“Yep, that’s me. Yes, I do, yep, and this.” I’m actually off this week from talking about Doctor Who, and I’m doing this from back in the past, the distant past of last year. Is the Pandemic over yet? Don’t worry, it is all a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey… stuff. I’m actually writing this many many weeks ago while I was still reviewing series 3, specifically series 3, episode 2. In that article I said that this episode was much better because it was about a character. Instead of the usual historical character episodes, see “Victory of the Daleks,” which I’ve yet to watch, “The Fires of Pompeii,” which I’ve yet to see, and “The Impossible Astronaut,” which you’ve yet to see, and so on.

Yes, there is a monster, and it is very interesting. However, it is not the point of the episode. From the glimpses of reviews I didn’t want to see, they suggested it was boring. Yes, of course, it’s boring, it is not the point. It is a side plot to showcase something about the historical character. Given the title and the obvious featured image I’d use, you know it is Vincent Price’s very pricey preciseness. No, of course not ya’ fool! It is about Vincent Van Gogh, a deeply troubled man who suffered greatly with what one could only assume as depression as the mental health system of 1890 was… about the same as the NHS mental health system, really.

I’ll give you the warning now, talking about this episode and its themes, I’m going to be talking about something that might be a bit dark and upsetting. Given you’ve seen the last episode and I spoke about it, though I’ve not seen it yet, we’re already in dark territory. I don’t know what I’ve said about the torture I’d commit to Chris Chibnall for boring me to death and killing our lovely Rory, even if that would be a Moffat idea. I probably made it quite dark. That along with and the lizard-people genocide and fear of race humans have made things pretty dark indeed.

Nonetheless, in the last episode, Rory died and will never come back. Ahh well, it is not as if Amy killed her-pregnant-self in a dream to wake up a couple of episodes ago, hoping he’d be alive because she had never told him she loves him. That’d be too dark and sad.

Anyway! The man that was a commercial failure as an artist, shot himself. No, I’m not talking about Hitler again, not yet anyway. Van Gogh is considered one of the greatest artists of all-time, so you’d think he is a perfect showcase of art for this show. Nope, in the comics when the 6th Doctor had a penguin butler (Frobisher) and Peri in the T.A.R.D.I.S., there is a painting of him by Van Gogh, but that’s really it. He’s a hard man to cover without also talking about his very grim and untimely death.

“Vincent and the Doctor” beautifully captures his very dark and real depressing world while the brief moments of his life with The Doctor and Amy give him light. As I’ve said, it is an episode about Vincent and nothing else. He might see the monster, but we also see his depression in equal measure.

It begins with Bill Nighy playing Dr. Black telling a tour group in the Musée d’Orsay about some of Van Gogh paintings; The museum itself houses Starry Night Over The Rhone Aries, The Birth of Venus, Dante and Virgil, and L’Origine du monde. It is there that The Doctor finds something in a painting that shouldn’t be there. Therefore he asks Dr. Black when The Church At Auvers was painted. What follows is a fairly typical Doctor and historical character relationship. He adores them, but they don’t know exactly why yet.

That, alongside the monster that is used a parallel, is the most typical or conventional portion of the episode. I get it, the Krafayis isn’t scary or horrifying, and it doesn’t have you on the edge of your seat, but that’s the point. I’m skipping ahead, but we find out it is blind and scared. It doesn’t know where it is and when it hears something, anything, it fears it and tries to kill whatever made that sound. The entire Krafayis race is horrible, they will leave one of their own and never come back because the point is much like a shark, to just keep going forward.

Nonetheless, the tormented artist self-deprecating on every achievement and picking apart every bit of himself because everyone else does it to him is different for a historical character. Then again, Doctor Who does often keep things light. The “problematic” bits of history of Churchill, Dickensiant views of Dickens, and every depiction of politicians and royals are all toned down a bit. What Richard Curtis, writer of Not the Nine O’Clock News, Blackadder, Spitting Image, Mr, Bean, and Love Actually, does is bring an almost unfettered depiction of a broken man alongside a horror that is seemingly tormenting him alone.

Vincent is a beautiful example of a character that is full of depth. Meanwhile, the monster (the Krafayis) for once takes the back seat to focus on Vincent. The subtext and glimpses of understanding we see of it, is a simple side piece to bring the Doctor to a broken man. He is tormented not only by his thoughts but also the sci-fi monster with its own troubles. Pick apart that it is not the most detailed monster all day long, it is still a strong side plot with a deeply interesting creature we see only enough to keep the suspense without over-saturating it.

“Vincent and The Doctor” is a magical story that always brings tears for all the right reasons. We all know the history of Van Gogh over a century later, and we all know the deeply horrific absence of proper mental health and understanding by his peers. Even so, you are pulled into his world through the episode. It is that end, the beautiful moment of Amy and The Doctor taking him to Musée d’Orsay in 2010. It is that moment when Dr. Black talks about Van Gogh with such passion and love, and Tony Curran’s beautiful reaction as Van Gogh. As I write this, as I watch, and as I re-read playing the scene in my head, it is heart-breaking; Curran’s vulnerable Van Gogh is perfect.

I have a few episodes I tell everyone to watch, even those that don’t watch or like Doctor Who (the heretics!). This is one of them. Others are “Smith and Jones,” “Rosa,” “Blink,” “Human Nature” & “Family of Blood,” “Voyage of the Damned,” “Dalek,” “The Empty Child” & “The Doctor Dances,” and why not “Rose” too. That is some excellent company to be in, though did I mention, it was written by Richard Curtis who wrote one of the best movies of all time, Love Actually. I could sit here for days repeating myself, babbling on about Vincent’s depiction and that heart-warming, tear-jerking ending, but it is best to say, “go watch it!”

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Doctor Who "Vincent And The Doctor"

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• The portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh is beautifully vulnerable.
• Pitch perfect tone at the end.
• Smith and Gillan's fantastic acting shining through.
• "The ultimate Ginge."

Cons

• Could have used a few moments for breath.