Stories Television Doctor Who Series 5 Episode: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Vincent and the Doctor 2 images Overview Characters How to Watch Reviews 9 Statistics Related Stories Quotes 1 Transcript + Script Overview First aired Saturday, June 5, 2010 Production Code 1.10 Written by Richard Curtis Directed by Jonny Campbell Runtime 47 minutes Time Travel Past, Present Tropes (Potential Spoilers!) Invisibility, Stargazing, Celebrity Historical, Time Travel Pivotal Inventory (Potential Spoilers!) Psychic Paper Location (Potential Spoilers!) Earth, Paris UK Viewers 6.76 million Appreciation Index 86 Synopsis While taking Amy to several peaceful locations, the Eleventh Doctor's trip to a museum takes turn for the worse: his interest is caught by a painting of a church by Vincent van Gogh. What troubles the Doctor is that there's a face in the church's window; it's not a nice face, it's a curious, shadowed, creepy face with a beak and nasty eyes. The Doctor knows evil when he sees it and this face is definitely evil; it may pose a threat to the one who painted it. Only one thing will calm the Doctor's nerves: a trip in the TARDIS to 1890 so he can find out from the artist himself. Watch Watched Favourite Favourited Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Owned Save to my list Saved Edit date completed Custom Date Release Date Archive (no date) Save Characters Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith Amy Pond Karen Gillan Vincent van Gogh First Appearance Krafayis Show All Characters (4) How to watch Vincent and the Doctor: Watch on iPlayer Doctor Who Confidential Blu-Ray The Complete Fifth Series [Steelbook] The Complete Fifth Series DVD The Complete Fifth Series Blu-Ray Series 5: Volume 4 DVD Series 5: Volume 4 Reviews Add Review Edit Review Sort: Date (Newest First) Date (Oldest First) Likes (High-Low) Likes (Low-High) Rating (High-Low) Rating (Low-High) Word count (High-Low) Word count (Low-High) Username (A-Z) Username (Z-A) Spoilers First Spoilers Last 9 reviews 3 June 2025 · 572 words Review by DanDunn Spoilers This review contains spoilers! We go right back to the Eleventh Doctor's first year with the very beloved Vincent and the Doctor. I don’t think there’s many who’d argue this as being among Eleven’s best, it often comes up in a lot of conversations for the best episodes in the show’s history. Possibly the best celebrity historical in all of Doctor Who as the Doctor and Amy pay a visit to the artist himself because of a painting of his in the future with a mysterious out of place creature being featured. They arrive at the right time though as this creature, who’s invisible to everyone but Vincent, has been tearing through the local town killing anyone in its way. From a plot perspective this is as basic as it gets with the Doctor teaming up with a historical celebrity to fight a monster. I think given the gimmick of having the monster be very similar to what the historical figure’s famous for (Charles Dickens and ghosts or Shakespeare and witches) we can be thankful they didn’t go with paint monsters! Though that still didn’t stop people from complaining about the fact that the monster is a giant invisible chicken. While I do understand people’s complaints regarding the monster and their arguments as to why a monster was needed in the first place, I do think the monster has more thought put into it than people may realise. While it has a basic plot, the story itself focuses more on the interactions between the Doctor, Amy and Vincent Van Gogh, just months away from him taking his own life. We see the Doctor and Amy become close friends with him and do their best to help him emotionally from the turmoil he’s going through. It builds to one of the very best endings in the show’s history where by the end of the adventure, they say farewell to Vincent and Amy believes that they’ve given him a new lease on life and that he will go on to paint more works of art. But when they return to the museum in the present day, she’s heartbroken to learn, no he still killed himself. It’s such a powerful ending as it shows that depression is not something that’s easily understood, it’s not something that just goes away because of one life changing experience. Depression in many ways is like an invisible monster slowly eating away at a person’s will to live. If anything, it would be better if it were an invisible monster because that’s at least something tangible. The Doctor can save people from any monster, even the invisible ones because they’re easy to understand, but in the end, he can’t save Vincent Van Gogh from himself because depression isn’t. Lots of people cite the scene where the Doctor takes Vincent to the future to show him how much his work is appreciated and what he means to many aspiring artists as one of the show’s best scenes, and while I don’t entirely dispute that, I was admittedly taken out of it by the ridiculous pop song playing in the background. Even if you took out the song, that ending still blows this scene out of the water, but yes, it is still a fantastic scene in its own right with a great guest appearance from Bill Nighy. