Vincent and the Doctor - Beehive City Review

Here is beehive citys review of ep 10:

Doctor Who

Vincent and The Doctor


BBC One (&HD), Saturday June 5th, 6.40pm

Rating: ***

“They travel in space, they travel as packs scavenging across the universe – sometimes one of them gets left behind and because they are a brutal race the others never come back, so, dotted all around the universe are individual, utterly merciless, utterly abandoned [insert name of monster], and what they do is, well kill until they’re killed, which they usual aren’t because other creatures can’t see them.”

People have been dying on the streets of Provence and everyone’s blaming Vincent Van Gogh, “You bring this on us, your madness … you!” He’s mad (or a genius) and he’s in the last months of his life … but what is it that he can see that no one else (including the Doctor and Amy) can?

Back in modern day Paris our time-travelling duo are living it up at the Musee d’Orsay, but as always, they can never just have a normal day out. The Doctor spots something odd in The Church at Auveres, “I know evil when I see it, and I see it in that window.” After asking the tour guide, Bill Nighy (yes, this is a Richard Curtis script), when the masterpiece was created The Doctor whisks them off to 1890 Provence, “Art can wait, this is life and death, we need to talk to Vincent Van Gogh.”

Cue a quite bizarre episode of Doctor Who. There’s the traditional alien storyline which lasts about twenty-five minutes followed by fifteen minutes of pure Richard Curtis licence to kill cheese which has little or no relation to anything (but is crowbarred in with a vague nod in the direction of ‘we can’t change time’ and all that jazz.)

The primary episode revolves around Vincent’s demons which are rather clunkily exposed through another very alone and tortured creature, this alien that is reaping havoc in Provence. The Doctor is only able to see the creature through a Heath Robinson rear view mirror contraption which recognises him (as Wiliam Hartnell then Patrick Troughton, ho ho) before delivering the following data on our monster:


I can see it, but can you?
Summary:
Planet of origin:
Uncertain
Social Structure:
Nomadic pack animals
Strict dominance hierarchy
Huge territories, several solar systems wide
Preferred habitats:
Planets with oxygen and nitrogen based atmospheres

Any ideas?

Well whatever this thing is, it chases the doctor around, and he can only see it in his rear mirror – and although the setting is different you cannot help but feel Jurassic Park is lurking somewhere on Mr Curtis’s Sky + box at home.
The culmination of all this is a lot more chasing and running and fighting in and around The Church at Auveres.
“We’re in a unique position today my friend, to end this reign of terror – so, feel like painting the church today?”

But just as it looks like things might have been resolved, you look at your watch … there’s still a quarter of an hour left of the show … what’s going to happen now?

Richard Curtis takes us into pathos overdrive, that’s what happens. The scales fall from our characters eyes and they see the world the way that Vincent does, the sky becomes awash with his colours. The Doctor: “I’ve seen many things my friend, but nothing quite as wonderful as the things you see.” But it gets worse …

Not satisfied with this saccharine coated moment, Curtis releases onion fumes into the front room with a musical montage that will definitely have your mum inconsolable. Middle of the road indie stars Athlete (presumably Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars is exclusively licensed to The X-Factor) are thrown the soundtrack and Chances begins to play as Vincent steps out of the Tardis into modern day Paris. There is no need for words, Vincent (played by Tony Curran) sees that he is appreciated, Bill Nighy seconds that thought with a short eulogy dedicated to the great man …


You want some art with your cheese this week?
Even The Doctor chips in with some pretty corny pseudo-philosophy, “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 always spoil the good things and make them unimportant … and we definitely added to his pile of good things.”

… this is Notting Hill, this is Love Actually, this is … not Doctor Who …

I was worried that the producers would give Curtis enough rope to hang himself on this episode, and in my opinion, he did.

It’s touching, and at times scary(ish) although I wouldn’t give it much more than ‘five out of peril’ at its peak. There are nice flourishes within the script, some OK jokes and an interesting (if somewhat preaching) theme that underlies the show. However, I stick to my original argument that this was not Curtis’s time. It is not really even a criticism of Curtis, who I believe is a fine writer in his field, I just don’t think this should happen here and now. We are so close to the end of the series and things are getting very exciting … all that this stand alone ‘experimental’ episode has done is detract from the big finale.

I’m aware that we need some light relief from time to time after, especially after the intensity of the latest double header … but this wasn’t it …

Can time be changed? This episode asks the question, and maybe the BBC producers will ask the same question when they get feedback on this episode.

Just to let evreyone know before juumping to conlusions,this reviewer hates Richard Curtis (very strongly apparently) according to comments on the site, so I shouldn't Take this review into account. Also, I love the song chances. So, im kind of happy about that! Evrey other review i've read has given this ep praise so...