Doctor Who thread II: "I should have a hat like that." [SPOILERS]

[CurlyKitGirl]

Koorly's Archive of Her Doctor Who Write Ups:
Classic Who

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Fourth Doctor

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Series Twelve
Genesis of the Daleks Part 1/6, Part 2/6

Nu Who

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Season One - retrospective

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Brief Whole Series Retrospective

Season Two - retrospective

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Brief Whole Series Retrospective

Season Three - blind unless otherwise mentioned

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Ep. 1: 'Smith and Jones' -missing.
Ep. 2: 'The Shakespeare Code'
Ep. 3: 'Gridlock'
Ep. 4: 'Daleks in Manhattan' (part 1/2)
Ep. 5: 'Evolution of the Daleks' (part 2/2)
Ep. 6: 'The Lazarus Experiment'
Ep. 7: '42'
Ep. 8: 'Human Nature' (part 1/2)
Ep. 9: 'The Family of Blood' (part 2/2)
Ep. 10: 'Blink'
Ep. 11: 'Utopia' (part 1/3)
Ep. 12: 'The Sound of the Drums' (part 2/3)
Ep. 13: 'The Last of the Time Lords' (part 3/3)

Children in Need 2007 episode: 'Time Crash'
2007 Christmas Episode: 'Voyage of the Damned'

Bits and Bobs About Season Three
Retrospective - to be written later
Why I Do Not Like Martha/Ten (This was written between my write ups of ep. 8 and ep 9)

Season Four blind unless otherwise mentioned

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Ep. 1: 'Partners in Crime'
Ep. 2: 'The Fires of Pompeii'
Ep. 3: 'Planet of the Ood'
Ep. 4: 'The Sontaran Stratagem' Part 1/2
Ep. 5: ‘The Poison Sky‘ Part 2/2
Ep. 6: ‘The Doctor‘s Daughter‘ Posted in two parts.
Ep. 7: 'The Unicorn and the Wasp'

Season 6 part 2
Ep. 8: 'Let's Kill Hitler'
Ep. 9: 'Night Terrors'
Ep. 10: 'The Girl Who Waited'
Ep. 11: 'The God Complex'

The Nu Who Trek continues. And now, to boldly go where many have gone before. [*cue TNG theme (I love that theme song so much)*]

'The God Complex' (season 6b, episode 11)

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Is this The Shining? But with clowns and laughing. Who's Lucy Hayward? Last of what? Photograph?
What room? Why? Never anything else what?
What's in the shower? Man in a terrible gorrlia suit and subliminal flashes of terror.
Worship of what?
Praise him. Popping up all over and again and again. What?! Is?! Going?! On?!
Minotaur with blue eyes? Apocalyptic log.
It's House of Leaves. In Doctor Who style. Great. Terror.
Intro time!
Wriet: Toby Whitehouse.
Okay. The Doctor's geeking out over a replica of an Earth hotel. Tere are horns over the Doctor's head. Foreshadowing.
Okay. These photos are massive call backs and show their fear underneath.
The Doctor is being threatened by a chair leg. And the staff are freaking out. The Doctor has a crush on the other nurse.
THAT'S DAVID WALLIAMS! From a planet with a pathological compulsion to surrender. GLORIOUS!
The walls move, everything changes. The Doctor's babbling about walls again. Nurse: "The rooms have thing in them. [...] Bad dreams."
D: Well, that killed the mood"
Also. They're being watched on CCTV.
This is Housse of Leaves. Moving walls and CCTV and minotaur and things.
Also the TARDIS is gone now.
Okay, the Doctor's got lots of funny lines, but I only literally just finished that last episode. MOOD WHIPLASH.
FECKING PUPPETS!
GET AWAY FROM ME.
OH GOD THEY@RE WATCHING ME AND US AND THEM.
Freaky puppet man: "We're going to die here. [...] I've seen the light. he has forgiven my blasphemous inconstancy. [...]We were'nt ready. We were still raw. [..] Now we're cooked. [...] There's a room here for evryone Doctor. Ever you."#
So the minotaur is God, and he eats hear.
Also, he's insane and FECKING PUPPETS!
FPM: "YOU should go. He'll be here soon."
What is with that elevator music? And here's a recording something.
FPM: "Here comes a candle to light you to bed. Here comes a chopper to chop off your head." I learnt it as axe-man.
Also, they duck taped him.
Oh god. The nerd's a conspiracy theorist.
R: "It's amazing you've come up with a theory even more insane than what's happening."
Oh look. Old-fashioned PE teacher. I was threa -
what.
Girls. Minotaur. Flashes of eyes. Boe eyes? What? Nerd's afraid of girls.
Must stop referencing HoL, but come on.
And now suspense with beepy music and the Doctor's playing Sherlock Holmes with the ceiling scrapes.
ROARING MINOTAUR is very, very real. Also, Rory found a Fire Exit, but they split up in two groups into two rooms.
Great. Nurse is going insane with the glashing
WEEPING ANGELS.
Don't blink. And the lights just went out.
D: "Why haven't they got us yet?" How does Amy know about the Weeping Angels. Minotaur roaring and a mole in the cupboard. The Doctor needs to see what in the corridor.
"Look at you. You are beautiful." Hello Tooth and Claw.
Crappy CGI rope undoing. And FPM is worship - what is with those screens of Praise him flashing again and again and again.
This is not helping my HoL obsession here.
Bebby Hill. What was that? Seriously what.
What is going on.
Scooby Doo.
What.
How did he do that?
FMP's gone away inside his head as a nursery tune plays.
I think he's dead.

