 Writing for IGN , Ahsan Haque praised Tennant and Myles ' acting , the episode 's pacing and the " extremely touching " story . He wrote that " with a little more attention to temporal details , this episode would have been considered as one of the series ' greatest moments " . In particular , Haque wrote that the episode would have worked better had the writers explained more precisely why the Doctor could not use the TARDIS to visit Madame Pompadour before she died . Metro said the clockwork androids were one of the " most memorable villains " while The Guardian 's Daniel Martin said , " The Girl in the Fireplace " is " one of the most acclaimed episodes from the Davies era " . 
