From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "Vincent and the Doctor"

From lizard people from the dawn of time to a Post-Impressionist painter who is arguably one of the greatest who have ever lived. It's time to get into one of my favorite episodes of Series 5 and indeed the entire Matt Smith era of the show - Vincent and the Doctor.

We begin in a wheat field in which Vincent Van Gogh is painting. We then see that painting - A Wheatfield with Crows - in a museum in 2010, where Bill Nighy is giving a tour. The man's voice is perfect for this and if he hadn't been an actor, he would have made one hell of a docent I can tell you that.

Amy, meanwhile, is noting that the Doctor's been unusually kind to her lately - taking her to so many interesting places like Arcadia (presumably not the one that fell during the Time War), the Trojan gardens, and now this museum. It turns out to be her teasing him, but the Doctor's rather dismissive responses make her a little suspicious. However, they get distracted when they look at the painting The Church at Auvers, which Van Gogh had painted in 1890. However, unlike the painting in the real world, there is an ever so slight addition to said painting in the center window - a creature of which only the head can be seen. The Doctor claims that he knows what evil looks like and he sees it in that window.

...given what we eventually learn about the creature, this is nonsense, but completely in character for the

We don't make mistakes here, only happy accidents...

Doctor in the Revived Series.

After interrogating Bill Nighy about the exact time that the painting was most likely painted (and admiring his bow tie because - as previously established - bow ties are cool), the Doctor pulls Amy away from further art touring: it's a matter of life and death! After the title sequence, the TARDIS materializes in an alleyway in 1890 France. They find that the people of the village have a very dim view of Vincent Van Gogh, who has a reputation as a mad drunk. While the Doctor attempts to buy the man a drink and get the conversation going, it seems to only work well when Amy does it because the power of boners is stronger.

...I'd make a joke here, but... yeah, that's basically what happens.

The Doctor tries to ignore Amy and Vincent flirting and tries to get the subject toward the church. While Vincent had expressed interest, he was waiting for the weather to get better before he paints it. The plot advances, a dead body found in an alley that was apparently attacked. The people of the village blame Vincent and throw objects at the three of them. Vincent relates that another death just occurred in the past week. The Doctor fast talks his way into getting lodgings with him for the night and - like in much of the episode - references to Van Gogh's many paintings are dropped as well as many of them seen in his workshop.

Tony Curran plays Vincent magnificently, telling the Doctor and Amy of his process. Capturing Vincent's status as an artist with a tortured mind so very, very well. As the Doctor suggests some chamomile tea to calm the nerves, Amy screams from outside having apparently been attacked by some sort of creature that is invisible to everyone... but Vincent, who attempts to fend it off with a rake.

We also get some prop comedy of the Doctor flailing about with another rake, because... we haven't done this before, recently, too. Vincent ruins one of his paintings to sketch out the head of the creature he saw - matching the creature that the Doctor and Amy saw in Ayers in the present. The Doctor heads back to the TARDIS to get a scanning device. After testing it on himself and getting a print out that shows his first and second incarnation, he attempts to use it on the painting... but the Impressionist style means that the device can't identify it. So, the Doctor steps out and finds that it's a Krafayis - a chicken-headed quadrupedal creature that looks laughable and not at all with the menace of either of the paintings of it. However, the Doctor does resolve to try to help get it home.

Returning to Vincent and getting him out of a deep snoring sleep and he gets a view of Karen Gillan surrounded by sunflowers.

...what? I have no joke here. She looks positively angelic.

...so, Heaven. He gets to see Heaven.

The Doctor drops some exposition for Amy, Vincent, and the audience: the Krafayis is a brutal race that travels in packs. One occasionally gets left behind, and they are rarely recognized by other races because they can't be seen... except for certain individuals, like Vincent. Vincent is (seemingly) all too happy to join up with the cause, the Doctor mentioning to Amy that they may have bitten off more than they can chew - this event may lead to changing history with the brutal murder of Vincent Van Gogh by that creature.

The Doctor finds Vincent in a manic depressive state, having taken a bit of what the Doctor said about them leaving wrong and believing that yet another person is going to abandon him. The Doctor talks with Amy, the two having a moment where the Doctor notes that these emotional episodes became more and more common the closer that Vincent came to taking his own life. Amy is holding out hope that, perhaps, they can change that. The Doctor resolves for them to go to the church and take care of the Krafayis themselves.

Vincent... in a very weirdly Raiders of the Lost Ark silhouette entrance... steps in, calmed and ready to work because the plot needs him.

On the way to the church, Vincent assures Amy that he isn't sad anymore despite his episodes occasionally lasting days or even months. If Amy Pond can soldier on, he says, so can he. When Amy insists that she isn't sad, Vincent asks why she's crying... and Amy wipes away tears she hadn't realized she was shedding. The Doctor gives some distraction via using his technobabble to get himself to be able to see the creature and they are passed by the pallbearers for the latest victim of the creature... with a bouquet of sunflowers set atop the casket, which Vincent takes notice of.

Vincent gets to work on the painting, the Doctor annoying the man with babbling and not being able to deal with how time passes by so slowly for normal people. It's actually rather funny when the 900+ year old Time Lord pouts like a baby.

