Doctor Who S5e10 "Vincent & The Doctor" [Spoilers]

[Crazedwraith]

Holy pathos, Batman.


Very good, though they never did explain why the creature was invisible to all be Van Gogh and the killing on the monster was bit.. pat. Really, the demise by running into spikey thing is rather cliche.

I'm amused the identifying device started spitting out all the old doctors. We seem to be seeing them a lot this season.

[Captain Seafort]

they never did explain why the creature was invisible to all be Van Gogh

They at least implied that Van Gough was something special beyond simply his art, since he didn't seem to have been affected by the crack gobbling up Rory. Much better done than Tennant waxing lyrical about Shakespeare a few years ago.

Also:

"Your accent - are you from Holland like me?"

[Bedlam]

I'd assumed that the giant chickens invisibility was via some sort of perception filter or psychic power rather than actual invisibility hense it being viewable in mirrors. Thus I assume Van Gough's insanity in some way made him immune to the effect.

[Crazedwraith]

Still, the opening section in the museum was amusing, "Hurry Amy! We have to head to the time machine quickly to go back in time, in time!"

[Gramzamber]

They at least implied that Van Gough was something special beyond simply his art, since he didn't seem to have been affected by the crack gobbling up Rory. Much better done than Tennant waxing lyrical about Shakespeare a few years ago.

Oh please Shakespeare turned out to be immune to psychic paper for no good reason.
They seem to enjoy wanking out historical arts figures.

[Bounty]

Good start, weak action-y middle part, good ending. It was overwrought but the actors sold it.

[Captain Seafort]

Oh please Shakespeare turned out to be immune to psychic paper for no good reason.

And, more importantly in my opinion, they had the Doctor bowing and scraping all episode. Here they didn't make a big overt fuss that "he's a genius" - they simply worked the implication into the plot.

[NecronLord]

You know, if they'd used Monet instead, they could have said 'the alien is visible in ultraviolet' - no, really, he could see ultraviolet.

May they stick with that promise of the Doctor's that he's not going to rely on the screwdriver so much any more.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yes, please God let him keep his word.

I rather liked this episode. Fairly simple, no deus ex machina, and I liked the bit where they took him to the gallery, and that slightly confused look on Bill Nighy's face. You can tell he's thinking "Was that...no, can't have been"

[NecronLord]

Also, the Doctor's massively prejudiced in this. He declares the poor blind thing evil without even knowing its species.

[Captain Seafort]

To be fair he's got a history of running into nasties hiding in churches - The Dæmons, Masque of Mandragora and The Awakening all spring to mind

[Teebs]

I wasn't overly impressed. The monster story left me completely cold and uninterested. I did like the plot about Van Gogh though, so that went someway to redeeming the episode.

I'd assumed that the giant chickens invisibility was via some sort of perception filter or psychic power rather than actual invisibility hense it being viewable in mirrors. Thus I assume Van Gough's insanity in some way made him immune to the effect.

The Doctor's mirror was clearly a bit special since it was wired up to his machine, I don't think it was shown to be reflected in any normal mirrors so I'd assume it is invisible in those too.

[NecronLord]

To be fair he's got a history of running into nasties hiding in churches - The Dæmons, Masque of Mandragora and The Awakening all spring to mind

We've seen harmless aliens on Earth a few times (notably in Sarah Jane adventures, which has about 20% benign aliens) too though.

[Captain Seafort]

We've seen harmless aliens on Earth a few times (notably in Sarah Jane adventures, which has about 20% benign aliens) too though.

I'm not talking about Earth generally, but of churches in particular - they seem to attract nasties in Who. This isn't to refute the fact that he jumped to the conclusion with little specific evidence, but on past history he can be forgiven for thinking "something unearthly hiding in a church - here we go again".

[NecronLord]

We've seen harmless aliens on Earth a few times (notably in Sarah Jane adventures, which has about 20% benign aliens) too though.

I'm not talking about Earth generally, but of churches in particular - they seem to attract nasties in Who. This isn't to refute the fact that he jumped to the conclusion with little specific evidence, but on past history he can be forgiven for thinking "something unearthly hiding in a church - here we go again".

It wasn't investigate, it was 'that is the face of evil' followed by 'I don't know what it is'.

