Before I start everything, can we just take a moment and laugh about how I stared at my laptop for about 20 minutes without putting a single word down? For a show that I love so much, I hardly know where to start.
Doctor Who has accompanied through most of my college years. I started watching the show about three years ago, on a cold winter night (Christmas break). I must admit, between the rough British accent and the old TV production, it was a little difficult for me to completely understand the show. But I still remember the exact moment when I fell in love :
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Mickey: “Pi-pi-pi-PIZZA! ”
Without having to view the show with a critical mind, I simply enjoyed the drama, the thrill, the freedom of traveling through time and space. One of my favorite episodes is set in 1890, France. The 11th doctor (played by Matt Smith) and his companion Amy Pond visits Vincent van Gogh during the last few months of life before committing suicide at age of thirty-seven. Through out the episode, aside from the running alongside the doctor and chasing monsters, this episode touched based many times on the mental condition of van Gogh. Van Gogh had a mental melt down and even admitted to the Doctor upon their departure, that he “might not do so well on his own”. After hearing this, the Doctor decided to bring van Gogh to Musee d’Orsay museum in Paris to show van Gogh the impact of his work. At the museum, van Gogh was shaken as the collection’s curator described van Gogh in a way where “He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty… (van Gogh) is not only the world’s greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.” (Vincent and the Doctor, Doctor Who season 5, episode 10)
This episode was able to portrait the tormented artists within the limitation of essentially being a children’s program. Van Gogh’s mental anguish was displayed wonderfully by the actor Tony Curran. In my opinion, this episode is also a great representation of the essence of Doctor Who. There’s a little bit of history, a little bit of sic-fi. There’s enough emotions involved to bring people to tears and also a lot of moral stories that makes the viewers think more critically. The fact that the writer didn’t skirt around the metal illness impressed me very much.
In the end, meeting Vincent van Gogh and William Shakespeare, seeing a dinosaur in a spaceship and the end of time, these are merely a glimpse of what’s waiting in front of you, my dear classmates. Enjoy the class and the show!
Diversity and the Doctor 