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Dr Who 5.10 (210): "Vincent and the Doctor Letterbox Hybrid

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josephaw: Time to be done. These had a good run, but they are now being retired permanently....

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Hidden : 5/11/2015
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1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
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Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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PLEASE NOTE: These caches were originally all letterboxes, with stamps that I personally painstakingly made. Unfortunately, they have proven quite popular, and with that comes muggling. Apparently a number of the stamps have gone missing, and as some have complained about this, and I haven't the time to go and check all 100+ of them on a regular basis, I will be converting them to Traditional caches as needed.

It pains me to make this decision, but it must be done. I recognize that with a powertrail, caches are bound to go missing (that is the nature of the beast), and I appreciate that many of you have helped out by bringing along spares. However, your average cacher does NOT carry around spare stamps, and even if you did, it wouldn't be the one that I originally and personally made for the cache.

So, I am asking for your help: please let me know in your logs which ones are indeed missing their stamps, and I will be changing them to Traditionals (the alternative is archival, unfortunately). Thanks for your assistance in this endeavor, and thanks for supporting this series. I am glad that I spent the many hours needed to create these. However, I cannot justify consistently having to make and then replace all the stamps, due to time constraints.

Sincerely, the CO, josephaw

9/27/15


First off, let me thank you for finding this geocache! I hope you enjoyed the experience of finding it as much as I enjoyed creating and hiding all of these letterbox caches.

This is just one of many such caches in my Dr Who Letterbox Series, made with the help and inspiration of friends. As a Letterbox cache, please leave the stamp for others to see and use, thanks! Each cache has a unique stamp, so bring an inkpad and collect them all! Have fun, and be safe!


"Vincent and the Doctor" is the tenth episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 5 June 2010. It was written byRichard Curtis and directed by Jonny Campbell and featured an uncredited guest appearance from actor Bill Nighy.

Intrigued by an ominous figure in one of Vincent van Gogh's paintings, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) go back in time to meet Van Gogh (Tony Curran) and discover that Provence has been plagued by an invisible monster, known as the Krafayis, which only Van Gogh can see. The Doctor and Amy work with Van Gogh to defeat the Krafayis, but in their attempt to have Van Gogh realise his legacy through bringing him to the future they ultimately realise that not all of time can be rewritten and there are some evils which are out of the Doctor's reach.

Curtis, inspired by the fact that Van Gogh never knew he would be famous, had the idea for an episode centred on him. He left the script open to criticism from the crew and made many revisions as a result. Curtis wanted to portray Van Gogh truthfully, rather than being cruel by writing jokes about his madness. The episode was filmed in TrogirCroatia and many of the sets were modelled after Van Gogh paintings. The episode was watched by 6.76 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD. Reception to the episode varied, ranging from very positive to mixed to very negative. While the amount of emotion in the episode was debated over, most reviewers agreed that the Krafayis was not a threatening monster while Curran's performance as Van Gogh was immensely praised.

Plot

The Doctor has taken Amy to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where they admire the work of the post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. The Doctor discovers a seemingly alien figure in a window of the painting The Church at Auvers, and decides they must travel back in time to speak to Vincent around when he painted the painting. In 1890, they find Vincent at a cafe in Arles, a lonely man with a bad reputation. Vincent opens up when he notices Amy, sensing a loss she herself is not aware of. Outside the cafe a young girl is murdered, when the trio go out to see what happened they are stoned by locals who blame Vincent's insanity for the killing. The Doctor and Amy talk Vincent into letting them stay a few nights and they return to his home.

That evening, Vincent confesses that his works have little value to anyone else. He believes the universe is filled with wonders that he must paint, and that he can "hear the colours". Amy goes outside and is attacked by a beast that only Vincent is able to see. He sketches it for the Doctor, who identifies it as a Krafayis. Knowing the beast will appear when Vincent paints the nearby church the next evening, the Doctor and Amy plan to join him. The next morning, Vincent becomes distraught after being told that The Doctor and Amy won't be staying long. Vincent shuts himself in his bedroom, saying that everyone leaves him in the end. The Doctor and Amy set out to capture the beast alone, but Vincent soon joins them eager to help. He confides to Amy that if she can "soldier on, then so can Vincent van Gogh".

Vincent begins creating the painting of the church and soon spots the beast inside. The Doctor demands that Amy stay back as he enters the church alone, but she and Vincent both agree they should help the Doctor. Vincent is able to save the Doctor and Amy, describing the beast's actions as they hide in the confessionals. The Doctor soon realises from Vincent's description that the beast is blind, the likely reason it was abandoned on Earth. The beast is impaled on Vincent's easel when it tries to lunge at the artist. The Doctor attempts to soothe the dying creature while Vincent empathises with its pain. After the creature dies, the three return outside the church and Vincent describes the night sky as he envisions it.

The next day, the Doctor and Amy prepare to leave. Vincent asks Amy to return and marry him should she leave the Doctor. As Vincent turns to leave, the Doctor offers to show him something. The Doctor and Amy take Vincent in the TARDIS to the present and the Van Gogh exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay. Vincent is stunned at the display and becomes emotionally overwhelmed when he overhears art curator Dr. Black (Bill Nighy) say that Van Gogh was "the greatest painter of them all" and "one of the greatest men who ever lived". They return an emotionally changed Vincent back to the past and say their final goodbyes. As the Doctor and Amy return to the present Amy is confident that there will be hundreds of new paintings by Vincent waiting for them, but is then crushed to learn that Vincent still committed suicide weeks after their adventure, at the age of 37. The Doctor explains that life is a mixture of bad and good, and while their brief encounter with Vincent couldn't undo everything wrong they added some good to his life. The evidence is in Vincent's displayed works: the face no longer appears in The Church, and now Vase with 12 Sunflowers bears the inscription, "For Amy".

Continuity

Images of the First and Second Doctors are displayed on the Doctor's mirror device and printout from the TARDIS' typewriter.[2][2] The episode presents these trips as the Doctor's compensation to Amy for her fiancé Rory Williams' death in the previous episode, which Amy herself does not remember since Rory was consumed by a crack in the universe and thus erased from time. Van Gogh is able to sense Amy's sadness at Rory's death, and the Doctor later accidentally addresses Amy and Vincent as Amy and Rory, respectively.[3][4]

www.wikipedia.org

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Uvag: Fntr; Fgnzc: Zbba sebz Ina TBtu'f Fgneel Avtug, juvpu ur qrfpevorf gb Nzl.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)