The Girl in the Fireplace

[altariel]

Some burbling, slightly repeated from the earlier thread...



The imaginary friend that isn't put away as a childish thing (like a love letter to this programme). The fact that it comes in at the end of episode 1 of an old four-parter. "I just didn't want to say 'magic door'..." (YES!) The constancy of the relationship on her side (across years) and the intensity on his side (across hours). That the whole glittering court of Versailles and the King of France are peripheral. The ship that consumes flesh as a metaphor for pre-Revolutionary France. The complexities of overlapping love: Mickey - Rose - the Doctor - Mme. de Pompadour - Louis XV. The champion riding in on the horse to save the damsel in distress (King, (de facto) queen, knight lover - where have I heard that before?). Mickey and Rose's gentle tact at the end. The synthesis of historical and futuristic (i.e. the two traditional main elements of Who). "You're not keeping the horse!" The closing shots, in which we pull back from the TARDIS to the ship interior, to space (so many magic doors!), and it's brought home so viscerally how the TARDIS did nothing more than land on an empty ship adrift in space, but that was sufficient to open windows on an entire life and an entire love.

What more could I ask for at 7pm on a Saturday night? Moved and thrilled and enchanted so much.

Comments

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

The fact that it comes in at the end of episode 1 of an old four-parter.

I'm afraid you've lost me there. What does? And what old four-parter?

The closing shots, in which we pull back from the TARDIS to the ship interior, to space (so many magic doors!), and it's brought home so viscerally how the TARDIS did nothing more than land on an empty ship adrift in space, but that was sufficient to open windows on an entire life and an entire love.

And there was I thinking it was just so we could see the name of the ship and say "Aha!" :)

Thanks for sharing those interesting thoughts.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

The ship that consumes flesh as a metaphor for pre-Revolutionary France.

Good one. Having listened to Mr Moffat's rather inane commentary, I'm not sure it was intentional, but good one anyway. I did love the whole knight-on-white-charger thing; can't believe RTD wanted to cut it.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid you've lost me there. What does? And what old four-parter?

Oh, just that if this had been in the format the old show, we would have had a whole 25 minute episode of stuff leading up to that teaser section. This was an episode that completely understood and made the best of the 45 minute format.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it expense that meant they wanted to cut the horse? I haven't listened to any of the commentaries yet, we're saving them for the DVD release, but I might just have to listen to this one.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

King, (de facto) queen, knight lover - where have I heard that before?

Is that a rhetorical question? I can't place an exact reference like that (though it brings to mind Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot), but it does resonate with other examples of multilayered archetypal identities. Moore and Gillette's "King Warrior Magician Lover" is one, as referenced in the bloody marvellous Fish song "Brother 52". A similar layering crops up at the end of "The Wicker Man", when Lord Summerisle explains that Sergeant Howie is the ideal sacrifice as he is the King Fool Virgin who comes of his own free will. And of course we mustn't forget the Cliff Richard classic "The Jung Ones".

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I think they said it was because the owner of the stately home, though fond of horses, drew the line at having one in the ballroom. This meant it became very expensive, because they had to do three lots of filming to get the shot together. And RTD said this was why it was a good idea to have someone else writing episodes, because he'd have been too conscious of the practicalities to dared to write in something like that.

[manna]

And even if they could've had the horse in the ballroom, it still would've been pretty expensive, because there's no way they could've have jumped the horse down onto the hard tiles. The mirror sequence would still need to be CGI.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

With Fish you are spoiling me. Are you enjoying the new season?

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Well yes, RTD wanted to cut it for practical rather than aesthetic reasons, but it wouldn't be the same story without the knight-on-white-charger bit.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

It was one of the few that fitted 45 minutes nicely, in my opinion (though I know others differ). I thought the compressed sensation really worked with the story.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Whereas I'm not sure the swashbuckling Doctor is really working for me. I mean, the swordfighting scenes from TCI and the horse were fun and all, but they kind of felt "off" to me.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

I would have much preferred it if it had just been the Doctor crashing through the window, without the horse, actually. Less stereotypical white knight, more "jumping in where angels fear to tread". (Except maybe the lonely ones.)

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

It worked for me because he was fulfilling Reinette's fantasies, just like the clockwork monsters under the bed were fulfilling her childhood fears. And he didn't then behave like a stereotypical knight -- it was the crashing through the window itself that stopped them, not him running round brandishing a sonic sword or something.

To answer your other comment, I did feel the swordfight in TCI was gratuitous because it didn't seem to follow from the aliens' previous behaviour or the earlier plot.

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying it, but I still miss Eccleston. I'm hoping the Cybermen will be Really Fucking Scary, as opposed to crap.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping the Cybermen will be Really Fucking Scary, as opposed to crap.

God yes.