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Monday, July 8, 2013

Doctor Who: Girl in the Fireplace Review.

Since there are a lot of newer fans of Doctor Who reading this blog, it seemed like a good idea to try and review some of older episodes from Tennant and Eccleston eras, so here is one of my many favorite episodes, "The Girl in the Fireplace" with the tenth Doctor Who David Tennant. Many consider this episode to be among Tennant's best and who am I to disagree, it is positively brilliant!
It is one of those videos that was just about everything, fun action adventure, hilarious humor, creepy bad guys, and a sad, bittersweet ending. This was one of Tennant's first episodes as the Doctor and he had already taken it as his own. His performance was top notch, equally portraying a serious and fun side when necessary. He showed more of his heroic side, not being afraid to risk everything at save Reinette.
Not surprising, Steven Moffat wrote this episode, and in typical Moffat fashion there are memorable monsters, albeit not quite as creepy as his other ones, and crazy "wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff."
Normally a romance like the one between The Doctor and Reinette is annoying, but it really works in the episode. Sophia Myles as Reinette was magnificent! Easily one of the best one-off characters in the series. Even though it would change the ending the episode, I almost would not mind seeing again in on the show, because I want to see more of her.
If I remember correctly, this is the first time Mickey travels with the Doctor and Rose and while a little dopey, he was often humorous. It has been a while since watching any of Rose's seasons, and I have forgotten how cool she was and how much fun she was with Doctor as well.
Although the effects do not hold up compared to later episodes, they serviceable and effective enough and there was a lot of practical effects usage as well.
Tennant was less brooding as he was in later seasons and a lot more fun. His lines and jokes are often hilarious! Featuring some of the tenth Doctor's most memorable lines: "I'm The Doctor. And I just snogged Madame de Pompadour!", "You're mister thick thickity thick face from thicktown thickannia. And so is your Dad!", "Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good." and many more fantastic quotes.
There is one thing that kind of bugs me, why hasn't the Doctor used the mind reading ability more often? It would seem useful at times. 
 
Overall: 10/10- While it does not the big epic scale of other episodes, "The Girl in the Fireplace" is an excellent example of a standalone Doctor Who episode with film quality story. It would certainly rank among my Top 25 best Doctor Who episodes, and one of more re-watchable episodes of the series.
 
Note: Even though I gave "The Name of the Doctor" a 9.9/10, I am not entirely sure if this episode is better or not.
 
If you have a request for a specific Doctor Who episode review, please comment and I will try to watch and review it.
 
 
 
If you want to contact us or have any questions please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.

13 comments:

  1. I LOVED this episode. The bad guys were perfect because they were really creepy (I don't know why their not more popular), the flow of time was amazing to see on either ends of the fireplace, The Doctor was really funny but perfect and Mickey was decent and Rose was just good ol' Rose and the story was perfect and it was so sad at the end and I just love Doctor Who! :)

    ~Jamie

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    1. I agree, the Clockwork droids are great villains, they would probably make my top 10 best villains list. Normally I do not like those kind of romance type story, but this episode did it so perfectly. :)

      -James

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  2. I'm a bit of the odd one out, since this was one of my least favorite episodes(though that mainly had to do with the Doctor having a relationship with Madame de Pompadour). Though, I can see why most people would like it, since it does have an interesting plot line and good villains.
    I would really like to see reviews on the episodes Doomsday, The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, The Sound of Drums/Last of the Timelords, Journey's End, and the End of Time duo.

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    1. Usually I dislike that type of relationship, but I found it surprising well done.
      Thanks for the recommendations, hopefully I can find those episodes on YouTube. :) Some of these I don't even remember.

      -James

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  3. I didn't love this episode, but nevertheless, I liked it quite a lot. I thought it was a very good Doctor Who episode. I loved the villains, the humor, and the sad ending. The ending was what made me decide it was a very good Doctor Who episode. I didn't dislike Madame de Pompadour - I found her to be pretty likable. However, I didn't really like the romance between Reinette and The Doctor. But overall, a very nice episode with the 10th Doctor. You made a lot of excellent points in this review. I was wondering, have you seen Vincent and the Doctor, The Girl Who Waited, or Asylum of the Daleks? Those are three of my favorite Doctor Who episodes with the 11th Doctor.

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    1. Normally that type of romance annoys me, but I actually found well done for the first time. Yes I have, I have seen every episode since the 2005 reboot, those were some of my favorites as well. I did review "Asylum of the Daleks" when it first aired. Here is a link if you are interested.
      http://jandjproductions1809.blogspot.com/2012/09/doctor-who-asylum-of-daleks-review.html

      -James

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  4. This is my favourite episode from Season 2. And currently, it's in my top three favorites overall. (With Dalek from season 1 and Blink from 3. Blink is numbere one.)
    After being really really creeped out over Moffat's first story in season one, I thought I would not like this story, but I really did love it. The clockwork men are definitely pretty scary, but not overly so, and the setting in revolutionary France made it interesting. Normally I don't like romance, either, but this one was pretty good (not that I ship the Doctor and Madame de P

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  5. Pompadour, but it was a good story.)

    [weird....sorry about that....it wouldn't let me finishe in that comment...]

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    1. Glad we agree, from what I remember, it is my favorite season 2 as well. I agree, the Clockwork Droids had just the right amount of creepiness. No problem, blogger commenting can be a pain.

      -James

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  6. This is one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who (and my favorite of Season Two) and I've seen it so many times...but yet no matter how many times I watch it... SPOILER ALERT...I always jump when the Clockwork Man jerks when the Doctor is investigating Reinette's room when she was little.
    Great Review, and I agree, this episode is wonderful!

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    1. Good to see another with a similar opinion of the episode. I agree it was the best of season 2 and yes, that scene made me jump too.
      Thanks!

      -James

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  7. That's my favorite episode of the Doctor Who series alongside New Earth as the second, I'm good enough to admit that it scored enough points for the Doctor of making a relationship with the female aristocrat. Someday I'll watch it with the other episodes I've missed including Blink and I know David Tennant is still the best Doctor and better than Matt Smith.

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  8. For my own Doctor Who Retrospective (Classic & NuWho) I rewatched Girl in Fireplace (the first time since its debut). The first time I thought it good not great, the second time I just didn't think it was as good as everyone else insists.

    One thing that bothered me intensely is that GIF has too many similarities to The Eleventh Hour (there's a bit of timey-wimey) for me to wonder whether Moffat was recycling his plots. Ultimately, I gave it a 4/10.

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