But the Nurse was . . . infected . . .
Amy/David Walliams bonding scene. Ha! I heard that slip Amy, you were thinking about last episode, not the beginning of season five.
Is the mole a mole?
Whoa. Rory slips up out of nowhere. And is twitching. Also, I think. I think. I think. Rory saw the exit because he was the Last Centurion and two thousand years without
Lampshade: "British. It's how we cope with trauma. That and tutting."
Nurse is a Muslim, "Don't be frightened." D says this isn't Hell. It's not.
Loving the lampshades. And that the secondary character is a Muslim. Explain later. Plot is plotting.
The Doctor has received Lucy's apocalyptic log.
I think the nerd is OCD. Look at him fiddling.
The fear makes you happy. And happy makes you praise him. Nerd's infected too and the Minotaur is coming for him.
What's with the CCTV footage?
The mole wants to sacrifice the Nerd so he can go home. Thesue and the Minotaur'ing much. D: "Cowardice isn't quaint it's slime." Bloody Hell Doctor. Way to go insult somebody's culture.
Dark Doctor is Doctor.
And then the Doctor decides to hold a seance with the Minotaur via the Nerd.
Fear distracts the minotaur from things. That explains the hotel then. The Shining.
Nred; "Bring me death. Bring me glory. My Master. my Lord I am here. Come to me. I am waiting. here. For you. He has promised me a glorious death."
Rory's going to attack the minotaur with a mop.
FEck. Clown. A: "Don't talk to the clown"
This is very well shot actually. And the minotaur horns look so real.
The minotaur is in the hair salon.
Whoa. Slashy prayer. "Let's his breath on my skin be the last thing I feel. [...] Humbled by him majesty. Praise him"
What. The mole and the nerd and chatting. And the mole's preaching to him now.
And that minotaur looks good.
He can speak minotaur.
D: "This is a prison" and the minotaur's a warden. So the mole is a mole then.
N: "You're possessed, you'd say anything." The minotaur makes people ready to face . . . something.
D: "You have lived so long even your name is lost. You want this to stop. Because you are just instinct."
So the mole isn't a mole. And the mino - what. R: "Somebody hit me. Or is it Amy?" Leave a concussed man on the floor well done.
Amy's found her room. Number 7.
Amy's fear will be about Rory or the Doctor.
Whoa.
I think the Nurse is the bad guy now actually. "You shoulnd't have done that. What did you see?"
A: "I don't know, it was weird."
Dead nerd now guys. And the mole is alone.
The SLENDER MAN!
No. It's the mole.
He tells terrible lies. And the Doctor walks off angry-like because the mole is a coward.
D: "Have you found your room yet?"
R: "No. Is that good or bad?"
D: "Mayb -
Screw that. "After all the time I've travelled with you [etc]"
Rory wants to go home maybe. LAST EPISODE STILL HAS EFFECTS ON THINGS.
But Rory stay please. Love you so much.
Nurse: "Why is it up to you to save us? It's quite a god complex you've got there."
D: "I brought them here [...] offer them all of time and space and they'll want to go". The title is
STOIP THOSE CUTS IT'S BAD AND I WAS RIGHT ABOUT HER BEING THE MOLE!
Whispers of praise him everywhere. And the Doctor's room is 11. What? What? Who else? What? WHO ELSE WHAT?
Please do not disturb?
WHAT.
Why
The Doctor sees the Nurse, and she answers the phone. D: "You started to praise him didn't you? Rita, come back, please" etc.
Islam has a rapture?
And he's lost another person. One he wanted to travel with him.
Aaawww, Rita. "Goodby eDoctor. Thank you for trying."
Lovely music. Ethereal? And the camera is sonicked off so they don't see it.
Also the mole ate the fish.
The Doctor's raging really badly. Breaking things rage.
The mole's - D: "It's not fear. It's faith. Not just religious faith, but any faith [...] They all believe there's something guiding them, something saving them. [...] And all this time I have been telling you to dig deep down, find your faith [...] show them what they needed."
Rory has no faith (EXCEPT IN AMY!), the minotaur(?) wants Amy's faith in the Doctor. Not Rory. Growl.
Amy just said "Praise him"
She's possessed.
R: "No., Oh please no." RORY IS NOT ALLOWED TO LOSE TWO AMYS IN TWO EPISODES! RORY IS NOT ALLOWED TO LOSE ANOTHER AMY!
Take Amy with you.
It's Amy's room. Little Amy is sitting and waiting for the Doctor again.
The Doctor: "Forget your faith in me. I took you with me because I was vain. Because I wanted to be adored. Look at you. Glorious Pond. The girl who waited for me. I'm no hero. I really am just a madman in a box. And it's time we saw each other as we really are."
Aaawwwwwww.
It worked, but aaaawwwww. "Amy Williams. It's time to stop waiting." Aaaaawwwwww. And all the intercutting between baby!Amy and This!Amy is an apology to them both.
And the minotaur died and the hotel's dying.
D: "I [...] sacrificed their faith in me. Gave you the space to die."
It's TRON!
D: "Distant cousin of the Nimon" - I've seen that! And the worlds and whatever
Who does the Doctor believe in? Or Time Lords in general? The Doctor doesn't say.
D-as-minotaur: "An ancient creature drenched in the blood of the innocent. Drifting through space in a shifting maze. Death would be a gift.
[...]
"I wasn't talking about myself."
Knew it before the Doctor translated that bit.
Good Lord. We're back on Earth Earth.
The Doctor bought Amy and Rory a house and Rory's favourite car. Rory, that last speech of yours about obligation. I laughed so loud. I love you.
A: "So. You're leaving aren't you? [...] Why now?"
D: "Beause you're still breathing."
A: "Well I think this is about the washing up."
D: I mean you're right there's still heaps of stuff out there[...] Or maybe there's a bigger, scarier adventure waiting for you in there."
What was in that car mirror?
Amy doesn't want to leave. And the Doctor tells her he has to because he doesn't want her or Rory to die.
Sadness.
And sad music.
And Amy tells the Doctor to tell River to come by and visit. D'aaawww.
Stop with the sad subtle music Gold.
Rory didn't know the Doctot was leaving until he left. He didn't get to say goodbye. And I love this pieve of music.
R: "What's he doing?"
A: "He's saving us."
DAMNIT! Stop making me feel sad for the Doctor when he just did something so bad last episode. Poor Doctor all alone again and lost.


