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Original Transmission Date 6th May 2006
Cast
Plot Outline from Wikipedia A woman in 18th century dress stares expectantly at a fireplace as people outside scream and run from something. A richly dressed man runs into the room and warns her to flee, as monsters are attacking the court. She refuses, telling him that she is just his mistress, and that he should go to his queen. The clock on the mantelpiece is broken, and she is expecting a visit from the only other man she has ever loved, someone who has watched over her throughout her life. She looks into the fireplace, calling out for the "Doctor". The TARDIS materialises in a spaceship three thousand years later and two and a half galaxies away. The Doctor, Rose and Mickey exit, the Doctor remarking about the poor repair of the spaceship as Rose wonders where the crew is. The Doctor finds a switch that opens a skylight. Through it is a starscape set against a brilliant nebula, at which Mickey marvels. The Doctor examines the equipment and is puzzled; the warp drives are at full capacity, generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe, but the ship is motionless. The travellers wander further, smelling cooking, and find something out of place: an 18th century French fireplace, intact and properly constructed.
The Doctor looks through the fireplace, and sees a young girl looking back. He asks who she is, and she replies that her name is Reinette and that she lives in Paris in the year 1727. The Doctor confers with Mickey and Rose for a moment, telling them that it is probably a "time window" connecting the spaceship and 18th century France. The Doctor pushes the side of the fireplace, and the wall rotates, taking him with it. Instead of finding himself on the outside hull of the ship, however, he ends up in Reinette's bedroom. He discovers from Reinette that months have gone by since she saw him last and remarks that there must be a loose connection. He also finds, to his concern, that the clock on the mantelpiece is broken, and yet there is still ticking in the room. The Doctor works out from the volume of the ticking that it must be emanating from something the size of a fully-grown man. Whatever it is had broken the clock so that its own ticking would not be noticed. He checks under Reinette's bed and the creature beneath it pushes him back, swiftly getting up on the other side: a clockwork man wearing a mask and period dress.
Examining Reinette, the Doctor discovers that the creature has been scanning her brain, and questions why the creature would punch a hole in the universe for a young girl's brain. Reinette, shocked, turns round and asks the creature, "You want me?" The creature replies, in a distorted electronic voice, "Not yet. You are incomplete." The Doctor questions this statement, but the creature simply walks round the bed robotically. The Doctor draws his sonic screwdriver, and in turn the creature extends a large blade from within its arm. The Doctor backs towards the fireplace and the clockwork man follows, slashing away until the blade gets caught on the mantel. The Doctor assures Reinette it is all a nightmare and not to worry, as even monsters have nightmares. When Reinette asks what monsters have nightmares about, the Doctor replies, "Me!" Pressing on the fireplace, he makes it rotate back into the ship. Back on the spaceship, the Doctor gets a fire extinguisher gun from the wall and freezes the creature. Removing its mask, he finds, to his astonishment and delight, space-age clockwork. He remarks that it would be vandalism to disassemble such a beautiful machine, but says this would not stop him. Before he can do so, however, the clockwork man teleports away. Surmising it to be a short-range teleport and that it could still be on board, the Doctor tells Mickey and Rose not to go looking for it as he goes back through the fireplace. Once he is gone, however, the two companions immediately set off, armed with the extinguisher guns.
Back in the bedroom, the Doctor finds it very much changed, and calls out for Reinette before plucking on a harp stationed in the room. Whilst he is doing so, Reinette walks in — this time a beautiful young woman in flowing dress. The Doctor seems a bit flustered at how much she has grown, as she remarks how he has not aged. Reinette steps up to him and touches his cheek, determining that the imaginary friend of her childhood is indeed flesh and blood. She hears her name called again. With little time, she grabs the Doctor and kisses him passionately, breaking it and running off as she is called once more, as "Mademoiselle Poisson". Although startled, the Doctor still manages to place the name: Reinette Poisson, actress, courtesan, the mistress of King Louis XV and uncrowned Queen of France. A servant asks the Doctor who he is, and as he rotates the fireplace again he replies, laughing, that he is the Doctor… and he has just snogged Madame de Pompadour. On the ship again, the Doctor is annoyed to discover that Mickey and Rose have wandered off against his orders. He goes to find them, turning a corner only to discover a large grey horse, whinnying at him. Meanwhile, searching the ship, Rose and Mickey find a human eye inside a mechanical armature, acting as a surveillance camera. Hearing beating sounds, Rose opens a hatch to discover a human heart wired into the circuitry.
