Doctor Who/Recap/S32/E11 The God Complex/WMG

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What the Doctor Saw in Room Eleven

  • Given the context of the Moffat/Smith tenure thus far, it would be logical to assume it's either a) himself, b) the Dream Lord, or c) the Valeyard. However, the Daleks can't be counted out, nor can the Master or Rassilon.
    • It could also not be a specific person, but an event...like seeing the dead bodies of every companion he's ever had, or even the TARDIS herself dead, dying, or exploding.
      • While possible; I doubt the companion one. You simply couldn't feasibly fit all the companions he's ever had into one hotel room, particularly if expanded universe companions and one-episode wonders are included.
        • I thought the room with little Amelia WAS the Doctor's room. After the Doctor saw his room, he put a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. After leaving the room with Amelia and everything disintegrates, a Do No Disturb sign falls to the "floor" and then vanishes. Wouldn't the Doctor's worst fear be letting down somebody he cares about?
      • If you look closely, that's a different room, Amy's room is located far from the minotaur, while the Doctor's room is near the minotaur.
    • Given that the Cloister Bell (a warning of immediate danger to the TARDIS) is sounding, we can assume it's something to do with it.
  • Previous episodes would indicate the Doctor's greatest fear is watching the world burn, but that doesn't seem to jive with either what we tend to see from the Doctor these days, nor with what (or, more accurately, who) is in Room 11.
  • The Silence/Silent? Cloister bell-church-cult -type-thing?
  • I always assumed it was all those dead Timelords, partivularly his family.
  • I think I'll go with the Valeyard. Not that the Doctor says "Yes. Of course," Upon seeing the room. He knows that he'll soon become the Valeyard, and he has been shown consistantly to be afraid of doing something wrong.
  • The last shot of this episode is the Doctor standing alone in the Tardis, completely companionless, and looking like a lost, scared little boy. I think he saw that.

The Minotaur's prison was created by the time-traveling Knight Templars from Let's Kill Hitler

The holo-deck technology resembles the technology used in the Tesselecta, and it fits their modus operandi: the Minotaur, given how many sacrifices it's fed on in its time, would count as the sort of criminals they'd want to "give Hell," and this is definitely Hell.

  • Possibly. Whoever created the Holo-hotel and imprisoned the Minotaur, though, strikes me as more than just a Well-Intentioned Extremist like the Tesselecta pilots. Maybe it's subjective, but the Tesselecta pilots didn't seem to be that bad, unless there was a slippery slope involved somewhere.
  • The Tesselecta pilots also showed no problem whatsoever with killing their targets, so I imagine they wouldn't have hesitated to simply execute the minotaur. However, it is mentioned that when they get the targets, they "give them hell", meaning they are dispatched in quite a painful manner. Maybe they decided that this was the best way to make the minotaur really suffer.

The fire exits

Rory's greatest fear is that he may one day let Amy down and take the easy way out, even after 2,000 years of telling himself he won't. Thus his greatest fear is manifested as an easy way out.

The hotel is the House of Leaves

Well, it's a creepy building whose inside changes, plus there's the minotaur. So why can't the hotel be the house?

Rory wasn't seeing fire exits because he has no faith.

After all, what about his faith in Amy? Hasn't she saved him just as many times as the other way around? His faith in the Doctor? I know that's a bit of a stretch, but for all his annoyance with the Doctor, he still seems to respect him a fair bit. Or what about his faith in the fact that he will keep on dying? Again, we're stretching the definition of "faith", but so did the episode itself. So I really don't believe the fire exits were because of Rory's lack of faith.

I think it was because after thousands of years of fighting for Amy, adventuring with the Doctor, and generally facing down the worst the universe has to throw at him, Rory isn't afraid of anything anymore.

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