The God Complex
Encyclopedia
"The God Complex" is the eleventh episode of the sixth series
of the British science fiction
television series Doctor Who
. It was first broadcast on BBC One
, BBC America
and Space on 17 September 2011.
As the Doctor tries to ascertain the situation, Joe, already possessed, has been drawn away from the group and is killed by the beast. Howie soon becomes possessed after entering a room against the Doctor's warnings. The remaining group set up a trap to lure the beast into the hotel's hairdressing salon using Howie's voice, upon which the Doctor questions the trapped creature and learns it is in agony wishing for its end. The Doctor realises the hotel is really a prison for the creature, and the "fears" in each room are harmless illusions. Howie escapes from the group, allowing the beast to escape and chase him down, killing him before the Doctor can save him. While exploring more of the hotel, both Amy and the Doctor are separately lured to look into two specific rooms, facing their own fears. Rita soon follows the fate of Joe and Howie.
The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and Gibbis regroup, and the Doctor surmises that the other three believed that some higher fate controlled their lives. The hotel and its rooms were, by design, meant to challenge their faith by fear to allow the beast to possess them. The Doctor identifies that Gibbis has survived due to the extreme cowardice of his species, while Rory lacks any such faith to be broken. However, the Doctor realises that it is Amy's faith in him that is being challenged; it is her faith that brought them to the hotel in the first place. Amy soon becomes possessed like the others. As the beast comes for Amy, the Doctor and the others grab her and take her to the room she opened previously. Inside, they find the illusion of young Amy, Amelia, still waiting for the return of her "raggedy Doctor" ("The Eleventh Hour
"). The Doctor asserts to Amy that he is "not a hero" but "just a mad man with a box" to break her faith in him; her faith broken, the beast outside the door collapses on the floor.
As they watch, the hotel is revealed to be part of a large simulation; the Doctor identifies themselves aboard an automated prison spaceship, and the beast as a relative of the Nimon, a creature that feeds off the faith of others. The ship's automated systems had provided it "food" by bringing aboard creatures who had a strong faith. The beast mutters that "death would be a gift" for the Doctor before it passes away. The Doctor finds his TARDIS nearby, Gibbis asks for a lift home and The Doctor then takes Amy and Rory back to Earth, believing it best for the two to stop travelling with him before they end up killed. Gifting them with a new house and new car, the Doctor sets off alone in the TARDIS.
and audio drama Seasons of Fear
; and the group witnesses two illusions of Weeping Angels, from the episodes "Blink
", "The Time of Angels
", and "Flesh and Stone
". Though the audience is not shown the contents of the room that the Doctor is lured to open, the sound of the TARDIS' cloister bell can be heard. This episode is the third time in the television series where the Doctor has forced his companions to leave the TARDIS, following Susan Foreman
and Sarah Jane Smith
.
Young Amelia is shown waiting for her "raggedy Doctor" to return from the episode "The Eleventh Hour
". The Doctor, being forced to break Amy's faith in him, repeats a previous event in The Curse of Fenric
where the Seventh Doctor
is forced to break Ace
's faith in him.
In "The Fires of Pompeii
" and "The Impossible Planet
" it is reiterated that the TARDIS automatically translates all alien languages (except the most impossibly old ones and Gallifreyan) to the traveller's language, allowing them to converse plainly with any being and read any writing, regardless of the native tongue. However, in this episode the Doctor needs to translate the speech of the minotaur (heard by the audience as bestial grunts) himself.
originally pitched the episode for the previous series
with the idea of a hotel with shifting rooms. Showrunner Steven Moffat
thought that there were too many instances in which the characters were running through corridors in that series, so Whithouse wrote "The Vampires of Venice
" instead and "The God Complex" was pushed to the next series. The idea to have a Minotaur
be the monster came from Whithouse's love for Greek mythology
.
David Walliams
, who plays Gibbis in this episode, previously appeared in the Fifth Doctor
audio drama Phantasmagoria where he played two separate characters.