With the horse tailing him, the Doctor continues exploring the ship, opening a set of double doors that leads into another time window, this time into an open park in December 1744. He deduces that the doors are how the horse got onto the ship. He surreptitiously observes Reinette from behind a marble balustrade. Reinette is walking with a friend, Katherine, discussing the imminent death of King Louis' mistress, Madame de Châteauroux and how the king will be seeking a new one. He ducks out of the way when Reinette twice looks in his direction, seemingly sensing his presence. On the ship, Mickey and Rose stumble across another time window, this time a mirror. Joined by the Doctor and the horse, they observe Reinette's first meeting with King Louis in February 1745. The King leaves and Reinette checks her reflection in the mirror. A nearby clock is broken, but the sound of ticking still fills the room. Reinette turns to see a figure standing motionless in the corner, and she demands to know who it is. The figure turns to reveal a female android similar to the male one she encountered years earlier.
The Doctor grabs a fire extinguisher gun and steps through the time window, greeting Reinette before freezing the clockwork woman. However, this model starts to melt the ice almost immediately, and starts up again. The Doctor asks it to identify itself, but it does not answer. The Doctor then asks Reinette to order it to respond, since the clockwork man appeared to obey her. She does so, and the creature replies that the ship was damaged in an ion storm, but could not be repaired as they "did not have the parts". Since the clockwork androids were programmed to repair the ship at all costs, and no proper parts were available, they scavenged those parts from the crew, wiring their organs into the ship's machinery. The combination of flesh and heat from the machinery explains the smell of cooking the travellers encountered on the flight deck. However, one more part is required: Reinette, but they have not taken her because she is "incomplete". Rose asks why choose Reinette, but the clockwork woman simply replies that they are the same. Angered, Reinette orders the creature to leave, and it teleports away. The Doctor quickly orders Rose and Mickey back through the mirror to look for the creature, and to take the horse (which the Doctor has named Arthur) with them. However, Mickey and Rose are swiftly captured by the clockwork robots, who render them unconscious. Meanwhile, the Doctor reads Reinette's mind to find out what the androids are looking for. He finds out that the clockwork creatures have not yet taken her because she is not old enough. Reinette starts referring to a lonely childhood, and addresses the Doctor by name although he has never revealed it to her. He realises in shock that she is also reading his mind, and that it is his childhood to which she is referring. Reinette calls him "my lonely Doctor", and asks him to dance with her. The Doctor refuses at first, but she tells him that there comes a time that "every lonely boy must learn how to dance". She pulls him out of the room.
On the ship, Rose and Mickey awaken to find themselves strapped down and at the mercy of the clockwork creatures. Just as one is about to cut Rose open, the Doctor enters, apparently drunk from a party. He is in sunglasses, holding a goblet, wearing his tie as a bandana and singing "I Could Have Danced All Night". In this apparently inebriated state, the Doctor reveals that the clockwork creatures are waiting for Reinette to age, because when she is thirty-seven she will be the same age as the ship — and her brain, they believe, will be compatible with the ship's computers. Suddenly, the Doctor shuts down one clockwork creature with multi-grade anti-oil that was contained in the goblet. Completely sober again, he flips a lever that switches the rest off before freeing Rose and Mickey with his sonic screwdriver. The Doctor tries to turn the other time windows off, but an override is present. A clockwork message comes in and he realises that there is still one creature in the 18th century with Reinette. The clockwork creatures power up again and declare, "She is complete. It begins." They teleport away; one of them has found the right time window. Rose visits Reinette in 1753, five years before her thirty-seventh birthday, warning her that the clockwork creatures will be here sometime after that day. Rose tries to explain the situation and, impressively, Reinette quickly grasps the concept of the time windows and how the Doctor can move between the moments of her life without aging. Rose tells Reinette to stall the clockwork creatures when they arrive until the Doctor can get there. When she tells Reinette that her life was not supposed to have monsters, Reinette grows angry. She says that it may be that one cannot have the Doctor without the monsters, but one can tolerate demons for the sake of an angel. Mickey emerges from behind a tapestry, telling Rose that they have found the time window for Reinette's thirty-seventh birthday and the clockwork creatures' return. Despite Rose's objections, Reinette pushes her way through the tapestry and onto the ship. She hears the screams from her future, the time when the clockwork creatures return, and realises that she must take "the slower path", living through the next five years, however much she is afraid. Before she leaves, she tells Rose what they both know: that "the Doctor is worth the monsters". In 1758, the clockwork creatures terrorise the guests at the court. Reinette calls out into the fireplace for the Doctor. The androids come into the room, and order her to follow. She and the rest of the guests are forced into the ballroom by their attackers as the Doctor, Mickey and Rose watch helplessly through the time window, a mirror looking in on the ballroom. The clockwork creatures knew he was coming and blocked it off.
