Madness and metaphor in Vincent and the Doctor

On original its transmission in 2010, Vincent and the Doctor was subject to a notable ‘first’ for Doctor Who. The episode’s conclusion was followed by a BBC announcement inviting viewers who had been “affected by the issues raised in this programme” to contact their support services, an occurrence more commonly associated with ‘adult’ dramas than family viewing like Doctor Who. This reinforced the impression that the episode hadn’t really been about an alien stranded in Provence, but about madness. Or mental ill health as we should more delicately, but less dramatically, put it.

Kudos to Richard Curtis for writing so openly about Van Gogh’s depression, but the episode also has one of the surprisingly few examples of direct metaphor in Doctor Who. The Krafayis represents madness: the invisible but destructive monster that only the sufferer can really see. Anyone feeling that the fantasy element of the plot was too slight and unconnected with the lead guest character, as in some of the series’ other ‘celebrity historicals’, is missing the point.

The Krafayis plot and the Van Gogh plot were effectively one and the same, just dramatised in different ways. In both cases afflicted, misunderstood creatures come to a sad end, despite efforts to prevent this. Certainly, these two plot strands could have been entwined more effectively, giving Van Gogh a narrative as well as thematic connection to the alien (perhaps the lost Krafayis could have been drawn to Van Gogh in some way, due to his mental illness or outsider status). But this is splitting hairs.

It was also good to see the disturbed mind being presented as a source of inspiration and a component in creative genius, rather than being linked to malice and violence, as is more commonly the case in Doctor Who. Whilst this was made clear in the dialogue, it was most vividly realised in the sequence in which we see through Van Gogh’s eyes as a starry night’s sky turns into the artist’s ‘The Starry Night’ (painted around the time and site of the episode’s setting and, fittingly, also featuring a view of an asylum: Curtis did his research).

The Doctor and Amy’s celebration of Van Gogh’s vision is a welcome validation of such alternative ways of seeing.

Images © BBC

[This is a slightly revised version of an article originally published in Panic Moon in July 2010]