(766) Vincent and the Doctor

On the face of it, Vincent and the Doctor shouldn’t be a very good story because a) it has the word Doctor in the title and b) it was written by Richard Curtis. Curtis is famous for creating comedy and slushy sentimental stuff. So it was a nice surprise to see that this episode is one of my favourites of the series. It is certainly one that shows what’s great about Doctor Who. That it can do stuff with Daleks and Cybermen but then it does lovely episodes dealing with such a tragic figure like Vincent Van Gogh who was born in March 1853 until he committed suicide in July 1890.

Tony Curran is brilliant as Vincent Van Gogh. One of the reasons why I like this story so much is that I believe that Curran is the painter. There is a wonderful sense of just going along with the Doctor and Amy and yet there is the vulnerability of his confidence. He seems like he is just one step from teetering over the edge. I like that Bill Nighy is in this episode as a bow-tie wearing Dr Black. His best scene is his last where he explains why he thinks that Van Gogh is one of the best artists in the world.  

Like in The Vampire of Venice. There is another nod to William Hartnell and in this episodes case, there is a picture of Patrick Troughton. It’s weird to think until 2008, there were hardly any references to past Doctors and now we have had two in just a few episodes.

There is a monster of the week in this episode and it’s the Krafayis. Clearly there was a desire to keep the costs down and so that is why for most of the episode its invisible. When we do see it I think that it looks quite good. Not one of the all time classics but its one of the better monsters. I think that the episode would have worked with the Krafayis so their inclusion is rather wasted but this is the only critiscm that I can level at the episode.

There is a nice scene between the Doctor, Amy and Vincent when they are lying on the grass looking at the skies and Vincent is talking about the colours and we see what his imagination is coming up with. It’s a lovely and yet heart breaking moment because we know what happens to Vincent. What is even sadder is when the Doctor takes Vincent back to modern earth and lets Vincent hear what Dr Black says about him.

This is my favourite episode of the series so far and based on my previous feelings about the next three episodes, I think that despite the use of Krafayis this is the strongest episode of the series and possibly one of the strongest Matt Smith stories.

(762) The Vampires of Venice

This is the second script from Toby Whithouse who previously wrote the 2006 story School Reunion. This is a story with Vampire in the title and normally this would bore me because I just find vampires to be very dull in terms of storytelling. The end of the previous episode saw Amy trying to know THE Doctor a bit better than was natural on a Saturday evening. This story sees the return of Rory and the introduction of him as a companion. His opening scene comes just before the title sequence and ends with the Doctor bursting out of a cake. The Doctor’s plan to stop Amy from jumping on him is to bring Rory along and take them to Venice in 1580.

It’s fun to see Rory installed into the story as when he appeared in The Eleventh Hour he was a bit of a one dimension but loveable character. Here he develops a slight distrust of the Doctor and Amy’s relationship. The best bit for Rory came when he points out to the Doctor that everyone tries to impress the Doctor and I couldn’t help but think that Rory doesn’t even know half the story.

This story was filmed in Trogir in Croatia and one of the things that I really like about this episode is that it looks stunning. It’s one of the things that works in the episode’s favour. It’s better than the locations used in The Fires of Pompeii which I thought couldn’t be topped but this managed it. I think the locations used in Vincent and the Doctor are just a good but this is the first time in the series that the locations have almost stolen the show.

Helen McCrory (currently in Peaky Blinders) plays Rosanna who is quite the mummy’s boy to Francesco who is played by Alex Price. There is a strange thing going on with this relationship and it’s is this that I quite like about their performances.

I like the moment when the Doctor shows his library card to the vampires and it’s got a picture of the first Doctor. That’s not the first nod that the series will make to the early Doctor’s and it’s something that is subtle but noticeable enough to be enjoyed. This was another good performance from Matt Smith and there were some good comedy moments and Smith does these just as well as Tennant did his.

The twist in the story comes with the fact that Francesco and Rosanna aren’t actually vampires but are from the planet Saturnyne who have Vampire like tendencies. The scene between Rosanna and the Doctor was a nice one because Rosanna is an effective villain and we learn that they were running from the silence thus continuing the story arc. At the very end there was silence and its quite an eerie silence considering that the end of the episode it should be jolly and happy.

It was a good episode which had some lovely locations and also had a good plot. I always thought that School Reunion was more nostalgia than Doctor Who, so it was nice to see what Toby Whithouse could do and I am pleased to say that I liked what I saw. I