Vincent and the Doctor

In the early days of Doctor Who the stories would alternate between a Sci Fi adventure one week and a historical adventure with almost no Sci Fi elements the week after. Hence we would go from a time machine, to cavemen, to Daleks, to Marco Polo and so on. Last nights episode was almost a return to this entirely historical basis as we are taken to see Vincent van Gogh, troubled by a monster which may as well have been called a MacGuffin for all the thought that had gone into it, and the story is actually that of the painter and his struggle with depression.

The monster was actually invisible (which saved the BBC a bit on the effects budget) and could only be seen by Vincent but it could easily be seen as a metaphor for van Gogh's bi-polar condition. In fact the episode portrayed that very well and the fact that the Doctor could do little to slay van Gogh's demons was really quite poignant. This was always going to be a difficult subject to cover in tea-time family TV but I really think Richard Curtis made a great stab at it. The point of depression is that, for the sufferer, it is physical. Just because it can't be seen by others doesn't mean that it is not very real and tangible for the sufferer. It takes on physical form and can be seen as a descending shadowy form. Amy is disconsolate when she discovers that their intervention has had little effect on Vincent's outcome but there is a nod that they did make a difference to him on the day. Very sentimental but rather nice all the same.

Now, I have to admit I have never been a great fan of van Gogh's work but I though the designers at the BBC had done an astonishing job with the set dressing. Scene after scene would burst to life straight from one of van Gogh's famous works. As a bit of educational TV it must have done the trick as I was showing Raymond the pictures from an art album I have. The acting was also spot on with the one exception - they didn't seem to have a standard pronunciation of the name "van Gogh". Now, the Dutch is pretty hard for most English speakers unless they want to end up sounding Scouse, but Matt Smith varied between "van Goth" and "van Goff" which sounded rather Eastenders and completely out of character. Karen Gillen and Tony Curran (spot on as Vincent) were more consistent but even Bill Nighy as an art critic seemed all over the show. It's a minor point but an irritation none the less.

Anyway, as the end credit's rolled we were informed that a website had been set up for those who had been affected by the issues in the show. It wasn't entirely clear if this was for those with mental health problems or those poor flowers in Southern England who couldn't cope with two ginger Scottish actors on the TV at once. I think we should be told.