we move on to a story wherein the Doctor runs into a Famous Historical Person about a year before said Famous Historical Person commits suicide. The Doctor spends half the episode worried that the Famous Historical Person will die before he finishes his work... and then commits suicide.
Does anyone see a serious flaw in that?
They have to team up to fight an invisible monster that only the FHP can see because it represents the FHP's demon. What comes across on screen is Tony Curran waving a stick around and miming, while Matt Smith goes completely ape against a make-believe foe.
Does anyone see a serious flaw in that?
Meanwhile, Amy has absolutely nothing to do except suddenly develop a massive and hitherto-never-before-seen crush on a doomed FHP. This might have something to do with the fact that her boyfriend was killed off and erased from her mind in the previous episode.
Okay, what worked was Matt Smith completely taking the p*ss during the invisible monster fight. The script at least cleverly acknowledges its own shortcomings. But what we're left with is a story where the Doctor insists that he made a difference because a parrot-lizard-hyena thing disappeared from one of Van Gough's paintings. Also, despite only being able to see the thing in the mirror, the Doctor constantly looks over his shoulder. Wha...?
I'm seriously wondering how this story made it to the screen. This is a show where gigantic eyeballs can threaten to destroy the planet, where the British had Mars Probes in 1970, where spaceships kept showing up in 2006... but "the past" is absolutely sacrosanct. We're left with the Doctor cheerfully bidding Vincent farewell, knowing full well he's going to off himself soon. Eh? This is what the Doctor does? (Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, way back in The Aztecs, he and his companions manipulated the populace into thinking Barbara was a god, and in The Time Meddler, he pretty much guaranteed that the villagers he met and befriended would get wiped out by vikings. Yay moral relativism.)
I can't fault the acting, because Tony Curran carries this episode so well. The script is seriously wack, though.
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