This week, the Doctor and his companions visit a hotel where all is not what it seems. Is the episode worthy of my “praise?”

WARNING! THIS EPISODE CONTAINS SPOILERS INCLUDING A FULL PLOT SUMMARY. iF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE EPISODE, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Review: Doctor Who – Series 6 – Episode 11: The God Compex

Lucy Hayward (Sarah Quintrell) is running through the corridors of a hotel, writing about a monster and how it has made all of her former companions ‘praise him’ after they find their rooms. Soon she starts to praise him and the Creature kills her.  That’s gratitude for you. The Doctor (Matt Smith), Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darville) arrive in the hotel and the Doctor begins to investigate, certain that they are somewhere fascinating.vI don’t know if that’s the adjective I would choose.

Rory shows him a picture of a Sontaran on the wall as well as others portraying a Judoon Captain, a cat person and Lucy Hayward. They ring the front desk bell and almost gets hit by a chair leg held by Rita (Amara Karan), who is quickly followed Howie (Dimitri Leonidas) and Gibbis (David Walliams), a cowardly, mole-like alien from Tivoli. The most conquered planet in the universe. “Our national anthem is we pledge allegiance to insert name of conquering species here.”The Doctor quickly takes a liking to Rita, noting how clever she is and joking with Amy that he’s firing her for Rita. It’s a joke…for now…. They discover the unusual nature of the hotel. “The doors are walls, or dwalls if you will.

Rita says that each room contains ‘a bad dream’. Uh oh. When the Doctor takes them to the TARDIS, they find it missing. Oops. Where did I leave that big blue box? They reveal there is someone else, a man named Joe (Daniel Pirrie) who they tied up because he was acting unstable. What does “unstable” mean in the world of Doctor Who? They take the Doctor to Joe’s room, which is full of ventriloquist’s dummies.  And the real creepiness begins. Joe tells him that everyone here has a room, even the Doctor. Probably the most dangerous room in the hotel.

While searching for the missing TARDIS or an exit, Howie finds his room which contains attractive girls WHAT! who mock him for being nerdy and stuttering.  This may be the tamest fear in the entire hotel. The Doctor pulls him out of the room and they look for somewhere else to hide as a roaring beast nears. This would be the “him they keep taking about praising. Rita and a captive Joe He’s ties to a chair and gagged with duct tape. enter a room, which contains Rita’s father, a doctor who berates her on her grades.  B+? Worthless girl. Amy, Howie, and Gibbis enter a room full of Weeping Angels. Oh Great! The Doctor arrives and tells Amy to face her fear, and reveals that the angels aren’t real. Thank goodness for that, because if they were, this episode would be over.

Joe frees himself and runs out and the creature, described as a alien Minotaur, senses Joe’s presence and kills him. Bye Joe. This creature is one of the most gorgeous Doctor Who monsters EVER! Later, upon seeing Gibbis’ reaction to the Angels, Amy realizes that it wasn’t her room, but his, as the Angels were the only creatures to invade Tivoli and try to kill rather than conquer the inhabitants. You have to give it to the Angels, at least they’re consistent. Gibbis however unnerves Amy by telling her that her room was still out there. Ooh, I wonder what could be inside Amy’s room……

The Doctor devises a plan to confront the Minotaur by using a speaker broadcasting Howie’s voice to trap the Minotaur in the same room as the Doctor. The Doctor talks to the Minotaur, who explains that the hotel is a prison that has trapped it for eons, and it wishes for this to end but the prison keeps it alive. It doesn’t want to kill, it is running on instinct alone. Of course, leave to the Doctor to sit down with the monster for tea.

Meanwhile, terrified of the Minotaur, Gibbis lets Howie go, causing the Minotaur escapes and kill him. “Praise him.” Bye Howie. Amy finds her room; however Rita pulls her away from it before she can go in. Rita and the Doctor bond privately, with him offering to take her through time and space once they escape.  Amy’s being replaced? Well, it doesn’t matter, you just know Rita’s not going to make it now. However she has been hiding her own devotions to the Minotaur and separates herself from the remaining survivors to avoid putting them in danger when the Minotaur comes for her. See, I told you so. “Praise him.” Bye Rita.

