Worst Fears and Nightmares Lurk in Hotel Rooms: THE GOD COMPLEX

In a seemingly ordinary 1980s Earth hotel a strange monster stalks the corridors and bad dreams inhabit the rooms. What are these bad dreams and what purposes do they serve? And why do people begin 'worshipping' this monster that always leds to their deaths? This sure is one hotel that people don't want to check into.

Care to sit at our table? There's plenty of room. Fancy a gottle o geer? We hear you know our friend Mr. Sin?

Cast

Matt Smith (The Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), Arthur Darvill (Rory), Sarah Quintrell (Lucy Hayward)

Amara Karan (Rita), Dimitri Leonidas (Howie Spragg), Daniel Pirrie (Joe Buchanan), David Williams (Gibbis)

Dafydd Emyr (PE Teacher), Spencer Widling (The Creature), Rashid Karapiet (Rita's Father)

Caitlin Blackwood (Amelia Pond), Roger Ennals (Gorilla)

The Minotaur or Creature finally dies, but did 'it' mean itself or The Doctor

UNCREDITED CAST: Ella Whilton-Stroude (Young Lucy), Andrew Jay (Lucy's Husband)

Gary Dobbs (Photographer), Joanna Blewitt

Kally Davies, Louise Garrett Evans, Louise Harris

Hollie Miles, Vicky Russell (Girls)

Louise Bowen (Angel), Damon Jeffrey (Clown)

Matthew Humphries (Double for The Doctor)

Extra Iestyn Hampson Jones played an unknown role during the episode.

Crew

Toby Whithouse (Writer), Marcus Wilson (Producer), Nick Hurran (Director)

Crispin Layfield (Stunt Coordinator), Gordon Seed (Stunt Performer)

William Hartley (1st Assitant Director), James DeHaviland (2nd Assitant Director)

Heddi-Joy Taylor-Welch (3rd Assistant Director)

Nicky James (Location Manager), Rhys Griffiths (Unit Manager), Phillipa Cole (Production Manager)

Claire Hildred (Production Coordinator), Charlie Coombes (Production Assistant)

Lindsey Alford (Script Executive), Joe Russell (Camera Operator)

with thanks to The BBC National Orchestral of Wales, Ben Foster (Conductor and Orchestrator)

Weeping Angels surely do belong in a hotel full of worst fears and nightmares.

Andy Pryor (Casting Director)

Barbara Kidd (Costume Designer)

Barbara Southcott (Make-Up Designer)

Murray Gold (Music)

BBC Wales Graphics (Visual Effects)

Real SFX (Special Effects)

Millennium FX (Prosthetics)

Tim Porter (Editor)

Michael Pickwoad (Production Designer)

Owen McPolin (Director of Photography)

Denise Paul (Associate Producer)

Diana Barton (Line Producer), Steven Moffatt, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis (Executive Producers)

a complete listing of the production personnel can be found on various websites. This is just a snippet of who worked on the episode. The crew is too extensive too list.

Broadcast

EPISODE	DATE	TIME	VIEWING FIGURE	CHART POSITION	APPRECIATION INDEX
1	17/09/2011	7:10-8:00pm	6.77M	18th	86

Connections in the Who-Niverse

Daffyd Emyr played one of the Suited Agents for the mini-episode Tardisode 12. Spencer Wilding (making his DW debut) later donned monsters costumes for the Wooden King in The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe,

Rita, like many shows promise as a companion, would she have worked out? Possibly.

Skaldak in Cold War and the Lead Dreg in Orphan 55. Uncredited Gary Dobbs previously had supporting roles in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks and The Next Doctor. Uncredited Joanna Blewitt was one of the many Spectators in The Wedding of River Song. Uncredited Kally Davies can be seen in The Rings of Akhaten, The Crimson Horror, Deep Breath and Robot of Sherwood. Small bit-part actor Damon Jeffrey was a Russian Commando for The Curse of Fenric and Dave and a Cheetah Person for Survival. Series regular monster actor Louise Bowen played Weeping Angels in The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, The Angels Take Manhattan and The Time of the Doctor, Silurians in A Good Man Goes to War, a Female Diner in Let's Kill Hitler, the Female Doll in Night Terrors and Handbots in The Girl Who Waited plus many other roles.