When Vincent sees the creature in the window, the Doctor springs into action and tells Vincent and Amy to both say. Amy, specifically, he tells to not follow him under any circumstances. When asked by Vincent if she's going to follow him, her response is a clear "Of course!". He responds by telling her that he loves her. Before we can see the awkward that follows, we cut to the Doctor using the scanning device from earlier and the sonic screwdriver to try and locate the creature. The Krafayis takes exception to this and wrecks the Doctor's gadget. The Doctor and Amy duck into a confessional booth as the Krafayis stalks about outside the booth and starts tearing it apart.

Vincent, much like one George Sands, comes to the rescue by fending the creature off with a piece of his chair. After getting thrown around a bit, they duck into another room and slam the door shut, barricading themselves against it. As Vincent runs off to enact a plan, the Doctor attempts to talk with the creature... which does not go remotely well at all, as you might expect by now with the Eleventh Doctor. It attacks him and Amy, the Doctor managing to work out that the creature hasn't been eating its victims and has been thrashing around... because it's blind.

Vincent attacks it with his easel, unfortunately impaling it on the spiky bits at the end and killing it. He only meant to wound it, to scare it off. The painter likens it to the ridicule that he has suffered, being lashed out at by people who were scared or didn't understand him. The three mourn the loss of the creature, the one who had died afraid.

The Doctor, Amy, and Vincent lie out in a field and Vincent tries to show the two time travelers how he sees the world giving us a special effects shot that ends up turning the sky into Starry Night. The Doctor notes that he's seen many things, but nothing quite as wonderful as the things that Vincent sees.

"This is the last time I buy a product from Mr. Sardo!"

The next day, Vincent tries to give the Doctor his self-portrait, which the Doctor politely declines. Vincent continues to lay on thick his thirst for Amy (I can relate), and tells the Doctor that he fears that he will not win against the monsters on his own like he has with the Doctor. As they prepare to leave, the Doctor gets an idea... and he and Amy bring Vincent to the TARDIS  for a little trip. Naturally, we get a variation of the "bigger on the inside" joke we all know and love.

A trip brings them back to the museum from the beginning, landing in 2010.

A not particularly great pop song plays over the moment as they bring Vincent to the exhibit of his work. Bill Nighy comes right back in to soothingly class up the episode's ending, asked by the Doctor to sum up Van Gogh in 100 words: Nighy speaks of the man as the greatest artist who ever lived, using his pain to portray the magnificence and ecstasy of life. Without a doubt, one of the greatest creative minds who had ever lived. In a bit of manic joy, Vincent hugs Nighy before he, the Doctor, and Amy leave... leaving the man looking rather confused as to what had just happened.

The TARDIS returns to Vincent's home, and it seems that Vincent has a new lease on life. He thanks the Doctor for being the first doctor who ever, really helped him. Amy affirms that she rejects Vincent's marriage proposal - saying that he's not the marrying kind.

Once more, the Doctor and Amy return to the museum. Amy is confident that they changed Vincent's life. Time, after all, can be rewritten as she knows only too well. While she thinks that there will be hundreds of new paintings, the Doctor doesn't think so... and he's proven right as they return to the gallery and nothing has changed. The Doctor consoles a heartbroken Amy with a great little monologue:

“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 always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.”

They did make a difference, he notes, if only just a few little ones. The Krayifis is no longer in The Church of Auvers and Amy notices the painting Vase with Twelve Sunflowers has a small addition to it the words "For Amy" written along the vase. Amy notes that, if she had accepted Vincent's proposal, that they would have had children with really red hair - the ultimate ginger... brighter than sunflowers...

"Save me from Oculus, Doctor!"
"Can't. It's a fixed point. I'm sorry, Pond."

And thus, we come to the end of Vincent and the Doctor. When the only things I can complain about in an episode are a frankly hilarious special effect for a monster with the head of a chicken and a crappy pop song ruining an otherwise beautiful moment at the end, it's not a bad episode and this one definitely is not a bad episode.

Tony Curran does a great guest spot as Vincent Van Gogh. Again, he plays the manic, tortured artist so very well with no sense of parody or camp. We see him from the highest of heights to the lowest of lows and he plays it all spectacularly.

Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are on top form in this one. Karen in particular plays Amy with that hopeful optimism and exuberance... which makes it all the more absolutely heartbreaking when they return to the present to find that nothing about the Van Gogh exhibit has changed save for the single small subtraction and addition to the two respective paintings. The Doctor's guilt over what happened with Rory is on full display with Matt Smith sprinkling it into scenes with Amy in both very obvious and very subtle ways, such as when he accidentally calls Vincent "Rory" in a bit of panic.

The monster being invisible to anyone but Vincent, if intentionally done, makes for an excellent metaphor for Vincent's depression and for depression in general. While others can help, no one can really fully comprehend someone else's depression, just as the Doctor cannot see the creature while Vincent can. Again, if it was intentional, it works very well.

That's all there is to say, in all honesty. It's a very good episode and a good one and done story well told.

Next time... we're getting a companion-lite episode. The Doctor finds himself without Amy, without his TARDIS, and without a clue of handling the next major threat to his being... James Cordon.

Oh, and there's something to do with a not-TARDIS in the attic of James Cordon's flat. It's a whole thing.

Next time, the Doctor becomes... The Lodger!

Be there!