Preview thoughts: Who's Craig? This is that guy from 'The Lodger' yes? And the Doctor works in a shop now? And Cybermen! Actual Cybermen!
Also lampshade about that whenever the Doctor investigates anything it's strange and alien.

Best Moment: This is a hard one. It truly is one of the hardest I've had to do in a long time.
But.
The Doctor tells Amy to lose his faith in him. The music, the editing, the cutting between Baby!Amy and This!Amy. It's something Amy needs to do, because remember last episode? When Amy went hard after she was abandoned again. Yeah.
This is something that needed to happen, especially after last episode when the Doctor found out just what can happen when everything goes wrong.

Worst Moment: I don't like puppets and dolls, so laughing and bouncing and turning to look. However. I always try to pick a moment that is not as good as the rest, so I'd have to say the first confrontation in reception.
And on another note: what did the Doctor see in his room?! I really wanted to know, so of course you had to hide it and drive everyone insane.

Best Special Effect: That minotaur costume is a real costume. I also liked how the hotel dissolved TRON-like (or Tessalecta-like) into the prison cell.

Worst Special Effect: That crappy CGI rope undoing.

Best Actor: The Doctor. Over season six the Doctor has been getting darker and darker.
The Nurse. For being so strong and likeable and not a stereotype of a Muslim.
But all of the actors were amazing. Genuinely.

Worst Actor: Ther Freaking Puppet Man. He didn't exactly have a personality or anything at all really but worshipping the minotaur.

Most Punchable Character: The mole.

Death Count:
Three.

