In tonight’s episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor goes back in time to investigate an odd appearance in a painting he sees in a Van Gogh exhibit. Tracking down the depressive artist, the Doctor and Amy quickly find that the Van Gogh they meet is nowhere near the brilliant man they had assumed he was as he’s hailed in the future. Not only that, but something is following him – something that spells danger for the Doctor, Amy, and Van Gogh.
Before watching this episode, it should be noted that my opinion could have really gone either way. On the one hand, an episode with Van Gogh could be really fun and, if done well, incredibly moving and entertaining given the circumstances of what happened to Van Gogh at the end of his life, kind of like The Shakespeare Code. On the other hand, it could be incredibly hokey and pretty stupid, especially given the circumstances of what happened to Van Gogh at the end of his life, kind of like the Unicorn and the Wasp. So the question for you, dear reader, is which way did I end up swaying? Is the latest episode of Doctor Who one of the episodes that I shun and write off, or is this one of the episodes of this season that you just have to watch?
Find out after the cut. As always, spoilers are discussed.
This episode of Doctor Who is one of the episodes you just have to watch.
As the story began, there was an obvious chemistry between the Doctor and Vincent, i.e Matt Smith and Tony Curran. Not only did Tony Curran portray a perfectly lovable version of Vincent Van Gogh, at times it felt like he really was the character. I’m talking about this in the same way that we often few actors as the characters they portray. Curran was just so likable as Van Gogh that we as the audience grew attached to him very quickly, and not just because we know who the artist was. Curran filled the role so well it felt like he had been a character on the show for years, someone who had returned as fan service or something similar. The scene I used as the top image of this article is both poignant and beautiful, and reflects both on our grown love of the character as well as any generic art appreciator’s love of such a classic painting.
Of course, the episode couldn’t have operated on just the buddy dynamic between Curran and Smith alone, even with someone as endearing as Karen Gillan with them. The episode also needed a foe to keep the balance of good and evil in the show, and these weeks “terror chicken” (as I called it) was perfect. I’ve said it once before, I’ll say it a trillion times after this – Doctor Who is fantastic at creating villains and enemies that shouldn’t be as scary as they actually are. Such is the case with this beast, who was great because we couldn’t see him. In almost reverse vampiric sense, the only time we could see this monster was through the reflection of a mirror. This introduced a brand new set of dynamic tension to the battle, as while fighting the actors are literally running around an empty room and swinging at air. This could easily be a very stupid sequence of events, yet because it’s Doctor Who and because they always do such a great job with the more odd of villains, the fights are just as terrifying as they should be.
Of course, there’s one more element of the episode that I should probably comment on, and that is the ending. See, this is something that I feel a lot of people will end up being rather opinionated on. The ending of this episode was very different than other Doctor Who endings in that it was entirely cheesy. As the Doctor and Amy bring Van Gogh into the future to see what impact he has, we are treated with lots of tears, lots of hugging, and a very odd soundtrack that is very unlike the show. In fact, it’s closer to that of your average teen show, or at least something from more network programs (such as Chuck). The difference between this show and those is that Doctor Who has been running for at least 70 years and it’s never done something like this. That being said? It’s still a nice scene. While I could have probably done without the soundtrack choice, as a nice set of the show’s normal strings would have been lovely, I do have to mention that the current incarnation of the show does seem to want to grab at younger audiences, and through that the actions are appropriate. It’s not so overdone that it CAN’T be enjoyed, so ultimately it still works.
Continued belowThe most interesting part to me is the triumph of Richard Curtis here. Why? Well, the only thing he’s ever written for Doctor Who before was “The Curse Of Fatal Death”, an episode created for Comic Relief starring Rowan Atkinson, aka Mr Bean. Not only that, but Curtis’ main writing credit is Black Adder, another program from the BBC that also starred Rowan Atkinson. Yet, “Vincent and the Doctor” is not a slapstick episode at all. Far from it, in fact. As I’ve mentioned above, there are actually quite a lot of moving elements to this episode, as it’s a very poignant and brilliantly written episode. I think my favorite part about it, though, is that it flows so well without actually restricting itself to the on-going tale. Yes, there are mentions of what happened in the last episode with Rory, but for the most part it’s stand alone. There are no cracks in the wall, there is just the episode as it stands, and all the focus is put in making sure it’s a good stand alone episode, much like how things were during Davies’ run as top man of the show.
All in all, I chalk this up as one of the better episodes of this season so far. This was probably the most return to form of a Doctor Who episode, at least in the Davies sense, that we’d seen so far. I liked that it wasn’t bogged down by the continuation of other stories and that it didn’t feel the need to “fit in.” It was just a good notch on the Doctor’s time traveling belt, filled with great performances all around. Definitely one of the more recommended episodes of this season. On top of that, next week’s teaser looks pretty phenomenal, and it was written by Gareth Roberts who wrote the aforementioned Shakespeare and Agatha Christie episodes previously mentioned.
Either way, it looks like my previous woes towards the “non-Moffat episodes” are in the can, as we’ve now had 3 great episodes not written by him. Let’s hope that the show keep’s it up!