's film, The Shining
, using similar composition such as long corridor shots. Critics also observed that the episode drew inspiration from George Orwell
's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
, particularly in the concept of rooms (or, in Orwell's case, Room 101
) containing each person's deepest fear. More overt references are seen in Joe's quoting, as in Nineteen Eighty-Four, from the English nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons
", singing "Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head!".
on 17 September 2011 and on the same date in the United States on BBC America
. Overnight ratings showed that 5.2 million viewers watched the episode on BBC One
, beaten by direct competition All-Star Family Fortunes
on ITV
1. This made Doctor Who third for the night behind The X Factor
and Family Fortunes. The episode was ranked number 1 on BBC's iPlayer
the day after it aired service and was also popular on social networking site Twitter
, where the phrase "Amy and Rory" trended the night it aired. When the final consolidated figures were calculated, an additional 1.57 million time-shifted viewers were added, bringing the total up to 6.77 million. With these figures it beat Family Fortunes, which achieved a consolidated rating of only 5.39 million viewers. It was given an Appreciation Index
of 86, considered "excellent".
Dan Martin of the Guardian was surprised by the exits of Amy and Rory stating that "since the reboot they've been big, climactic, end-of-the-universe tragedies." Martin also praised Karen Gillan for her performance and stated that her exit was "the kind of ending that would have been nice for Sarah-Jane, really." Martin also praised Smith's Doctor stating that we start to see the dark side more, particularly directed at himself. The main part of the episode Martin felt that it was "like a runaround bolted on to make way for the ending." Continuing to add that, as has already been shown in this series, the formula is not a recipe for success. Martin sums up the episode though by describing it as funny and thoughtful. Martin later rated it the fifth best episode of the series, though the finale
was not included in the list.
Doctor Who (series 6)
The sixth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who was shown in two parts. The first seven episodes were broadcast from April to June 2011 and the final six episodes from August to October. Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill continued their roles as The Doctor, Amy...
of the British science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. It was first broadcast on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
and Space on 17 September 2011.
Plot summary
The TARDIS, while travelling to a new planet, arrives in what appears to be a 1980s Earth hotel, but the Doctor recognises it as an alien structure specifically designed to take that appearance. They soon meet a group of four individuals - humans Rita, Howie, Joe, and the alien Gibbis — each of whom had previously been taken from their routine lives to find themselves in the hotel. The four explain that there is a Minotaur-like beast in the hotel that consumes others. It does this by enticing them to enter one of the many rooms in the hotel which contains their greatest fears, upon which they become brainwashed to "praise him" and allow themselves to be taken, their bodies left without any signs of life; many others have experienced this, and photos of them and their fears cover many of the hotel's walls. The hotel is inescapable — its doors and windows walled up — and its halls and rooms can change on a whim. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory soon find the TARDIS has also disappeared, and the Doctor warns them from opening any door they are drawn to, for fear of being possessed.As the Doctor tries to ascertain the situation, Joe, already possessed, has been drawn away from the group and is killed by the beast. Howie soon becomes possessed after entering a room against the Doctor's warnings. The remaining group set up a trap to lure the beast into the hotel's hairdressing salon using Howie's voice, upon which the Doctor questions the trapped creature and learns it is in agony wishing for its end. The Doctor realises the hotel is really a prison for the creature, and the "fears" in each room are harmless illusions. Howie escapes from the group, allowing the beast to escape and chase him down, killing him before the Doctor can save him. While exploring more of the hotel, both Amy and the Doctor are separately lured to look into two specific rooms, facing their own fears. Rita soon follows the fate of Joe and Howie.
The Doctor, Amy, Rory, and Gibbis regroup, and the Doctor surmises that the other three believed that some higher fate controlled their lives. The hotel and its rooms were, by design, meant to challenge their faith by fear to allow the beast to possess them. The Doctor identifies that Gibbis has survived due to the extreme cowardice of his species, while Rory lacks any such faith to be broken. However, the Doctor realises that it is Amy's faith in him that is being challenged; it is her faith that brought them to the hotel in the first place. Amy soon becomes possessed like the others. As the beast comes for Amy, the Doctor and the others grab her and take her to the room she opened previously. Inside, they find the illusion of young Amy, Amelia, still waiting for the return of her "raggedy Doctor" ("The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)
"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....
"). The Doctor asserts to Amy that he is "not a hero" but "just a mad man with a box" to break her faith in him; her faith broken, the beast outside the door collapses on the floor.
