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 Reinette/Madame Du Pompadour: “You’re
scared of a broken clock?”
The Doctor: “A little bit yeah”.
After this episode, I’m certainly going to
be a little more wary of the clocks I have at home thanks to the baddies in
tonight’s instalment. This wasn’t a mind bender of an hour but a time bender.
Let’s say that Mickey’s first adventure as
a fully fledged companion instead of a hindrance with The Doctor and Rose is
one that he won’t be forgetting any time soon when the TARDIS lands onto a 51st
Century ship that not only has human parts running its operation but it also
acts as a gate throughout various time periods of a young girl named Reinette,
who in turn is shown to be quite extraordinary in more ways than one.
Not only is Reinette the girl who grows up
to become King Louis XIV’s mistress Madame Du Pompadour but on top of that,
she’s also being pursued by a bunch of Clockwork killer robots who literally
need her brain for their ship as well as having quite the connection to The
Doctor too.
Played by David Tennant’s real life
girlfriend, Sophia Myles is actually quite adept of playing quite the regal
role that it’s almost hard to believe she’s the same actress who took part in
that dire vampire/werewolf film Underworld three years ago. Her performance in
this episode is great and personal factors aside, her and Tennant’s Doctor
spark off each other remarkably well.
I was a little surprised that the young
girl The Doctor had saved from a lone Clockwork Killer at the beginning of the
episode would grow up to be an influential historical figure but Madame Du
Pompadour’s reaction to seeing The Doctor after so many years by kissing him,
had our Doctor acting really laddish. “I just snogged with King Louis’
mistress” is something worth bragging about compared to another famous other
woman in Monarch history I suppose. Although rather than this remaining
entirely juvenile, there was a level of seriousness between The Doctor and
Reinette that was greatly addressed.
Not only did he save her both as a child
and as an adult from the Clockwork Killers but there was also an intense
attraction between them. He even kind of stalked her while she was chatting to
Katherine in the garden at one point as well as discovering more about why she
was wanted by the Clockwork Killers when she allowed him to read her mind.
Little did he realise that it works both ways but more on that later though.
It seems the Clockwork Killers need her
brain for the ship but can only use it when she hits the 37 mark of her life
and it doesn’t take them long to eventually track her during that particular
time period in her life. Rose really did appear genuine when she was expressing
empathy to Reinette and explaining things in lieu of The Doctor but it wasn’t
until Reinette actually managed to get onto the ship and overhear her future
self call for The Doctor that she really took note of the situation and then
our clockwork foes finally got her and King Louis.
As killers went, this Clockwork was
certainly impressive, if not exactly the world’s best for conversation and
although Madame Du Pompadour refused to give in and fear them, they managed to
still be effective. Not only that, they also weren’t that easily defeated (pity
a show like Charmed never took note of that concept, even with their most
mundane of demons).
It seems that The Doctor freezing them with
fire extinguishers (twice) and even throwing anti-oil (the latter during a
scene where a snatched Rose and Mickey were nearly done for it and The Doctor
pretended to be drunk – at least I think so) at them slows them down but like
them being able to take commands from Madame Du Pompadour, it does nothing to
stop them from the task at hand.
In fact, it isn’t until The Doctor
gatecrashes Reinette nearly losing her head while on horseback and effectively
telling the Clockwork killers that they weren’t going to succeed in using the
infamous mistress’ brain that they actually stopped, surrendered, wound down
and more or less just died as a result. And that’s ignoring the writer’s
obvious puns about winding up and clocks throughout.
Still though we got a briefly nasty twist
where The Doctor’s heroics also cost him the time vortexes between 18th Century
France and the 51st Century space ship, resulting in them closing.
This momentarily left Rose with the
prospects of no Doctor, a broken down police box and a complaining boyfriend,
so it wasn’t hard to feel for her once again. Although The Doctor appeared sad,
he didn’t seem overly broken hearted about keeping company with Madame Du
Pompadour (or was that just David Tennant happy to be working with his
girlfriend?), until the courtesan showed her the original fireplace he had
first used to encounter her and managed to return to Rose and Mickey.
The episode then takes a more dour turn
with The Doctor brooding over missing an opportunity to properly say goodbye to
Reinette (though he is given a letter, where she once again draws a common link
to him and her). She got to him by being able to read into his own pain and
even Mickey had a great turn by getting Rose to lay off the questions. Though
in fairness, Rose was once again excellent and sensitive to The Doctor and his
feelings for Reinette.
Also in “The Girl In The Fireplace”...
Exact Time Date: 1727 France. It came
as no coincidence that the Clockwork Killers ship was called SS Madame Du
Pompadour, although I wonder if the 51st Century part has anything
to do with Captain Jack or Torchwood.
Reinette/Madame Du Pompadour: “What do monsters
have nightmares about?”
The Doctor: “Me”.
The Doctor: “Goodness, how you’ve grown”
Reinette/Madame Du Pompadour: “And you do
not appear to have aged a day”.
Reinette/Madame Du Pompadour’s talents
included being an actress, courtesan, artist and a dancer. We didn’t actually
see her which was nice because Tennant captured The Doctor’s anguish over her
without that kind of scene.
Katherine (re King Louis XIV): “Every woman
in Paris knows
your ambitions”
Reinette/Madame Du Pompadour: “Every woman
in Paris shares
them”.
Was it me or did the horse following The
Doctor seem a little similar to what we got with Kate in Lost this season (2)?
Except the horse here is white.
Mickey: “The King’s wife and the King’s
mistress?”
The Doctor: “France, different planet”.
Rose: “You’re not keeping the horse”
The Doctor: “You keep Mickey”.
Little bits: The Doctor wanted to name the
horse Arthur, a snide remark was made in regards to Camilla and The Doctor
talked about bananas and dancing was positively mentioned again. Those last two
things are vital tips that Steven Moffat was responsible for this episode.
Rose (re The Doctor): “Look what the cat
dragged in”.
Reinette/Madame Du Pompadour (to The
Doctor): “Such a lonely little boy. Lonelier then and even lonelier now”.
If you add this comment and her later one –
“Lonely Angel”, plus the “Lonely God” statement from “New Earth”, then it seems
the writers are trying to tell us something.
Reinette/Madame Du Pompadour (re Clockwork
Killers): “They are five years away”
Rose: “For you, I haven’t got five
minutes”.
It seems Rose’s 80’s hairstyle is back
again as well as a bespectacled Doctor. As always, I approve.
The Doctor (re Fireplace portal): “Wish me
luck”
Reinette/Madame Du Pompadour: “Oh”.
Rose: “Are you alright?”
The Doctor: “I’m always alright”.
Standout Music: This episode was loaded
with great score music. Some truly exceptional score music might I add.
Better than I expected, “The Girl In The
Fireplace” is another visually stunning, historically intriguing and character,
although in fairness, it’s really David Tennant who dominates proceedings. Four
episodes in and this second season has certainly been relentless in giving us
top quality and imaginative episodes. I really can’t wait to see if what that
creativity will have in our Cyberman two-parter, which incidentally enough is
my next review. This season is certainly getting interesting.
Rating: 
» Review by Shawn Lunn, Copyright 2007.
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