Series 2 Episode 4: The Girl in the Fireplace

Summary:
It is Mickey's first trip in the Tardis, which brings him, the Doctor and Rose onto a spaceship in the future. There are no people on board but a fireplace that is a time portal. Through the fireplace the Doctor meets Reinette as a girl and discovers that she is haunted by clockwork robots who scan her brain. He meets her in different stages of her life and soon finds out that she is Madame de Pompadour. Rose and Mickey have a look at the spaceship and they find human body parts integrated into the ship. When the clockwork robots try to kill Reinette the Doctor tries everything to save her even if that means that he can't return to Rose and Mickey. Can he find a way back?

I really liked this episode especially because of the time jumps but in the end it's a really sad episode because the Doctor comes too late. The clockwork robots look amazing and it must have been so much work to build them but they are really brilliant and a bit scary. There is a lot of emotion in the episode, for example when Rose thinks she has lost the Doctor forever or when the Doctor reads Reinette's last letter. I love the scene with the horse on the spaceship and how the Doctor keeps it as a pet. That's really cool. You somehow feel the joy of Mickey who is on a spaceship for the first time. All in all, a beautiful episode with a bitter sweet touch.

Quotes from "The Girl in the Fireplace"

It's quote Monday again and today you'll get some quotes from the series 2 episode "The Girl in the Fireplace".

King Louis: We are under attack! There are creatures. I don't even think they're human. We can't stop them.
Reinette: The clock is broken. He's coming.
King Louis: Did you hear what I said?
Reinette: Listen to me. There is a man coming to Versailles. He has watched over me my whole life, and he will not desert me tonight.
King Louis: What are you talking about? What man?
Reinette: The only man, save you, I have ever loved. No, don't look like that. There's no time. You have your duties. I am your mistress. Go to your queen. (talks to the fireplace) Are you there? Can you hear me? I need you now. You promised. The clock on the mantle is broken. It is time. Doctor! Doctor!

Young Reinette: Monsieur, what are you doing in my fireplace?
The Doctor: Oh, it's just a routine... fire check. Can you tell me what year it is?
Young Reinette: Of course I can. Seventeen hundred and twenty seven.
The Doctor: Right, lovely. One of my favorites. August is rubbish though. Stay indoors. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night night.
Young Reinette: Good night, Monsieur.

The Doctor: Must be a spatial temporal hyperlink.
Mickey Smith: What's that?
The Doctor: No idea. Just made it up. Didn't want to say 'magic door.'

Young Reinette: Monsieur, be careful!
The Doctor: Just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it. Everyone has nightmares. Even monsters under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?
Young Reinette: What do monsters have nightmares about?
The Doctor: Me!

The Doctor: Space-age clock-work, I love it! I've got chills! Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart, and by the way, count those. It would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to dismantle you. But that won't stop me.

The Doctor: I'm the Doctor and I just snogged Madame de Pompadour!

Mickey Smith: What's a horse doin' on a spaceship?
The Doctor: Mickey, what's pre-revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective.

The Doctor: Rose, take Mickey n' Arthur, get after it, follow it, don't approach it, just watch what it does.
Rose: Arthur?
The Doctor: Good name for a horse.
Rose: No, you're not keepin' the horse.
The Doctor: I let you keep Mickey. Now, go! Go! Go!

Mickey Smith: Huh! So that Doctor eh!
Rose: What are you talking about?
Mickey Smith: Well! Madame De Pompadour, Sarah Jane Smith, Cleopatra!
Rose: Oh, Cleopatra he mentioned her once.
Mickey Smith: Yeah, but he called her Cleo.

Reinette: Doctor. Doctor who? It's more than just a secret isn't it?
The Doctor: What did you see?
Reinette: That there comes a time, Time Lord, when every lonely little boy must learn how to dance.

The Doctor: Have you met the French? My God, they know how to party.
Rose: Oh, look at what the cat dragged in. The Oncoming Storm.
The Doctor: Ooh, you sound just like your mother.
Rose: What have you been doing? Where have you been?
The Doctor: Well, among other things, I think I just invented the banana daiquiri a couple of centuries early.

The Doctor: Always bring a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good!

The Doctor: Ohhoho, brilliant! It's you! You're my favourite, you are, you're the best! You know why? 'Cause you're so thick! You're Mr Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania. And so's your dad.

Rose: You okay?
Reinette: No. I'm very afraid. But you and I both know, don't we, Rose, the Doctor is worth the monsters.

The Doctor: Madame de Pompadour. You look younger everyday.
King Louis: What the hell is going on?
Reinette: Oh. This is my lover. The King of France.
The Doctor: Yeah? Well I'm the Lord of Time. And I'm here to fix the clock.

Reinette: My dear Doctor, the path has never seemed more slow, and yet I fear I am nearing its end. Reason tells me that you and I are unlikely to meet again, but I think I shall not listen to reason. I have seen the world inside your head, and know all things are possible. Hurry, though, my love. My days grow shorter now and I am so very weak. Godspeed, my lonely angel.