[h2]8. Vincent and the Doctor[/h2]
Written by Richard Curtis
“The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant. And we definitely added to his pile of good things.”
“Vincent and the Doctor” is so much more than just a great episode of Doctor Who. In exploring the psychology of one of history’s greatest painters – my favorite painter, personally – with a deft, loving, and powerfully empathetic hand, Richard Curtis’ script is also one of the best and most poignant dramatic love letters to artistry I have ever had the pleasure of encountering.
Tony Curran’s Vincent van Gogh is a revelation, a character so fully realized so immediately that he instantly enters the ranks of all-time great Doctor Who episodes, and the interplay between him, Matt Smith’s Doctor, and Karen Gillan’s Amy Pond is astoundingly heartfelt and natural. Building a credible science-fiction story around van Gogh’s artistic gifts is no small feat, but Curtis accomplishes it here, tying every element of the story back to a few central ideas about van Gogh’s utterly unique way of seeing the world, and his utterly crippling depression. While new research since the episode’s debut actually indicates that van Gogh did not commit suicide, but was shot accidentally by a passing hunter while painting, the episode still packs an enormous wallop in its honest and thoughtful portrayal of clinical depression and the connection between mental anguish and artistic talent. It is a tremendous script, increasingly bold as it reaches is emotional roller-coaster of a climax, and perhaps the single best ‘Doctor interacts with history’ episode in the show’s long lifespan.
Perhaps the greatest praise I can lend the episode is that whenever I watch it – hell, whenever I think about it – I am inspired to go learn more about the life and works of Vincent van Gogh. And when I now look at a van Gogh painting, or read a van Gogh biography, I cannot help but think of Curran’s performance and the dramatic portrayal of van Gogh in this episode. If that doesn’t make this an absolutely masterful hour of television, I don’t know what does.
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