The girl in the fireplace (2006)

Review
More about Doctor Who
More about this episode

Review

This episode was first broadcast on 6 May 2006. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot: a spaceship from the 51st century is stalking a woman from the 18th, and the Doctor gets to snog Madame de Pompadour.

This is a fantastic episode. Some of the highlights:

fantastic visuals, great pacing, lots of mystery and weirdness;
there are some laugh out-loud funny moments and a genuinely touching ending;
excellent dialogue and characterisation, and some character development for the Doctor;
beneath it all there's a decent science-fiction story with a satisfying pay-off;
excellent performances from the Doctor and Reinette;
great incidental score.

The few not-so-great things about this episode:

the visual effects shots of the Doctor jumping through the mirror on horseback are adequate but don't quite convince, which is a bit jarring since the rest of the episode looks so great;
"I could have daaaaaaaanced allll niiiiiiiiight..." Don't. Really. Don't. Though the bit about the banana daiquiri was funny.

My verdict:

Brilliant!

Excellent fun from beginning to end.

More about Doctor Who

An introduction:
Doctor Who reviews: introduction

More "brilliant!" Doctor Who:
Doctor Who reviews: brilliant!

More Doctor Who with David Tennant:
Doctor Who reviews: 2005 - now

Similar stories:
Doctor Who reviews: time travel

More about this episode

Episode guides:
BBC Episode guide

Episode reviews:
Behind the sofa
Outpost Gallifrey

With the exceptions listed here, all content © 2009 D9D1E2.COM. Please read the disclaimer, copyright information and terms of use. On this page Transitional HTML 4.01 and CSS 1 are used. If you're seeing this text you either have CSS switched off in your browser, or you're using a browser that can't handle CSS. If you're using an older browser version, you might want to consider upgrading.