Before the timey-wimeyness of Blink or the imaginary friends of The Eleventh Hour, there was The Girl in the Fireplace, Steven Moffat’s contribution to Series 2 of Doctor Who. It’s another classic of his, and also Exhibit A when I feel the need to argue against the statement that Moffat can’t do character work1.
Now I did say that the hospital scene in Blink is Exhibit A in defence of Moffat’s characterisation2, but then I also said that there were plenty others, and this surely has to be one of the big ones. If we apply the same assumption here as we did there – that RTD left Moffat’s scripts pretty much untouched – then we need to step back and admire the beautiful, heart breaking love story that he has constructed here.
Make no mistake, this is a story about characters – not just The Doctor & Reinette, who are obviously the focus, but The Doctor & Rose, Rose & Reinette & Rose & Mickey. Starting with Mickey then, this is another important step in his journey this year which started as Mickey the Idiot in Rose and ends in two episodes time with him choosing to stay behind in a parallel universe. He’s already cut the apron strings to Rose in Boom Town and found his place in the team in School Reunion, so now he gets to stretch his wings & experience life on the TARDIS. Moffat has admitted he didn’t know how School Reunion ended and may have written Rose & Mickey differently if he knew about her reaction to him coming on board, but it works well: it’s not quite Amy & Rory levels of of comfort, but there’s an ease of these three being together that is more enjoyable than the smugness of Jack, Rose & the 9th Doctor in Boom Town.
Having Mickey on board takes the spotlight off Rose & The Doctor. This is the series that really ramps up their relationship to something more romantic, and I think it’s interesting to compare this story with the one from Series 2 that came first in this list, The Impossible Planet/Satan Pit.3 In both these stories, The Doctor is separated from his TARDIS & left to consider an ordinary life with a pretty blonde; there’s an awkwardness to his discussion with Rose about this future that just isn’t present in this story. As he gazes into the stars with Madame de Pompadour, he’s entranced, and there’s a quiet resignation to spending his time with her.
For a series that focusses so much on The Doctor & Rose, and their relationship, it seems an odd move to have a story that has him fall in love with another woman; but then there’s an obvious parallel between Reinette being both the King and The Doctor’s mistress. And it’s this relationship that the story really flourishes, as we follow The Doctor through her life & explore not so much the impact he has on her, as she does on him. RTD has a very clear idea of The Doctor as the leader & the most important person in the room; Moffat subverts this, putting his female characters first and making them stronger – we see this with River Song and Amy Pond in stories to come, but it’s shown here first. The scene where The Doctor & Reinette share a mind meld and she turns the tables is brilliant: she gets underneath his armour and sees into his soul in a way that Rose can’t – before getting him to dance.
Rose and Reinette shouldn’t get along: Rose is notoriously jealous, but in the scene they share together they get along famously. Sadly this scene does fail the Bechdel Test as they are, of course, talking about The Doctor; but it’s another brilliantly written scene as Rose puts what jealousy she has to one side to comfort Reinette – again, all character work. If anything it’s The Doctor who shows the most jealousy, dismissing King Louis at every turn despite the kindness he’s shown. There’s a quiet despair in Rose when she realises The Doctor has left her for Reinette that is more reminiscent of a Chibnall era story: it’s certainly more subtle than anything else we get this series with these two.
This story is not just all about the characters though; it’s a Moffat story so there’s some scares as well. The Clockwork Robots are one of the most memorable monsters to come out of this era, with the carnival masks just adding to the menace. As with the rest of his RTD Era stories, the mundane is made terrifying: here it’s a ticking clock, although the monster under the bed is less mundane but equally terrifying. There’s praise needed for director Euros Lynn here, and the set department, who bring pre-revolution France to life beautifully.
The biggest asset this story has though has to be Murray Gold. Gold can be overblown overbearing at times, but here his score is just perfect. Just like in The Impossible Planet, his stripped back music, making use of just an instrument or two, is beautiful and haunting. It’s one of the things that really lifts this story above its peers, and gives it it’s place in this list.
The other has to be the final scenes. As The Doctor mourns the loss of his TARDIS, Reinette sacrifices her chance of a life with him to show him the way out. That would be enough of a scene, but then Moffat delivers the coup de grâce. Obviously Madame de Pompadour can’t travel the stars with The Doctor, but unusually for him, Moffat goes with the ending where she dies before she is able to travel with him at all. It’s truly heartbreaking, and it’s played to perfection by David Tennant; as Gold’s sublime score plays, The Doctor reads Reinette’s letter and we get to see Tennant’s “Lonely God” for the first time. Scenes like this remind you of how good he was in the role, and hopefully will be again. Reinette is such a compelling character – bold and brilliant, taking charge of every scene she is in – that we feel the loss just as keenly as The Doctor does.
The Girl in the Fireplace is nothing short of a masterpiece. It’s endlessly watchable, it’s well directed with a perfect score, and it shows just how good a writer Steven Moffat is.
COMING TOMORROW: “Box falls out of the sky, man falls out of a box, man eats fish custard…”
- And the final nail in the coffin of the idea that S2 is bad ↩︎
- https://skiesfullofdiamonds.wordpress.com/2023/11/11/13-blink/ ↩︎
- https://skiesfullofdiamonds.wordpress.com/2023/10/03/52-the-impossible-planet-the-satan-pit/ ↩︎
Skies Full of Diamonds 