The Doctor and Amy’s trip to a museum takes turn for the worse when his interest is caught by a painting - The Church at Auvers by Vincent van Gogh. There’s a face in the church’s window. An alien face. Only one thing will calm the Doctor’s nerves: a trip in the TARDIS to 1890 so he can find out the truth from the artist himself.
Rate and review below:
It’s a really good episode and one of my favorites from series 5. The ending is beautiful and makes me cry every time. It was a great look at Van Gogh.
Despite the fact I think I agree with the common take that the last few minutes of the episode are significantly stronger than the rest, this story still gets a 10/10 from me.
That scene is just perfect. In the writing, direction, and performances. It’s one of those episodes I always stop and watch when I stumble onto it and that scene is a huge part of the reason!
Not much else i can add about this that nobody will have heard already, it’s just an absolute top tier episode
One of the best episodes of the show. I have no notes, it is just flawless.
It’s good!
Did you know Vincent Van Gogh is a famous painter? You didn’t, well have i got an episode of tv for you. What else is it about? Nothing, it’s 45 minutes of a guy telling you Vincent Van Gogh is a famous painter
an episode about my favourite painter!
do i know any other painters? ugh…
(well, I didn’t when I was 13, but now I do. I had to, so that I could realistically compare and therefore justify why Van Gogh is my favourite without referencing Doctor Who every time. My decision has nothing to do with the absolutely beautiful ending of this episode, nothing at all.)
“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 or make them unimportant.”
10/10.
Such a good story. Not much I can add that hasn’t been said, but a real classic!
This is a complex episode, and it speaks on so many different levels. The monster chase was very straightforward, but even here, in the end, the monster has some depth, and we see it with compassion, which is not something that happens often. “Sometimes winning is not fun at all”.
The ending hits hard because, to me, it’s about everyone who has ever felt their efforts were worth nothing and who struggles to keep going because of it. The ending feels like a big, friendly hug: look, keep going, you may not see it from where you’re at, but your passion matters.
But it stays realistic! Having one brief glimpse of the future didn’t fix Vincent’s depression and didn’t make his day-to-day life easier, and in the end, he can’t bear it anyway. Even in that, we get an important lesson: you can’t cross out the bad things, but the good things are still important.
“He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world.” - that’s probably my favourite quote. I love that approach to art, and I think this is correct about Van Gogh, I love the colours in his paintings and the way everything just flashes at you.
And so we end on such a bittersweet note. Really can’t call that a happy ending, but also can’t call that a bad ending, after the rollercoaster of strong emotions we’ve been through. Sadness/happines is easier to achieve on TV, but those emotions? I find it hard to identify them. Smiling while your heart is breaking? Overwhelming hope? The feeling of loss of something that was gone long before you had it? Some sort of catharsis every time.
I don’t hold that it’s a perfect episode (my review explains why) but it is still excellent - 4/5
I’m an art student and Van Gogh is one of the most important and personally favourite historical figures in my life. Do I care that the episode is slightly inaccurate in it’s description of him? No.
The ending makes me bawl my eyes out every time and as someone who has on multiple occasions cried at a Van Gogh exhibition I ■■■■ with that heavy. Easy 10/10 from me.
I don’t think this episode is perfect, I rate it as a 9/10. That being said, it’s undeniably an absolutely wonderful episode of Doctor Who, and frankly that would be true even if the last scene came after an episode on the same level as The Reality War. Those scenes in the exhibition are perfect