As the Doctor struggles to find a way to get in, Reinette commands attention and berates the guests for screaming in the royal ballroom of the Palace of Versailles, reminding them that they are French. She refuses to go with the clockwork creatures, saying she does not wish to set foot in their world again. They reply that they do not need her feet, and force her to her knees to decapitate her. She defiantly says that she does not fear them, for they are merely the nightmare of her childhood — and if her nightmare can return to plague her, so can theirs. As she speaks, a horse is heard galloping in the distance. It is the Doctor, on Arthur, riding through the time window — shattering it and breaking the portal back to the ship. Back on the ship, Mickey realises that they cannot pilot the TARDIS by themselves, and wonders how the Doctor will get back. Rose is despondent, and does not reply. Beyond the broken time window, a clockwork creature threatens the Doctor with its weapon, but the Doctor tells it to give up, for the link to the ship is broken, and thus they cannot access the parts on the ship they need to survive. After a few seconds, they all stop working. In the 18th century, the Doctor is standing at a window, staring at the stars. Reinette joins him, and mentions how the Doctor saved her despite knowing that he would be trapped. The Doctor agrees, and starts to contemplate life in the 18th century, and how different it will be. Reinette then reveals that she had moved the original fireplace from her childhood room piece-by-piece, hoping that the Doctor would return. The Doctor sees in this an opportunity to get back to the ship. The movement would have severed the bond with the ship, keeping it undamaged whilst all the other time portals were destroyed along with the mirror. Hopefully, with the help of the loose connection, it will provide the way back. The Doctor tries to see if the link is still there and it is, and so he asks Reinette to wish him luck as he returns. She refuses to do so even as the wall starts to rotate, and he realises too late that she does not want him to leave. He talks to her through the fireplace, asking her to pack a bag, give him two minutes and to "pick a star — any star". She goes, runs excitedly to a large window, and looks out at the stars in anticipation, and the Doctor gleefully runs off. He finds Rose and Mickey and tells them to get into the TARDIS, and he will explain later. However, when he returns through the fireplace after barely two minutes, Reinette is not there to meet him. Instead, he finds King Louis at the window, who tells him in a sombre voice that the Doctor has just missed Reinette — she is on her way to Paris — and gazes out of the window at her departing carriage. As the King continues to speak, recalling what Reinette has told him about the Doctor and how much she was looking forward to seeing him, the Doctor realises that Reinette has recently died. Six years have passed since that last meeting; it is now April 1764. The Doctor then sees the carriage, which is the hearse carrying Reinette away from Versailles for the last time. King Louis gives the Doctor a parting letter from Reinette. He asks what she wrote in the letter, but the Doctor puts the envelope into his jacket pocket without answering. King Louis understands, and the Doctor quietly returns to the future, and the TARDIS. As he enters, Rose asks why the clockwork creatures thought they could repair the ship with the head of Madame de Pompadour. The Doctor replies that they will probably never know; perhaps it was a computer error. He continues, in muted tones, that the TARDIS will close the remaining time windows. Rose asks if he is all right. The Doctor replies, unconvincingly, that he is always all right. Mickey diplomatically suggests that Rose show him around the rest of the TARDIS, in order to leave the Doctor on his own for a while. When they have both left, the Doctor reads the letter. In it, Reinette wishes that the Doctor will return, although she recognises that he probably will not. However, she continues to hope, and asks him to hurry as her days grow short, referring to him as "my love" and her "lonely angel". Slowly, he returns the letter to his jacket, and watches the TARDIS console screen, which shows the fireplace being put out, permanently severing the link. The TARDIS then dematerialises from the ship, revealing behind it a framed portrait of Reinette. As the now lifeless ship drifts through space, the reason the clockwork creatures believed they needed Reinette's brain is revealed in its name: the SS Madame de Pompadour.
Analysis by Cuisle In the ‘classic’ series, whenever we found out something
about The Doctor, it always seemed as if the information was incidental
and accidental. The picture of who he is or was, where he came from,
why he is who he is, was so very slowly built up over the DECADES.
The most startling revelation was that in the 1996 movie that he was
“half human” on his mother’s side. But in both the
new series, and especially in this 2006 series, we seem to be getting
more and more keys to unlocking his dark soul. In this episode it
was the revelation that he was a lonely child. Which may have something
to do with him being half-human. Children are very cruel to those
who are unlike them. That revelation ties in with the 9th Doctor’s
own revelation of his childhood in The Empty Child. He says “It's
not easy being the only child
That aside, Girl in the Fireplace also pitched him far more than
ever before as a romantic figure. Although his visits to Madame Du
Pompadour over the years of her life were fleeting, and it is clear
nothing untoward happened between them, she so very clearly loved
him, and he was affected by her.
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