The Best Doctor Who Episode Is a Totally Missed Opportunity, and Here’s Why
Doctor Who has a lot of episodes that are so brilliantly complicated that they make your brain hurt (in a good way). This episode is amazing, but it lacks in the monster fighting department.
There is one Doctor Who story that touched everyone’s heart when it first came out in 2010 – it follows the Doctor and Amy popping by to investigate a weird shadow in one of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings.
In Vincent and the Doctor, the two time travelers notice a strange figure hiding in the 1890 painting The Church at Auvers, so they go back to that time and meet the great artist himself.
The episode is full of beautiful visuals and emotion, diving into the theme of depression and ways to combat it. Van Gogh reportedly suffered from this debilitating condition, and the story explored what this must have been like for him.
Despite the fact that the Doctor and Amy bring some light to Vincent’s darkness, they haven’t managed to change time – the famous painter still takes his own life when his inner demons get to him.
Vincent and the Doctor features Krafayis, an aggressive alien who is invisible to most life forms (except for van Gogh). The monster isn’t really that memorable, but it certainly stirs up a lot of trouble for the Doctor and his gang.
Amy and the Doctor spend so much time chasing after the monster (or running away from it) based solely on what Vincent can tell them regarding the Krafayis’ current whereabouts when the solution is right in front of them.
They should’ve simply poured some point on the alien to make it visible to everyone, and the problem would be solved. Come on, it’s an episode about a world-renowned painter, the easiest monster solution is literally on the surface!
Still, aliens aside, Vincent and the Doctor is a wonderful story about the pain of one of the world’s greatest artists. Real-life van Gogh didn’t know whether his works would be appreciated – at least the Doctor Who version got to see how much he would be loved centuries later.