Bright Lights and Starry, Starry Nights

[eumelia]

This post contains spoilers to the Doctor Who episodes: "The Hungry Earth" & "Cold Blood" and "Vincent and the Doctor".

Mainly for Vincent and the Doctor, though.

It was a miracle that I managed to keep myself from being spoiled for "Cold Blood". Due to circumstances I didn't get to see the episode when it aired last week and people on the interwebs were actually really good about spoilers.

So I cried at the end of "Cold Blood" and I'm really irritated that Rory is dead. I get that this ep was a time fluctuation... thing and that anything could have happened.

Still, they should have taken his body. The crack engulfed Rory's body and he into the light, literary. I don't know how I feel about that.

They should have let Amy have a memory of their love. Now, not only is Rory dead, the Doctor carries the burden of remembering him. His memory. It was pointless.

I don't like pointless death.

Which carried over beautifully to the second episode I saw yesterday. I thought this seasons' historical celebrity figure was Winston Churchill.

But Vincent Van Gogh, the character, rocked my socks. On the purely cinematic level, this was one of the best portrayals of Van Gogh I'd ever seen. The actor - Tony Curran - seemed possessed by Van Gogh's essence. I believed that this is the way it went.

The Doctor takes Amy on fun rides, to make up for the guilt of remembering Rory when she doesn't and cannot - the nature of not being able to remember Rory is an interesting one, it reminds me of when Dawn was written into Buffy the Vampire Slayer only the opposite... instead of her always being there, Rory was never there - which begs the question - what changed during "The Eleventh Hour" if Rory never existed?

I suppose we'll find out.

I've not written any other reaction posts to this season's eps for various reasons. The main one is that I didn't feel the need to. I didn't have any big insights on what went on, or on the Doctor, or on Amy.
I do feel they are laying on a bit think that the Doctor is alone and the last and the only etc.
Memory, is also a clear motif - as Amy doesn't remember the Dalek's like she should.
That crack behaves like the Nothing from "The Never Ending Story", I wonder if the Doctor will have to tell Amy his name in order to stop it from spreading?

I foresee a great act of sacrifice from Amy.

Oh, Amy, you fangirl you! We (she and I) would have had so much fun in that Museum, looking at Van Gogh's paintings, his transformed pain, the way his sight changed the world.

In the episode, Vincent can see things other can't. This is something said about most Impressionists (post and "regular") - I am so happy my mother dragged me to museums when I was a child, watching episodes like this, in which every frame was a pretty picture that looked like a gorgeous picture in our world. I was moved.

It is well known, if you know this sort of thing, that Vincent painted violently when he started a new painting. In some canvases, you can see the tares in the cloth and as he got more and more detailed, the colours became more and more nuanced and every line on pain told you a different aspect of what was seen.

By Vincent. Vincent could see things the way no one else could.

Which is why he could see the monster. Vincent saw the starts as great whirling balls of light amid an inky blue, indigo, black sky the depths of which he could only imagine - he imagined so very well.

Vincent Van Gogh is known for being mad. Only madmen cut off their ears. Only madmen commit suicide.

This is of course what has historically been said about Vincent. The episode tackled his mental health delicately ("He was a delicate man", says the Doctor) and unlike many other shows that have tried to tackle mental illness, it is shown to be something he wishes he could change. Yes he wallows in his misery... but who doesn't.
I had a period of depression, not clinical, I do not posses the neurological condition that afflicts too many people and far too many that I know personally.
But I have stayed in bed for days, simply because the world was not worth seeing.

The world as he sees it, is the only thing worth seeing, on his own terms.

Sight, of course, being the running theme in the ep. Vincent sees the way no one else can see and so he becomes the Dutch Dragon Slayer, he didn't want to, but the Monster couldn't see either.
Both were afraid.
Lashed out.
Acted out.

The episode, like the the brilliant episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp" (in which the Doctor and Donna meet Agatha Christie) contained huge amounts of "quotes" from his paintings. Some in actual frames like Café Terrace at Night, Bedroom in Arles and of course, The Starry Night. Also, his pipe, his chair which he wielded like a man possessed, when clearly he was not.

I loved this episode. I think I began to cry (it seems like I didn't stop that day, what with what happened with Rory) at around the time when Vincent cried as the Doctor, in his happy-go-lucky attitude was really not what Vincent needed just right then.

You can't cheer up someone with depression.

There are good days and bad days.

I think in the end, after Amy and the Doctor took Vincent back after Bill Nigh gushed over him (with a very fetching bow-tie, indeed) that he was happy for a second. Ultimately though, history takes it course, as does illness when it is untreated (and sometimes even when treated) and when Amy realises this, we all do.
It was a hard moment, as mentioned, I cried a lot.
For a moment I thought Vincent would be another red-headed companion. I loved that he and Amy were infatuated with each other.
It was very sweet.

Personally speaking, I like it when there are more than three people on the TARDIS. I like that the Doctor has more than one person to bounce ideas off and that each companion has something different to offer.
I'm very sad Rory is gone. I felt there was a lovely connection between Rory and the Doctor and that Amy had so much fun with her Mate and her Mentor.

"I'm not the marrying kind". Oh Amy.

The OT3 potential between the Doctor, Amy and Vincent was, of course, immense and in my canon they stayed a few more days in Arlen and then left. It's not right that such pretty, brilliant people not at get it on together at least a little bit.
Also, I was happy to see a little more explicitly implicit homoerotcism, which I've been missing quite a lot from this season.

Is it just me, or is this season a whole lot less queer than previous seasons? I'm feeling like I'm watching hetero-ville at times.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

I thought the whole way the Doctor reacted to Vincent's mental illness was so compassionate and understanding. And then to turn that understanding and compassion onto the monster when he realised it was lost and alone, was just right.

The sets were fantstic. Seeing them and knowing the paintings, it was just so well put together.

Short version: I loved it.

I hope that when they figure out how to destroy the crack then the memories will come back.

[such_heights]

Yes, agree re the last point - where's my gay agenda gone?

But otherwise, so much yes to all of this, this last episode was beyond fantastic.

[eumelia]

And bring people back to life!

*sniff* Wants Rory!

[eumelia]

It is definitely up there with Blink as a fave.

I'm not wrong right, there is a lot less queer visibility, right?

[ironed_orchid]

That would be best.

In my version, this season ends with Rory and Amy going home together in time for their wedding.

[moonbathe_skin]

Yes, hetero-ville cos RTD is no longer writing. I miss him.

Also, I agree with everything you say but for me the invisable monster thing went on too long and ruined it for me, I'd have liked more swirly paintings and less invisable monsters even tho it was VITAL to the plot that Vincent could see the monster while others couldn't.

[silveradept]

The Doctor's treatment of Vincent always seemed a bit, erm, grating in that episode, like he doesn't get how mental issues work, at least, not until it's too late and he recognizes the other being is blind. Now, seeing Vincent cry at his own work displayed in a gallery, with Bill talking about him, that's fantastic. As is Amy's realization that sometimes, the future refuses to change.