32:11 - The God Complex

[Adasunshine]

I'll leave Lenny to do the synopsis part, I just wanted to say...

I CAN'T BELIEVE HE'S LEFT AMY!

I'll be back later once I've processed everything a bit better!

xx

[HoopyFrood]

Well, that was unexpected. Is that it? I get the feeling that it isn't, but I haven't been keeping up with the Doctor Who news.

Still, enjoyable, weird episode. Nice techniques used in the filming giving it a very disjointed feeling throughout.

[Dave]

My kids were split over this one - my son thought it was okay, my daughter hated it.

Me, I'd be happy with more episodes like this. I like surreal. It reminded me of The Avengers.

I'm not sure what has happened to the Season-long story arc. Not only is he leaving Amy and Rory, but this is now the third episode in a row when they have seemingly forgotten that their kidnapped daughter is still in the hands of a eye-patch woman being brainwashed.

[HoopyFrood]

Judging from Amy's "if you see my daughter, tell her to pay her mum a visit" or something similar, it seems they've just left it to sort itself out.

[hanzy-popz]

I think I'm still in shock.
What just happened?
It feels like the writers have written far too many filler episodes and forgotten to put them in between the actual storyline.
Buuut nonetheless, it was still a cracking episode. I loved the whole basis of faith. I wonder if the Doc is leaving Amy and Rory to stop himself rising even higher and to cushion his fall as well.
I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. Still a lot of information being processed in my brain :P

[Tillane]

Hmm. Hinteresting. Very hinteresting.

Liked it, for the most part. The Minotaur was nicely done, there was a nice creepy atmosphere engendered, the performances were good, the dialogue was good. Walliams played his part very nicely, I thought. I'm not the biggest fan of his, but this was good - a slyly dangerous coward. Liked it.

The faith bit was clever, too. I'd guessed that it wasn't fear that the thing was after about halfway through (when the Doc mentioned that it was taking their fear, my brain immediately clicked on and went "it's making them face their fears, but they're not dying afraid"), but I didn't twig to what it was really after until the Doc did. Made perfect sense when it was revealed, too - and made the ending almost inevitable, though I was still kind of waiting for her to talk him round. She'll be back, though. I have no doubt on that score.

Surprised no one's speculated on what was in the Doc's room, too. I'd kind of figured it must be himself - again, my brain clicked on and went "remember the Dream Lord". Makes sense to me that he's most scared of himself. Makes me wonder about that astronaut again, too. Could it be the Doc in there, one wonders...

Anyway. All in all, decent ep. Cybermen and the return of Corden next week. Hmm. Not sure whether I'm looking forward to that or not.

[Lenny]

Originally Posted by Adasunshine

I'll leave Lenny to do the synopsis part, I just wanted to say...

Sorry I'm late - I started a new Minecraft map during the football this afternoon and kind of forgot DW was on.

---

So, the usual copypasta from the Beeb site:

The TARDIS lands in a hotel where every visitor's room contains their deepest, darkest fears. What lies in wait in the Doctor's room?

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My thoughts: very abrupt ending. Obviously we've had rumours of Amy leaving at the end of this series (which, by extension, means we'll also see the end of Rory), but I'm as surprised as everyone else to see it happen before the finale (which, assuming next weeks episode is going to be as standalone as it looks, promises to be another low-key affair, thankfully).

The episode was as surreal as the previous two, which gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, but I do wonder if there's actually a plan. The episodes themselves are good - with this one I enjoyed the idea that every room holds your darkest dream (I feel I should have guessed Amy's being seven year old Amelia, in room seven. Also, I agree that the Doctor's would be his eleventh carnation in room eleven), and that they should all be within rooms in an 80s style hotel - yet there doesn't seem to be a point, yet. Having had the presence of such a strong story arc last series, and it's continuance this series, I'd have expected something similar after the break... maybe I'm just used to a series being a collection of serials, rather than a collection of episodes as a series.

Having said that, I have to wonder about recurring themes, even objects. Now, I might be reading too much into it, as I'm trying to weave a similar idea into my current work, but the four episodes we've seen (actually, let's ignore the farce in the Third Reich) share so much.

I'll start with my weakest piece of "evidence" - the rubix cube. We saw one in little George's bedroom and the Doctor even picked it up, tried to solve it, and threw it away with the exclamation that it "must be broken". In the hotel, the Doctor picked up a rubix cube from the reception desk and we later saw it, solved, on the table when he worked out what was happening in the hotel.

Sticking with the same two episodes, we were treated to nursery rhymes - the first came at the end of the episode with George and the second came as a warning from Crazy Joe: "Here comes the chopper to chop off your head". Sure, the guy was mad with worship, but why would he quote nursery rhymes?

As I said last week, we're seeing objects and entities with positive connotations twisted into something more evil - lonely dolls, kindly killing robots and now a deadly hotel (yes, I'm clutching at straws, but aren't 80s style hotels synonymous with happy memories of family holidays at the seaside? Candy floss, donkey rides down the beaches, the 2p slot machines in the arcade at night), complete with sad clown.

---

I've also been trying to come up with a theme for the series. We've had Bad Wolf, Torchwood, Mr. Saxon, the Medusa Cascade and four knocks. Last series we saw things being displaced and eventually forgotten due to the cracks in time, ending with the line, "Silence will fall".

This series? Well, we're yet to discover who is behind the Silence and why they're trying to erase the Doctor, which doesn't seem likely to happen any time soon, Amy's pregnancy was quickly resolved and no-one seems to give two figs about baby Melody. What we have seen a lot of, but hasn't been made a deal of, is time being wrong, or objects being out of their own time/place - an astronaut suit from the wrong era, a marooned spaceship, people stranded outside the Universe, Amy and her baby plucked from their time, the Teselecta trying to kill Hitler early (and River Song trying to kill the Doctor too early), a cuckoo alien trying to fit in, Amy growing old in the wrong timeline and, finally, an aging prison ship adrift. You could also argue that, if the Doctor had seen a later, less experimental version of the Flesh, he might have realised sooner what the problem with Amy was.

