The Girl in the Fireplace: | ||
 | – | Shouldn't this episode have been called "The Girl Behind the Fireplace"? At no point is she actually in it! |
| – | So we started off in 18th century France and then had "3000 years later..." pop up on screen, but the Doctor then tells Rose and Mickey that they're in the "51st century". Um... 18th Century + 3000 years = 48th Century, not 51st! |
| – | How exactly does a clockwork robot scan someone's brain? Are they equipped with some sort of miniature clockwork MRI scanner?? |
| – | Madame de Pompadour has a pedal harp in her room, although they weren't invented until 1810, nearly 50 years after her death.
[Perhaps she did get to do some time travelling after all...?] |
| – | Watch out for several weather changes during the garden sequence: bright and sunny one moment, dull and cloudy the next, then sunny again.
[Sadly, English weather is the one thing no amount of CGI can fix!] |
| – | When Reinette shows the Doctor the broken fireplace in Versailles, you can see through to the spaceship set on the other side. This is before the Doctor fixes the link with the sonic screwdriver, so how can the ship be visible through the fireplace? Or, if we're supposed to assume the link is always visible (even when the portal / revolving fireplace is broken), didn't any of Reinette's servants (especially whoever lit her fire every day) ever notice the green-lit spaceship inside the fireplace...? |
| – | During the "mind meld", where were the fingers of the Doctor's left hand? First he has 2 fingers behind her right ear and then it instantly cuts to to him having 4 fingers in front of her ear. |
| – | When Rose asks Reinette if she's OK, Sophia Myles must have been having a bad skin day, as you can see what appears to be a spot covered up with make-up on the right side of her face — then she goes through the gateway thing and voilà, it's gone!
[A side effect of the portal perhaps? It messes with your brain but it's great for the complexion!] |
| – | If the fireplace has been offline since being moved to Versailles, how can we hear Reinette's voice calling for the Doctor during the attack on the party? (Also, how can we not hear the screams of the partygoers in the background?) |
| – | How could Arthur the horse jump through something that's "hyperplex" on one side and plate glass on the other, without getting his head cut to ribbons? The Doctor said they'd need a truck to get through it — is Arthur stronger than a truck?! |
| – | The spaceship has short, narrow corridors — how does the horse get a good enough run-up to jump through the mirror with such force? And wouldn't jumping a horse from a height onto a hard floor break its legs? |
| – | When the Doctor rides the horse through the mirror, it (partly) smashes twice, once in long shot and then again in close up. |
| – | Knowing as he does that each visit through the fireplace can be years apart, why does the Doctor tell Reinette to go and choose a star whilst he dashes off to give Rose a hug? Why not just take her through the fireplace there and then? |
| – | Lots of people have praised this episode for its romance and characterisation. But from the Doctor's point of view, this episode is pretty much told in real time, right? (Apart from one scene of indeterminate length where he's "dancing" offscreen) So are we really supposed to believe this is the great romance of the Doctor's 900-year existence, when as far as we can tell, the entire relationship lasts something like an hour from his point of view?
[Admittedly Sophie Myles is gorgeous, so there is the "love at first sight" factor, but still...] |
| – | In reality, Madame Du Pompadour was 42 when she died in April 1764, not 43 as stated by King Louis. |
| – | It's established at the start that the Doctor's first visit to Reinette was in 1727 and later the grown-up Reinette says "I have known you since I was seven years old". But at the end, the painting shows she was born in 1721 (and indeed the real Madame de Pompadour was born on 29th December 1721) so either the Doctor's first visit wasn't until 1728/1729, or Reinette was mis-remembering the past. |