The God Complex

"I'm not a hero, I really am just a mad man in a box."

Writer: Toby Whithouse 

Format: TV 

Broadcast: 17th September 2011

Series: 6.11

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory 

Synopsis 

The Doctor, Amy and Rory get trapped in what appears to be a 1980s hotel. But there, a Minotaur roams and he feasts on those who become subjected to their biggest fear, which lies behind one of the hotel room doors. 

Verdict 

The God Complex was another excellent story to continue series six along nicely and after the little blip in quality with Night Terrors, things are certainly back to the exceptional level of the first half of this season. It started off excellently with Lucy being hunted by a horrific looking creature and then she was lured into a hotel room and saw her biggest fear. The fictional gorilla that frightened her as a child. I liked how she wrote down what was going on as she tried to prevent the Minotaur from engulfing her. But she couldn't hold out any longer. Praise him. Praise him. The arrival of the TARDIS trio was good and I liked how the Doctor is seemingly not delivering on his promises of seeing something amazing lately. Things weren't quite as intended in the previous episode The Girl Who Waited and instead of seeing beings you could only talk to in hot air balloons, they'd arrived in a squirmy hotel. Amy wasn't impressed but I loved the Doctor's immediate interest in the craftsmanship. When meeting Rita, Howie and Gibbis, I loved how the Doctor immediately took a shine to Rita's intellect and ability to handle the situation. He jokingly fired Amy and seemingly straight away offered to take her as his third companion. She did seem perfectly suited for the role and it was evident she'd have no problem getting on with the Doctor. Things weren't meant to be though as she suffered death at the Minotaur's hands. It was courageous and just brilliant of her to get as far away from the Doctor when she noticed the first symptoms. Praise him. He was watching on the hotel CCTV but when the beast arrived he couldn't watch a women he immediately cared for perish in horrendous circumstances. The idea of a hotel setting is magnificent and I love how each room contains the biggest fear of somebody. A quite brilliant idea. After only recently watching School Reunion, I must say I am mightily impressed by Toby Whithouse's writing and I'm certainly going to be looking at exploring more of his works! The scene where the group entered the room containing the Weeping Angels was superb. It seemed they were Gibbis's greatest fear. His species were really weird I must say. They embraced invasion so much they were planting trees so the invaders could takeover in the shade! I loved seeing the Sontaran on the wall of victims with the biggest fear listed underneath. Defeat being the Sontaran's was absolutely perfect. Amy's room containing events that would have taken place during The Eleventh Hour with Amelia waiting for the Doctor to come back was quite emotional. Rory really felt like a spare part in this episode, especially when it was revealed Amy's faith in the Doctor was so powerful that it brought them to the hotel. I mean Rory didn't even have a room and didn't say goodbye to the Doctor in the shocking conclusion! The Minotaur being labelled as beautiful on more than one occasion was quite baffling but I loved the moment the Doctor worked out what was really going on. The scene with the mirrors was outstanding. He knew that thinking of the something that gives you faith was what was bringing the Minotaur in. The fear in the rooms was bringing out the faith and the Doctor had been encouraging them to think of it. Bad move. Praise him. Once Amy became subjected to the Minotaur's will, in very The Curse of Fenric-esque style, the Doctor incredibly made Amy lose her faith in him which defeated the Minotaur allowing it to die as it wished. The moment at its death with the twist reference to the Doctor was terrific. I liked the reference to the Nimon being a distant cousin but I was mightily surprised by the conclusion. The Doctor was telling Amy and Rory to leave permanent stay on the TARDIS. He'd see them again but they should leave his side. He wanted them to live and not suffer the fate of previous companions who didn't leave by their own will. Amy and Rory would leave a normal life, for a while at least. 

Rating: 9/10