Vincent and the Doctor

Forget the monster as that was pretty irrelevant and concentrate on the human aspect. Also forget the accents and the fact nobody seemed to know how to pronounce van Gogh properly. Tony Curran gave a really good performance and managed to convey the tortured artist even within the confines of what is essentially a children's programme. As with Chris Eccleston and his Dickens story and Dave Tennant and his Vesuvius tale we saw Matt showing the reverence the Doctor has for Historical characters who are doomed and he is unable to help. Some lovely acting both by Doctor and sidekick and an excellent example of what is best about Dr Who. I still think Matt the poorest of the new generation Doctors but he has shown a few moments as to why they hired him so I would imagine he will improve and show his worth. The stories so far have not been great except for this and the Angel episodes.....and the less said about the Dalek episode the better. Last weeks two parter was garbage apart from the Rory storyline but this one was exceptional and a nice glimpse of the humanity of the central characters. We saw it with Donna in the Pompeii episode and Rose in the Dickens one and Amy does well here. I have been watching this programme since it's first week with William Hartnell and in among the dodgy sets and the unconvincing monsters there have been sublime moments of real poignancy that have been worth all the effort. This was one of them. OK the monster did look silly and yes Vinnie was NOT Scottish but suspension of disbelief is important in programmes like this so why worry about plot holes too much. Every Doctor leaves important episodes behind. Even Sylvester McCoy. Maybe in years to come this one will be among Matt Smiths.