The Girl in the Fireplace
Encyclopedia
"The Girl in the Fireplace" is the fourth episode of the second series of the British
science fiction television
series Doctor Who
. It was first broadcast on 6 May 2006, 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 takes place in multiple time periods as the Tenth Doctor
and companions Rose
and Mickey
find time windows leading to 18th century France and a group of clockwork androids using them to stalk Madame de Pompadour throughout her life. Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies described the episode as a love story for the Doctor. Overall, "The Girl in the Fireplace" was well-received by most critics despite the time constraints imposed on the plot; the episode was nominated for a Nebula Award
and won the 2007 Hugo Award
for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
arrives in a derelict spaceship, which is fully functional yet motionless and without a crew. The travellers —the Doctor
, Rose Tyler
, and Mickey Smith
— are further baffled to find an 18th century French fireplace. Looking through the fireplace, the Doctor sees a young girl. He asks who she is, and she replies that her name is Reinette, and that she lives in Paris
in the year 1727. The fireplace is a "time window", allowing direct access to another time and place; passing through the window, the Doctor arrives in Reinette's bedroom, although months have passed here, rather than mere seconds in the Doctor's time. Examining the room, the Doctor discovers a ticking humanoid wearing eighteenth century clothing and a jester's mask hiding under Reinette's bed. The Doctor tricks the creature back through the time window to the spacecraft, where he and his companions learn that it is actually an android made of intricate clockwork. Returning to Reinette's bedroom, the Doctor finds that she is now a young woman. She remembers him, and her charm and intelligence entrances the Doctor; they kiss, but she runs off to answer a summons for "Mademoiselle Poisson". The Doctor realizes she is Madame de Pompadour
(the mistress of King Louis XV
), a historic figure he admires greatly.
Returning to the ship, the Doctor and his companions find several additional time windows at various locations throughout the ship, each leading to a different moment from the life of Madame de Pompadour. In one of them, the Doctor sees another clockwork creature menacing her. Stepping through the time window, he defends Reinette. Obeying her orders to explain itself, the clockwork creature tells her that the spaceship was damaged in an ion storm
; the maintenance androids did not have the parts necessary to repair the ship, and killed the crew to use their organs for parts. One more part is required for the ship to be fully functional: Reinette's brain. Seeking more information on the motivation of the clockwork androids, the Doctor reads Reinette's mind, but is startled to find that she can read his as well, and has enormous empathy for his loneliness. Rose and Mickey are taken captive by the androids, but rescued by the Doctor, who has discovered that the creatures are trying to open a time window into Reinette's life at the age of 37. At that age, the literal-minded androids believe Reinette's brain will be compatible with the ship's 37-year-old systems. The clockwork androids appear at a costume ball, forcing Reinette and the rest of the guests into the ballroom. 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 cannot pass through without smashing the window; this would break the connection.
The creatures threaten to decapitate Reinette, but the Doctor crashes through the mirror on horseback to save her, even though he believes he has stranded himself in Versailles
in the year 1758. The clockwork androids give up and shut down when the Doctor tells them that they have no way to return to the ship to carry out their mission. Reinette reveals that she had her fireplace moved to Versailles, hoping that the Doctor would return; the Doctor uses the window to return to the ship, and tells Reinette to pack a bag and choose a constellation to visit with him. When the Doctor returns to the fireplace, however, he finds Reinette is not there to meet him, having died in the six years since the Doctor's last visit. King Louis XV
gives the Doctor a parting letter from Reinette, and the Doctor returns alone to the TARDIS. In the letter, Reinette expresses her hopes that the Doctor will return quickly, asking him to hurry as her days grow short, referring to him as "my love" and her "lonely angel". The Doctor returns the letter to his pocket, watching on the TARDIS screen as the fireplace goes dark and the time window is closed forever. The TARDIS vanishes from the derelict spaceship with the companions perplexed as to why the ship's androids wanted the brain of Madame de Pompadour over anyone else's to complete its repairs; the Doctor puts this down to damaged and garbled memory banks. The episode ends with a view of the now-lifeless ship drifting through space, and it can be seen that the ship's name is the SS Madame de Pompadour.
", Moffat notes in the audio commentary that when he wrote the episode he had not yet read the end of "School Reunion", hence the lack of continuing animosity shown towards Mickey by Rose 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 explains that he added the dialogue because he believes that, as the Doctor does not tell even his closest companions his name, there must be a "dreadful secret" about it. Moffat also explains that he did not include the word "Torchwood" (an "arc word" in the second series) in the script because Davies did not ask him to do so.
, Russell T Davies described the episode as "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 ended up structurally different from the novel. Sophia Myles
stated in an interview on Doctor Who Confidential that she didn't have to audition for the role of Madame De Pompadour, she was just offered it.
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.
