History Recap / DoctorWhoS32E11TheGodComplex

* AbstractEater: The Minotaur appears to feed on people's fears, but it actually turns out to be their faiths.

* MadnessMantra: "Praise him!" Often accompanied by MadnessMontage.

* EasilyConqueredWorld: Gibbis's species is apparently prepared to be conquered often.

** The random clown room isn't explained, either.

* TheWorfEffect: An offscreen version: two of the hotel's previous victims seen in the photographs were a Suntaran and a Judoon.

* ConspicuousCGI: {{Invoked|Trope}}. When Joe escapes his restraints, the rope comes loose on its own, and it's ''very'' obvious CGI. This is the first hint that the hotel is actually a hologram.

* AbusivePrecursors: Whoever built the Minotaur's prison and programmed it to roam across the universe, picking up innocent people and offering them as sacrifices, for all eternity. The fact that the programming has picked up several bad glitches implies that it's been around so long that it's builders aren't either alive or bothering to keep an eye on it anymore, if they ever did to begin with.

* GenreBlindness: The Doctor still hasn't learned that offering companionship in the middle of an episode is signing the person's death warrant...
* GenreSavvy: ...but Rory has.

* GenreBlindness: The Doctor still hasn't learned that offering companionship in the middle of an episode is signing the person's death warrant.

* ObliviousToHisOwnDescription: PlayedWith. The Doctor is this at first when he translates the words of the Minotaur, and then realizes at the very end, as the Minotaur says (with the Doctor translating) "I wasn't talking about myself."

* IronicHell: This is Rita's theory on what the hotel is. She points out it's hardly more unlikely than Howie's ConspiracyTheory or the Doctor blaming aliens.

** When the Doctor finds his room: we hear the Cloister Bell ringing, and can assume that a person is in there, but that's all. The Doctor remarkis "Of course, who else would it be?" Knowing the Doctor, whatever is on the other side may be too much for humans to comprehend. [[spoiler:In the 2013 Christmas special, we find out that it's the cracks in time from the fifth series.]]

** "What's the alternative? Me standing over [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan your grave?]]

* HateSink: Gibbis. After the initial humor of his planet of origin, he [[spoiler: let go of Howard to be eaten by the Minotaur. And they were so close to finding out who he was. Many people could have been spared if not for Gibbis]].

The one with the hotel with more scary rooms than ''[[Film/Room1408]]''

** When the Doctor finds his room: we hear the Cloister Bell ringing, and can assume that a person is in there, but that's all.

** We don't see what's in the Doctor's room, but he isn't surprised by it.

** When Amy asks what god Time Lords believe in, the Doctor doesn't answer.

** The IronicNurseryRhyme is the same one used in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. Also ''Film/TheWickerMan''.

[[caption-width-right:350:Time to get psychological . . .]]

Interior: [[Film/TheShining the Overlook Hotel]]. A policewoman, Lucy, cautiously walks along the hotel's red carpet hallways. Seeing a specific door, she turns and opens it. A gorilla steps out from the suite's bathroom and stares back at her. There are other nightmares: shadows, creatures, [[Literature/{{It}} a clown sitting on a bed with a balloon]]. Flashes of something go through her head along with the words "praise him". A smile crosses her face, and she closes the door. Taking out a worn notepad, she starts to anxiously write down how she is the last one left, but it doesn't matter now because she will be released soon. Her writing turns automatic, as she becomes [[MadnessMantra stuck on the words]] "praise him, praise him . . ."

-->'''Amy:''' That's not a question I thought I'd be asking this morning . . .

** A Minotaur given power from faith, a power that is stripped when belief is stripped? It's a call back to Two's tenure! Two and Zoe dealt with a Minotaur way back in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber "The Mind Robber"]].

** One to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "The Eleventh Hour"]]: "Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand about me, 'cause it's important, and one day your life may depend on it -- ''I am definitely a madman with a box.''"

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens An ancient creature drenched in the blood of innocents . . .]]"

** There are a truly astounding number of things in common with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E742 "42"]]. To wit:

* HenpeckedHusband: Rory's first response after getting unexpectedly knocked down: "[[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale Something hit me . . . was it Amy?]]" He mentions once being [[ShoeSlap hit by a shoe]] when he spoke ill of the Doctor in front of her. A shoe she had to bend down and unlace ''first!'' It's averted at the end of the episode. Rory goes over a number of reasons why Amy won't want to accept the Doctor's gift of the CoolCar . . . then decides he can live with it. He ''really'' wants the car.

* InternalHomage: The plot is similar to the Eighth Doctor's adventure on [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoNEDAS1E5Phobos "Phobos"]].

