jason stives looks at the latest from the Doctor …
“Not all victories are about saving the universe” — Rory
The funny thing about science fiction television is it doesn’t always have to make the most logical sense. Interpreted as ideas that could be real or could exist is the best part of wondering about anything and a show like Doctor Who has always been really good at putting that into perspective. That being said, not every notion like that is a winner as this week’s episode “The God Complex” showed.
After three episodes that held themselves together as standalone stories, we have hit a bit of a conundrum with this wibbly wobbly tale that takes place in what looks like the hotel from The Shining or with all its bizarre imagery of clowns, dolls, and maniacal gamblers, something out of the cult classic TV show Twin Peaks. But rest assured, it’s not a bad episode, it’s just a bit convoluted in its execution of a unique idea.
Much like Twin Peaks itself, “The God Complex” is both very confusing at times and a bit absurd to fathom, but it is also easy to assess. The idea of the Doctor and company being stuck in what was simply a prison disguised as a hotel for a mythical Minotaur creature to be worshipped in is very clever, even if it took the breath of the whole episode to identify that. This story takes a little bit from everything, a little of The Shining, of Twin Peaks, and even the latter-’80s Doctor Who stories in the dark nature and dreadful nature of the environments the main characters are in.
The thing that worked the most here is the religious undertone of faith. Doctor Who has in the past tackled this subject but on a more reserved platform, but here the explicit importance of faith in the characters is a great quality as it acts as something that works against them when they normally believe it to be a helpful tool to their lives.
For a show known for being mocked because of its use of corridor chases, the episode utilizes that with having rooms and corridors that literally move around. It makes for a very confined atmosphere and since each room had to include some sort of nightmare for the characters it worked well, constantly hitting some kind of fear at every turn. The Minotaur monster of this episode looked wonderful even if it was more obviously in the guy in a suit category, but it had a certain menace and later sympathetic quality to its design.
The cast itself worked when it needed but for me the major disappointment lied in David Walliams’ performance as Gibbis. I’m not the biggest fan of his work on Little Britain, but he does have a wonderful presence in a very strange and humorous way, so to see him play such a reserved character with hardly any time on screen was surprising.
For me, while an intelligently constructed episode, the heart of this episode lies in the last 15 minutes, when we learn that the Doctor has been wrong and that the Minotaur creature is feeding off faith instead of fear. Matt Smith in particular has hit another home run in his performance. The whole having to break Amy’s faith in him was wonderfully handled and harkened back to the late-’80s story “The Curse Of Fenric,” in which the Seventh Doctor had to break the will of his companion Ace, except in a more vindictive way. You can almost feel her faith slowly disappearing as the Doctor recounts his decision of vanity that resulted in everything that has gone on in Amy’s life, even down to making the fan baffling declaration of “I’m not a hero,” which surely will throw up arms to the show’s oldest loyalist. It was beautifully arranged and heartbreaking and while to some it may seem like the complete opposite of what the Doctor would do, it’s a valid move that plays the Doctor as sort of the middle man in the universe, someone who comes and goes and helps when he can but is no savior.
As I suspected last week, Amy and Rory parted companies with the Doctor but at his own deter as he feared their continuous travelling with him would keep them in harms and that leaving them now while they are “still breathing” hit home the Doctor’s guilt and knowledge of his future. I don’t think this will be the last we see of the Walliams’ clan, seeing that we still have River floating around out in space for the finale. Still, the heartbreak of watching the Doctor leave Amy and Rory behind was felt as it was a somber exit (even if it’s not permanent) and one that was done out of necessity on the Timelord’s part than driving the ones he cares about to leave or even worse getting in harm’s way.
“The God Complex” was a bit of a momentum slower, but it certainly hasn’t deferred from the continuing progress the show has come in the past six seasons. A lot has been made out of the show since its relaunch and further exploration is always an indelible part of science-fiction folklore. The next two weeks are going to be an interesting test of how Steven Moffat rounds off the last batch of new episodes for at least a year and with the finale being a single story, there is a lot at stake. In the meantime, what we have to date is one of the most awe inspiring seasons of Doctor Who for its emotional ambition and ability to force character driven television into a fanatical structure. Plus, next week have the return of Craig from last year’s “The Lodger,” and the Cybermen, so that will be much fun!
Rating: 6.5 out of 10 (Okay)
All Photos Credit: BBC America