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, I’d definitely put it at the top of your recommendations list. DanDunn View profile Like Liked 0 1 June 2025 · 166 words Review by Jann New Who Review #70 Vincent and The Doctor This story was a nice one. It followed the life of one of the most renowned artists of all time Vincent Van Gogh. This story focused on touching areas like Depression and Suicide which was nice but also really sad. The scene when they returned to the Musee D'orsay and found out that he still killed himself and they didn't make a difference is sad. Because it shows that you can help people and change little parts of their troubles but sometimes you can't change the big things and that's sad yes but it's also ok. This is one of the most touching and relatable episodes to me because I've been in a position that Vincent was in and sure I didn't have a time lord to help me but I had something better. I had my family. Overall a sad story that I love and always will and one of the most touching the show has ever made. 10/10 Jann View profile Like Liked 0 4 May 2025 · 5 words Review by gabe_the_cool van gough is my dad gabe_the_cool View profile Like Liked 0 18 April 2025 · 50 words Review by Jonathan_ Spoilers 1 This review contains spoilers! One of the most emotional episodes in all of Doctor Who This one is very similar to The Girl in the Fireplace, though i think this one is a bit worse. The story with the monster isn't all that interesting, the real payoff of this episode is just with Vincent Jonathan_ View profile Like Liked 1 13 April 2025 · 31 words Review by gothichotchreid This is just as beautiful as everyone has said it is. I loved it and I love Vincent Van Gogh so very much. I need to kiss whoever suggested this idea. gothichotchreid View profile Like Liked 0 Show All Reviews (9) Open in new window Statistics AVG. Rating953 members 4.47 / 5 Member Statistics Watched 1851 Favourited 402 Reviewed 9 Saved 3 Skipped 1 Related Stories Doctor Who S5 • Episode 12 The Pandorica Opens Rating: 4.13 Story Skipped Television Reviews(6) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Doctor Who Series 5 Set of Stories: Doctor Who (2005-2022) Set of Stories: Eleventh Doctor Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved The Blogs of Doom Dr Black Rating: 2.50 Story Skipped Short Story More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: The Blogs of Doom Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved The Blogs of Doom The Ghoul Rating: 2.50 Story Skipped Short Story Reviews(1) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: The Blogs of Doom Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Quotes Add Quote Link to Quote Favourite DOCTOR: 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. — Vincent and the Doctor Transcript + Script (Autumn. Something cuts a swathe through the ripe wheat, scaring the crows. The event is caught on canvas by an avant-garde artist.) [Muse d'Orsay] (Wheatfield with crows is now hanging on a gallery wall with an expert enthusing over it to his audience.) BLACK: So this is one of the last paintings Van Gogh ever painted. Those final months of his life were probably the most astonishing artistic outpouring in history. It was like Shakespeare knocking off Othello, Macbeth and King Lear over the summer hols. And especially astonishing because Van Gogh did it with no hope of praise or reward. He is now…AMY: Thanks for bringing me.DOCTOR: You're welcome.AMY: You're being so nice to me. Why are you being so nice to me?DOCTOR: I'm always nice to you.AMY: Not like this. These places you're taking me. Arcadia, the Trojan Gardens, now this. I think it's suspicious.DOCTOR: What? It's not. There's nothing to be suspicious about.AMY: Okay, I was joking. Why aren't you?BLACK: Each of these pictures now is worth tens of millions of pounds, yet in his lifetime he was a commercial disaster. Sold only one painting, and that to the sister of a friend. We have here possibly the greatest artist of all time, but when he died you could have sold his entire body of work and got about enough money to buy a sofa and a couple of chairs. If you follow me now…CHILD: Who is it?CHILD 2: It's the doctor. (The Doctor turns. The schoolboys are looking at the portrait of Doctor Gachet.) Show Full Transcript Open in new window View Script (PDF)