The Doctor’s Companion Ep. 26 – Starry Night
Monday, June 7th, 2010
The best episode yet or just sort of generic? Scott and Randy completely disagree on the tenth episode of series five, “Vincent and the Doctor”. An image in one of his paintings causes the Doctor and Amy to track down Vincent van Gogh in 1890 to get to the bottom of it. Is the famous artist really seeing invisible monsters, or is he just mad? Which of us absolutely loved this episode, while the other thought it was less than stellar? Why does Van Gogh have a Scottish accent? Find out, in the newest episode of The Doctor’s Companion! And remember, BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!
Next Week: The Lodger!!
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Tagged under: Amy Pond, Doctor Who, Karen Gillan, Matt Smith, Richard Curtis, Steven Moffat, Vincent van Gogh
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I kept expecting them to have the creature slice Vincent’s ear off every time they fought.
i’m with ya there , I also thought it was going to kill him .
Gotta agree with Randy on this one, it was ok, nothing special.
Haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but I just wanted to say that I think they found the perfect person to play van Gogh. Not only is Tony Curran a really good actor, but he looks so much like the van Gogh self portraits (especially the one in the episode) that it’s not even funny.
That said, I think Richard Curtis (the writer of the episode) likes van Gogh perhaps a little bit too much. As a standalone, this week wasn’t too bad, but I hate when shows with really short seasons bother to have standalone episodes. It feels like time wasted on something that should have been spent on the main story, no matter how good or bad the standalone is.
I’m somewhere between Randy and Scott on this episode. It is nowhere near being the best episode this series at all, but I didn’t find it boring either. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. However, I suspect that it will grow on me a bit more in the future when I don’t have the “I want to know more about the overall plot” thing going on.
This is my second favorite episode after “The Eleventh Hour”. It was beautifully directed and the final scene with Vincent made me fight some manly tears. For me is the best historic episode since the series was reborn on 2005.
Better than The Girl in the Fireplace? That’s a bit of a stretch, IMO. :P
While it has Madame de Pompadour, I’d hardly call The Girl in the Fireplace a “historic” episode. I think he was meaning more like the episodes The Unquiet Dead or The Shakespeare Code. To which I’d absolutely agree with him.
I’d say it’s a somewhat close second to The Girl in the Fireplace. I need the historical episode to get me interested in the characters. I like historical accuracy with the element of yeah that could of happened which “TGITF) gave me once I googled Madame de Pompadour. After this episode I will be googling the hell out of Van Gogh.
I would totally call it a historic episode. And I do. :P
I loved this episode. It was different but I loved it. I loved the visual details and direction. Adored that they designed the room to look just like his painting. I loved the joke of him finding sunflowers depressing. I loved how the actor (fabulous, look forward to seeing him in many things) portrayed his brilliance as well as his madness/depression. I loved The Doctor’s speech at the end on how life is bad things and good things.
I find Van Gough as interesting in paintings as he is a person. (If you haven’t read his correspondences I highly recommend them. They are great discussions on art as well as his personal reflections and show the interesting relationship he had with his brother.) The only thing I found odd was the lack of mention of his brother Theo. We know from his letters he was a big part of Vincent’s life and well being so I was surprised by his lack of mention.
But regardless, maybe it’s the art school refugee in me but I loved this episode completely and I cried at the end when the dosen (sp?) was unknowingly telling Van Gough how brilliant and amazing he and his art were. Both actors did that pitch perfectly.
I’m glad I’m not the only crazy one ;)
It had just the one mention that his bother kept sending him doctors. Many years ago Leonard Nimoy had done a one man play based on the correspondence between the brothers. I’ve always wanted to find a way to see it and now doubly so. Is there a book of the letters or internet access to them? I’m interested once again to read them. One of my favorite parts was the speech the professor gave about Van Gogh at the end. It brought a tear to me as well(it also had a Ferris Bueller museum scene vibe which always chokes my up a bit).
Olorinidic- They’re all available to view here: http://vangoghletters.org/vg/
I too always wanted to see that show with Nimoy.
That’s just the thing, I love Van Gough. But this didn’t do his story justice though. This was really ONLY focused on his art, and not his own story. And the thing is, that story fed his art. I don’t think you do the art justice if you don’t tell the whole story.
I’ll say your both right. I thought the episode was amazing. a good stand alone story. I loved every second of the episode, but the Eleventh Hour is still to me the best of the season so far. I liked the way they mentioned other adventures they had had which left an opening for books and other media to right stories.
IO9 posted some very spoiler-lite teasers for The Lodger. I normally wouldn’t post anything like this. But they are in good fun and don’t really spoil anything that I can see. With that said, you gets your brain thinking, and if your conclusions are right, I guess that could spoil things for you.
With that said, read these only if you are ok with that. Very interesting, I think.
1. The first line is very funny
2. A guest character from last week’s episode shows up a few times
3. There’s the first gay allusion this series (sort of)
4. The Doctor has more interesting adventures with food and drink
5. Matt Smith fans will be freeze-framing one particular revealing moment
6. A can of beer is opened at an important moment
7. The Doctor commits an act of physical violence, sort of…
8. A certain face shows up for the fourth time this series; another for a third; and others for a second time
9. There’s lots of witty dialogue
10. A regal couple put in an appearance
11. Amy discovers something
12. One of the most uttered phrases of series five comes up again
13. It’s the most unusual ever episode of Doctor Who Confidential!
14. It’s back
15. Someone says the G-word
16. There’s a monster’s hand in a drawer
17. The psychic paper serves several purposes
18. It’s rather a sweet love story and James Corden is actually quite likeable
19. Someone says, “I love you”
20. The Doctor is helped by some feline intuition
Alright, so I’ll take a punch at some of these, just for fun. Feel free to do so yourself.
2> This is either Tony Curran or Bill Nighy, one would assume. The trailer showed a Van Gough poster, so my initial thought has to go with Tony Curran.
7> Something to do with him playing Soccer, I’m guessing.
8> I can’t take credit for this, it’s a guess they made on io9. But it makes sense to me, so I’m stealing it for my guess. They specifically say “face”, not “actor” or “character”. So showing the 1st Doctor would be the fourth time his face appeared, and showing the second doctor would be for the third time. Every other doctor would be the second time. The intriguing thing about this, IMO, is whether or not the repeated showings is a nice homage, or has something to do with the plot.
11> The engagement ring?
13> Guess I need to watch this week, then.
14> Prisoner Zero? I’m assuming not.
15> Geronimo or Gallifrey?
That’s all I’ve got. Next!
The Lodger is the best episode I’ve seen so far this series.
Loved the episode. It had me and my fiance both in tears at the end with that speech.
I love the arty camera work , 100 better then I thought it was going to be