believes that because the Doctor does not tell even
his closest companions his name, there must be a "dreadful secret" about it. Moffat also
says that he did not include the word "Torchwood" in the script because Davies did not ask him
to do so. Production
Writing and characters In 2004, Russell T Davies—Doctor Who '​s
executive producer—was responsible for Casanova, a serial set in the 18th century. During his
research, Davies become fascinated by Madame de Pompadour and wanted to include her in
a story which also involved The Turk—a clockwork man who played chess around the same period
and which was later revealed to be a hoax. In early 2005, Moffat—who had written "The
Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" for the series—was assigned to write the story.
Euros Lyn was later assigned to direct it. Sophia Myles stated in an interview on Doctor
Who Confidential that she did not have to audition for the role of Madame De Pompadour,
she was offered it. In an interview with The Independent, Russell
T Davies said the episode is "practically a love story for the Doctor ... It's very
understated, very beautifully done, but it's nonetheless a Time Lord falling in love and
Rose's reaction to him falling in love with someone else." Moffat was inspired by Audrey
Niffenegger's novel The Time-Traveler's Wife, though the episode's structure is different
from that of the novel. During the production, Moffat considered "Madame de Pompadour", "Every
Tick of My Heart", "Reinette and the Lonely Angel" and "Loose Connection" for the episode's
title. "The Girl in the Fireplace" was planned as the second episode of the 2006 series,
however when Davies realised how experimental it had become in Moffat's hands, he decided
to move it to fourth in the running order between "School Reunion" and "Rise Of The
Cybermen". While Moffat was creating the clockwork automata
he first decided to hide their faces with wigs, but when producer Phil Collinson told
him this would severely limit camera angles, and that it could appear comical, the androids
were given carnival masks to wear. Neill Gorton of Millennium Effects designed the androids
and they were constructed by Richard Darwen and Gustav Hoegan.
Filming Filming for the episode took place between
12 and 27 October 2005. The scenes set in Versailles were filmed elsewhere; the first
scenes filmed in which Reinette's body is taken away from city were filmed at Culverhouse
Cross in Cardiff, Madame de Pompadour's sitting room and bedroom scenes were filmed at Tredegar
House—a 17th-century mansion in Newport, Dyffryn Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan was
used as the set for the palace gardens, and Ragley Hall near Alcester was used for the
ballroom scenes. The scenes on the spaceship, which were shot by the second unit, were also
filmed in Newport. Two horses were used in the episode; one was
used for the scenes in close quarters on the spaceship, and another for jumps. According
to Doctor Who Confidential, the horse was not allowed into the ballroom for the climactic
scene. Thus, the elements of the Doctor riding through the mirror, the horse, the mirror
breaking and the reactions of the extras in the ballroom had to be filmed separately and
then composited together with chroma key. Tennant's head was superimposed upon that
of the stunt rider in post-production. Initially, the programme's staff considered the use of
special effects but realised this would be very expensive and rejected the idea.
Broadcast and reception "The Girl in the Fireplace" was first broadcast
in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 6 May 2006. The final rating for the episode was
7.90 million, making it the thirteenth most watched programme on BBC One that week. It
received an Appreciation Index of 84, considered "excellent". The episode's script was nominated
for the 2006 Nebula Award, and "The Girl in the Fireplace" won the 2007 Hugo Award for
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. Writing for IGN, Ahsan Haque praised Tennant
and Myles' acting, the episode's pacing and the "extremely touching" story. He wrote that
"with a little more attention to temporal details, this episode would have been considered
as one of the series' greatest moments". In particular, Haque wrote that the episode would
have worked better had the writers explained more precisely why the Doctor could not use
the TARDIS to visit Madame Pompadour before she died. Metro said the clockwork androids
were one of "most memorable villains" while The Guardian '​s Daniel Martin said, "The
Girl in the Fireplace" is "one of the most acclaimed episodes from the Davies era".
Ross Ruediger from Slant Magazine wrote that the episode "may be the crowning achievement"
of Doctor Who '​s second series. Ruediger called it an episode "for the new millennium"
as he thought it "could never exist under the banner of the old series." He called it
a "thought-provoking piece", and wrote that episodes like this could not be broadcast
every week since it "would be too taxing on the average viewer's brain". IGN's Matt Wales
ranked "The Girl in the Fireplace" the third best Tennant Doctor Who story, calling it
"one of Doctor Who '​s most touching adventures". References
Related topic clockpunk
External links The Girl in the Fireplace on TARDIS Data Core,
an external wiki TARDISODE 4
Episode trailer Episode commentary by Phil Collinson, Helen
Raynor and Eugene Washington "The Girl in the Fireplace" episode homepage
"The Girl in the Fireplace" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
"The Girl in the Fireplace" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time
"The Girl in the Fireplace" at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
"The Girl in the Fireplace" at Outpost Gallifrey "The Girl in the Fireplace" at TV.com
"The Girl in the Fireplace" at the Internet Movie Database
Reviews "The Girl in the Fireplace" reviews at Outpost
Gallifrey "The Girl in the Fireplace" reviews at The
Doctor Who Ratings Guide