S06E11 - The God Complex

For an episode that not only had been highly anticipated since series six began filming but also had contained references to both the Shining and past Who story ‘The Curse of Fenric’, for me, ‘The God Complex’ had a lot of unexplained intentions, confusing plotlines and a resolution in a quick write-off which resolved itself only mere minutes later. What do I mean? Well the story itself was about Amy having too much faith in the Doctor, and said Timelord needed to rid her of that so as to save her life, but only reasserting Amy’s faith by saving her from himself – in all, forty minutes to prove something five minutes could have resolved and a story who’s explanation was rather vague and unknowing; A little like Series Four’s ‘Midnight’.

Now, don’t get me wrong it was a good episode – with Minotaur’s, Doctor Angst, scared faces, long corridors and death aplenty; a really atypical Doctor Who episode and worthy of Toby Whithouse’s rather warped mind, but it never properly explained the how’s, what’s and why’s. An example of this confusion comes from exactly HOW the Minotaur (/alien) could kill/feed from just people’s faith and why the prison ship had been disguised as the hotel of the episode, or indeed how or why it had reverted back from the simulation when the Doctor cut off the Minotaur’s food supply to kill it.

For an episode with a lot seemingly going on, there seemed little actually happening, with the same fate befalling all of the Doctor’s new friends the adventure became seemingly repetitive and had it not been for the acting of all the cast, the episode would had flopped big time. Indeed, one standout performance, for all viewers I hope, was Amara Karan’s performance as Rita, the other companion who never was (after my hopes for Mels before her big reveal). Led on by her religious faith, the Minotaur had a hard time trying to seek out her inner personal faith – a faith of succeeding, if I interpreted that correctly – and by so doing delaying it’s feast from her, allowing Rita the time to help the Doctor and co. and to assert fans and viewers at how good she would have been had she been a companion…

Which leads me to the question of the location of the Minotaur’s victims – we know that it’s previous feeds, such as Officer Lucy, must have been in the prison-hologram-place too, most likely within their own rooms, but even after the Doctor laid the bodies of the creature’s most recent preys to rest, and when the hologram ends, revealing a much smaller place than the hotel had been, there are no signs of the bodies. Could it possibly be that by killing the Minotaur had allowed the programme to reverse? To take the body back to the time and place they had been taken?

Speaking of the Minotaur’s victims, a rather pointless but Potter-ish fact for readers: the guy who played Howie (the geek in glasses) is the older brother of Gryffindor chaser, Katie Bell (from the Half-Blood Prince anyway), so another nice link between my two favourite topics there… Also, wasn’t David Walliams just fantastic as Gibbis; suited the role perfectly and congratulation to him on swimming the Thames and not befalling tragically ill; he’d have needed the inoculations from New Earth to survive what lurks in that river, don’t you think?

Now that ending! Who ever thought that would happen? Obviously the Doctor knew the hell he can put his companions through after nearly nine-hundred years of having them about but still a shock for the viewers and Amy and Rory too! One has to wonder though how the Doctor managed to get Rory the car he always wanted without actually leaving their side AND of course WHERE Amy and Rory now live, because that didn’t look like Leadworth! Best bet is they moved to Gloucester for better work and lives away from the Doctor after he dumped them off sometime after ‘A Christmas Carol’ and before ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ – as both would only have a twenty minute car ride back home to visit their respective families. Although that street reminded me of the one seen at the end of ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ and it probably was in retrospect, considering ninety-five percent of everything is filmed in Wales and after six series they would run out of new locations…

And now…

• The Doctor = 10/10 – Even when he’s smashing up half the holographic kitchen he can still be amazingly brilliant! Also, it was fascinating Rita picking up on the Doctor’s own God Complex (for which the episode was so named), by his need to constantly save people. (Another link to Potter with Harry’s own ‘saving people thing’ Hermione points out in ‘Order of the Phoenix’.)
• Amy = 10/10 – Karen just gets better and better each episode, and how brilliant was it to see Caitlin Blackwood again as little Amelia? – A lovely pleasant shock for myself, being a Caitlin fan.
• Rory = 10/10 – And apparently a man of no, or little faith, unless it’s for a way out, which by the fire exit only he could see might have indeed meant that his faith was in personal freedom (and possibly freedom from the Doctor!).
• Rita = 10/10 – I really loved her! Why do they always have to kill the good ones off? They did in Torchwood and they’re doing it in Doctor Who damnit!
• Gibbis = 10/10 – From a race of cowards, his own cowardly traits help save himself from the Minotaur, although his fear/faith in the Weeping Angels was also questionable…

Episodic Rating: A disappointing 7 out of 10, for it had its moment and a gripping finale, which raised marks, but that didn’t hide the fact that the episode held a lot of confusion, like a Moffat-copy episode, and reflected pointless moment from ‘Midnight’ two series ago. Nevertheless it was a worthy episode, if only a little too over-anticipated by Moffat and co. Here’s to seriously looking forward to Cybermen, Cybermats and the return of Craig next episode! (Yes, tomorrow I know – I’ve been seriously reluctant and lax of reviewing recently, to which I continuously apologize.)