As they watch, the hotel is revealed to be part of a large simulation; the Doctor identifies themselves aboard an automated prison spaceship, and the beast as a relative of the Nimon, a creature that feeds off the faith of others. The ship's automated systems had provided it "food" by bringing aboard creatures who had a strong faith. The beast mutters that "death would be a gift" for the Doctor before it passes away. The Doctor finds his TARDIS nearby, Gibbis asks for a lift home and The Doctor then takes Amy and Rory back to Earth, believing it best for the two to stop travelling with him before they end up killed. Gifting them with a new house and new car, the Doctor sets off alone in the TARDIS.
Continuity
Several references to past Doctor Who species are displayed throughout the wall of photos of the past victims of the beast, including a Tritovore, a Silurian, a Sontaran, a Judoon and a Catkind Sister of Plenitude, while the Daleks are referenced as the nightmare faced by one of the late guests. The Doctor identifies the beast as being from a species who are close relatives to the Nimon, previously a foe in the serial The Horns of NimonThe Horns of Nimon
-Outside references:The plot of this serial incorporates aspects of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur - a fact the Doctor comments on at the end of the last episode...
and audio drama Seasons of Fear
Seasons of Fear
Seasons of Fear is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Plot:...
; and the group witnesses two illusions of Weeping Angels, from the episodes "Blink
Blink (Doctor Who)
"Blink" is the 10th episode of the third series of the new production of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 9 June 2007, and is the only episode in the 2007 series written by Steven Moffat; the episode is based on a previous short story written by...
", "The Time of Angels
The Time of Angels
"The Time of Angels" is the fourth episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on 24 April 2010 on BBC One. It is the first episode of a two-part story written by showrunner Steven Moffat and directed by Adam Smith; the second episode was...
", and "Flesh and Stone
Flesh and Stone
"Flesh and Stone" is the fifth episode of the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by showrunner Steven Moffat and directed by Adam Smith, the episode was first broadcast on 1 May 2010 on BBC One...
". Though the audience is not shown the contents of the room that the Doctor is lured to open, the sound of the TARDIS' cloister bell can be heard. This episode is the third time in the television series where the Doctor has forced his companions to leave the TARDIS, following Susan Foreman
Susan Foreman
Susan Foreman is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The granddaughter and original companion of the First Doctor, she was played by actress Carole Ann Ford from 1963 to 1964, in the show's first season and the first two stories of the second season...
and Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running British BBC Television science-fiction series Doctor Who and its spin-offs K-9 and Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures....
.
Young Amelia is shown waiting for her "raggedy Doctor" to return from the episode "The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)
"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....
". The Doctor, being forced to break Amy's faith in him, repeats a previous event in The Curse of Fenric
The Curse of Fenric
The Curse of Fenric is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 October to 15 November 1989...
where the Seventh Doctor
Seventh Doctor
The Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
is forced to break Ace
Ace (Doctor Who)
Dorothy Gale McShane, better known by her nickname Ace, is a fictional character played by Sophie Aldred in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
's faith in him.
In "The Fires of Pompeii
The Fires of Pompeii
"The Fires of Pompeii" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 12 April 2008....
" and "The Impossible Planet
The Impossible Planet
"The Impossible Planet" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the first part of a two-part story, followed by "The Satan Pit". The TARDIS lands in a base on a planet orbiting a black hole, an allegedly impossible situation that stumps even the Doctor...
" it is reiterated that the TARDIS automatically translates all alien languages (except the most impossibly old ones and Gallifreyan) to the traveller's language, allowing them to converse plainly with any being and read any writing, regardless of the native tongue. However, in this episode the Doctor needs to translate the speech of the minotaur (heard by the audience as bestial grunts) himself.
Production
Toby WhithouseToby Whithouse
Toby Whithouse is an English actor, stand-up comedian and screenwriter. His highest-profile work has been the creation of the BBC Three supernatural television series Being Human. He also created the Channel 4 television drama series No Angels , and has written for BBC One's Hotel Babylon and...
originally pitched the episode for the previous series
Doctor Who (series 5)
The fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 3 April 2010 with "The Eleventh Hour" and ended with "The Big Bang" on 26 June 2010. The series was led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, who took over after the departure of Russell T Davies. The...
with the idea of a hotel with shifting rooms. Showrunner Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
thought that there were too many instances in which the characters were running through corridors in that series, so Whithouse wrote "The Vampires of Venice
The Vampires of Venice
"The Vampires of Venice" is the sixth episode in the fifth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast on 8 May 2010. It was written by Toby Whithouse, who previously wrote "School Reunion". Rory Williams returns to the series in this episode, this time...