Kink of the Episode:
-

Thoughts overall?
Just wiki'd Toby Whithouse. He wrote 'School Reunion', 'Vampires of Venice' and Being Human. So I can see I'm going to love 'Vampires of enice' then.
I like that the Doctor's room was 11 (watching Confidential - the writer is looking forward to the debate - he is a Troll), bit of meta fun there. And a Classic shout out as the monster is a Nimon.
Now, let's talk about the Doctor!
Remember when River said that Demon's Run was the point when the Doctor would never rise higher, no fall lower?
I think, thematically, season 6a was the Doctor rising higher, and 6b is the Doctor falling lower. 'Let's Kill Hitler' had him die, and he had no way out of it; ep. 9 should have been ep. 3, so 'The Curse of the Black Spot' had Rory die (or if you prefer you can think about ep. 9. I'm not. Seriously); ep. 11 had the Doctor lie and force Rory to choose which Amy to choose and Amy died.
This episode had the Doctor literally tell Amy (both of them) to lose their faith in him. The Companions have long been understood to be a stand-in for the audience. Rory saw the exit, he has no faith in anyone (except Amy, but she was right there with him always), because he lost his faith in the Doctor last episode, if not earlier.
The Doctor has told the audience that it is wrong for us to have faith in him.
The Doctor is falling, and falling hard. He insulted the mole (turns out his name is Gibbis) and his entire species for the way they are, and the way they live. He has a god complex as Rita pointed out, and it's getting bigger to be honest, and when he lost Rita who sacrificed herself for them he lost it. He didn't lose it like that when he lost Amy or Rory!
And he inadvertently made everyone a target by telling them to have faith in something. In his mind, as always, he got people killed because he wasn't right fast enough. And Amy's faith in him is what keeps everyone trapped there. Amy's fear is being abandoned by the Doctor.
I think, this episode was him realising he is not a god. The reason I can say this is that next episode he seems to be working in a shop trying to be a human. I think. The instant I finish 'The Unicorn and the Wasp' I'm reviewing 'The Lodger'.
Ignoring the Doctor a second, Rory. Rory my sweetheart. You travelled with the Doctor. After last episode it seems that you really do want to go home, and you got it this episode. But I want to point out something I only realised watching the first few minutes of Confidential.
When the Nerd found his room the girls in there stuttered at him. And then when Rory was looking at the Nerd's picture, he said the Howie had just finished an intensive speech therapy course to get rid of his stutter.
Rory knows people. He has a great, lovely heart, and that came across there. And, oh, I'm getting mixed up doing two episodes it's such a Rory thing to say, asking is people were happy. Rory has a great heart.
Rita, the nurse. She's how you write a character. You don't write them as a woman, a man, a Muslim, a Jew, an [insert whatever]. You write them as a character knowing that these things are there, and they would influence them, but you don't make it overt. Yes, I do think there is a Motive here: showing that Muslims aren't all stereotypes and radicals etc., but here I got the feeling that it's only there as one example of faith.
Interesting note: Amy Pond has faith in the Doctor. Amy Williams happens after she loses faith in the Doctor.
This is a very deep episode. It's about people growing up and moving away.
I know that Karen's said she's doing a third season, so she seems to be staying (I'm not excluding the idea of a hoax), but this is such a final goodbye. He leaves them to make them safe. But as no parent ever misses their child's wedding, they'll be back for the finale.
I really, really enjoyed this episode, even though there are some weaker moments and the end is a bit odd, mostly because I can't believe Rory didn't get to say goodbye; but the character development is worth it.
And yes, it was so very House of Leaves. With the weird intercutting (which was kind of genius) and the words flashing onscreen, the general setting (an evershifting maze with a minotaur hunting people, and it feeds on fear, people using CCTV and so on), the roars, the psychological effects on the people and setting.

[factotum]

I enjoyed it. Some superb performances this week, and as usual, some questions raised that we probably won't see answers to!

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I think my comment earlier in the thread that Karen Gillan might be leaving at the end of this series is gaining more weight now--I just don't see how she could go back to travelling with him now as if nothing had happened. Mind you, I still don't see how the Doctor can keep travelling when we've been assured that he actually *does* die at the end of this series, so what do I know?

[comicshorse]

What did the Doctor see in his room ?

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He said 'Who else could it be'
It sems to me there is only one person in the universe the Doctor is REALLY scared of and it has to be himself

[Kobold-Bard]

That was all a bit meh really.

[Aidan305]

What did the Doctor see in his room ?

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He said 'Who else could it be'
It sems to me there is only one person in the universe the Doctor is REALLY scared of and it has to be himself

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I'm inclined to agree. He's fought and bested almost every race in the Universe, and while he's scared of them he knows, deep down, that they're all scared of him with good reason

[Jibar]

What did the Doctor see in his room ?

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He said 'Who else could it be'
It sems to me there is only one person in the universe the Doctor is REALLY scared of and it has to be himself

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Jack Harkness

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Naked

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Covered in butter

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Singing "Happy Birthday Mr President"

[Aotrs Commander]

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Jack Harkness Davros

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Naked

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Covered in butter

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Singing "Happy Birthday Mr President"

Fixed it for you...