Death, the Constant Companion

Lucy Hayward falls victim to the Minotaur before The Doctor arrives. The rest of Lucy's party are all killed as well, over an undisclosed period of time. Joe falls victim to the Hotel's power - his greatest fear was ventriloquist dummies; he is the Minotaur's first victim. Howie falls for the influence of the Hotel - his greatest fear was 'attractive girls' mocking him for his nerdish persona and stammer; he was the Minotaur's second victim. Rita becomes the final victim of the God Complex hotel - her fear was disappointment and

Lucy Hayward finds herself in the Hotel, alone and about to face her greatest fear

beratement from her father, who belittled her for getting 'poor' grades (B) in Mathematics; she was the Minotaur's third victim. The Minotaur itself is killed when its food supply is cut off, after The Doctor forced Amy to stop 'believing' in him. The Minotaur's food supply is basically poisoned. The fear in the hotel (Rita's Dad, Gorilla, Clown, the Girls, the PE Teacher) are all deleted when the hotel shuts down, but they all weren't technically alive, so they don't count. Also shout out to those dozens of ventriloquist dummies.

Fun Facts

(1) Lucy Hayward was originally called Lucy Miller; but her name was changed so it wouldn't be confused with the audio companion of the same name who travelled with the Eighth Doctor; (2) The God Complex was swapped places twice in the series line-up. The episode was originally slated into being the sixth episode of series five, but Toby Whithouse wrote The Vampires of Venice; the episode was then slated to be the tenth episode of series six, but swapped places with The Girl Who Waited; (3) The scripts originally contained a character called Edward, who had faith in authority; but the character eventually changed and became Gibbis; (4) Originally, The Doctor was to drop Amy and Rory at a idyllic cottage, which reflected the theme Steven Moffat had instilted throughout the previous series; (5) Many members of the production personnel helped out to operate the ventroloquist dummies, many of them had to lie on the floor, to be hidden from the shots ; (6) Steven Moffat had the idea of setting an episode at a labryinth hotel, having being disorientated in hotel during the past; (7) The portraits on the wall were collected from a mixture of doctored publicity photos and new ones taken of BBC Wales staffmembers; (8) David Walliams had to endure two hour make-up sessions to be made up as Gibbis

Recording Days

The God Complex was recorded as part of Block 5 for series 6 along with The Girl Who Waited. The episode was recorded between Wednesday 16 February - Friday 18 March 2011. The alien hotel prison ship was released at a

Oh go crack a smile, clowns are funny, just sitting there, not similing, staring at you -- ----

couple of hotels in Wales. The team went to the Manor Parc Hotel between 21-22 February 2011 (for the Dining Room and Dining Room Corridor) and the Seabank Hotel (for the reception, and stairwell) on the 18, 25-26 February. A small location shoot day on 1 March 2011 was carried out at Bute Esplanade, Cardiff to cover scenes with Amy and Rory's new home. Studio sessions were carried at Upper Boat Studios 1, 2, 5 and 6 from 16-17, 23-24 and 28 February and then again from the 3-4, 14-15 and 18 March. In total 16 production were required to complete the episode.

Verdict

A fully functional episode which creates a little masterpiece told in just forty-five minutes filled with sight gags, memorable characters, a great villain and an interesting look at psychological issues and the dark side of people’s mind. The Minotaur is a marvellous monster a mixture of the Minotaur from 64 and the Nimons from 108 which combine to creating a totally interesting villain. The cast are one the all-around greats where everyone is putting on their best performances. The direction is one of the best in the revived series, opting for a wide range of shots and blurred images to create the effect the hotel has on people. A brilliantly written episode from Whitehouse and without a doubt his best contribution for the show. *****