The scenes of Versailles were all filmed elsewhere, with Ragley Hall
in Warwickshire standing in for the ballroom and Dyffryn Gardens
near Cardiff
standing in for the gardens at the palace. Two horses were used in the episode. One, named Bolero
, was used for the scenes in close quarters on the spaceship, and another, named Arthur
, for jumps. As seen in Doctor Who Confidential, the horse was not allowed to set foot in the ballroom in the climactic 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; Tennant's head was superimposed upon that of the stunt rider in post-production.
Steven Moffat states on the Doctor Who Confidential
episode "Script to Screen" 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 final rating for the episode was 7.90 million, making it the thirteenth most watched programme of the week. The script for this episode was nominated for the 2006 Nebula Award
. "The Girl in the Fireplace" also won the 2007 Hugo Award
for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. It was first broadcast on 6 May 2006, and is the only episode in the 2006 series written by Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
. Sophia Myles
Sophia Myles
-Early life:Myles was born in London. She is the daughter of Jane, who works in educational publishing, and Peter Myles, a retired Anglican vicar in Isleworth, west London. Her maternal grandmother was Russian, and she refers to herself as "half-Welsh, half-Russian". She grew up in Notting Hill,...
guest-starred as the historical figure Madame de Pompadour
Madame de Pompadour
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...
.
The episode takes place in multiple time periods as the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
and companions Rose
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
and Mickey
Mickey Smith
Mickey Smith is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Noel Clarke.Mickey is introduced as the boyfriend of the Ninth and Tenth Doctor's companion Rose Tyler, and a recurring character on the programme...
find time windows leading to 18th century France and a group of clockwork androids using them to stalk Madame de Pompadour throughout her life. Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies described the episode as a love story for the Doctor. Overall, "The Girl in the Fireplace" was well-received by most critics despite the time constraints imposed on the plot; the episode was nominated for a Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
and won the 2007 Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
Plot
The TARDISTARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
arrives in a derelict spaceship, which is fully functional yet motionless and without a crew. The travellers —the Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
, Rose Tyler
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
, and Mickey Smith
Mickey Smith
Mickey Smith is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Noel Clarke.Mickey is introduced as the boyfriend of the Ninth and Tenth Doctor's companion Rose Tyler, and a recurring character on the programme...
— are further baffled to find an 18th century French fireplace. Looking through the fireplace, the Doctor sees a young girl. He asks who she is, and she replies that her name is Reinette, and that she lives in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the year 1727. The fireplace is a "time window", allowing direct access to another time and place; passing through the window, the Doctor arrives in Reinette's bedroom, although months have passed here, rather than mere seconds in the Doctor's time. Examining the room, the Doctor discovers a ticking humanoid wearing eighteenth century clothing and a jester's mask hiding under Reinette's bed. The Doctor tricks the creature back through the time window to the spacecraft, where he and his companions learn that it is actually an android made of intricate clockwork. Returning to Reinette's bedroom, the Doctor finds that she is now a young woman. She remembers him, and her charm and intelligence entrances the Doctor; they kiss, but she runs off to answer a summons for "Mademoiselle Poisson". The Doctor realizes she is Madame de Pompadour
Madame de Pompadour
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...
(the mistress of King Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
), a historic figure he admires greatly.
Returning to the ship, the Doctor and his companions find several additional time windows at various locations throughout the ship, each leading to a different moment from the life of Madame de Pompadour. In one of them, the Doctor sees another clockwork creature menacing her. Stepping through the time window, he defends Reinette. Obeying her orders to explain itself, the clockwork creature tells her that the spaceship was damaged in an ion storm
Coronal mass ejection
A coronal mass ejection is a massive burst of solar wind, other light isotope plasma, and magnetic fields rising above the solar corona or being released into space....
; the maintenance androids did not have the parts necessary to repair the ship, and killed the crew to use their organs for parts. One more part is required for the ship to be fully functional: Reinette's brain. Seeking more information on the motivation of the clockwork androids, the Doctor reads Reinette's mind, but is startled to find that she can read his as well, and has enormous empathy for his loneliness. Rose and Mickey are taken captive by the androids, but rescued by the Doctor, who has discovered that the creatures are trying to open a time window into Reinette's life at the age of 37. At that age, the literal-minded androids believe Reinette's brain will be compatible with the ship's 37-year-old systems. The clockwork androids appear at a costume ball, forcing Reinette and the rest of the guests into the ballroom. 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 cannot pass through without smashing the window; this would break the connection.