[Jibar]

Fixed it for you...

Bravo sir.

Bravo.

[Aidan305]

Fixed it for you...

That's an unpleasant image that'll stick in the brain.

[Lorn]

What did the Doctor see in his room ?

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He said 'Who else could it be'
It sems to me there is only one person in the universe the Doctor is REALLY scared of and it has to be himself

Alternatively:

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Amy's corpse. Thus giving him more reason to abandon her at the end of the episode, and explaining the "had to be you" comment - she's dead due to her absolute trust in him.

Can't make my mind up as to which would work better, though.

[Androgeus]

What did the Doctor see in his room ?

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He said 'Who else could it be'
It sems to me there is only one person in the universe the Doctor is REALLY scared of and it has to be himself

Well seeing as it seems to be the answer to everything this season

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River Song


or the Rani

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Jack Harkness

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Naked

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Covered in butter

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Singing "Happy Birthday Mr President"

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[Thufir]

OK, episode.

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Very good episode.
Given the title, the relevance of faith was unsurprising, but I didn't get the thing of the faith actually being what the Minotaur fed on - I saw the more obvious idea of the Minotaur basically filling their minds with that religious fervour for him because he would save them from their fears. With an interesting parallel to the Doctor of course, as Rita observed in episode.
Incidentally that bit of the Doctor realising he'd been wrong about what was going on and that he'd put them all in danger reminded me of the corresponding moment (Or moments? I think there was more than one) in Curse of the Black Spot. Only it worked far better in this episode.

That the Minotaur was talking about the Doctor at the end rather than itself/himself was obvious to us, but the clarification was needed to have the moment of it really hitting the Doctor. As I'd noted, there was the previous comparison with saving people from their fears, having a god complex, and also the fact its name was lost - the Doctor's name isn't lost, but it is hidden.
Though, that last bit of the Minotaur I thought he was going to be more or less reciting the description of what was said to be in the Pandorica, but it diverged - "blood of the innocent" rather than "blood of a billion galaxies".

As to what the Doctor saw in his room, I agree that it was probably him. His greatest fear really is what would happen if he really lost control. His own dark side, and the amount of damage he could do. And this whole episode, as well as the last one to a certain extent, was about showing him how much damage he can and sometimes does do anyway. Stripping away the illusions and exposing all the guilt - as seen also in Let's Kill Hitler with the voice interface. I could definitely go with the theory that this is actually the Doctor falling further than ever before - rather than it being the end of Demons Run, it's an ongoing process after that, through the rest of the series, as he is forced to face up to what he is, and the effect he has on others.

And Curly reviews! Huzzah!

'The Girl Who Waited' (season 6b, episode 10)

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MAGNIFYING GLASS VIEWSCREEN. DO WANT.

Any particular reason you want it? Because, different timestreams aside, I'm pretty sure you could do similar things with the computers and video chat.
Though I'll grant you it looks pretty cool.

It's an interface. Now called GLADoS.

Pedant powers activate! GLaDOS.

Also, did GLaDOS say she would be Amy's friend? Don't accept anything memeable from her. This includes: lemons, cake, opera singing turretbots, potatoes and portals. You can't cook with any of them.

But the singing turrets were nice!
Also, yeah, we drew Portal comparisons, what with the sterile white panelled setting, and then the darker bits in the workings of the place. Also someone mentioned the Handbots heads looked a little like turrets when they opened up.

Y!A: "You know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful and then you actually talk to them, and five minutes later they’re as dull as a brick? Then there’s other people, you meet them and think: “Not bad, they’re OK”. Then you get to know them… and their face just sort of becomes them. Like their personality’s written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful. Rory is the most beautiful man I have ever met." (last bit said by both)
Awwwwww. All my tears welling up. All my tears, and that music.

Best line.
Apparently when Beth Willis saw the first draft of the script, she specifically said that whatever else might get cut, that section had to be in the final script. I agree with her.
<3

*Snipped final scene stuff*

All of the tears.

Preview thoughts: CLOWNS AND WEEPING ANGELS AND GODDAMED PUPPETS AGAIN!

I was wondering shortly before the episode aired if your fear of dolls extended to ventriloquist's dummies.

'The God Complex' (season 6b, episode 11)

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FPM: "Here comes a candle to light you to bed. Here comes a chopper to chop off your head." I learnt it as axe-man.

What? No, that doesn't work, you lose the flow with crush of sounds at the -xem-. Definitely chopper!

Preview thoughts: Who's Craig? This is that guy from 'The Lodger' yes?

Yes.

