I know I’ve brought up this episode on multiple occasions, and it remains one of my absolute favorite Eleventh Doctor stories. It’s just such a beautiful story about connection and friendship, about anguish and loneliness, about genius and legacy, and about the way one man saw the world.
On a trip to the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the Eleventh Doctor notices something in a Vincent van Gogh painting that shouldn’t be there: an alien face. He and Amy hop back in time to meet the legendary painter to find a strange, solitary man despised and mocked in his day. Our heroes ingratiate themselves with Vincent to unravel the mystery they found in his painting, but along the way, they also try to bring a spark of joy to his troubled life.
(Before we get too far into things, I do feel obligated to mention that the episode deals directly with van Gogh’s mental-health issues, and from what I can gather online, the actor Tony Curran is neurotypical. So, while both the writing and the performance here display plenty of sensitivity, it’s still worth noting as yet another in a long line of actors without disabilities playing disabled characters.)
It was probably about five years after seeing this episode that I got a chance to visit MoMA and see the actual Starry Night, and it really does something to you. One of the things that “Vincent and the Doctor” does so well is capture the feeling of van Gogh’s work. It’s everywhere in the episode – the beautifully-rendered sets and costumes that bring the subjects of his paintings to life, Vincent’s manic-but-heartfelt monologues about his painting, and the climactic ode from the museum tour guide played by Bill Nighy. I like the idea of team TARDIS chasing a mystery across time after discovering a clue in a painting anyway, and all kinds of elements in this story come together to take full advantage of that premise.
Another thing I really love is that, at its core, this is a story about kindness. Often, the celebrity historicals feature, well, celebrities, and the Doctor and their companions join us in fawning over them, even if they’re not yet as famous as they’re going to be someday (William Shakespeare) or if they’re at a low moment in their career or life (Agatha Christie.) But with Vincent, he’s famous only to the Doctor and Amy when they meet him. While he’s notorious around town, it’s purely as a madman who paints rubbish, and he’s carrying on a lonely life thinking that no one could love his paintings but him. The Doctor and Amy needs his help to find their alien of the week, but they also take the time while they’re there to form a connection with Vincent and offer him some hope and friendship. As a bonus, this theme dovetails nicely into some things that are going on with the Doctor and Amy at the time.
Our heroes are all kinds of delightful here. Amy is just effortlessly kind and considerate with Vincent, connecting with him on a deep level and going the extra mile to brighten up his life. Meanwhile, the Doctor careens between his ADHD-puppy-ish silliness and his old-eyes wisdom/empathy. He also drops quirky one-liners like they’re going out of style and demonstrates an incredibly-low tolerance for things happening in real time, in the right order.
Additionally, much is owed to Tony Curran’s performance as Vincent. I’ve since gotten to know Curran’s work in a variety of genre projects, most notably his role as Datak on Defiance, but this was the first time I saw him, and obviously, he left a big impression. He’s so good here that when he pops up again a few episodes later, used to set up something related to the season-arc mystery, the scene almost feels like it’s intruding on something that was already perfect as is.
No comments:
Post a Comment