This Week in Doctor Who - 6/26/10

Sticking to this three week delay is awful, I'm just saying. But I do it for the four of you that read this...

Episode 10 - "Vincent and the Doctor"

This episode brings back the Doctor Who tradition of exploring time with famous people throughout history and how the Doctor's actions help create their future that we've already witnessed in our own history (I won't count "Victory of the Daleks" because that was just, dumb).

Fun fact: this episode was written by Blackadder creator, Richard Curtis, who previous produced the Moffat-written 1999 Doctor Who spoof, The Curse of Fatal Death, back during the void between the original Doctor Who series and the 2005 return. So, in a way, this is Curtis and Moffat's second crack (no pun intended) at Doctor Who together, only this time it's canon and not fully intended for comedic purposes.

Anyways, the titular Vincent is the famous painter himself, Vincent Van Gogh, who is visited by The Doctor and Amy after they visit an exhibition of his in France, and notice something "extra" in one of his famous paintings. The 'thing' in the painting turns out to be some sort of invisible mutant chicken thing that only Van Gogh can see, it's sounds ridiculous, but it's actually handled really well. My descriptions never do anything justice.

Acting-wise, Tony Curran was an extremely convincing Van Gogh, not only looking like the artist, but capturing his emotional instability as well; when he was in pain, you could feel it, but when he was his charming self you could feel it as well.

Overall this episode is just a 45 minute tear-jerker, especially in the end when the Doctor surprises Vincent by taking him to the same exhibition that he and Amy were at earlier, and asks the museum curator's opinion of Van Gogh, and he breaks down crying because in real life, he never thought he was any good and finally gets to see what becomes of his life's work, and it was an extremely emotional scene, with a soundtrack to boot. Eventually, you learn that certain parts of time still never change, with Van Gogh ultimately commuting suicide, and with all the heaviness, Amy weepingly jokes with the Doctor of what would happen if she accepted Vincent advances and married: The Ultimate Ginger. This was certainly one of my most favorite episodes of Doctor Who yet, as it mixed seriousness, action, and comedy quite well (with a big of classic Doctor fan-service to boot), and I'd seriously love if Richard Curtis wrote another episode in the next series.

Overall Score: 9.5/10

Bad news: BBC America won't premiere the next new Doctor Who until July 10th, that's just awful!!! Because of this, I refuse to now wait 5 weeks to post reviews, and will just post each review weekly regardless of BBCA's poor scheduling. Sorry.