In which the Doctor makes friends with a horse
At turns humorous and heart-breaking, "The Girl in the Fireplace" is one of the best episodes of Doctor Who ever. Yes, really.
It's brought to us by Steven Moffat, the genius who brought us last year's spine-chilling two-parter "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances," which made "Are you my mummy?" into the most terrifying TV catchphrase of 2005. The episode starts off, unusally, in the thick of the action, with a beautiful woman in 18th-century dress yelling into a fireplace for the Doctor to come save her. It's rather gripping because it makes you want to see how she could know the Doctor and also what terror he's supposed to save her from.
Throw in some clockwork robots, time windows into pre-Revolutionary France from a spaceship in another galaxy that's 3,000 years in the future, a good deal of Time Lord mystique, and a truly tear-jerking ending, and what we have here is an instant classic.
It's almost always the case with Doctor Who that it's format allows the writer to attack the plot on two fronts, by splitting up the Doctor from his companions, who them have separate but related adventures. This was very much the case here, as the Doctor spent much of his time in France and the Rose and Mickey show carried on in a distant galaxy in the 51st century. This method works particularly well here as the relationship between the Doctor and Madame du Pompadour grows into something more than friendship, and as Rose and Mickey learn vital pieces of plot that help the Doctor later on.
5/5. Keep 'em coming!
Next week: the return of the Cybermen! (Although it's now the 21st century; should they be called Cyberpeople?)
It's brought to us by Steven Moffat, the genius who brought us last year's spine-chilling two-parter "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances," which made "Are you my mummy?" into the most terrifying TV catchphrase of 2005. The episode starts off, unusally, in the thick of the action, with a beautiful woman in 18th-century dress yelling into a fireplace for the Doctor to come save her. It's rather gripping because it makes you want to see how she could know the Doctor and also what terror he's supposed to save her from.
Throw in some clockwork robots, time windows into pre-Revolutionary France from a spaceship in another galaxy that's 3,000 years in the future, a good deal of Time Lord mystique, and a truly tear-jerking ending, and what we have here is an instant classic.
It's almost always the case with Doctor Who that it's format allows the writer to attack the plot on two fronts, by splitting up the Doctor from his companions, who them have separate but related adventures. This was very much the case here, as the Doctor spent much of his time in France and the Rose and Mickey show carried on in a distant galaxy in the 51st century. This method works particularly well here as the relationship between the Doctor and Madame du Pompadour grows into something more than friendship, and as Rose and Mickey learn vital pieces of plot that help the Doctor later on.
5/5. Keep 'em coming!
Next week: the return of the Cybermen! (Although it's now the 21st century; should they be called Cyberpeople?)