ULTIMATE Doctor Who Book of Randomness (COMPLETED)

Series 2 Episode 5: The Girl in the Fireplace (Part 4)

P.O.V: Rose Tyler

As I searched the ship with Mickey, I noticed he was trying to be clever, doing spy dives and rolling around. I almost laughed, when he said, "Are you looking at me?"

I was about to respond when I turned and saw he was looking at a camera mounted on the wall.

"Look at this." Mickey pointed to the camera face. "There's an eye in there. That's a real eye." The camera shrunk back into the ship. I opened a small hatch and we heard thumping. We peeked in along the wires and pipes and saw something horrific.

"What is that? What's that in the middle there? Looks like it's wired in." Mickey noted, but I was just staring. Staring at the horrible sight in front of me.

"It's a heart Mickey. It's a human heart."

We edged away and closed the hatch, and began to explore some more. The eye camera came back out and watched us as we explored. 

"Maybe it wasn't a real heart." Mickey suggested. 

"Of course it was a real heart." I argued. It was beating for crying out loud.

"Is this like normal for you?" he demanded. I could see in his eyes how he felt about all this. "Is this an average day?" 

"Life with the Doctor? No more average days." I retorted. He should know that by now. My heart felt heavy as I turned towards a large window. I felt sorry for Mickey, I really did. He seemed to drop the subject as he joined me at the window.

"It's France again. We can see France!" he exclaimed. 

"I think we're looking through a mirror." I noted, seeing the circumstances. A man in eighteenth century French attire and two men walked into the room. 

"Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?" Mickey exclaimed, taking in his bold manner and fancy clothing.

"The King of France." I heard the Doctor's voice say behind us. 

"Oh, here's trouble." I said as I turned around, though my heart said otherwise. "What have you been up to?" I asked, noticing the white horse standing behind him. 

"Oh, this and that. Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat, picked a fight with a clockwork man."

The horse neighed. "Oh, and I met a horse." he added, smiling. I loved his smile. 

"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" Mickey asked, dumbfounded. 

"Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective. See these?" he pointed to the mirror. "They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history." 

We all looked through the mirror and saw a young woman in regal attire enter the room and curtsy the King. 

"Hers. Time windows deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. Why?" He tussled his hair and sighed. I loved his hair.

"Who is she?" I asked, looking at the beautiful young woman I saw in front of me. 

"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived."

I was starting to get it now. "So has she got plans of being Queen then?" 

"No, he's already got a Queen. She's got plans of being his mistress." 

"Oh, I get it. Camilla." 

"I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace. Even her own title. Madame de Pompadour." 

I looked back in the mirror. The King and his servants had left, and Reinette was checking her appearance in the mirror. 

"The Queen must have loved her." I said sarcastically. 

"Oh she did. They got along very well."

"The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?" Wow!

"France." The Doctor smiled. "It's a different planet." 

********************************    

P.O.V: The Doctor

We entered Reinette's time just as she saw a droid disguised as a woman standing in the corner. 

"How long have you been standing there? Show yourself!" She demanded. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and stopped the droid from going anywhere. 

"Hello Reinette! Hasn't the time flown!" I said cheerily. 

Her face lit up. "Fireplace man!" She cried with joy. 

"What's it doing?" Mickey asked as the droid began to move again, in jerky, awkward movements.

"Switching back on. Melting the ice." The Doctor said grimly. 

"And then what?" Mickey asked, his voice a little shaky.

"Then it kills everyone in the room. Focuses the mind, doesn't it? Who are you? Identify yourself. Order it to answer me." He told Reinette when the droid wasn't responding. 

"Why should it listen to me?" she asked. 

"I don't know. It did when you were a child. Let's see if you've still got it." Reinette turned to the droid and spoke clearly and defiantly.

"Answer his question. Answer any and all questions put to you." 

"I am repair droid seven." It said like a robot. Well, of course like a robot.

"What happened to the ship then? There was a lot of damage." The Doctor stared at the robot. It replied soon after.

"Ice storm. 82% systems failure." 

"The ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?" 

As I watched the Doctor interrogate the droid, I thought of something. Will I ever stop travelling with the Doctor? And if so, will I ever be able to handle it? The thought of being away from him brought tears to my eyes, and I quickly discarded the thought. Not now, I thought to myself. 

"We did not have the parts." 

"Always comes down to that doesn't it? The parts." Mickey joked. 

The Doctor ignored that. "What happened to the crew? Where are they?" 

"We did not have the parts." The droid repeated.

"There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?" 

The droid repeated "We did not have the parts."  

"Fifty people don't just disappear. Where?" The Doctor's eyes widened and he took a step back, running a hand through his wild brown hair. "Oh." He said. "You didn't have the parts so you used the crew." 

"The crew?" Mickey said in horror.

"We found a camera with an eye in it, and a heart wired in to machinery." I added.

The Doctor sighed. "It was just doing what is was programmed to do. Fixing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew weren't on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelt of?"

"Someone cooking." I said slowly.

"Flesh plus heat. BBQ." The Doctor looked over at the droid. "But what are you doing here? You've opened up time windows, that takes colossal energy. Why come here? You could have gone to your yard, instead you come to eighteenth century France. Why?" 

"One more part is required." It said. 

"Then why haven't you taken it?" he asked it, heading closer. 

"She is incomplete."