# Doctor Who Series Five: UK pace thread \[edited title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 3, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851 "2010-04-03T21:23:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 32
**Author:** ![Xan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ac8455/32.png) [@Xan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/621 "2010-06-06T15:48:28Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Me too 🙂 > > I was quite amazed when I discovered that there are other people who also do that sort of thing… it’s quite a comfort to know you’re not the only one. Which is what I appreciated about the depiction of Depression in that episode: the writer and the director _get_ it. > > To be as accurate and insightful as that, about a difficult subject where ignorance and fear are the most common reactions, in an episode of a childrens’ sci-fi series is a remarkable achievement. I suffer from major depression as well. It just see it differently. I will agree it was a remarkably adult episode for a children’s series. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/622 "2010-06-06T15:53:33Z")
I’m going to say something that caused my wife to burst into tears, her hair going immediately white before my very eyes: I so much prefer Matt Smith to David Tennant, it’s not even close. And Amy is the best companion I’ve seen in the new iteration\* - the only Tennant companion to come close is Donna. (I can’t really stand Rose, which is HERESY in my family). \*Didn’t watch old Who, wasn’t into it. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/623 "2010-06-07T02:35:38Z")
Wow!! Brilliant episode! Easily my favorite of Series 5 so far. The last 10 minutes or so were just wonderful. I couldn’t help but get teary-eyed by the end, something I really did not expect to happen when I had seen the trailer for this episode. I loved the shot of the sky turning into _Starry Night_. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/624 "2010-06-07T05:43:22Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > I’m not sure if you’re deliberately trying to be obtuse here, but no; they weren’t saying that mentally ill people can see things that normal folks can’t, they were saying that a genius-level visual artist might be able to see things that most people can’t. I thought the implication was that Vincent had [synesthesia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia), with the line about hearing colors. If his senses were scrambled, he might have been immune to whatever power the creature possessed to make folks with a normally operating set of senses to not see it. ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/625 "2010-06-07T06:52:42Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > On another show the “For Amy” might have been over the top, but here it was perfect. I imagine curators at the Musee d’Orsay may get tired soon of tourists asking to see the Doctor Who sunflowers, though. (At first I thought someone had goofed because it should have said “Voor Amy” or maybe “Pour Amy,” but then I remembered the handy Tardis translation circuit.) Eh, I’ll handwave it away with ‘well, he was fluent in English, too’. Even though he thought she was Dutch. Maybe they cleared that up off screen. I’ll agree with the piles of good things, piles of bad things speech being good without beating the horse. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/626 "2010-06-07T08:30:32Z")
Only three people have admitted to crying? Well, I’ll make it four. And I loved the tour guide at the art exhibit. He did a great job. And he wore two nice bow ties (on separate occasions - not both together). ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/627 "2010-06-07T08:47:26Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I loved the tour guide at the art exhibit. He did a great job. And he wore two nice bow ties (on separate occasions - not both together). That was an uncredited [Bill Nighy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nighy), by the way. Nice little cameo there from a fairly big name. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/628 "2010-06-07T09:56:17Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > On another show the “For Amy” might have been over the top, but here it was perfect. I imagine curators at the Musee d’Orsay may get tired soon of tourists asking to see the Doctor Who sunflowers, though. (At first I thought someone had goofed because it should have said “Voor Amy” or maybe “Pour Amy,” but then I remembered the handy Tardis translation circuit.) I was disappointed by that, actually. I thought they’d be a little more subtle and use a phrase like ‘Pour mon Amie’ - ‘For my Amy’ or ‘For my friend’. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/629 "2010-06-07T10:29:22Z")
Well, it’s already been established that shop owners in Pompeii sound like cockney fruit and veg sellers. ---
**Author:** ![martu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@martu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/martu)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/630 "2010-06-07T12:26:12Z")
Tears in my eyes watching Doctor Who??? Curtis is good, very good. Loved it, superb acting all round. ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/631 "2010-06-07T12:43:09Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > And I loved the tour guide at the art exhibit. He did a great job. And he wore two nice bow ties (on separate occasions - not both together). I agree – I though the performance was lovely. He first comes across as kind of a stuffed shirt, but then he gets the chance to really explain his love for art and genuine passion shines through those words. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/632 "2010-06-07T13:11:56Z")
