The Girl in the Fireplace

Steven Moffat at his absolute best. The writing is sharp, concise, meticulously crafted with forensic concision, boasting fierce intelligence & emotional wit. He somehow manages to strike the perfect balance between featuring all the existing plot threads & tying them together neatly with not a single piece out of place or perceptible fault to be found.

Sophia Myles & David Tennant are incredible, Euros Lyn directs the story beautifully, Murray Gold gut punches the audience repeatedly with his deeply impactful, emotive music & these remarkable talents culminate to form an instantaneous classic which will forever be remembered as undoubtedly one of the greatest ever episodes of Doctor Who in its entire existing history.

The best Doctor Who episode I've seen. Although there are some major plot discrepancies and they could probably explain the clockwork droids a little more, this episode really hit it right home.

I could watch it over and over again and feel this weird tingly sensation after. And what gorgeous music. Kudos to the music guy...whoever you are.

This episode did not have too much visual effects and action so I thought it was going to be rather plain but I was astounded as to how the emotional part of the story really carries it through the end. Writer Steven Moffatt penned a wonderful script and the contrast between Mickey/Rose's more colloquial, modern speech and Reinette's flowy poetic period piece was beautiful.

We've always seen the Doctor as some sort of superhuman being but this episode really emphasizes on his humanity. It puts his feelings on the line and I like how the audience got a glimpse of him when Reinette read his mind. One question though: How come she had that ability? The ending always gets me choked up and teary...damn that sweet sweet music *sob*! But for all the space age action (well of course being a sci-fi series), it's such a fresh change to see Doctor Who in 18th century France.

Ah...the end.

I've seen a lot of the Doctor over the last thirty-odd years, and this episode has the greatest emotional depth I've ever encountered. It doesn't hurt that it presents a complex story with skill, charm, and sensitivity. It also doesn't hurt that the twists of the story surprised me regularly through the entire hour, or that the performance by Sophie Miles was superb. It was also nice that Rose was in great form, and that Micky was finally showing solid promise as a character.

Still, the best parts for me were the personal interactions, and the new slant on some of the questions raised in Schoold Reunion. This has helped make the Doctor a more complete character, and also one who is more sympathetic. It's a powerful reply to the questions raised throughout the New (and the New, New) Doctor as to whether evil follows him, or whether he goes where it is inevitable in order to try to prevent its effects.

This is a great episode, and it is my favorite of all I have seen thus far.

Everything came together to perfection in this episode - the best ever. The chemistry between Sophia Myles and David Tennant was electric and the Murray Gold's music caught its poignancy to perfection. The costumes were sumptuous and there was just enough menace to keep kids behind the sofa now and again, and certainly will stop them looking under their beds at night. And a great one to put before next week's Cybermen as a complete foil to it. It went a long way to explaining a lot of the Doctor's motivation as a character in a variety of other situations. If this episode doesn't win some kind of award, I will eat my sonic screwdriver.

I think this was the best episode of this season so far, and it was even better than The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances of the previous season (which, incidentally, are by the same writer: Steven Moffat, also responsible for the brilliant sitcom Coupling).

The plot of The Girl in the Fireplace is brilliant, complex and intricate, and surprisingly free from the gaping holes that complex plots usually have. It can be a bit confusing, but it'll all make sense in the end. The acting was good: David Tennant was a bit too hyper as usual, but tense when he needed to be, and Sophia Myles was absolutely brilliant as a very convincing Madame de Pompadour. Downsides? The end may be a bit too easy, but this is Doctor Who, after all. I think this will be my favourite episode for a long time. Or at least until next week.