Doctor Who Watchalong: The Girl in the Fireplace scheduled for 7pm today
By James Aggas
Today’s Doctor Who watchalong is David Tennant episode The Girl in the Fireplace by Steven Moffat – scheduled for today at 7pm UK time.
The ongoing series of Doctor Who watchalongs, as organized by Doctor Who Magazine’s Emily Cook, continues today with The Girl in the Fireplace. Steven Moffat’s second story for the New Series, it’s a relatively early episode for David Tennant’s Doctor. But it’s also an episode that in some ways defines his character, too.
The episode is an unashamedly romantic one. Essentially a love story between the Doctor and Reinette Poisson, (better known as Madame du Pompadour,) there’s a clear influence from the novel The Time Traveller’s Wife, with the Doctor popping in and out of Reinette’s life.
As we all know, this wouldn’t be the last time that Moffat would use the novel as a key influence. Just two years later, he would essentially retell a doomed time-traveling love story on a much bigger scale by introducing River Song in Silence in the Library. He’s also been named as the writer of HBO’s upcoming adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife.
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The roots of Moffat
So while The Girl in the Fireplace has been arguably overshadowed by many other stories since, it’s a fascinating glimpse of early Moffat for Doctor Who – one that moves away from the strong horror of The Empty Child (although it has to be said, the clockwork robots in The Girl in the Fireplace are terrifying) and sees him exploring his more romantic side. So it’s a good episode to revisit for that much, at least.
If that wasn’t enough, the man himself will be tweeting about the episode during the watchalong. It’ll be interesting to learn not only new facts about the story but also what he thinks of it exactly fourteen years later. Equally exciting is the fact that Sophia Myles, who played Reinette, will also be joining in on the discussion.
So make sure to check out The Girl in the Fireplace at 7pm UK time, either through BBC iPlayer in the UK, or through Amazon Prime in the US. You can join in the discussion yourself using the hashtag #Clockdown.
Next. First episode of Jenny: The Doctor’s Daughter is free until Monday. dark
Are you a fan of The Girl in the Fireplace? Do you think it’s a strong story from Steven Moffat? Let us know in the comments below.