Doctor Who: 13 Cool Details Steven Moffat Just Revealed About The Girl In The Fireplace
11. The Establishing Shot Of Paris Was Added To Make The Story Clearer
Early in the episode, the Doctor meets young Reinette by having a chat with her through her fireplace. He then travels to her bedroom via a "magic door", where he looks out of a window and sees a beautiful snowy view of Paris.
That shot of the city doesn't really feel like an important moment in the grand scheme of things, but strangely, Davies (and executive producer Julie Gardner) thought that it was hugely important, and they stressed over it a great deal.
Here's what they were worried about: later in the episode, it's revealed that adult Reinette had the fireplace from her childhood bedroom (located in Paris) moved to Versailles. However, at a glance, the Versailles set and the Paris set look the same.
So - because the fact that the fireplace has moved is an extremely important plot detail - they added that shot of Paris to make the locations of the episode clearer to the audience.
As it turns out though, the episode would've been totally fine without this extra shot, which Davies himself even acknowledged in a separate tweet.