Review: Vincent And The Doctor

Let me just wipe a tear from my eye... There I go.

I've just re-watched Vincent and the Doctor and it still affected me as profoundly this time around.  In my opinion it's the greatest episode of this series so far, and overall from the reboot, it's up there with, among others, The Waters of Mars and Blink.  This is because it took the time to develop the character of Vincent van Gogh, so in the end when we see what happens to him, we really do care.





We are told in the museum at the start, by Bill Nighy's Dr. Black, that van Gogh's greatest year of output was the year before his death, which he did "with no hope of praise and reward."  The Doctor and Amy are happily perusing his art when the Doctor notices something:  In one of the paintings, of a church, there lurks a monster.  Thanks to the almost precise dating of Dr. Black, the two set of to find out what happened.

We also discover that the Doctor is being particularly nice to Amy of late, taking her to "Arcadia and the Trojan Gardens".  She doesn't know why he's being like this, but we do, unfortunately.  Clearly Rory's death and subsequent fall into the crack is playing heavily on him.  He also refers to Vincent as Rory at one point.  Obviously, however the crack works, it doesn't erase things for the Doctor.

One thing I have been thinking about the crack is this:  You get touched by the light, it erases you from history.  Unless of course, you're the Doctor in a particularly retarded episode (I'm talking about you, Chris Chibnall, and your fucking stupid double header).  Rory, gone.  The soldiers in Flesh and Stone, gone.

Prisoner Zero, however, came through it.  His prison was on the other side.  And he wasn't erased from memory on the other side either.  I hope this is something that will be explained, to be honest, and I don't know how I never noticed it before.  Has his prison got something to do with the Pandorica?  Is it the Pandorica?  Maybe it's opening is a sort of universal Bastille day.  Who knows.

And re: the TARDIS exploding, the riduculous getting of the shrapnel - the TARDIS has already exploded this series, in Amy's Choice.  Maybe that's had an effect on reality? Maybe it will come into play later?  And so on.

As we get closer to the finale I'm more and more worried about looking like a retard with my theories :)

I'm also interested to know what will happen if other people are put in front of the recognition device.  It showed the Doctor's first two incarnations and I presume the rest, even though we're not shown it.  Ooh, sudden thought.  Could this be how River gets pictures of all his faces??  I wonder what the machine would show if she stood in front of it... I'm betting it reappears anyway!  I liked how the Doctor used it to go hunting the beast - it reminded me of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and how a mirror was needed to check around corners.

I have to thank @NUTS4R2 for my next two paragraphs.  Without his review (which you can find here) I would never have pondered these great matters!

What if Dr. Black was the Doctor in the future? (Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, fuck you).  He gave precise dates to aid Vincent.  He wears a bow tie.  He has the same (but less hair) hairstyle.  He also describes van Gogh as the greatest artist who ever lived.  And at the end, when he says goodbye to the Doctor and Amy and Vincent, he turned back, looked at them, looked as if he wanted to say something, then just said no and left.  Yes, he could just be a normal person who just had a "What the fuck, was that Vincent van Gogh I just hugged" moment.  OR!!!!  He could have been about to call the Doctor back and explain who he was.  Or something.

And...  What made Vincent change his mind so rapidly about going to the church with the Doctor?  One minute he's in bed, crying, shouting at the Doctor to leave him and asking him why he's even here.  Next, he's up dressed, determined to get the job done.  Yes, he's manic-depressive and it could just be down to mood swings.  However, a timely visit from the Doctor travelling backwards, explaining everything to him (including it would seem, Rory's story), would also account for the change of heart.  It fits in with other theorised back visits.

Oh, and Vincent had a Scottish accent.  Eh, so what?  It was explained at the beginning that he thought Scottish Amy was Dutch like him.  Accent explained.  Get over it.  Jeez.

Anyway to sum up.  What a brilliant episode.  I loved everything, from the blind space turkey (another alone species, come to think of it) to Athlete being played at the end.  It, in my opinion, perfectly struck the balance between sentimental and tragic, and handled the depression theme with elegance.  Thank you, Richard Curtis.  It was a joy to behold and has set a very high standard for the series, which I hope continues.

Though it has to be said, next week's with James Corden looks shit.