And the Doctor works in a shop now? And Cybermen! Actual Cybermen!
Also lampshade about that whenever the Doctor investigates anything it's strange and alien.

Personally, I'm wondering if he originally intended to be investigating something or if he actually, after the events of this episode, wanted to just live a life for a bit, the way he never does.

I think, this episode was him realising he is not a god. The reason I can say this is that next episode he seems to be working in a shop trying to be a human.

Yeah, that would be what I was trying to say there.

Alternatively:

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Amy's corpse. Thus giving him more reason to abandon her at the end of the episode, and explaining the "had to be you" comment - she's dead due to her absolute trust in him.

Can't make my mind up as to which would work better, though.

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Hmm, good thought, but either way it basically comes to the same thing. Because what scares him isn't so much Amy dying as him causing it. So that would be a representation of his failure and his shortcomings which he's having to face up to. Hell, even Amy's fitted into his fears as well - because it's a big reminder of the fact that he has rather screwed up her life.

[Avaris]

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Well, I enjoyed that episode... I can't help but feel we're due a truly bad episode though, as all the recent ones have been good in one way or another.

First off, Rory. So much Rory. Sometimes I'm frustrated that he doesn't get as much focus as the Doctor or Amy, or that he doesn't seem to be regarded as an important character in his own right, but then I remember that thats how he works best. He is in the background, popping up for a moment of awesome/clever line/human perspective once in a while. This episode is the perfect example; Rory is so badass he doesn't need to believe in anything but himself and what he can see around him (thats my interpretation and I'm sticking to it). The alien prison tried to get him to leave, it knew it couldn't cope!

As for what the Doctor saw... see, te sound effect when he looked in there instantly made me think of the Tardis; specifically, its the noise the tardis makes when somethings going wrong, a sort of dull bell like noise. I think his fear is something to do with the Tardis, either losing it or where it could take him.

[Starscream]

Liked it.

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I liked that the monster was sympathetic in its own way. We don't get enough of that sort of thing. Also thought the goodbye at the end was very touching (though I doubt it will stick).

I got a very Stephen King In General vibe from this. The hotel is right out of the Shining, the monster using fear to feed off of people was rather IT (though the twist here is they only thought that's what it was doing), and the guy who had gone nuts in the beginning put me in mind of that dude from the Langoliers.

Also looking forward to next week. I liked The Lodger (one of the most comedic episodes of the new series), and while I'm not quite as fond of the Cybermen as the Daleks, the Daleks have been a bit overexposed by this point, so I welcome some Cyber-Shenanigans. I'm told Cybermats will feature in the episode, which may mean these are classic-universe Cybermen, not CybusMen

Also, nice reference with the monster being related to the Nimon (one of the worst looking monsters in the shows history). This one looked much better, really shows how far the series has come.

[thegurullamen]

So

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Did the Doctor just euthanize the Reaper Minotaur of the Overlook Hotel?

I loved it. Makes for a good Halloween episode, though that holiday's still weeks off. (Then again, I suppose that's true for most of Moffat's run.) Hate that Rita bit it; after Amy inevitably leaves (as in leaves leaves--I doubt this twist at the end will stick, at least not until the finale) she would have made a great replacement. Has Doctor Who touched on the idea of a faithful companion yet?

[Dienekes]

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Interesting episode, not the best, but less "wait, what?" than the doll episode. I rather liked Muslim girl, seemed nice enough, and her religion was respected. Always a plus in my book.

Kinda wanted to give the cowardly mole-man a punch in the jaw for being an idiot. Also Rory came off as a bit of a blank slate for me this episode, no fears, no faiths, Hell even the Doctor had faith in something, even if we don't know exactly what it is. I don't know that just seemed odd to me.

However I'm mostly sad about the leaving of Amy and Rory. Those two make up my favorite companions along with Donna. And at least Donna gets an end, these two just sort of leave. Rather disappointing if the characters are dropped. I doubt they will be, but I was hoping that they get a major hand in defeating the Silence and see that story through to the end, since I doubt that whole thing is going to be wrapped up in one episode if there characters are dropped at the end of this finale they won't get their place. Which would also make it very confusing why the Doctor didn't invite future companions to see his death.

In any case the companions have rather consistently always been better than the one before. So maybe I'll be saying this time next year how awesome Chelsea and Nogor the Unquenchable are.

[Thufir]

Has Doctor Who touched on the idea of a faithful companion yet?

Wait, what?
All the companions are faithful, except for Adam, who was only a companion for one episode because Rose asked.

[Raddish]

I expect they mean their faith is in a religion rather than the Doctor himself. So that it is a part of their character and stuff. At a guess anyway...

