The God Complex
By Toby Whitehouse
"He's Saving Us."
The writer of two previous Doctor Who stories (School Reunion & The Vampires of Venice) has returned to pen his third story The God Complex. Having liked his previous two stories especially School Reunion I was looking forward to watching The God Complex. So after seeing the trailer for this episode and seeing how cool and freaky it looked I really couldn't
wait to see The God Complex. Well I wasn't disappointed. This episode of Doctor Who was what I expected it to be and more. For one The God Complex was very intense to watch. It was filled with tons of drama and I was gripped to this episode. I was so taken in watching this episode as I was very keen on seeing how the Doctor would be able to get out off this really cool take of the Minotaur legend. I also liked how The God Complex used the play on their fears against the prisoners of the hotel. It was interesting to see what everyone was afraid of. Come on now how many people thought the clown was the scariest room in the hotel. As Ace said in The Greatest Show In The Galaxy "clowns are creepy."
One of the creepiest and maybe funny characters had to be Gibbis played by Little Britain's David Walliams. Gibbis was such a worm and very pathetic creature that you just wanted to smack. But he did have some great lines that were funny. What was another good point about this story was that Doctor had to use his intelligence to save the day. No sonic screwdriver or technological device to save the day just pure intelligence from the Doctor. But what a way to save the day. By breaking Amy's faith in the Doctor and in doing so saving everyone that is left. Somewhat reminiscent to The Curse Of Fenric but none the less very moving and sad to watch. It was one of the best scenes in the shows history and one of the best performed by Matt Smith. Who by the way was brilliant in this story.
But what caught me by complete surprise was that the Doctor drops off Amy and Rory and then leaves them at their house. Another sad moment as you are sitting there wondering if this is it for the three of them. I guess we'll have to wait and see in the next two episodes what comes from this surprise ending but it did look like the end from my point of view so the Doctor Who did accomplish what the set out to do with that ending. (They'll be back I'm sure) The God Complex was a good story that had nothing to do with the overall storyline. I think what makes this a great story for me is that it was similar to stories that I enjoyed in Classic Who. You had the monster and an impossible situation that kept you guessing on how the Doctor would save. It was almost reminiscent of a Tom Baker story written by Robert Holmes or Terrance Dicks and you could see a bit of McCoy in Matt Smith's performance as well. So The God Complex was a wonderful scary story that had some sad and emotional moments. Grade A
Great review!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I was as positive about the episode as you though. I think the biggest problem in the episode was that it was too easy for the Doctor to take Amy's faith away from her.
But so many of the problems in the narrative of this episode stem directly from the writers having no idea of Amy as a character, as I discuss in more detail here:
http://theoncominghope.blogspot.com/2011/09/doctor-who-god-complex-aka-characters.html
Yeah, I thought that too, that it would be difficult to take that away so quickly, but I was willing to overlook that.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a very good episode, but not as good as last week. I like the concept a bit better last week. Although this one was good as well, it is something that has been done before alot (fears in the hotel).
I thought that Gibbis sounded familiar. His character and the whole concept of his planet reminded me of something from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (this is a compliment). Made me wonder if it was an intentional homage.
One question, did the Doctor see his fear (or was it Amy's?) when he opened that door that he put the do not disturb sign on? If so, then we never saw what that was and it could be tied to the season arc/Doctor's death.