My response to GITF debate, so I can link back to it, cuz it's long.

[timelord1]

d_r_meta asked the following question: It's time to talk The Girl in the Fireplace. Does this episode fit into the overall arc of the series? How about the characterizations?

My answer follows. It's longer than I intended, so I wanted to put it behind a cut. Not knowing how to do that in a comment, I posted it here and will link back to it on the forum. :)


No, I do not think this story fits into the overall arc of the series. The Doctor acts completely out of character, and here are my specific examples for backup.

1 - He would not get that giddy star-struck over a girl that fast. It may have been a lifetime for MdP, but for the Doctor it was a matter of minutes. Intrigued, yes, but falling for her in a few minutes, when he's been so obviously slowly building up to admitting his feelings for Rose? That portrays him as very fickle and completely irresponsible. I say no to this.

2 - He would not leave Rose and Mickey to their own devices on a ship that he knows is patently dangerous just so he can go party with MdP. Again, irresponsible and completely out of character. No way! He would either bring them with him, or he would say thanks but no thanks to MdP. You cannot convince me otherwise. And then to be gone for hours without checking on them? They are his companions - he knows the ship is dangerous. He simply would not do this.

3 - Here's a point a lot of people might overlook because it's a throwaway line. When they ask why they can't pop into the ballroom with the TARDIS and save the day, his answer is "No, we're part of events now" - um. Let's discuss this point. As a writer (as most of y'all are if not all), you know sometimes you want to have a certain moment in a story, but the rest of the plot leads you in a direction where that moment might not make sense, so you force the action of the story to fit the setup for that moment, even if it means abandoning all logic of the established story to do so. Was the Doctor stupid enough to think that clockwork robots were okay in that period of history, but not the TARDIS? Absolutely not! The writer simply did not want to use the easy solution, because he was hoping for the dramatic ride-through-the-mirror sequence. The TARDIS could have gone there easily and they could have saved the day that way, but it wasn't what the writer wanted, so they dismissed the obvious, easiest option.

4 - The ride through the mirror. Going first back to point 2 in my list here, the Doctor would UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES abandon 2 companions on a lifeless spaceship in the middle of nowhere with no way of getting home. Sure they have the TARDIS, but do they know how to pilot it? Do they know how to do a single thing on that ship without his help? He left them there to get trapped in time, and he simply would not do that. Also, he's not going to separate himself so easily from the TARDIS for all time, is he? Even if you want to go with the writer's attempt to say that his relationship with Rose didn't matter that much (if he's so easily drawn away by MdP), his relationship with the TARDIS is paramount and he would not leave the ship behind so easily, either.

5 - Rose. After all this time we've come to love her as a strong woman who is not easily marginalized. Why, then, is she allowed to run along like a good little companion and SHE GOES ALONG WITH IT? She's just mumbling to Mickey about how slightly annoyed she is at the whole thing. Her character is just kind of a side note in this story, and that's not what Rose was ever intended to be in my opinion. AND, there's this weird parent/child thing going on between the Doctor and Rose that just doesn't make sense. One minute the Doctor is all "Run along now, children," which he would NEVER DO TO ROSE, and then the next Rose is chiding him like a naggy fishwife "Look what the cat dragged in, the Oncoming Storm", and then like a mother "You're not keeping the horse!" Their dynamic is off and weird and does not fit at all.

So, yeah, that was a bit of a long post. Sorry.

Comments

[jessicaqueen.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I have issues with this ep (note how many fics I've written regarding it). But to be fair, in response:

1 - I've never watched this episode as the Doctor being in love with Reinette the way he ends up being in love with Rose. He's attracted to her, certainly (hardly the first time he's met a girl and flirted even with Rose right there). And he obviously loves her the way he loves Adelaide Brooke; she's an important historical figure who has done something to prove to him that he was right to think her brilliant. And he feels just as guilty for failing her as he does with anyone who dies for him or dies waiting for him. YMMV but even in the height of my indignation about this episode, I never really saw it as him replacing Rose with Reinette or loving her more than he ever did Rose.

3 - Moffat, and this ep, is by far not the only one to use the 'part of events' excuse. Much like the sonic screwdriver, I believe the show's general rule is that the TARDIS can do anything unless it solves the episode (although they break this rule sometimes, obviously). It's clunky writing to throw the TARDIS aside like this, but that doesn't make it any less canonical that in certain situations they can't use the TARDIS to cross their timeline without causing major problems.

4 - Moffat himself answers this issue in Silence in the Library. Emergency Program One activates once a companion has been alone inside the unmoving TARDIS for a certain amount of time. They would have made it back to London in their own time. Not a perfect ending for Rose and Mickey, certainly, but no worse than in Parting of the Ways or Doomsday. In that sense it fits into the rest of canon incredibly well, actually.

[timelord1.livejournal.com]

I can completely see your point here, but I will say this - taking that episode from the point of view of a first-time watcher, someone who had not seen Silence in the Library yet, Emergency Program One's parameters should have been pointed out in this episode if that was his intended out for Rose & Mickey. Not that people couldn't have figured it out, but it should have been mentioned there, if he felt it worthy of mentioning 2 seasons later.

[jessicaqueen.livejournal.com]

Oh, but that just makes it kinda timey-wimey, Y/Y? XD

You just know he didn't have this explanation in mind and only mentioned it two seasons later JUST BECAUSE people complained about this exact thing. Silly Moff. I can only justify his crazy to a point.

[timelord1.livejournal.com]

lol absolutely! :) I guess I can't cry foul too loudly on creative backpedaling since I am sure I've done it at some point myself...

[phoenixrising06.livejournal.com]

On 4- What I always question is that in PotW, the Doctor has to activate Emergency Program One with his sonic. He starts it inside the TARDIS, but then we see him run out, stand there as it all washes over him, and then turn around and activate it with the sonic.

If he'd changed it to work without needing to manually activate it between the two episodes, we should have been told. Moffat went back and added Mickey's line about not knowing how they were going to get home later on, so why not throw in a line about EP 1? Like you said in another comment, as it is, it makes it seem like he wanted it to appear as though they were stranded, but after getting so much crap about it from fans he decided to throw in a line in Silence of the Library so he could be all "See? See?"

Which in my case pisses me off more, lol.

[timelord1.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY!!! lol - This is an ideal lesson in writers needing to follow their own established rules, or you end up with people finding the holes later on. :)

[phoenixrising06.livejournal.com]

Yup! Established rules are important for any show, but even more so for a show like DW. When so many fantastical things can occur, the way you keep your audience grounded and invested in what's going on is by having a set of rules and sticking to them.