Doctor Who - Vincent and the Doctor

As usually is the case when doing a review/recap of a thing, SPOILERS HAPPEN HERE. So you should probably go watch the episode being reviewed before reading any further. Just saying...

This week's episode features one of my favorite artists: Vincent van Gogh (played brilliantly by Tony Curran). Anyone who thought they recognized the actor might remember him from Underworld: Evolution (he played Marcus) or any number of guest appearances on various shows (The Mentalist, 24, and Numb3rs being among them). Full list of credits can be found here.

Van Gogh may be one of the most famous painters today, but back in his day he was not so fortunate. It's a shame really, because his work is actually quite good. One of my favorite paintings of all time is his Starry Night. (For those who care, my other favorite is Portrait of a German Officer by Marsden Hartley). But that really has nothing to do with van Gogh or Doctor Who, so I should probably move along to something more relevant…

Van Gogh suffered from mental illness, something I am quite interested in as a Psychology student. Even without that psychological background though, you could still tell it was going to be interesting to see how crazy old van Gogh would interact with The Doctor. I definitely was not disappointed. Especially not with invisible creatures that only the crazy painter can see running around. (Sidebar: loved The Doctor's gadget that made it so he could see the beast-y as well). Armed with "overconfidence, this [referring to a briefcase holding gadget-of-the-day] and a small screwdriver" he finds said beast-y inside the church that van Gogh is painting and goes after it.

A word to The Doctor - you should know that when you tell Amy to wait somewhere, she is NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO YOU. So really you should just stop trying and let her do her own thing.

Because she's going to anyway.

Whether you like it or not.

So there.

Moving right along then…

Beast-y bites the dust thanks to a lethal case of the stabs brought on by Vincent, and thus ends that part of the story. Favorite moment for me came right after when we saw through van Gogh's eyes and into the heart and soul of previously mentioned favorite painting, Starry Night. Yes, I am an art geek (among other things). No, I am not ashamed of this. In fact, I hope this inspires others to go check out an art museum sometime and experience some of his work (and others) for themselves.

Second favorite moment was van Gogh getting a peek inside the TARDIS. I love everyone's usual reaction of "OMG it's bigger on the inside" but his was especially good - "How is it I'm the crazy one and you've remained sane". And thank you very very much to The Doctor for showing Vincent van Gogh how important his work is going to become to future generations. He may be about ready to die in his time, but now he knows that his work will live forever. It reminded me of when he did a similar thing for Charles Dickens in letting him know his books would be timeless. I only can wish that someone like The Doctor really comes around and lets these greats know how truly special they were.