The God Complex was another interesting episode of Doctor Who as distinct from the other episodes this series as the others have been. Last week we got a far more character based story and this week we have a more traditional Doctor Who romp.
The setting of this story seemed to be a hotel straight of the 1980′s complete with bad decor but it turned out to be nothing of the sort. In its self setting a Doctor Who story in a hotel is not a bad idea, and you wonder why no one had ever done it before as it is just another riff on the base under siege idea with lots of characters stuck in one place with no visible means of escape.
The episode was visually exciting with some really interesting camera angles and shots throughout the episode which is not surprising as the director was Nick Hurran who also provided similarly inventive direction in the previous episode and I definitely want to see him return to the series again.
David Walliams guest starred in the episode as Gibbis the most scared alien in the world from the universe’s most invaded planet who just wants to be told what to do by someone, by anyone in fact and there was no doubting that it was him under that prosthetic work.
The episode was also often plain weird with some very odd scenes such as the clown sat on a bed clutching a balloon to a room full of ventriloquist dummies to a gorilla jumping out of a door to a P.E teacher telling you that you had to do P.E in your pants as you had forgotten your kit (which is one of those things that most people have heard off but doesn’t actually seem to have happened that often).
I liked the reveal of the true nature of the hotel at the end but did think that it was perhaps a little bit too much like Star Trek and also the real nature of the creature that was roaming the corridors of the hotel as well, I certainly didn’t see that coming, or the name checking of a classic Doctor Who monster. When I say classic though, what I really mean is really, really bad.
I think that the way that the creature was used throughout the episode was much more effective by only showing it in shadow or with very low lighting which made it much spookier than if they had shown it in its full glory which I don’t think would have had the same effect. Kudos has to the director for making that decision, unless it was in the original script, in which case the kudos should go to the writer.
I didn’t expect the episode to end it the way that it did either with the Doctor dropping of Amy and Rory in the bluest of blue houses but I am sure they will be back in the final episode of the season as though this is actually a nice thing to do for them you just know that there is something else destined for them (so long as it isn’t the death of one of them) as they can’t very well have a finale with the Doctor companionless, can they? Only time will tell on that score, but for the moment Amy and Rory are safe, which is nice.
The God Complex has quite a lot of stuff in it that really needs multiple viewings to see everything that has been packed into, which is the making of a really good episode than can be watched over and over again without it boring you to tears.