[Stark]

May they stick with that promise of the Doctor's that he's not going to rely on the screwdriver so much any more.

Sorry, it's actually even MORE retarded to have a magic wand and not use it just because fans complained about shit storytelling he decided not to.

[NecronLord]

May they stick with that promise of the Doctor's that he's not going to rely on the screwdriver so much any more.

Sorry, it's actually even MORE retarded to have a magic wand and not use it just because fans complained about shit storytelling he decided not to.

The idea would be that he finds it an unreliable method of doing things (as here) and relies on it and builds his plans around it less, not that it'd be jettisoned completely, or not used for things it's supposed to be very good at. i wouldn't want to see it dropped from the series, but I would like to see him, say, not using it when he could press a button instead, as in the last episode.

[Ryushikaze]

Also, the Doctor's massively prejudiced in this. He declares the poor blind thing evil without even knowing its species.

I got that Van Gogh drew it in such a way that made the doctor think Evil. The 'evil' was drawn in by a confused and unknowing VG, with things 'changed' by the doctor's intervention.

[Stuart Mackey]

Thus I assume Van Gough's insanity in some way made him immune to the effect.

He wasn't insane, but badly depressed.

[Starglider]

Ok episode, but it felt like it should have come earlier in the season, e.g. immediately after 'Victory of the Daleks'. At this point you'd really think the Doctor would be concentrating on averting the time rift catastrophe, not going to art galleries.

[mr friendly guy]

Three out of ten. Even the abomination that was Journey's end was better.

1. More wanking of historical artsy type figures.

Come on enough is enough. What was oh soooo special about Arts figures in general. Look I enjoy novels / works of arts etc, however their contribution does not compare to scientists so it gets a bit tiring when the Doctor says such and such figure is oh sooo awesome.

2. Van Gogh's mood swing

So he most likely has bipolar disease. However that scene served no purpose except to fill up time until he has his mood changes, (unless you count it as a deliberate contrast to the bring Van Gogh into the future for a tour scene).

3. Bringing Van Gogh into the future scene

Its like the writer is a fan of Van Gogh and is somehow trying to compensate for the lack of recognition Van Gogh received in life. This scene is self indulgent like David Tennant's ending montage in "The End of Time." At least Tennant's Doctor had been with us for several years so it was nice to tie up loose ends and one could argue he deserved a sort of homage. Van Gogh was just a character of the week even if he was a famous artist.


4. Doctor can't come up with a plan

Does it not occur to him to try and douse the creature with paint? Did not being able to see a person stopped him against those Exxilon's serving the Daleks? Did it stop him against the "Invisible Enemy." Yeah didn't think so.

But don't worry, Van Gogh saves the day.

Remember those fan fics we criticise where a character who just sooo happens to have the same name as the author appears and shows up the regular characters. While I wouldn't call Van Gogh a mary sue / gary stu, it is leaning towards that way. That does not make good writing.


There are a few nice twists, like the fact the creature is blind, however the episode was let down by lots of other things.

[Crazedwraith]

Ok episode, but it felt like it should have come earlier in the season, e.g. immediately after 'Victory of the Daleks'. At this point you'd really think the Doctor would be concentrating on averting the time rift catastrophe, not going to art galleries.

Given the opening scene, he was visiting lots of stuff Amy would like because he felt bad about Rory's death. If if she couldn't remember it.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah I got that impression. Trying to cheer up someone who can't remember they were sad is bloody hard, I've had to do it a couple of times (granted they were wasted at the time)

I agree that the whole monster thing was a little underwhelming. But I think the Doctor assuming it's not friendly is justified, given it's already killed a couple of people. Not even eaten, just killed

[Starglider]

Given the opening scene, he was visiting lots of stuff Amy would like because he felt bad about Rory's death. If if she couldn't remember it.

I know, I just think that's stupid. The Doctor isn't, or shouldn't be so ridiculously sentimental that cheering up a girl who isn't even consciously aware of her loss takes priority over a disaster that is destroying/upheaving whole civilisations and causing billions of deaths in collateral damage.

[Crazedwraith]

On the other hand what actual leads does he have on the mysterious end of days shit? All he knows is that the cracks seems to turn up where he goes. No need to track them down.