REVIEW: Doctor Who – Vincent and the Doctor

This is one of those episodes that seems fun on the surface, but I actually dread because it has the potential to be terrible. I just don’t care for the visits to see historical figures so much. How was this one?

Read on to hear more, spoilers included.

The episode began with Amy and The Doctor in Paris’ Musée d’Orsay admiring the work of Vincent Van Gogh when they discover an evil creature that doesn’t belong in one of the paintings. Then it’s off to June of 1890 to investigate. Tony Curran’s tortured Van Gogh made for an interesting character, and was better played than many of the other historical figures The Doctor has visited since the show returned in 2005.

The episode had a distinctly different look and feel from others this season. I’m not sure if this is attributable to director Johnny Campbell, but it really stands out with the perspectives that are used, particularly in the museum. There are also some fight scenes that are really intriguing in light of a major revelation about the creature they’re chasing and the fact that it happens to be invisible.

It’s a fairly self contained episode, but there are a few references included to fit the it within the larger story. There were points that I thought the episode was going to tell us more about the overarching storyline of this season, particularly when The Doctor broke out his device to identify the creature haunting Van Gogh. After the report it gave on The Doctor and the Krafayis, it might have been interesting to see what it had to say about Amy. Instead, we see through the eyes of Van Gogh that Amy is still suffering greatly from the loss of last episode even if she’s not aware of it. Overall, the story was very effective in focusing on the characters, but only about average for the season. I enjoyed it more than I was expecting, but it just wasn’t something that suits my tastes for the show.

More on Doctor Who 2010:
Cold Blood / The Lodger