Meggin Watches Doctor Who: Vincent and the Doctor

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This episode of Doctor Who is in the middle of series five, so if you haven't seen it, some parts of this blog may confuse you.

The year is 2010, and the Doctor has decided to take Amy to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, France, to look at some beautiful works of art to distract Amy from the fact that Rory (her fiancé) has died and been erased from time (as seen in the previous episode, Cold Blood). Upon entering the Vincent van Gogh exhibit, all is somewhat well, until the Doctor sees an alien face painted into the window of a church of one of van Gogh's paintings. Of course, this should never have happened, so the Doctor and Amy are off to go back in time to correct the situation.

            Time travelling in Paris, France! Two of my favourite things have just been combined into one epic episode of Doctor Who! I must say that this episode is the highlight of series five (except for the Pandorica, of course), simply because it deals with the amazing Impressionist artist, Vincent van Gogh. It’s crazy to see an amazing painter like him be so rejected by the people of his own village. And from what I’ve learnt about artists in school, not many of them were successful in their lifetime, including van Gogh.

            The plot in this story was also quite an interesting one: how there’s an invisible alien loose in the French village preying on humans, and no one can see it except Vincent, most likely because of his mental illness. But it also raised a question: if Vincent could see the monster because of his illness, then could others with the same illness see it as well? But I know how the writer decided to go about this episode, to make Vincent an extremely vital role in capturing the alien.

            The alien in this episode is known as the Krafayis, which, according to TARDIS Index File, is a creature capable of travelling through the universe in packs, going from one planet to the next to hunt. They have one of the best defence systems because they’re generally invisible (except to Vincent van Gogh), and so can’t be seen by their prey. This makes it difficult to kill the Krafayis, so they live for extremely long periods of time. The Krafayis in this episode happens to be alone, because his pack left him on Earth. Apparently, he is also blind, because of his perfect sense of hearing and van Gogh’s commentary on his whereabouts to assist Amy and the Doctor explains how the Krafayis feels around the walls of the church.

The Doctor intended to capture the Krafayis and return it to its home (where exactly is that, by the way?), but I had my doubts about that. How could he possibly get the Krafayis into the TARDIS (if that was the Doctor’s plan) and take him home without causing mayhem in the TARDIS? Of course, this tricky plot idea was dashed when Vincent lunges for the Krafayis and ends up killing him. How very convenient…

            One of my three favourite parts of this episode was when Vincent showed the Doctor and Amy how he saw the world through his own eyes, which I would have loved to witness myself. The three are all lying on the grass in the night, and Vincent asks them to take his hands so he can show them the world.

Vincent: ‘We're so lucky we're still alive to see this beautiful world. Look at the sky. It's not dark, and black, and without character. The black is in fact deep blue. And over there—lighter blue. And blowing through the blueness and the blackness, the wind, swirling through the air. And then shining, burning, bursting through, the stars—and you see how they roar their light. Everywhere we look, the complex magic of nature blazes before our eyes.’

Doctor: ‘I've seen many things, my friend. But you're right—nothing quite as wonderful as the things you see.'

 The sky above their heads transforms into the famous Starry Night painting by van Gogh himself, and it’s a beautiful sight.

            My second favourite part was when the Doctor decides to blow Vincent’s mind by taking him on a trip in the TARDIS to the present day. Upon opening the doors to the TARDIS, Vincent stares appallingly at how the inside is bigger than the outside (‘How come I’m the one who’s mad, and you two’ve stayed sane?’). The Doctor takes Vincent to the Musée d’Orsay right to the van Gogh exhibit. This is another reason why I love time travel: you can take famous people who feel bad about their work into the future to show them how truly admired they are. You can change their attitude to life and keep them moving forward with a spring in their step. Vincent even tells the Doctor after their trip to the Museum, ‘You may be the first doctor to have actually made a difference to my life!’

            And lastly, my absolute favourite part was when the Doctor and Amy return to the Museum after parting with Vincent, because of Amy’s curiosity to see if Vincent made even more paintings after his trip to the future. To Amy’s disappointment, there aren’t any new paintings, except a slight change to van Gogh’s last work of art: on one of his many paintings of sunflowers, Vincent added ‘for Amy’ on the side of the pot in the painting. My mind=blown.

Vincent did have a liking for Amy. Perhaps it was because she’s ginger…? I suddenly feel bad for Rory…

            Overall, this episode was enjoyable to sit through. It wasn’t too complicated, and it wasn’t a massive tear-jerker. The writer for this episode (Richard Curtis) has done a really brilliant job with recreating one of the greatest painters in history.

THOUGHTS:

Lots of memorable quotes this time!

·         The opening titles theme song never gets old.

·         ‘Your hair is…orange.’ ‘Yes, so is yours.’ Cheers for gingers!

·         Bill Nighy as the curator in the Musée d'Orsay! It’s great to see the guy who played Rufus Scrimgeour from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Alan Blunt in Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker in this episode!

·         Doctor: ‘Don’t worry; I’ll be back before you can say, “Where’s he got to now?”’

*Doctor leaves, jumps back in five seconds later*

‘NOT THAT FAST!’

*Amy screams*

‘But preeeetty fast. See you round.’ That’s my favourite bit.

·         Vincent: ‘That accent of yours. You’re from Holland like me?’

Doctor/Amy: ‘Yes/no.”

Doctor: ‘She means yes.’

·         Amy (to Vincent): ‘You don’t like sunflowers?’ How ironic.

·         Doctor: ‘Right. Amy, Rory—’

Amy: ‘Who?’

Just another reminder of Rory. I missed him in this episode.

·         ‘To me, van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly the most popular great painter of all time. The most beloved; his command of colour the most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world... no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world’s greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.’

·         ‘Is this how time normally passes? Reeeeally slowly. In the right order.’

·         Did anyone else go to iTunes and buy the song Chances by Athlete after seeing this episode? It was fit into the exhibit scene perfectly, and it’s now one of my favourite songs.

·         The Doctor (to Amy): ‘The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things… The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things, and make them unimportant.’

·         Amy: ‘If we had got married, our kids would have had very, very red hair.’ 
Doctor: ‘The ultimate ginger.’ 

·         Where’s the crack in this episode? You see one in every episode of series five except this one!