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Vincent and the Doctor

Writer: Richard Curtis | Director: Jonny Campbell

UK Broadcast Date: 5th June 2010

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Synopsis

The Doctor takes Amy to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris to visit a collection of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings. Amy is suspicious of the Doctor's motives because he's been acting far nicer of late. However, when the Doctor spots a monster in one of Van Gogh's paintings, he begins to panic and, along with Amy, travels to Provence in 1890 to prevent the untimely death of the great artist.

"Art can wait: this is life or death. We need to talk to Vincent Van Gogh."

Memorable Quotes

Dr Black: It was like Shakespeare knocking off Othello, Macbeth and King Lear over the summer hols.

Waitress: He's drunk, he's mad and he never pays his bills.

Vincent: I believe if you look hard there are more wonders in this universe than you could ever have dreamed of.

Doctor: Don't worry, I'll be back before you can say 'where's he got to now?'.

Review

Richard Curtis is perhaps most well known for writing BBC comedies such as The Vicar of Dibley and Blackadder, so I was expecting Vincent and the Doctor to be a largely upbeat episode to balance out the closing moments of last week's episode Cold Blood. Although this was the case for parts of the episode, there were some darker themes running throughout the storyline – to the extent that it warranted a BBC Action Line announcement during the end credits.

Vincent Van Gogh's suicide was first mentioned in the pre-title scene and the theme of Van Gogh's troubled mind ran throughout the episode. The scene in which Vincent curls up in his bed in a dark mood because of his loneliness is something that those that have suffered from moments of depression will recognise. However, Van Gogh's state of mind meant that he was the only person able to see the Krafayis without the aid of technology. Van Gogh's characterisation combined with the excellent way in which Tony Curran played him made for an incredibly powerful episode.

The Krafayis itself provides another of the episode's themes, but you have to wait until the end of the episode before you find out what that is.

I'm still not a fan of Amy Pond. Although she was more personable during the episode I'm puzzled as to why Amy was such a fan of Van Gogh's art given her indifference to most everything else. I felt that, if Amy has a genuine passion for art, it wasn't well introduced. Perhaps I'm being too cynical.

One welcome absence from the episode was the crack. It prevented another scene where the action stops suddenly and everyone looks at it. Series arcs will get increasingly tedious when each has to pose a greater threat to the universe than the last. After the destruction of all time and space they simply have nowhere to go.

To conclude, I was very pleased with Richard Curtis's episode. I felt that the episode did a very good job at presenting the troubled life of Vincent Van Gogh and the difficulty with living with mental illness.

Next week the Doctor enters the nightmare world of shared accommodation as he investigates the mystery of a sinister staircase.

Reviewer: Dan Ludlow