Further, the scene where the Doctor attempted to help Van Gogh fight the Krafayis although he couldn’t see it - and made a fool of himself in the process - did the character of our hero no favours at all, making him look silly. Indeed, Matt Smith gave one of his weaker portrayals here, being far too arch throughout, apart from in a couple of the more character-driven emotional scenes where, to be fair, he did achieve the right pitch. Even then, taking Van Gogh to a modern-day exhibition and showing him how his art was feted in later times made little sense since that seemed to give him a new sense of purpose and rendered his subsequent suicide a few months after the episode was set nonsensical.