Doctor Who Episode 6x11 Review

Episode Title: The God Complex
Episode Rating: A
Overall Season Rating: A-

Yet another home run for Doctor Who. Last week I talked about how each episode was different, and gave us aspects of Who that we all love. This one keeps that streak going. While it was creepy, I wouldn't say it was scary. Not in the way Night Terrors was anyway. The idea of a hotel filled with rooms of people fears is properly creepy though, and I think it would have been fun to watch this episode in an actual hotel. Try walking the corridors late at night then. Another streak that I noticed however has been broken. For most of Steven Moffat's tenure on Doctor Who we have seen very little death. I'm not a fan of people I like dying in TV shows, but when Russell T. Davies was running things people died all the time. Sometimes a lot of people. Knowing that people could, and probably will die adds real stakes to episodes of the show, and makes us sigh relief when people we genuinely like don't die. Well, this episode fixed that for us.


Not only did four people die, but many more clearly died in that place. Also, we learn that the group we were with the majority of the episode had people die faster perhaps because of the Doctor's help. This is VERY Russell T. Davies-Era Who thinking. That the Doctor is a great man, and great fun, but destruction follows him everywhere. His companions adore him, trust him and in some cases fall in love with him, with they all end up far worse than they began. I don't want Amy and Rory's life to be horrible, nor do I want either of them to die, but I love that finally we are seeing the darker side of travelling with the Doctor. The Doctor makes it seem like travelling with him will be like visiting amusement parks everyday, but in reality it's facing death on a daily basis. It's exciting, and very tough to give up, but it's not all fun and games.

I loved the scenes of the Doctor and Amy both in the hotel room, and on the street. Since the beginning of Amy's story I've been saying she needs to move on and stop seeing The Doctor as a perfect hero. Best case is she'll be destroyed when she finds out that he has serious and damaging flaws, and worst case she'll pay for it with her life. In this episode The Doctor explains this to her exactly, and he wasn't lying at all. I loved how he told her he brought her along because he wanted to be adored. That's a bit harsh, but still true. I might have said he's just very lonely, and he needs someone like Amy around to keep him sane. Well, saner.

Perhaps one of the reasons this has taken so long was that while Amy saw the Doctor as some kind of mythical superhero, she always only loved Rory. The Doctor was more of a tour guide who brought them to amazing places. This allowed him to stay on the outside of the emotional connection that trapped Rose, Martha, and Donna. The Doctor loves Amy and Rory, but knew from the start that they were just along for the ride, and here we hear it from his own mouth.

Another thing that got in the way was the story of the cracks. One reason the Doctor became interested in Amy specifically was the cracks, and how they had been eating away at her life. He was fascinated by this, and needed to understand it. Also, very Doctor Who. The idea that he would inject himself into this little girl's life, and as he believes lead her to her death simply so he can solve a puzzle really does explain who he is inside.

By letting Amy and Rory go at the end, he gave up companionship to save their lives.   That's what a true hero does. I disagree with the Doctor. I think he is a hero, a great hero. He just gets his priorities mixed up sometimes, and that's okay as long as he makes decisions like he did at the end of this episode.

A couple things I noticed. The Doctor called Amy, "Amy Williams" in the hotel room. At least I think he does. That's really interesting, and I don't really know what to make of it. Rory insinuated twice that Amy hits him quite a bit. While I am not surprised, he didn't seem to jolly about these. He seems properly scared of Amy. Finally, what oh what did the Doctor see in his room??  One thought I had that I liked was that it was simply himself alone in the room. The Doctor is, and always has been afraid of being alone and having no one to show off to. This would be even more powerful considering the final shot of the episode.

Any thoughts?