DW 31x10: Vincent and the Doctor

[Captain Seafort]

Starts at 1840 BST.

This had better be a significant improvement over last week's shite.

[Graham Kennedy]

Well in terms of the "Doctor Who plot", I'd rate it average. Reasonable monster, but nothing really scary. I had the impression that the fact that it was mostly

invisible

was there largely to save money. But it worked okay.

Where the ep really pulled itself up was in Tony Curran's depiction of Van Gogh. Tony stepped up and truly hit this one out of the park. In fact he hit it out of the park, over the car park, across the road, and into the next park over. The scene where

the Doctor takes him to see his own art exhibition and he listens to the guide talk about his place in the history of art

may be one of the best things I've ever seen on TV. And to find that

it made no difference, and he killed himself anyway

brought a genuine sense of loss.

So Average Who episode with one superb standout performance. Good overall.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I felt the filibuster by the art gallery guide to be a bit... meh, but I agree. The performance by Tony Curran was incredible.

[Mikey]

I agree with GK's assessment entirely, and I'd add that it was a better-than-average performance by Smith. It just grated every time he actually said the name "Van Gogh." Is that the common pronunciation in the UK? Over here, it's always pronounced "Van Go."

The part that struck me most about Curran's portrayal of Van Gogh was his realization of, and resignation to, his own mental imbalance.

[Captain Seafort]

It just grated every time he actually said the name "Van Gogh." Is that the common pronunciation in the UK? Over here, it's always pronounced "Van Go."

Yup. If you started talking to anyone over here about 'Van Go', the most common reaction you'd get would be "who?", with the vast majority of the remainder replying "you mean 'Van Goff'?".

[Reliant121]

There was a QI program about how to pronounce it once. They got the Dutch version of QI's presenter to say it and it sounded much like. "Van Gohch", as if a Klingon had been trying to pronounce it.

[Tsukiyumi]

[Sionnach Glic]

There was a QI program about how to pronounce it once. They got the Dutch version of QI's presenter to say it and it sounded much like. "Van Gohch", as if a Klingon had been trying to pronounce it.

A bit more like "Van Hohch".

[Reliant121]

....My dutch accent is still in its formulative stages...