Vincent and the Doctor
I think this was probably the best episode yet this series. Beautifully designed gorgeous shots. The way it so delicately and yet firmly flirted with such a problem like mental illness, while still keeping it in line with the family type program that it is.
This is one of those things that sets the new series above the old one in my eyes. Can you imagine the old series doing as beautiful a job as taking the dejected Vincent van Gogh, never in his life time to have seen the heights his paintings have achieved, into the future to see their effects on people for himself? And filmed in such a glorious heart tugging manner? Honestly, they had me balling as he's on that turn table in the gallery, the camera focused close on his reactions as Bill Nighy asserts him as the greatest artist to have lived. The old show would have had Tom Baker cracking some joke as he slips away in the Tardis, the show avoiding that chance to share such a real and emotional moment with the viewer, as Dudley Simpson's tones warbled away, or some such.
And a giant-invisible-space-chicken! Honestly, who could have a problem with that?
Years ago, in the telemovie, there was all of that stuff about the Doctor being there when Puccini died. This made a connection with my own art form. It made perfect sense for the Doctor to have been there, probably a great friend of Puccini's, visiting him over the years. Can't you imagine Four traipsing about Torre Del Lago, probably a member of Puccini's own Bohemian club, hunting ducks, drinking wine and living their own little country version of La Boheme? To do all of that, to know such a great artist, and know that he'll die so young, chocking with the throat cancer, before he'd even finished his greatest work? To know that he wouldn't be there, over a decade later, to see his student finish the great work for him? Toscanini famously conducted the premier of Turandot, and when the middle of the third act came to the last of Puccini's part of the composition, he put his baton down and ended the Opera, announcing to the audience that that was the point at which the master had died. What must it be like for the Doctor, in the company and friendship of such men as van Gogh, or Giacomo Puccini, perhaps even in his power to somehow save them, prolong their life, and open new greater masterpieces for all of us to enjoy, but unable to act? I wonder, could someone make the episode someday where the Doctor takes Puccini to that glorious premier of his master work, to see for himself before he died just how important his music was to so many of us?
Contrary to the baying of many of the sad fans, the ability of this show to really expertly play on our emotions is not cheap, nor does this make it a soap opera. Extracting this sort of an emotional response is at the heart of great drama. In Opera many of us know this, the combination of the music with the drama is meant to do exactly this, to even overwhelm us with this kind of beautiful response within ourselves. One couldn't possibly make the argument after this episode that Moffat is any less able to hit these emotional cues than was Davies. Worse yet, to sterilize this show, to weed out this bitter sweetness in favor of an emotionless Sci-Fi blandness as so many of those fans seem to be asking would really be tragedy. I love this kind of episode, the kind the new series has brought us, one that was foreshadowed by the best of the NA's and PDA's. I really feel sorry for those people who can't enjoy it. Some of them called this episode bland. Philistines.
This is one of those things that sets the new series above the old one in my eyes. Can you imagine the old series doing as beautiful a job as taking the dejected Vincent van Gogh, never in his life time to have seen the heights his paintings have achieved, into the future to see their effects on people for himself? And filmed in such a glorious heart tugging manner? Honestly, they had me balling as he's on that turn table in the gallery, the camera focused close on his reactions as Bill Nighy asserts him as the greatest artist to have lived. The old show would have had Tom Baker cracking some joke as he slips away in the Tardis, the show avoiding that chance to share such a real and emotional moment with the viewer, as Dudley Simpson's tones warbled away, or some such.
And a giant-invisible-space-chicken! Honestly, who could have a problem with that?
Years ago, in the telemovie, there was all of that stuff about the Doctor being there when Puccini died. This made a connection with my own art form. It made perfect sense for the Doctor to have been there, probably a great friend of Puccini's, visiting him over the years. Can't you imagine Four traipsing about Torre Del Lago, probably a member of Puccini's own Bohemian club, hunting ducks, drinking wine and living their own little country version of La Boheme? To do all of that, to know such a great artist, and know that he'll die so young, chocking with the throat cancer, before he'd even finished his greatest work? To know that he wouldn't be there, over a decade later, to see his student finish the great work for him? Toscanini famously conducted the premier of Turandot, and when the middle of the third act came to the last of Puccini's part of the composition, he put his baton down and ended the Opera, announcing to the audience that that was the point at which the master had died. What must it be like for the Doctor, in the company and friendship of such men as van Gogh, or Giacomo Puccini, perhaps even in his power to somehow save them, prolong their life, and open new greater masterpieces for all of us to enjoy, but unable to act? I wonder, could someone make the episode someday where the Doctor takes Puccini to that glorious premier of his master work, to see for himself before he died just how important his music was to so many of us?
Contrary to the baying of many of the sad fans, the ability of this show to really expertly play on our emotions is not cheap, nor does this make it a soap opera. Extracting this sort of an emotional response is at the heart of great drama. In Opera many of us know this, the combination of the music with the drama is meant to do exactly this, to even overwhelm us with this kind of beautiful response within ourselves. One couldn't possibly make the argument after this episode that Moffat is any less able to hit these emotional cues than was Davies. Worse yet, to sterilize this show, to weed out this bitter sweetness in favor of an emotionless Sci-Fi blandness as so many of those fans seem to be asking would really be tragedy. I love this kind of episode, the kind the new series has brought us, one that was foreshadowed by the best of the NA's and PDA's. I really feel sorry for those people who can't enjoy it. Some of them called this episode bland. Philistines.