The Doctor is distraught and full of grief after Rita dies, knocking over objects on the front desk and screaming loudly with rage.  This is the first time since ‘A Good Man Goes to War” that the Doctor has been properly angry. It is still startling. Later the Doctor realizes that only after people fell back on their faiths when confronted by fear were they killed by the Minotaur. Faith, not Fear.

Joe was a gambler, who believed in luck; Rita was Muslim; Gibbis believes that his planet is going to be invaded again and Howie was a conspiracy theorist who believed the government controls everything.Note to Howie: They DO. By breaking their faiths, it converts it into energy into a form that it can consume. Rory has remained unaffected because he has no strong faith in anything; hence the reason the ship has been showing him exits throughout the hotel that the others cannot see. So, Rory is an atheist? Amy suddenly begins praising the Minotaur. The four of them run to Amy’s room, revealing 7 year old Amelia Pond sitting on her suitcase staring at the stars waiting for the Doctor. The delightful Caitlin Blackwood returns. Amy’s greatest fear is losing faith in the Doctor.

The Doctor kills the Minotaur by breaking Amy’s faith in himself, her deepest belief. He admits his own faults to Amy, how most who come with him die or get hurt. That he is not a hero, but a mad man in a box. And it is time they saw each other for who they are. He was a fallible being, and she was Amy Williams. This scene is so poignant, such an amazing bit of acting by Matt Smith.

With the Minotaur dying, the hotel reveals itself to be a massive holographic ship. Another really cool effect. By hacking the ship, the Doctor determines that the Minotaur is a relative of a Nimon, a species he’s encountered. The Minotaur’s kind need people to worship them in order to survive. Long ago it posed itself as a god to a race that advanced to the point where they realized what the Minotaur really was. They imprisoned it in an automated ship which fed it by scooping up people with strong faiths, keeping it alive for eons against its own will. Seems overly cruel, doesn’t it?

As it lay dying, the Minotaur tells the Doctor, “An ancient creature drenched in the blood of the innocent, drifting in space through an endless shifting maze. Such a creature, death would be a gift and accepted.” After the Doctor consoles the Minotaur, it reveals with its dying breath, “I wasn’t talking about myself,” to which the Doctor seems shocked. Spooky!

The Doctor uses the TARDIS to drop Gibbis off on his homeworld and takes Rory and Amy back to Earth, giving them a house and Rory’s dream car as a goodbye present. WAIT! GOODBYE?! While Rory is inside getting champagne, the Doctor explains that he can’t keep putting them in danger, before departing. Rory comes out and Amy reveals to him that the Doctor is saving them. This is an absolutely heartbreaking sequence.

This episode ends with a wordless scene of the Doctor in the TARDIS alone as the scene fades out. It is one of the most powerful scenes I have ever seen.

The Verdict: The end is getting nearer, and you almost get the sense that the Doctor knows it. The hotel seems to be able to look inside a person’s soul. It certainly shows the Doctor and Amy their souls laid bare. It forces the Doctor to confront an unfortunate truth: his companions’ journeys usually don’t end well. He has buried and/or lost far too many of them. He does not want this for Amy and Rory. And, so, for one of the few times in the history of the show, the Doctor chooses the departure circumstances of his companions. He sets Rory and Amy up with a very nice house and car. Then, he leaves them to live their lives. It is on of the most poignant moments in the show’s history and it brought a tear to my eye. Obviously, the Doctor will see Amy and Rory again, in the near future, in fact. But, this is where they have their parting of the ways. The acting of Matt Smith is again top notch, with the emotion of the Doctor, knowing what he has to do, really coming through. The final conversation he has with Amy before leaving is very touching, and her final line in the episode “he’s saving us” is extremely poignant. The ride is almost over, but there a still a few twists in the road.