Doctor Who 5x10: Vincent and the Doctor
Jun. 14th, 2010 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenI just made the mistake of listening to Don McLean's "Starry, Starry Night" after watching this, and I was in tears. Emotional overload, man.
Very good episode. Better than the Charles Dickens one (The Unquiet Dead), and better than the Shakespeare one (The Shakespeare Code). But I'm not sure if I can pin down why.
The actor playing Vincent felt just right; hitting the high and low notes of a manic-depressive, and more.
The idea that there was an invisible monster that only Vincent could see, that was a very Doctor Who thing to do. It also tied in with the idea which had already been raised in "The Shakespeare Code", that the best creative minds are more perceptive - in "The Shakespeare Code" it was Shakespeare not being tricked by the Doctor's psychic paper, but seeing it for what it was, a blank piece of paper.
Even better, that bit where Vincent notices that Amy is sad, but Amy doesn't know why she's sad. Either she's sad because she knows Vincent is going to die, or she's sad about Rory even though she doesn't remember him. Or possibly both.
Ah, when the creature died, and the Doctor is patting its invisible head, poor thing. That it was blind and frightened. Mind you, that still really doesn't make it any less vicious when it comes down to it. But I'm glad that the Doctor tried talking to it before the end. The way he castigates himself for not realizing that there must have been a reason for the creature to have been left behind.
I'm impressed by how the whole thing where the Doctor takes Vincent to 2010 worked; it could have been so saccharine and twee, but it managed not to be. The Art Historian guy, just so serious and genuine; and Vincent being moved to tears. I was certain beforehand that they hadn't changed history; IMHO, I think they did make things better for Vincent, since that six months was apparently the most productive of his life. But I still want to cry when I think of that bit where the Doctor is hugging Amy and saying "the bad bits don't make the good bits any less, and we gave him good bits" (or whatever the exact words were).
Some light notes in this too: the bit about the bow ties; the Doctor wildly waving a stick in the wrong direction trying to fight an invisible monster; the Doctor being bored out of his mind, waiting ("Is this how time passes normally? So slowly, and all in the right order?"); the bit where the Art Historian guy does a double-take and then shakes his head, you can tell he's thinking "No, of course I wasn't just hugged by Vincent Van Gogh".
Then the lovely, lovely scene near the end, where they're all lying on the ground looking up at the starry, starry night...
Maybe the episode worked simply because it didn't hit a wrong note anywhere. Or, if it did, I didn't notice.
Very good episode. Better than the Charles Dickens one (The Unquiet Dead), and better than the Shakespeare one (The Shakespeare Code). But I'm not sure if I can pin down why.
The actor playing Vincent felt just right; hitting the high and low notes of a manic-depressive, and more.
The idea that there was an invisible monster that only Vincent could see, that was a very Doctor Who thing to do. It also tied in with the idea which had already been raised in "The Shakespeare Code", that the best creative minds are more perceptive - in "The Shakespeare Code" it was Shakespeare not being tricked by the Doctor's psychic paper, but seeing it for what it was, a blank piece of paper.
Even better, that bit where Vincent notices that Amy is sad, but Amy doesn't know why she's sad. Either she's sad because she knows Vincent is going to die, or she's sad about Rory even though she doesn't remember him. Or possibly both.
Ah, when the creature died, and the Doctor is patting its invisible head, poor thing. That it was blind and frightened. Mind you, that still really doesn't make it any less vicious when it comes down to it. But I'm glad that the Doctor tried talking to it before the end. The way he castigates himself for not realizing that there must have been a reason for the creature to have been left behind.
I'm impressed by how the whole thing where the Doctor takes Vincent to 2010 worked; it could have been so saccharine and twee, but it managed not to be. The Art Historian guy, just so serious and genuine; and Vincent being moved to tears. I was certain beforehand that they hadn't changed history; IMHO, I think they did make things better for Vincent, since that six months was apparently the most productive of his life. But I still want to cry when I think of that bit where the Doctor is hugging Amy and saying "the bad bits don't make the good bits any less, and we gave him good bits" (or whatever the exact words were).
Some light notes in this too: the bit about the bow ties; the Doctor wildly waving a stick in the wrong direction trying to fight an invisible monster; the Doctor being bored out of his mind, waiting ("Is this how time passes normally? So slowly, and all in the right order?"); the bit where the Art Historian guy does a double-take and then shakes his head, you can tell he's thinking "No, of course I wasn't just hugged by Vincent Van Gogh".
Then the lovely, lovely scene near the end, where they're all lying on the ground looking up at the starry, starry night...
Maybe the episode worked simply because it didn't hit a wrong note anywhere. Or, if it did, I didn't notice.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-14 12:11 pm (UTC)And the end was amazingly poignant given how cheesy it could've been.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-14 09:37 am (UTC)Perhaps it was because there was a much greater depth to the characterisation. One felt that the writer really did care about Van Gogh, rather than just wanting a famous artist to put in the story. In the Dickens and Shakespeare stories there was no suggestion that the writer cared about them particularly; they were chosen simply because they were the most famous English novelist and playwright and so the viewers would recognise them. And of course Van Gogh's tragic end added a poignancy that the other stories lacked.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-14 10:59 am (UTC)Though the Dickens one had a big of poignancy, in that we were told that Dickens was going to die within the year. Not quite as poignant, though, since Dickens didn't commit suicide.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-14 09:01 pm (UTC)I assumed it was Amy's unconscious sadness about Rory that Vincent detected, but it could have been about him. I hadn't thought of that because Rory was still on my mind.
I'm going to have to watch this again for the sheer visual joy and for the great acting from Curran as Vincent.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-14 10:47 pm (UTC)It was one of the few Dr Who episodes where I felt sorry for the monster.
I loved the shake of head too!