[Dienekes]

Wait, what?
All the companions are faithful, except for Adam, who was only a companion for one episode because Rose asked.

I think he means religious. Every companion (except maybe Martha I forget) has had a sentence or even an episode implying that they are not religious, though I don't think they come out and say it very often.

[Asheram]

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As for what the Doctor saw... see, te sound effect when he looked in there instantly made me think of the Tardis; specifically, its the noise the tardis makes when somethings going wrong, a sort of dull bell like noise. I think his fear is something to do with the Tardis, either losing it or where it could take him.

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Since it's The Doctor I suppose it's the thing we saw at the end. The Doctor being all alone in his tardis.
The man is the last of his species and he surrounds himself with people to forget how lonely he really is.

edit
Or, as many has pointed out earlier, Himself with his dark side out in the open.

[Reverent-One]

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Interesting episode, a better scary one that the dolls episode. I doubt that leaving the Ponds will stick, though admittedly that's partly for out of show reasons.

Next episode, oh joy. More 11 attempting to fit into human society and Craig. Put those two together and hilarity ensues. Still, it's been a while since the Cybermen showed up in any significant role (despite what the trailers for a Good Man Goes to War would have us believe), so it's not all bad.

[SuperPanda]

Hands down the most fun I've had watching an episode this season. Last week's episode was good and this one was great. I had a couple small nit picks about last week and am hard pressed to find something to complain about at all this time.

I think all that is happening is that my expectations for Moffat episodes got set so high that he was never going to meet them, that and I simply haven't enjoyed the spectacle side of River's story arch even though the meta-context is enjoyable as all get-out.

As for the doctor's room:

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The only answer that makes sense in the series is the Doctor himself, afterall they already did this with "Amy's Choice." I have to say that if it somehow turns out to be River Song that would be as bad as Tinkerbell-Jesus-Doctor for me: ie. it would kill an otherwise masterfully executed story.


All this said, my very first thought when I heard the cloister bell was: "If we see David Tennant I will laugh so hard." I really half expected to find that by opening that door we got two doctors and that allowed us to save the day (either through past doctor or ganger doctor). What really happened was much better though.

On my usually Moffat arch gripes:

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This episode did it right. We all know that the Doctor's death is coming and throughout NuWho there has been a sense that "a Timelord lives too long." That the doctor does have something of a death wish but simply can't come to terms with it.

I liked how all of the minotaur's lines were about the Doctor as much of itself. "A creature so old now, even its name is lost" harkens back to Fires of Pompeii. The good thing is that it is leading into the Doctor's final death very well as though this was the end of the series proper, the last serial ever of Doctor Who. The bad thing is that I'm not sure how they can get out of that without me feeling cheated by the explanation and I really don't want to see the show end.

Great review Curly, or Kitty, or whatever it is I'm suppose to call you. Glad to see you back.

[Sanguine]

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I quite enjoyed it. Not much to say that hasn't already been covered. Except that I found the scene where the Doctor sacrifices Amy's faith in him reminiscent of the scene in The Curse of Fenric where 7 does the same thing with Ace, for much the same reason. Though I thought it was done better here, which is saying something, I really liked that scene.

[Helanna]

The SLENDER MAN!
No. It's the mole.

Hands down the scariest part of the episode was the two seconds when all I could think about was Slenderman. Between this episode and the Silents in the backgrounds of earlier episodes, I swear . . .

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Interesting episode, not the best, but less "wait, what?" than the doll episode. I rather liked Muslim girl, seemed nice enough, and her religion was respected. Always a plus in my book.

In any case the companions have rather consistently always been better than the one before. So maybe I'll be saying this time next year how awesome Chelsea and Nogor the Unquenchable are.

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I knew it wasn't going to happen, but I was really hoping that Rita might join the TARDIS crew for a little while, I really liked her. But I figured she'd be given some heroic sacrificial death.

And really, having an alien companion would be great this time around. All of time and space, but he just keeps picking up boring old humans? Come on, let's have something really interesting.

I liked how all of the minotaur's lines were about the Doctor as much of itself. "A creature so old now, even its name is lost" harkens back to Fires of Pompeii. The good thing is that it is leading into the Doctor's final death very well as though this was the end of the series proper, the last serial ever of Doctor Who. The bad thing is that I'm not sure how they can get out of that without me feeling cheated by the explanation and I really don't want to see the show end.[/SPOILER]

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This is my big problem as well. Obviously, the Doctor isn't going to die permanently, so something's gonna happen and it'll probably feel like an asspull. But on the other hand, the only alternative is not being able to do this type of story arc until Doctor Who really does end - and frankly, if Doctor Who ended with the Doctor's final death, I'd be pretty upset. So if the only way to get this story arc done is to have a rather lackluster explanation of the end, I guess I can deal with it, depending on how good the ending is otherwise.