" instead and "The God Complex" was pushed to the next series. The idea to have a Minotaur
Minotaur
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...
be the monster came from Whithouse's love for Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
.
David Walliams
David Walliams
David Edward Walliams is an English comedian, writer and actor, known for his partnership with Matt Lucas on the TV sketch show Little Britain and its predecessor Rock Profile...
, who plays Gibbis in this episode, previously appeared in the Fifth Doctor
Fifth Doctor
The Fifth Doctor is the fifth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison....
audio drama Phantasmagoria where he played two separate characters.
Outside references
The hotel and setting has been compared to Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
's film, The Shining
The Shining (film)
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job as an...
, using similar composition such as long corridor shots. Critics also observed that the episode drew inspiration from George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
, particularly in the concept of rooms (or, in Orwell's case, Room 101
Room 101
Room 101 is a place introduced in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. It is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia....
) containing each person's deepest fear. More overt references are seen in Joe's quoting, as in Nineteen Eighty-Four, from the English nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons
Oranges and Lemons
"Oranges and Lemons" is an English nursery rhyme and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as #3190.-Lyrics:Common modern versions include:...
", singing "Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head!".
Broadcast and reception
"The God Complex" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
on 17 September 2011 and on the same date in the United States on BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
. Overnight ratings showed that 5.2 million viewers watched the episode on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, beaten by direct competition All-Star Family Fortunes
Family Fortunes
Family Fortunes is a British game show, based on the American game show Family Feud. The programme ran on ITV from 6 January 1980 to 6 December 2002 before being revived by the same channel in 2006 under the title of All Star Family Fortunes...
on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
1. This made Doctor Who third for the night behind The X Factor
The X Factor (UK)
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. Created by Simon Cowell, it began in September 2004 and is contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. It is the originator of the international X Factor franchise. The seven series of the show to date...
and Family Fortunes. The episode was ranked number 1 on BBC's iPlayer
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer, commonly shortened to iPlayer, is an internet television and radio service, developed by the BBC to extend its former RealPlayer-based and other streamed video clip content to include whole TV shows....
the day after it aired service and was also popular on social networking site Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, where the phrase "Amy and Rory" trended the night it aired. When the final consolidated figures were calculated, an additional 1.57 million time-shifted viewers were added, bringing the total up to 6.77 million. With these figures it beat Family Fortunes, which achieved a consolidated rating of only 5.39 million viewers. It was given an Appreciation Index
Appreciation Index
The Audience Appreciation Index is a score out of 100 which is used as an indicator of the public's appreciation for a television or radio programme, or broadcast service, in the United Kingdom. Until 2002, the AI of a programme was calculated by BARB, the organisation that compiles television...
of 86, considered "excellent".
Critical reception
The episode received generally positive reviews from critics. Jack Pelling of Celluloid Heroes Radio praised the look of the episode, describing it as "stylishly directed by Nick Hurran, whose use of Dutch camera angles and Hitchcock zooms gave the episode an impressive, cinematic quality." Gavin Fuller of The Daily Telegraph awarded the episode 3 and a half stars, stating that "the surreal tone to the episode, helped camouflage the fact that the plot made very little sense."Dan Martin of the Guardian was surprised by the exits of Amy and Rory stating that "since the reboot they've been big, climactic, end-of-the-universe tragedies." Martin also praised Karen Gillan for her performance and stated that her exit was "the kind of ending that would have been nice for Sarah-Jane, really." Martin also praised Smith's Doctor stating that we start to see the dark side more, particularly directed at himself. The main part of the episode Martin felt that it was "like a runaround bolted on to make way for the ending." Continuing to add that, as has already been shown in this series, the formula is not a recipe for success. Martin sums up the episode though by describing it as funny and thoughtful. Martin later rated it the fifth best episode of the series, though the finale
The Wedding of River Song
"The Wedding of River Song" is the thirteenth and final episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One, BBC America and Space on 1 October 2011.-Plot:...
was not included in the list.