Quick Take: Doctor Who, "The God Complex"
The Doctor comes face to face with his leathery Hyde.
Review: Doctor Who, "The God Complex"
(S0611) I think it's safe to assume with a title like "The God Complex" that this episode would tackle the Doctor's identity in a big way. And boy did it ever!
Time and again we've seen the Doctor take companions into his company, leading them through the infinite expanse of time and space on a journey of self-discovery. It seems like no matter where the TARDIS and its crew go, what they find when they open the door is inevitably, if not what they want, then precisely what they need. In the process, his companions develop a narrow-minded devotion to the Doctor that cannot be shaken. Even his greatest enemies' hearts and minds dominated by the presence of this lonely traveler. In the end, the Doctor's companions are consumed and if not destroyed, then so totally transformed that they no longer resemble their former selves.
And this is what we discover of the Minotaur in this week's holographic hotel. People are imported into his little space box (bigger on the inside, of course), only to find behind its mysterious doors an infinity of scenarios somehow linked to the onlookers development. The Minotaur inspires the visitors' devotion and destroys them.
What we learn about the Minotaur is what we learn about the Doctor. He's tired of stalking this infinite labyrinth, of causing suffering to those around him. He's hopeful of death so that he might finally have release from the terrors of his history and the burden of his conscience. He can't go on as the last of his kind, utterly alone no matter how many he brings into his little space box, causing as much mayhem as he resolves on his adventure through time and space.
And so the Doctor releases Rory and Amy "Williams" from his endless cycle of devastation before he finally destroys them too. The Doctor is now flying solo, knowing full well that death is ahead and most of his friends far behind.
There's only two more episodes this season, which means the big finale is just ahead of us. Finally, answers to the big mysteries of the season being: Who kills the Doctor? And how will the Doctor in fact survive?
If this episode tells us anything at all, it's that in order for the Doctor to even begin to formulate a solution to the problem of dying, he's first going to have to realize that he wants to survive. How will he do that without Rory and Amy (or Rose and Miki and Jack or Martha or Donna or any of the others at his side)?
If his past companions are not to help the Doctor, then perhaps it will be his future companion, River Song, who saves the day. Aside from being another major unresolved storyline this season, River is a major building block in the modern-day Whoverse and the Doctor's emotional crux and crutch. Her return (of which we can all be certain) will most certainly herald not only a solution to this season's arc but also a glimpse at the shape and color of Season Seven.
I can't wait!
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
Great piece yourself! You should think about joining up with a certain TV related geek army :-)