[Starscream]

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Regarding the Doctor's impending death, the series has offered up two possible ways for that to not really be him that died:

*The Flesh. Amy explicitly asks it to die in his place, and the Doctor mentions that it might be able to reconstitute itself after it is destroyed.

*The Tessalecta. Many fans noted that we never see it again after it turns into River, so unless the Doctor decided to leave a shape-shifting futuristic robot in Nazi Germany he probably took it on the Tardis with him.

If either of these comes to pass, then I think it will have been foreshadowed enough to not be an asspull. And if they don't, then at least we'll have been given a couple of Red Herrings to make it all look planned out better.

As for what was in the Doctor's room, there's only one possibility: Michael Grade. *chirping crickets*...Eh?...No one?...Is this thing on?

[SuperPanda]

Re starscream:

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Up until "Let's Kill Hitler" I'd have been in the same boat in that I 'd have thought it wasn't that big a thing. Day of the Moon made it seem pretty clear that it was no River who kills the Doctor, it is the space suit itself, and yet Let's Kill Hitler rewrote that to make it River who permanently kills the doctor in Utah i the space suit.

Season 5's spoiler that River kills a good man sounded very clearly to indicate that she kills the doctor, and it would have been great to have a twist on that.

With the various "outs" that the Doctor has. The problem I see is that the build up suggests that no one knows or believes that the doctor survives. Of course this is important for building up suspense for the audience, but in universe it doesn't make sense for everyone to be convinced that the Doctor is really gone forever until really is. The flesh dying in his place wouldn't solve that.

The flesh living in his place and going looking for a way to bring back the Time Lords (because the flesh's timeline doesn't include the Time War) and have them bring the Doctor back though.... now that would make a fun season 7.

[factotum]

Re: the Doctor's death: Stephen Moffat has said in interviews for Dr. Who Confidential that yes, that is the real Doctor who died in the first episode. All these theories about it being a Flesh analogue or something like that therefore don't work because Word of God says otherwise.

[Sunken Valley]

Sorry to keep you waiting but Sunken Valley is here to tackle the complexities...of the God Complex. So let me take you back to not so long ago, in a hotel.

Cue Star Wars Theme (to establish differing sci-fi interests from Curly)

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Overview

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When I heard about this ep I said it would be endlessly be compared to Night Terrors for fear factor. God Complex wins. The very concept is chilling of a hotel where all nightmares are real. And also the Doctor going all dark. Creepy and awesome!!! Best episode of Season 6b! Toby Whithouse reminds me why I like him (although Vampires of Venice sucks)

Stuff I liked

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I found the faith thing very clever and I did not notice it. I also felt it clever that the Minotaur, who was in all the promotional footage and was a common henchmonster, was actually an age old terror.

Also felt that Amy losing her faith was a good piece of character development.

Stuff I did not like

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Why was the rat guy in there in the first place? Glitches I understand, but why does he have a fear room if he does not believe?

Also, the wangsting is back. Like an elastic band it pings back into place. TV, I remember why I prefer films to you.

Fun fact!

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The "rooms all have nightmares" element was a last minute addition.

What Rory's room was

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Rory only fears one thing in the world. Granny Granger. She was his grandmother and she was a battle axe. Whenever Rory faces down a monster or his wife, he remembers Granny Granger for nothing is worse than her. The Daleks call the Doctor the oncoming storm, but they call Granny Granger "Death all consuming".

What was really in the Doctor's room

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What the Doctor saw was the one thing which could never be shown on TV. The one thing that can kill a timelord. When the Doctor sleeps he is reminded of an age old menace that could rise up at any minute. It could not be shown because the budget could not cover it. Because that's what it was. Budget cuts.

Seriously what it was

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The Astronaut. Or an Evil Doctor

Or alternatively...

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Captain Jack

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and Davros

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Naked

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Covered in butter

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doing it

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With Jack saying "Davros you are so nimble"

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And then they sing "happy Birthday Mr President

In other news, Curly's analysis that 6a is rising higher and 6b is falling further is good. Best thing I've heard in a long time. Genius Curly! Praise her. Praise her. Praise her. Praise her.

[SmartAlec]

Stuff I did not like

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Why was the rat guy in there in the first place? Glitches I understand, but why does he have a fear room if he does not believe?

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I thought he did believe; he had a deep faith in the idea of surrender and submission as a way of survival. He kept clinging to that all throughout the episode.

[Dogmantra]

If this series also had Vincent and the Doctor I think I would have to phone up the BBC and tell them it's all downhill from here.