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patentdragonOh yeah, that...
Review: Doctor Who - 611 The God Complex After the excellent The Girl Who Waited, there was a danger that Season 6 could plunge back into "monster of the week" territory, and to a certain extent, it did...
There does seem to be something of a pattern forming, in that apart from Let's Kill Hitler and last week, the second part of this season has seemed to be populated by the sort of stories that seem only to exist so that
a) a well-known writer can get a Doctor Who credit on his CV, and/or
b) a special guest star can get their "Look At Me, I Got On DOCTOR WHO!" t-shirt.
That may seem a bit scathing of me, but it does feel that these are the "filler" shows that normally fit between the big concept episodes, and juicy two-parters. This season, however, has been rather atypical in format, starting with a two-parter and having a THREE-parter and a mid-season break - which wasn't that much of a bother, to be honest, as A Good Man Goes To War gave us plenty to chew over during the *spits* "summer".
Enough bitching. Back to The God Complex - and we're in familiar territory: an unexpected diversion deposits TARDIS and crew in an Earth-style environment that the production crew must have thought "we MUST shoot here!" when they discovered it - shades of The Shining - and it did seem to struggle to make any sense when the existing captives included an alien, and aliens were shown to be victims of this particular "environment". Once you get over that, and let the concept sink in, you can start to play that family favourite "Who Dies Next?"
The story starts, and continues, along a familiar thread - being confronted by one's fears, a la Night Terrors, but this story manages to shake that off by providing The Doctor with quite a surprise - he was WRONG about the monster's intentions. Fear is not its desire, but faith - and sadly, that realisation comes just too late to save a very interesting and CUTE character, doctor-to-be Rita. She would have been right at home on the TARDIS, but it was never to be...
A sense of genuine urgency kicks in as Amy falls prey to the influence of "The Minotaur", and it's Mrs Pond who provides the key to the monster's release - both from its prison and the life it can no longer bear to live. The "loss of faith" that provides this solution feels a little bit hard to swallow - would Amy REALLY be so ready to cast off her faith in The Doctor, and do it so completely to starve The Minotaur to death? At the end of the episode, it certainly doesn't seem that way.
The Minotaur's last words provide a nice little twist, but then it's deja-vu time again, as The Doctor heads off on his own again, ridden with guilt about how those who travel with him invariably suffer for the experience, a la David "Ten" Tennant after Donna Noble. There is a valid reason for this, in that The Doctor is drawing ever nearer to the time of his death... and hey, haven't we been there before, too? Anyone remember "He will knock four times"...?
It's a fair enough story, with some nice characterisation - and David Walliams does a nice turn as the alien from a world that's the most conquered in the galaxy - but we've seen quite a bit of the rest before. It's not as disappointing as the aforementioned Night Terrors, but it does seem to be treading water somewhat. The return of an old enemy next week will be particularly welcome - but it's going to have to feed satisfactorily into the subsequent Season finale, and not turn into The End Of Time, Part 1...
The Final Verdict... Some nice characters, a little foreshadowing, but on a canvas marred by some too-familiar ideas. Score: 7.5 / 10
Review: Doctor Who - 611 The God Complex After the excellent The Girl Who Waited, there was a danger that Season 6 could plunge back into "monster of the week" territory, and to a certain extent, it did...
There does seem to be something of a pattern forming, in that apart from Let's Kill Hitler and last week, the second part of this season has seemed to be populated by the sort of stories that seem only to exist so that
a) a well-known writer can get a Doctor Who credit on his CV, and/or
b) a special guest star can get their "Look At Me, I Got On DOCTOR WHO!" t-shirt.
That may seem a bit scathing of me, but it does feel that these are the "filler" shows that normally fit between the big concept episodes, and juicy two-parters. This season, however, has been rather atypical in format, starting with a two-parter and having a THREE-parter and a mid-season break - which wasn't that much of a bother, to be honest, as A Good Man Goes To War gave us plenty to chew over during the *spits* "summer".
Enough bitching. Back to The God Complex - and we're in familiar territory: an unexpected diversion deposits TARDIS and crew in an Earth-style environment that the production crew must have thought "we MUST shoot here!" when they discovered it - shades of The Shining - and it did seem to struggle to make any sense when the existing captives included an alien, and aliens were shown to be victims of this particular "environment". Once you get over that, and let the concept sink in, you can start to play that family favourite "Who Dies Next?"
The story starts, and continues, along a familiar thread - being confronted by one's fears, a la Night Terrors, but this story manages to shake that off by providing The Doctor with quite a surprise - he was WRONG about the monster's intentions. Fear is not its desire, but faith - and sadly, that realisation comes just too late to save a very interesting and CUTE character, doctor-to-be Rita. She would have been right at home on the TARDIS, but it was never to be...
A sense of genuine urgency kicks in as Amy falls prey to the influence of "The Minotaur", and it's Mrs Pond who provides the key to the monster's release - both from its prison and the life it can no longer bear to live. The "loss of faith" that provides this solution feels a little bit hard to swallow - would Amy REALLY be so ready to cast off her faith in The Doctor, and do it so completely to starve The Minotaur to death? At the end of the episode, it certainly doesn't seem that way.
The Minotaur's last words provide a nice little twist, but then it's deja-vu time again, as The Doctor heads off on his own again, ridden with guilt about how those who travel with him invariably suffer for the experience, a la David "Ten" Tennant after Donna Noble. There is a valid reason for this, in that The Doctor is drawing ever nearer to the time of his death... and hey, haven't we been there before, too? Anyone remember "He will knock four times"...?
It's a fair enough story, with some nice characterisation - and David Walliams does a nice turn as the alien from a world that's the most conquered in the galaxy - but we've seen quite a bit of the rest before. It's not as disappointing as the aforementioned Night Terrors, but it does seem to be treading water somewhat. The return of an old enemy next week will be particularly welcome - but it's going to have to feed satisfactorily into the subsequent Season finale, and not turn into The End Of Time, Part 1...
The Final Verdict... Some nice characters, a little foreshadowing, but on a canvas marred by some too-familiar ideas. Score: 7.5 / 10
