After 'Orphan 55', I had almost completely lost hope in Doctor Who, but many of the problems of Season 11 and the previous episode seem to have been addressed somewhat (for the first time) in this episode. The companions seem to finally be part of the story, not just add-ons or merely spectators.
Good writing makes all the difference to me. For example, Matt Smith is perhaps my least favourite (modern) Doctor and companion Amy irritated me more often than not, but good writing and good acting puts the 'Vincent and the Doctor' episode in my top five.
In this episode I think we had a decent story about a worthy and influential historical figure. All the companions had some part to play in the story with at least a few good lines each. There were even glimpses of the Doc that we have come to love, although she does wave the sonic around a bit too much still.
There was a moral or two to be told, but not in the heavy-handed way of many of the latest Doc's episodes.
Despite the improvements, I still had a lot of issues with the episode which earned it a fairly mediocre score from me.
For starters, I really did not like this week's monster - it had too much of 'The Runaway Bride' monster vibe for my liking. And I would also suggest that 'Doctor Who' doesn't need so many special effects, but rather it needs better stories. Many of my favourite episodes have been "low tech" or almost "no tech" such as 'Blink'.
The first half of the episode seemed to be well-paced, but soon after that it all seemed to go off the rails in a big way for me. The editing seemed to be all over the place with too much happening one second and very little happening the next.
Despite all that, the episode is still worth watching.
I still think that three companions is at least one too many. Ryan is my least favourite of the three, but strangely enough, he wouldn't be the one I would get rid of if I had to choose. I think Graham wouldn't be the same without him and I don't think Yas and Graham would play off each other as well as Ryan and she do.