Vincent and the Doctor

[keevacaereni]

I don't know much about depression. I don't know anyone in real life who suffers from it, nor have I experienced it myself. As I understand it, it is a condition that affects your brain, makes you feel unable to cope, sends you into "black moods", as Vincent said.

This episode of Doctor Who moved me, because it doesn't explain away depression as something that can be got over by pulling yourself together or being happier. It is something that falls on you, even if everything is going right.

I felt it was handled respectfully and well, both for adults and children, and in a way that showed he wasn't just down in the dumps, nor was he a madman. I felt for Vincent, all through the episode.

Van Gogh's works are not my favourite, but what Bill Nighy said at the end was right. The ability to take your pain, and passion, and use it to show the beauty in the world is a talent indeed, and a rare one. The actor did an amazing job showing Vincent as a person, not just some generic misunderstood artist.

These thoughts aren't very coherent, but they're how I feel.

Comments

[taekarado.livejournal.com]

...is it bad that i want to see this episode now?

[keevacaereni.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. It's the best episode of the season so far, in my opinion.

[kestrellan.livejournal.com]

Thank you, yes. At the end of the episode, I told the friends I watched it with that I really liked it. I couldn't bring myself to say that actually I loved it, I thought it was wonderfully magical and it made me want to cry. If I'd watched it alone, I probably would have cried. I think it might actually now be one of my favourites.

One of said friends said he felt that the Doctor was cruel for taking Vincent to the future, that it put too much pressure on him. I disagreed. Whether it put too much pressure on him or not, whether that was what made him commit suicide or whether he later thought it was all a creation of his madness, I thought what the Doctor did for him them was one of the kindest things I've ever seen the Doctor do. He seemed at his most compassionate in this episode and I loved him for it.

Rambling over...

[keevacaereni.livejournal.com]

I loved the Doctor in this. He was compassionate and kind and sad, and he didn't know how to fix things, but he tried to add to the good things anyway. I think that's an important part of the Doctor, along with all the running and boredom of linear time and fanboying over Madame de Pompadour.