"The God Complex" is the eleventh episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 17 September 2011. It was written by Toby Whithouse and directed by Nick Hurran.
In the episode, the alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his human companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) find themselves trapped in what appears to be a 1980s hotel with constantly changing corridors. They meet other humans and an alien who have also appeared in the hotel, without any idea how they arrived. The Doctor learns that each hotel room contains the greatest fear of someone who has been in the hotel, and that a Minotaur-like creature (played by Spencer Wilding) is feeding off their faith.
Whithouse originally developed the concept of "The God Complex" for the previous series, but due to it being similar to episodes in that series, it was pushed back, with Whithouse contributing "The Vampires of Venice" instead. The episode ends with the departure of Amy and Rory, though this was not a permanent exit. "The God Complex" was filmed during the early months of 2011, mainly on sets constructed for the hotel. The episode was seen by 6.77 million viewers in the United Kingdom and received generally positive reviews from critics. While the performances in the episode, especially Smith's, were praised, not all critics were impressed with the plot.
Plot
Synopsis
The Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive on an alien structure in space disguised as a 1980s Earth hotel. An alien Minotaur-like creature is in the hotel that consumes everyone who has been trapped here and is itself a prisoner who is in pain and wishes to end its life. It entices its trapped victims to enter one of the many rooms in the hotel which contains illusions of their greatest fears, upon which they become brainwashed to "praise him" and allow themselves to be taken. The hotel is inescapable and its halls and rooms can change on a whim. The Doctor, Amy and Rory soon find the TARDIS has also disappeared, and the Doctor warns them from opening any door they are drawn to, for fear of being possessed. Joe, Howie and Rita — humans that have been taken out of their routine lives by this prison's automated systems to feed the creature — are possessed by the creature and killed. While exploring more of the hotel, both Amy and the Doctor are separately lured to look into two specific rooms, facing their own fears.
The Doctor surmises the hotel and its rooms were, by design, meant to make the victims fall back on their faith by scaring them to allow the creature to possess them. The Doctor realises that it is Amy's trust in him that is being challenged; it is that faith that brought them to the hotel in the first place. Amy soon becomes possessed like the others. As the creature comes for Amy, the Doctor and the others grab her and take her to the room she opened previously. Inside, they find the illusion of young Amy, Amelia, waiting for the Doctor to return. The Doctor asserts to Amy that he is not a hero to break her blind trust in him; once this is done, the creature outside the door collapses on the floor. As they watch, the hotel is revealed to be part of a large simulation. The Doctor finds his TARDIS nearby. Gibbis, a survivor of the creature, asks for a lift home and the Doctor then takes Amy and Rory to London, believing it best for the two to stop travelling with him before they end up getting killed.
Continuity
Several references to past Doctor Who species are displayed throughout the wall of photos of the past victims of the beast, including a Sontaran, a Judoon, a Catkind Sister of Plenitude, and a Tritovore ("Planet of the Dead"). The Doctor identifies the beast as being from a species that is distantly related to the Nimon, previously a foe in the serial The Horns of Nimon (1979–80); and the group witnesses two illusions of Weeping Angels, from the episodes "Blink", "The Time of Angels", and "Flesh and Stone". Though the audience is not shown the contents of the room (numbered 11) that the Doctor is lured to open, the sound of the TARDIS' cloister bell can be heard. Young Amelia is shown waiting for her "raggedy Doctor" to return from the episode "The Eleventh Hour." The Doctor, being forced to break Amy's faith in him, echoes a previous event in The Curse of Fenric (1989) where the Seventh Doctor is forced to break Ace's faith in him. In "The Time of the Doctor", it is revealed that what the Doctor saw in Room 11 was the crack in reality that dominated his first series.