I definitely think it was very important and crucial that this is the episode that aired right after the one where Rory dies - so it was able to kind of mesh the idea of pain and depression and loneliness that lurks behind a person - more evidently in Van Gogh and his whole life, and in Amy’s case, in a way she doesn’t even understand (like that scene when she was crying and didn’t even know it). Also great to see the Doctor trying to cope with Rory’s death, of which he is the only one who even remembers him (and that Rory did die to save the Doctor), being almost overly attentive to Amy for fear he’d hurt someone else (or for fear that her memories of Rory might be triggered and she’d be broken) - all remarkably done. There’s almost a little bit of the Donna story there (where Donna cannot remember the Doctor and their adventures because her brain will fry -in a similar way, can Amy cope with the fact that her fiance was killed right in front of her eyes and they left his body there should she ever remember him again?). And given the ‘alien of the week’ was just a poor thing who’s blind and also alone in the world (there was no real mystery to it), I think this episode was almost a pure character piece without too much sci fi - basically one where we’d see how everyone is coping with the events from last week (which I was really worried from last week that it’ll just return to a happy go lucky ’ DW and erase the gravity that was Rory’s death) , and is successful because of that unapologetic focus on character and not on some alien trying to kill everyone.
And while I usually don’t particularly like these types of period/historical figures episodes in DW (like the episode with the Queen, or the Shakespeare episode, and the Agatha Christie episode) - this one, I loved, because the choice to use Van Gogh was actually important (and that it couldn’t have been just some other random historical figure) and very relevant to the main characters and their emotions at the time. I’ve liked the new Doctor and Amy all season (which storywise was somewhat uneven. Good at times, bad in others), but this is the first episode where I finally feel that emotional attachment to them.
Then again, I might be biased just because I happen to love Van Gogh, and I totally agree that it was heartfelt and teary to see (even if it’s just in a tv show!) him seeing people acknowledge his work and his influence in art, given how his life went. For a split second I was hoping just like Amy was that there’s be hundreds more paintings when they return to the Orsay, even knowing that wouldn’t be the case. Van Gogh was only active as a painter for less than 10 years (or so) - and this episode reminded me of just how much he would have grown as an artist and what kinds of work would he have made if he’d lived a little longer.