The creatures threaten to decapitate Reinette, but the Doctor crashes through the mirror on horseback to save her, even though he believes he has stranded himself in Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
in the year 1758. The clockwork androids give up and shut down when the Doctor tells them that they have no way to return to the ship to carry out their mission. Reinette reveals that she had her fireplace moved to Versailles, hoping that the Doctor would return; the Doctor uses the window to return to the ship, and tells Reinette to pack a bag and choose a constellation to visit with him. When the Doctor returns to the fireplace, however, he finds Reinette is not there to meet him, having died in the six years since the Doctor's last visit. King Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
gives the Doctor a parting letter from Reinette, and the Doctor returns alone to the TARDIS. In the letter, Reinette expresses her hopes that the Doctor will return quickly, asking him to hurry as her days grow short, referring to him as "my love" and her "lonely angel". The Doctor returns the letter to his pocket, watching on the TARDIS screen as the fireplace goes dark and the time window is closed forever. The TARDIS vanishes from the derelict spaceship with the companions perplexed as to why the ship's androids wanted the brain of Madame de Pompadour over anyone else's to complete its repairs; the Doctor puts this down to damaged and garbled memory banks. The episode ends with a view of the now-lifeless ship drifting through space, and it can be seen that the ship's name is the SS Madame de Pompadour.
Continuity
While the episode appears to follow immediately from the previous episode "School ReunionSchool Reunion (Doctor Who)
"School Reunion" is the third episode in the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It first aired on 29 April 2006. The episode's narrative takes place some time after the events of "The Christmas Invasion"...
", Moffat notes in the audio commentary that when he wrote the episode he had not yet read the end of "School Reunion", hence the lack of continuing animosity shown towards Mickey by Rose 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 explains that he added the dialogue because he believes that, as the Doctor does not tell even his closest companions his name, there must be a "dreadful secret" about it. Moffat also explains that he did not include the word "Torchwood" (an "arc word" in the second series) in the script because Davies did not ask him to do so.
Production
In an interview with The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Russell T Davies described the episode as "practically a love story for the Doctor ... It's very understated, very beautifully done, but it's nonetheless a Time Lord
Time Lord
The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...
falling in love and Rose's reaction to him falling in love with someone else." Moffat was inspired by Audrey Niffenegger
Audrey Niffenegger
Audrey Niffenegger is an American writer, artist and academic.-Writing:A film version of Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife , starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, was released in August 2009.She has also written a graphic novel, or "novel in pictures" as Niffenegger calls it,...
's novel The Time-Traveler's Wife, though the episode ended up structurally different from the novel. Sophia Myles
Sophia Myles
-Early life:Myles was born in London. She is the daughter of Jane, who works in educational publishing, and Peter Myles, a retired Anglican vicar in Isleworth, west London. Her maternal grandmother was Russian, and she refers to herself as "half-Welsh, half-Russian". She grew up in Notting Hill,...
stated in an interview on Doctor Who Confidential that she didn't have to audition for the role of Madame De Pompadour, she was just offered it.
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.
The scenes of Versailles were all filmed elsewhere, with Ragley Hall
Ragley Hall
Ragley Hall is located south of Alcester, Warwickshire, eight miles west of Stratford-upon-Avon. It is the ancestral seat of the Marquess of Hertford and is one of the stately homes of England.-The present day:...
in Warwickshire standing in for the ballroom and Dyffryn Gardens
Dyffryn Gardens
Dyffryn Gardens is a collection of botanical gardens located near the village of St. Nicholas in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The gardens were selected by the British Tourist Authority as one of the Top 100 gardens in the UK.-History of The Dyffryn Estate:...
near Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
standing in for the gardens at the palace. Two horses were used in the episode. One, named Bolero
Bolero
Bolero is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish and Cuban forms which are both significant and which have separate origins.The term is also used for some art music...
, was used for the scenes in close quarters on the spaceship, and another, named Arthur
Arthur
Arthur is a common masculine given name. Its etymology is disputed, but its popularity derives from its being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur....
, for jumps. As seen in Doctor Who Confidential, the horse was not allowed to set foot in the ballroom in the climactic 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; Tennant's head was superimposed upon that of the stunt rider in post-production.
Steven Moffat states on the Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...
episode "Script to Screen" that the clockwork people were inspired by The Turk
The Turk
The Turk, also known as the Mechanical Turk or Automaton Chess Player , was a fake chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854, it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was exposed in the early 1820s as an...
, a clockwork man who played chess around the same period (and which was later revealed to be a hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
).
Reception
Reception of the episode was generally positive. A reviewer for BlogCritics Magazine lauded Moffat's writing, noting the dialogue was "honest and passionate"; other reviewers agreed that the script was excellent. Other reviewers noted that the forty-five minute time constraints caused the episode to suffer.The final rating for the episode was 7.90 million, making it the thirteenth most watched programme of the week. The script for this episode was nominated for the 2006 Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
. "The Girl in the Fireplace" also won the 2007 Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
External links
- TARDISODE 4
- Episode trailer
- Episode commentary by Phil Collinson, Helen Raynor and Eugene Washington (MP3)
- "The Girl in the Fireplace" episode homepage