Great episode. The moment when van Gogh sees his work in the gallery, and during Bill Nighy’s speech about where he rated in the history of art? Perfect. Slight problem- okay, so the poor ferocious killing beast was blind. Before they found that out, were they intending to kill it? Because regardless of its handicap, it was still a ferocious killing beast- the Doctor made that quite clear. So suddenly becoming all sympathetic seemed weird. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/633 "2010-06-07T13:36:41Z")
> [@Lissla\_Lissar](#): > > Slight problem- okay, so the poor ferocious killing beast was blind. Before they found that out, were they intending to kill it? When the Doctor reads the Krafayis’s hitch-hiker’s wikipedia entry, he says he plans to take it home. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/634 "2010-06-07T14:12:20Z")
Great episode, lots of emotional depth, and yes, I agree watching Vincent’s reaction when he hears Nighy’s speech about how VVG rated in the world of art was great, it actually got me hoping that VVG wouldn’t commit suicide… (one aside, was the actor playing VVG the same actor that played Shakespeare in the Tenant/Agyeman episode “The Shakespeare Code”?) I also liked one of the more subtle inside jokes early in the episode, there’s a closeup of some TARDIS console controls, and one of the components has a “Magpie Industries” logo… ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/635 "2010-06-07T14:58:09Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > (one aside, was the actor playing VVG the same actor that played Shakespeare in the Tenant/Agyeman episode “The Shakespeare Code”?) No. Van Gogh was played by [Tony Curran](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0192889/); Shakespeare was played by [Dean Lennox Kelly.](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0446319/) ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/636 "2010-06-07T15:01:59Z")
Typing on a phone, so this is going to be pretty brief. It occurred to me that the theme of this entire season has been the Doctor’s limitations and his lack if power. The whole season, everyone interplanetary except for the Doctor knows what’s up with The Crack. The first episode starts with him unable to come to Amy when he is supposed to. The second, he chooses to lobotomize the star whale. Exactly the wrong decision. His psychotic hatred of and need to out the Daleks walked straight into their trap. But it really kicks into focus with the Rory stuff. In Vampires he can’t save the fish people (or the daughter and father), Rory’s dream death (“If you can’t save him then WHAT GOOD ARE YOU?”), Rory’s unmaking saving the Doctor, and even his inability to keep Amy from forgetting him. It SEEMS that even the Van Gogh episode showed it. He seemed to very much expect to fail to keep Vincent alive. And then, after taking him to see what the future thinks of him (one of the most moving moments in TV history IMO) he knew it wasn’t going to work. Amy had all sorts of hope, but I really think the Doctor is starting to get depressed by his own impotence. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/637 "2010-06-07T15:02:27Z")
According to IMDb, **Shakespeare** was played by **Dean Lennox Kelly** (who also appeared as Tully on _Being Human_ – reallY? I’ll have to see that again.) **Vincent Van Gogh** was Tony Curran, who I’d never heard of before but apparently has a bit of a following, judging by the buzz about this episode. ETA: I really have to start posting faster. ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/638 "2010-06-07T17:23:27Z")
Oh, I fully admit to crying. As someone who does suffer from and lost a father to bipolar disorder, it hurt in places. (My father and I did the Van Gogh tour through France a few years before his death, and the entire episode really got under my skin.) ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/639 "2010-06-07T17:55:29Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Typing on a phone, so this is going to be pretty brief. > > It occurred to me that the theme of this entire season has been the Doctor’s limitations and his lack if power. > > The whole season, everyone interplanetary except for the Doctor knows what’s up with The Crack. The first episode starts with him unable to come to Amy when he is supposed to. The second, he chooses to lobotomize the star whale. Exactly the wrong decision. His psychotic hatred of and need to out the Daleks walked straight into their trap. > > But it really kicks into focus with the Rory stuff. In Vampires he can’t save the fish people (or the daughter and father), Rory’s dream death (“If you can’t save him then WHAT GOOD ARE YOU?”), Rory’s unmaking saving the Doctor, and even his inability to keep Amy from forgetting him. > > It SEEMS that even the Van Gogh episode showed it. He seemed to very much expect to fail to keep Vincent alive. And then, after taking him to see what the future thinks of him (one of the most moving moments in TV history IMO) he knew it wasn’t going to work. Amy had all sorts of hope, but I really think the Doctor is starting to get depressed by his own impotence. > > -Joe Interesting, hadn’t considered that. Oh, remembered another thing that’s bothering the shit out of me - can Smith please stop promising people things? “I’ll get him back, I promise you” “He’ll be fine, I promise you” “I won’t let anything happen to her, I promise you” “No-one dies today, I promise you” And on and on and on… Given that he’s fluffing it up quite a bit lately it’s starting to sound particularly hollow. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851/640 "2010-06-07T18:05:28Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > And on and on and on… Given that he’s fluffing it up quite a bit lately it’s starting to sound particularly hollow. Or, if I’m a genius, desperate. Then again, it could just be his thing. Remember Season Three (I think), when we had a “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” at least once an episode? -Joe [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851.md?page=31) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-five-uk-pace-thread-edited-title/534851.md?page=33)