The Girl in the Fireplace was my most favorite episode prior to the airing of Heaven Sent. It had a heart-wrenching feeling that combined the laughs of Doctor Who (Rose and Micky on board the ship, with a horse), a bad-guy mystery to be solve by the white knight, and the true feeling of love and loss that accompanies time travel.
It's why I had a good cry when River commented that there will be a day worse than the death of the Doctor for her, and then that briefest of moments when she later stated, "...and a last." The moment flew by quickly for the show, since it had to get on with the plot, but I had to pause the show for it's proper due respect. That was quite an important moment for the character of River. THAT was a death scene that was glossed over, because the audience had to sympathize with the Doctor instead of with River, who happened to be in that elated state after saving the day and finding out the answer to a gigantic riddle. Of course the focus couldn't dwell on River. It never has. The Husbands of River Song make that point very clear, that our focus has followed the focus of the Doctor, with only rare and sublime glimpsed moments into the mind of River. Her monologue breakdown in that episode rightly chastising him hits where it counts, at least for a moment, which again is all we ever really get from River. The moment blows by as she's snapped back to the here and now and back out of her head where things really suck if she dwells too long on them.
But that's when you stop for a moment to focus on the women that have endured and the strength that they have to feel these emotions but to go on with their lives after those moments have passed. They have to snap out of it or else they themselves would drown in emotion. Some people do allow their lot in life to determine their life, and they never snap out of it. You can't say the Doctor wasn't at all affected by the knowledge of his loves lost. We, as the audience, though, had to feel it with him and not with her.
That's where The Time Traveler's Wife takes all of those moments and flips them on their head. There is much more focus on her and what she goes through. There's still not quite as much focus as I'd like to see, and perhaps I'll see more of that focus if I read the book, but as the name implies, we're meant to feel along with her more so than him, even though the movie perspective is his.
The Girl in the Fireplace has a special place in my heart, along with all of those string-tugging moments of River's. And
now I know why those moments were so strong for me.
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