* IronicNurseryRhyme: ''Here comes a candle to light you to bed. Here comes a chopper to chop off your head. Chop . . . chop . . . chop . . . chop!'' Double points for being a real nursery rhyme. Note to foreigners: British nursery rhymes are [[http://www.rhymes.org.uk/oranges_and_lemons.htm deeply disturbing]].

-->"You haven't seen the last of me. Bad Penny is my middle name. Seriously, the looks I get when I fill in a form . . ."

* NotThatKindOfDoctor: Invoked by Rita, when wondering what kind of "Doctor" he is.
-->'''Rita:''' You are a ''medical'' doctor, aren't you? You don't have a degree in . . . ''cheese'' making or something?
** The answer is ''[[OmnidisciplinaryScientist both]]''.

* WhatDoTheyFearEpisode: Lots of fears in this episode. A Sontaran fears defeat, Rita fears disapointing her father, Howie has social anxiety, someone fears the Weeping Angels, etc.[[note]]Daleks, getting their picture taken, Plymouth, gym class, clowns . . .[[/note]]

-->Praise him.

** We don't see what's in the Doctor's room; but he isn't surprised by it.

** We don't see what's in the Doctor's room.

* AdmiringTheAbomination: The Doctor, [[NightmareFetishist predictably enough.]] He ''has'' to sneak a glimpse of the Minotaur through a keyhole, and is transfixed by the sight.
-->"I'm sorry, I just have to see what it is. I just - I have to see." [...] "Oh, look at you. You are ''beautiful.''"

* ArcWords: [[WhamLine Praise him]].

** More accurately, belief makes you [[SpaceWhaleAesop vulnerable to a faith-devouring monster.]]
** It's downplayed by Rita, who as the one character whose faith is in an actual religion, is the one who greets her death with the most courage and dignity, while the others turned into gibbering fools.

** A [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E9NightTerrors Rubik's Cube]] shows up again. Although this time the Doctor solves it easily.

* TheDoorSlamsYou: [[ButtMonkey Not surprisingly, to Rory]].

* DoubleMeaningTitle: "God Complex" describes not only the Doctor's and Minotaur's need to be adored, but also the hotel itself: a prison to contain a deity.
* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Mild example, but when Rory wakes up after getting knocked to the floor, he jokes that Amy hit him. It's mentioned that she has at least once in the past when he made a complaint about the Doctor.

* GymClassHell: A coach from one of these briefly appears as one of the left-over fears.

* HelloInsertNameHere: Gibbis's species' national anthem is entitled "Glory to (Insert Name Here)."

** The FairCop in the cold open may be hoping for this. Her notes / narration state that they're being dictated in between periods of worship, that when she's not dictating "Praise him", and variants, she's lucid. Unfortunately, she absolutely can't die free. She dies a slave.

* IronicNurseryRhyme: ''Here comes a candle to light you to bed. Here comes a chopper to chop off your head. Chop . . . chop . . . chop . . . chop!'' Double points for being a real nursery rhyme. Note to foreigners: British nursery rhymes are [[http://www.rhymes.org.uk/oranges_and_lemons.htm deeply disturbing.]]

'''Rita:''' No. I mean he's tied up right now.

* OneSteveLimit: In the script read-through (shown on ''Series/DoctorWhoConfidential'') the policewoman in the opening sequence was named Lucy Miller. By the time of the episode, she had been renamed as Lucy Hayward, presumably to avoid confusion with [[Characters/BigFinishDoctorWho Lucie Miller]].

* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: What happens to planets over time is that they go secular, cutting off the Minotaur's source of "food": faith. It's also played with; it's shown that "faith" is a catch-all phrase for any strongly-held value, be it a faith in luck related to a compulsive gambling habit, a mountain of crazy conspiracy theories, or [[TearJerker the belief that compels a seven-year-old girl to hold on to the memory of an imaginary friend for fourteen years.]]

-->'''The Doctor:''' "Your civilisation is one of the oldest in the galaxy. Now I see why. Your cowardice isn't quaint, it's sly, aggressive. It's how that gene of gutlessness has survived while so many others have perished."

* RuleOfSymbolism: The shot of [[LoveTriangle Rory sitting between the Doctor and Amy.]] Later when destroying Amy's faith in him, the Doctor calls her "Amy Williams".

* TorturedMonster: The Minotaur just wants to die but its instinct to feed drives it forward.
* TrailersAlwaysLie: The trailers for the episode made it seem like the Weeping Angels had a prominent role for the episode. Turns out, they only get a cameo, and ''they aren't even real Angels''.

* ZeroApprovalGambit: The Doctor does this in order to save Amy from the monster -- he tells her he's not worth believing in, and that he's done more harm than good to her. He was a bit nicer about it than he was [[Recap/DoctorWhoS26E3TheCurseOfFenric to Ace.]]

--> Praise him.