Coming in at second place is one of NuWho's most emotional episodes to date. While it's only the second entry on the countdown to feature the Eleventh Doctor, it's a story that is well and truly brighter than sunflowers and it's completely deserving of such a high position owing to the fact that it was penned by one of Britain's most acclaimed and popular writers, Richard Curtis. The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond encountered Vincent van Gogh in the Series 5 classic and Tony Curran's praised portrayal of the renowned painter is what made the story such an iconic piece of gut wrenchingly beautifully drama. The script manages to capture the brutality of his personal trauma without dwelling on it explicitly and the episode was recognised at the Mind Mental Health Media Awards for its honest depiction of mental illness. That final scene - in which Vincent is shown first hand the significance of his future success - is heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal measure. It's a story of history's greatest painter in what is quite possibly history's greatest Doctor Who story, too. Only not on this occasion, because that title has been given to another iconic episode. And it's time to find out which one...
Dan Butler is the Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture.com. When he isn't writing his own articles or editing other people's, he can be found trawling the internet for gifs of Steven Moffat laughing. Contact him via dan.butler@whatculture.co.uk.