Next week, we're even going to see the return of the Cybermen, which I have no doubt will be special because of something timey-wimey... maybe they're remnants from the Victorian Christmas episode, who have come to life after being left in a basement below the toy shop and fed on the positive energy of the excited children buying toys?

Then again, it's gone midnight and I'm trying to rationalise links in a set of episodes that appear to be bucking the story arc trend.

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Final thought - Amy Williams.

Final final thought - I was really coming to like Rory's character. He's been really well developed since the Pandorica finale and I'll be sad to see him go, particularly after not learning what is behind his door.

[hanzy-popz]

Originally Posted by Lenny

Final final thought - I was really coming to like Rory's character. He's been really well developed since the Pandorica finale and I'll be sad to see him go, particularly after not learning what is behind his door.

I really, really agree. I think Rory has grown a lot this series, whereas Amy has still clung to the doctor as always.
The doctor said Rory didn't have a door because he wasn't superstitious or religious, so he just saw exits. But I think Rory's door would have had something to do with losing Amy. I think she's what he would have had faith in, but he's kind of learned to stand alone the past year.

I also agree that the doctor saw himself behind his door. He knows that he has the power to build himself up then knock himself down again, and that scares him more than anything else.

I'm not too fussed for next week's episode either. I think the cybermen, along with the daleks, have had their time in the limelight and worn it out. I won't be surprised if the power ranger daleks show up at the season finale to be honest.

[Foxbat]

An interesting take on the old Minotaur and the Labyrinth story. I thought this was a pretty decent episode. As for Amy and Rory....well companions come and go. It's the nature of it all. I'm sure there will be the odd re-appearance in the future.

[TheDustyZebra]

I still have to watch this one again before I know what I think, but I did just have a thought related to the whole story arc.

I wonder if the Amy and Rory that we've been seeing traveling around with no apparent thought for their baby are Flesh clones from before there was a baby to worry about? Perhaps the stories about having some episodes out of order are just red herrings. It seems a bit careless from the guy who brought us last season. Anyway, just because we got rid of Flesh Amy before, that doesn't mean that there wasn't another.

Edited to delete a bunch of junk that I misunderstood the first time.

What was with the fish?

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by TheDustyZebra

What was with the fish?

Perhaps a reference to the fact that somebody is perhaps on the outside looking into their little goldfish bowl? In other words, a reference to the eye first seen in the crack on Amy's wall?

Then again, I could just be coming out with my usual piffle

[Purdy Bear]

I loved this episode, it yet again was about facing fear. If you sit in the silence you end up thinking things through, facing emotions you cant face so you face the fear, so maybe that will the Dr facing his own fear. Im sure someone will come up with the face the fear and do it anyway - shame it sometimes doesnt work that way. At the end though he said it was because they had faith in something - I wonder what the Dr has faith in - the music when he opened the door was of his home planet and those judge people (sorry memory isnt working today).

I did read somewhere that Amy and Rory were going to step out for a while, and I can see why. They have been through a lot with the Dr and compared with most survived it. Poor Donna had her mind wiped, Rose had her heart broken but sort of made it with the copy of the Dr, Sarah Jane was left in the lurch. He does have a tendency of seriously effecting or getting his side kicks bumped off.

We must also remember the schedules for the actors which Iv heard is pretty intense, so they need to have a bit of a rest.

[Perpetual Man]

I rather enjoyed the episode too.

Like everyone else I was rather surprised at the sudden erupt dumping of Amy and Rory, but it seemed to be in keeping with things the Doctor has done in the past. (The abrupt dumping of Sarah Jane just before the Deadly Assassin; the more recent make sure they're all right attitude - seeing Donna's family win the lottery). The fact that the Doctor called Amy Williams seemed to me a bit of closure - up until now she has been Pond, calling her Williams was handing her over to Rory.

Whether it is the last we see of them. Perhaps, chronologically it might be. But I think it could well be that they will be in the final episode. We can guess that the end is going to be the resolution of the Doctor dying, and they are present at that.

The Doctor's greatest fear, although it fits quite nicely that it was himself might just be something else. We did not see anything, but we did hear something - a bell, more specifically the Cloister Bell, the alarm of great danger that the TARDIS sounds - could his fear have something to do with losing the TARDIS instead?

A nice little throwaway line at the end, linking the Minotaur to the Nimon from the original series (but it looked better)

Dumping Amy and Rory with no thought of their missing daughter? Well it's sort of wrapped up. We know that she runs wild as a little girl, until she regenerates, presumably into Mels, who grew up with Amy and Rory and then regenerated into River. There are gaps but...

The Cybermen next week, possibly Cybermen from the main universe, not the ones from the alternate.Need to see the chest and see if the symbol has changed.

How it's all going to end - who knows?

[chopper]

interesting. much prefer the sudden switch to standalone episodes rather than the ohmygoditsriversongagainwillshepleasejustpushoff story arc. have to say though, i'm not looking forward to next week, simply because james corden is, and i'm being generous here, poorly cast. get rid, please.

[HoopyFrood]

I immediately thought that the Doctor would see himself in the room, especially harking back to the Dream Lord episode.

So what happened, did they just completely rearrange the series to have all the arc in the first bit? I mean, it made for a very dramatic first half, but now this second half feels quite bitty.

I also noticed the rubick cube, as I said to my housemate "but he hates those things!" I didn't realise he found it, I thought he'd held onto it since the previous episode or summink.