New Feature: Sarah’s Doctor Who Review: The God Complex
on September 19, 2011 at 9:01 amThis week I’m introducing a new feature. As I mentioned, my 11-year-old daughter Sarah is as rabid a Doctor Who fan as I am. So we decided to have her do a Monday morning review of the latest episode, since we seem to have a nice group of Doctor Who fans here. Plus, it will be fun. Basically, Sarah will give her thoughts on the episode, and I’ll toss in my own little short thought at the end. So without further delay, here’s the first review!
This episode interested me. The first thing that caught my mind was when I heard that the Weeping Angels were being shown in that episode. That really sparked my mind, because I personally like the Weeping Angels… I mean I don’t really like them, but I think that they’re a really cool villain/monster. When I went to bed after seeing the episode The time of the Angels I thought that an angel was coming for me! They’re some seriously creepy people, I mean even their title is creepy – Weeping Angels, shown first in one of the episodes of the tenth Doctor, (David Tennant) Blink.
So back to The God Complex; a creepy hotel where the rooms have ‘things’ in them. It doesn’t sound so bad at first, until you hear the rest of it. You may walk into a room, and never come out. Or at least never come out the same. Like example, as ‘Joe’ says, “Here comes a candle to light you to bed; here comes a chopper to chop off your head, chop, chop, chop, chop! Ha ha ha!” So basically it’s a hotel that you come in to and don’t go out of. Except if you’re Doctor Who, of course and have a Police Box that just happens to have the possibilities to travel to anywhere in time and space. Maybe that. What was interesting about this episode was that when you go into a room, not only do you see your biggest fear; you experience the most…unusual, you could say…combination of things…the words Praise him, and seeing yourself scream and laugh. It’s kind of strange that you sort of find out what ‘Praise him’ means, but it never really explains why you scream and laugh.
Also according to Joe, “Everyone has a room here, Doctor…even you!” I think that it’s really awesome that they had the Doctor’s room be number ’11′ seeing that he’s the 11th Doctor.
So later in this episode we find out that this crazy hotel is being operated by some crazy random Minotaur. Okay, so the Doctor has a Greek-monster-enemy-thing. Interesting. But at the end, it seems that when he dies the Doctor still cares. He just pats him on the nose and tells him it’s okay…that’s one of the many things I love about the Doctor! He is literally nice to the monsters, no matter what situation.
To wrap it up, here’s what I liked and disliked about this episode, The God Complex.
PROS & CONS
I liked this episode, it was creepy and good. None!
Just that Doctor Who stuff that I liked!
The Doctor was funny, just how I liked it.
It was awesome, just how I liked it.
Sincerely-an-ultimate-and-always-will-be-Doctor Who fan,
Sarah
Tom’s Thoughts
For myself, one of the most compelling aspects of the 11th Doctor is his relationship with Amy Pond. It has been a constant running theme since she waited for him in episode 1. So while I loved the idea of this Minotaur in a prison gone awry, the real meat of the episode came in the Doctor’s realization that it’s very possible he is going to get Amy and Rory killed. And realizing that he could not at that moment accept that responsibility – or be so careless – anymore, he drops them off on Earth with a new home and car and says goodbye.
Wow! While I don’t for one moment believe Amy and Rory are done traveling with the Doctor, the fact is that he really did drop them off. He really did have this epiphany of what it could cost his companions to travel with him. I think previously he always avoided the issue – he always figured he could always save them. But this time was too close for comfort.
The Doctors have always been very close with the companions, it’s always been a special relationship. Where that relationship goes from here is going to be very interesting.
- Please Share!
Recommend on Facebook- Share on G+
- Share with Stumblers
- Tweet about it
I like what you put at the end, Dad! Your own thoughts…how clever!
This story continues the idea of separation which featured so strongly in the previous episode and often throughout the series. Most of the Doctor’s companions left willingly – like Wendy in Peter Pan they grew up. Some were torn from the Doctor, as with Rose Tyler in a scene quite similar to (old) Amy and Rory on opposite sides of the door in the previous episode. Just as here, the first Doctor left the first companion, Susan, behind so she could be with her love. (BTW, Wikipedia has a huge collection of Doctor Who data for fact checking after you’ve watched all the old episodes.)
As for the laughter, there is a theory that laughter and fright responses are closely connected in the brain. In the book “Only joking: what’s so funny about making people laugh?” by Jimmy Carr and Lucy Greeves, the theory is advanced that laughter is an aborted response to a fearful situation. “In other words, laughter is a release of tension on discovering that a perceived threat is not, in fact, a threat at all.” (Google search on “laughter as aborted fear response”.)
Here, the Minotaur re-wired the thoughts of his victims by showing their greatest fear was conquered by their faith in him, leaving them open to his attack. The unexpected laughter was a symptom of the fears being relieved.
–A long time Doctor Who fan
Great stuff, Dvon! Yeah think about how people laugh when they get nervous, which is very close to fear (or often tied to it.) Separation is definitely the theme there, but I don’t recall any incarnation of the Doctor being so close to his companion(s), and suddenly fearing for them so intently that he says “that’s all.” It was really striking and emotional. Especially because the Doctor and Amy have this really tight bond – and the actors themselves play it really well.
Great review!
I don’t think I was as positive about the episode as you though. I think the biggest problem in the episode was that it was too easy for the Doctor to take Amy’s faith away from her.
But so many of the problems in the narrative of this episode stem directly from the writers having no idea of Amy as a character, as I discuss in more detail here:
http://theoncominghope.blogspot.com/2011/09/doctor-who-god-complex-aka-characters.html
You raise some good points there, for sure. I still think there is plenty of time for the payoff of River/Melody to come around. I’ve enjoyed Amy as a character, so I’m not sure I agree on all your crits there. But I admit I was thrown a bit when the Doctor gave the “you’re fired” line.
In regard to Rory, he has never been under the Doctor’s “spell” like Amy has, and that makes him interesting. He chided the Doctor for making people want to impress him, and thus putting themselves in mortal danger. And what I liked about that, was the Doctor understood Rory’s point and the realization bothered him. Maybe that was the genesis of what happened later.
All in all, this Doctor seems more aware of the danger in which he places his companions than any other I can recall.
Praise him!
Now you’re just being scary!
Nice costume you have
Is Doctor Who your favorite tv\youtube show?
Kyle DeSmet
Hey Sarah- your costume is awesome!
Also, your guys’ concept is so awesome- writing reviews and sharing what you thought about the episodes.
Thanks for the comments everybody! Of course, credit to the maker of the site, thanks Dad!
Kyle DeSmet:
Yeah, it is my FAVORITE show ever hee hee!
Sarah D.