"It's a thing; it's like a plan, but with more greatness."

[locker_monster]

This episode made me wish I knew more about Vincent van Gogh. Look at Doctor Who, making me want to learn stuff. :-)

Another okay episode. I wasn't blown away by it. It certainly wasn't a fast paced story; maybe that's why it seemed a little dull. But not every episode has to be running around on spaceships chasing aliens. Without the invisible alien, it was a sort of intimate story about loss and loneliness, big themes that are part of New Who. I'm glad they showed that the Doctor is feeling guilty about Rory's death. It would have been very amiss if they hadn't addressed it. It's kind of cute and sad at the same time that the Doctor is being so nice to Amy only Amy doesn't know why. A part of her seems to remember Rory and that's interesting, too. She's shedding tears for a guy she never knew.

Did anyone else think the plot with the alien was kind of boring? They chased it around in the middle and then that was it really. I find it funny that the Doctor's device thought the alien looked like a cross between a parrot and a polar bear. Maybe it was because the alien was invisible most of the time that its presence seemed kind of pointless. The Doctor got batted around a lot in this episode, though. That must have been fun for Matt Smith. I think they could have taken out the alien and it still would have been a fun romp through 1890 with Vincent van Gogh. No, wait, I think I know what my issue is. Whenever they did historical stories with famous artist type people, the alien involved was always related to what the person did somehow. Dickens had ghosts, Shakespeare had witches, Agatha Christie had a murder mystery. Vincent van Gogh has what? I suppose his perception of the world and how that led to these great paintings sort of ties in with him being able to see the invisible parrot bear, but it's not the greatest parallel.

And the end sort of dragged on, but it was different. Is this the first time an episode has ended with a song playing over a scene? I've always found that to be very North American television so it was kind of jarring to suddenly have this song playing. I never would have expected the Doctor to take Vincent into the future. You think that would be against the rules, but at least Vincent got to see and hear what an impact he will make. And you get random Bill Nighy in a bow tie. I don't know. I think if I knew more about Vincent van Gogh I would have enjoyed this episode more.

Random: they keep showing pictures of past incarnations and I like it. :-) More please. The scene with Vincent painting the church and the Doctor going on and on about other famous painters he'd met was so cute. And I love how impatient he got waiting around for Vincent to finish. "Is this how time normally goes. So slow and everything in the right order." Really highlights how the Doctor lives his life and he clearly likes time when it's all timey-wimey. I did enjoy how the Doctor and Amy kept geeking out about Vincent's paintings. For some reason, I kept expecting to see the TARDIS pop up in one of the paintings. Wouldn't that have been awesome. A van Gogh style TARDIS sitting in one of the fields or something? :-)

Looks like next week might be the double bank episode, though maybe Companion lite might be more accurate, but who knows. I'm also sad the first Adventure Game is only available for download in the UK right now. Come on, BBC. There are fans across the pond, too.

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

I liked the episode more than most, actually. The monster of the week was a bit tacked on, yeah, but I do think they thought a bit about the historical character: 'Van Gogh's best known for being a bit of a madman, so let's give him a monster ONLY HE CAN SEE'. But they didn't play that up for very long before they revealed it wasn't madness, it was just vision.

And I was hoping that they'd have Van Gogh paint a special painting of the Doctor and Amy or the TARDIS as a going-away present, that they then keep in the TARDIS (since it wouldn't violate history, that way). I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to get somebody to do a Van Gogh STYLE painting (and he could even excuse it with "it's a little rushed, not my best work, but I want you to have it.")

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I would have loved to see the Doctor and Amy receive a personalized van Gogh painting at the end. And apparently van Gogh was known for completing paintings in no time flat, so he could have done one. Oh well, a missed opportunity.

[mornea.livejournal.com]

We're Van Gogh fans here (always pronounce it Van GO, though-- I've never heard it with a germanic sounding pronunciation until this episode.

When spoilers about a Van Gogh ep came out, we were listening to the CD "American Pie" which has the song "vincent" on it. The combination of these two things sent my 12 year old on a mission to find out about him. Van Gogh really struck a chord with him... he prays for him every night (no prompting from me, it just started to come out). We went to the Philly Museum of Art which has quite a bit of Van Gogh, including one of the more famous Sunflower paintings.

I thought most of the ep was quite good, and it seems they did a fairly good job with Van Gogh himself.

I found the Alien plot (or sub plot, almost) rather lame, and as with much of Moffat's who, it missed a few emotional notes or perhaps, misplaced them. After the piteous death of the creature, they're all happily looking at Stars? huh? I also found it odd that they never TOLD Van Gogh they were space and time travellers, unless I just missed that line. He seemed totally accepting of being in 2010. It's a little thing, but it stood out.

By the same token, I cried like a baby at the end. So some emotional notes it hit well, at least for me.

It's the internal inconsistancy of each story, usually emotionally or character-wise, that is causing me to rate the eps just a bit lower. This one was splended in many parts, but those few jarring or missing moments -- like something was edited out-- caused it to lose a few points.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I'm not big on museums, which maybe is why this episode really didn't strike a chord with me. I've never seen a van Gogh painting in person.

Good point about the Doctor not mentioning he and Amy are time travellers. Vincent just accepts it doesn't he? He barely raises an eyebrow when the TARDIS disappears at the end. The alien really didn't have an emotional element to it; maybe that's why it felt out of place. It doesn't really relate to van Gogh's depression or unique perception of the world. Aliens are always better when they have a motivation or they're used as a metaphor.

[mornea.livejournal.com]

I think the monster was a metaphor for Van Gogh's mental illness, both fearful and pitiable and out of control, lost, and frightened. And all the doctor could do was give the wounded beast a bit of comfort, but it still died. And the same with Vincent. That was very very sad. So the ep was far more about depression type illnesses, than about the doctor or the space chicken.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

Yeah, totally missed that. Shows how much I was paying attention. :-)