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Feigning normality since 1973

Doctor Who: The Girl Who Waited and The God Complex

Filed in: Doctor Who.

I'm a little bit behind, since "Closing Time" screened here last Thursday, but NEVER MIND.

"The Girl Who Waited" is perhaps the best episode of the season. This half of the season certainly. Though not without one of two moments of fridge logic, it manages to do a lot with a few sets and some make up. Why is it often the simplest plots which come out the best. Karen Gillan as an older Amy was perfect.

Meanwhile "The God Complex" starts off brilliantly, is atmospheric, and a great concept, but then when the time for explanations come, it sort of falls apart and become silly. Potentially this could have been my favourite episode this year, but that ending... What the heck was that?

Further discussion and spoilers below the cut.

The moments of fridge logic (tvtropes it, or not if you value your time) in "The Girl Who Waited" were mainly along the lines of "Is no one monitoring this facility?" and "Are there no failsafes in case someone picks the wrong door?" and "If this virus is so infectious, why do the infected and their family enter the viewing room and the spare time stream from the same room?"

But screw it, it gave us a great story. The aging makeup was some of the best the show's done, and Gillan was awesome as older Amy.

"The God Complex" though... So after the whole 80s hotel with people's fears in the rooms and a monster stalking the corridors, it turns out to be a holographic prison ship flying through space. For some reason the people who built this ship to keep the universe safe from the prisoner inside it also programmed the ship to randomly teleport random people to the ship to be fed to the prisoner. Whaaaaaaaaat? The Doctor says the ship is glitching, but only in the context of it not clearing away the rooms with people's fears in. So, er, if the episode had had a better sort of explanation at the end, I feel I would have held it in a lot higher regard.

Next time: Yes, they're still using the Amy exposition clip at the start, even when Amy's not currently the companion.

Posted October 16, 2011 10:05 AM

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