The God Complex

International travel prevented this entry until now. Which is good, probably, because I was in a big beige all-the-same sort of hotel...



So, what are you afraid of? And what do you have faith in?

The episode starts by introducing this week's Prologue Victim by name and letting us hear her internal monologue as she explains the danger and loses herself to it. She's not just a typical anonymous Prologue Victim there to show us how the monster works, although she does that too. Lucy Hayward, a police officer, someone we're supposed to trust to help us.

Likewise Rita (another one of the emergency services) and Howie and even Gibbis. (It's too late for Joe already.) You could see these three following the Doctor out of the TARDIS into other adventures, Rita being heroic and sensible, Howie being amiably geeky and Gibbis being troublesome but doubtless coming good in the end. But no...

"It's okay! Rory has a mop!"

There's obviously a lot of The Shining in the setup of the big grand 80s hotel with a different horror in every room, which reflects and distorts the visitors trapped inside. And a bit of The Room Of Reconciliation from Unknown Armies as it draws something out of you and pulls it away. The ability to face and overcome your fears would be very handy, if not for the minotaur driving you mad and eating your soul as a result.

And it adds another option for why the companions might leave the TARDIS. One the Doctor hasn't managed in a long time, not since Susan really.

Did he see Amy and Rory dead as he heard the Cloister Bell behind the door to Room 11? We may never know, but it's the first suggestion he brought up, and he acted on it as soon as he could.

More from Siskoid and BOTIS.

So next week, Cybermen... and, well, I hope nothing too bad happens to Craig. For obvious reasons.