Monsters of Television

“This is the problem with the Impressionists: not accurate enough. This would never happen with Gainsborough or one of those proper painters.”

Combining two weeks of Doctor Who makes a bit of sense these days, given my busier schedule for the past two or three weeks and with BBC America’s infuriating scheduling of episodes. In any case, we have two fairly good episodes here, with “Vincent and the Doctor” being such a delightful treat and “The Lodger,” while fun, is a bit too breezy for its own good (though, as I’ll argue below, that’s kind of the point).

I will say that I like both episodes coming this late in the season, as I needed a bit of a pick-me-up. The show’s second half has been relatively so-so between pseudo-vampires and uninteresting Silurians (though I still like “Amy’s Choice,” but I think that’s largely in comparison to the others), and wrapping things up with two solid episodes before going into the finale does ramp up the excitement.

Objects in mirror may...oh, you know it.

With “Vincent and the Doctor,” we get a big, sloppy love letter to Vincent van Gogh. And, more importantly, we get a sloppy love letter to the image of van Gogh, but not necessarily who van Gogh was.  There’s something wonderfully charming about this approach, as the Doctor and Amy are made giddy by seeing the cafe and van Gogh’s room in person just as any fan of van Gogh’s would could they travel back in time and hang out with the painter.

But the image of van Gogh presented in the episode is also the one we tend to associate with the painter: mania, bouts of depression, anger at being misunderstood, a little crazy (even for the Doctor). And while we go through each of these things through the course of the episode, it allows the subtext to play that because Vincent is a bit unbalanced that he’s able to see the Krafayis when no one else can. It’s a nice return to the ocularity that I’ve discussed before, made all the better by the gadget  the Doctor uses to see the Krafayis.

Indeed, the idea that Vincent is able to see things differently feeds into both his madness as a man and his brilliance as an artist. The slow, nicely done CGI shift from regular night to the Starry Night is touching and poignant, and easily should’ve been the happy moment of the episode. The decision to bring Vincent to the present day and have Dr. Black (an uncredited but seamlessly fitting Bill Nighy) explain why van Gogh is so loved is great as well, with Curran selling the hell out of it. But that damn song had no business being there. It was a little jarring (I though I was watching Chuck for a minute) for the series since the use of contemporary(ish) songs is generally used ironically or as a great character moment.

So if “Vincent and the Doctor” is one of the stronger of the series’ second half, “The Lodger” is probably one of the weakest, though I still find the episode to be enjoyable. One of the pleasures of Doctor Who is when he interacts with human beings who have no idea who he is, and just assume he’ an eccentric, occasionally bossy guy. That said, the real pleasure in “The Lodger” is how amazingly solid everyone’s lock on the Doctor is at this point.

One of the traits of this Doctor has been a sense of rediscovery of things he likes, doesn’t like (“Beans are evil. Bad bad beans.”), can and can’t do, like be a smashing soccer player. But it’s all wrapped up in this Doctor’s sense of being an old professor trapped in a young man’s body, so the sense of playfulness and discovery (plus the authority) all come into play with this episode. Even his slow pushing together of the couple in the episode reeks of a grandfather fixing up two young friends.

But the episode is decidedly light and fluffy. It’s a necessary breather episode before the finale (which I’ve already seen), and I’m decidedly glad it’s there. I thinking diving in the finale after doing “Vincent” might’ve been a bit too draining, but “The Lodger” gives me warm fuzzies and a chance to catch my breath.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• I thought Amy’s thinking that there’d be a whole slew of new paintings was a nicely in line with the character, and also kind of solved that whole “Companion wants to change time” trope without giving it a whole episode.
• BBC, take note: I would totally watching Vincent van Gogh: Monster Slayer. Make it happen.
• Spent much of “The Lodger” trying to figure out where the Doctor slept, but decided he probably didn’t need to.