Talk:The God Complex (TV story)

Episode Image is too much of a spoiler
I know the episode is done and all that but cmon, the episode image spoils the whole thing. Shouldn't it be something that doesn't give away the ending? Rawrgoaway 02:36, September 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * Not really. In any case, the image doesn't spoil the episode as the setting was hardly as central to the plot as say, Amy or even the Minotaur.-- 14:13, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

Room Numbers
Amy's room number was 7, which is both a reference to her age when she first met the Doctor and Karen Gillan being the seventh multi-story companion. The Doctor's room number was 11, which is both a reference to his current regeneration and Matt Smith being the 11th actor to play the Doctor in the main series.Wollstone 06:33, September 18, 2011 (UTC)
 * 1) Rose
 * 2) Jack
 * 3) Mickey
 * 4) Sarah Jane
 * 5) Martha
 * 6) Donna
 * Amy


 * Just to make things clear, 11 isn't the doctor's regeneration. The doctor has only regenerated 10 times. A lot of people get confused with the whole "13 regnerations" and everyone thinks its sooner than supposed to be because "11th doctor means 11th regneration" but it's better to say the Doctor's 11th Incarnation, as the first doctor didn't have to rengerate to become the first doctor. In The Five Doctors, the 1st asks the 5th "Regneration?" and the 5th replies "Fourth." Rawrgoaway 07:38, September 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * Well I'll carlify that this is his 11th incarnation and not regeneration.Wollstone 07:40, September 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * Also, i don't really think it's an in world reference to the fact that Matt Smith is the 11th actor to play the Doctor. My opinion though, do as you wish with that =D Rawrgoaway 07:46, September 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * Well it's not in world, but it is a nod by the writers or production crew. I also just noticed it's the episode number as well.Wollstone 07:51, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

In keeping with the theme of the importance of doors inside the hotel/prison, what about Amy and Rory's new townhouse door? It's Tardis blue, with the number 6. Any chance there's a distant allusion to The Prisoner, since Number 6 in that show ends up with his own sports car and townhouse in the end, after escaping the fantastic, deadly, and impossible Village?98.180.51.124 18:53, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

There is a tendency to push numerology around here. Even if one only goes by the TV show, Matt Smith is at least the twelfth actor to play the Doctor, The First Doctor was also played by Richard Hurndell. As for all the other stuff, it reminds me of a writing project I was on nineteen years ago. I needed a common number, and whatever number I chose, another individual ont he project kept pointing out its signficicance in magic, science, literature, etc. There is no number that one ca choose that is not significant, so drawing conclusions from a number is ridiculous. I think we can all agree that 11 refers tot he Eleventh Doctor, and after that, give it a rest. Boblipton 20:09, September 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * Never underestimate the importance of Recreational Mathematics, as the Doctor might say. Numbers have come into play in a number of episodes, like 42 (TV story) and The Doctor's Daughter, and as in-jokes in Series 5 and 6. Eleven, as an in-joke referring to his eleventh persona, appears repeatedly around the Doctor: for example, it was his jersey number in The Lodger (TV story). Seven makes a lot of sense for Amy, since she is (or was, before the end of this episode) fixated upon in her seven-year-old fantasies of an imaginary friend. Either could be a coincidence, and together they're maybe a stronger coincidence: but given that the rest of the doors in the hotel seem to have three-digit numbers, these especially low numbers on the Doctor's door and Amy's make them stand out from the rest.


 * Most of the room numbers are clearly generic because they are reused. In the opening sequence, the clown room is 214, the photographer is 215, but the gorilla is again in 214. Later, the partially-clothed gym teacher is in 158, and Howie's women are in 155; everyone then moves up a floor to the Weeping Angels are in 216, and Rory's fire escape becomes 219. All the rooms whose numbers we see have three digits. That makes eleven, being two digits, unusual, and seven is highly unusual in that it's just one digit. Even more odd is that the room across the hall from 7 seems to have three digits on its plaque. The authors are using these two short numbers, 7 and 11, in a way that makes them stand out from the rest of the numbers in the hotel. It's not visually subtle at all, but plainly intentional.


 * Whether or not the townhouse's blue door, numbered six, is another in-joke or nod to a TV show is another question, but after two doors associated with main characters and numbered significantly and with obvious intent, it's hard not to think about a big, Tardis-blue door with a visible number 6 on it.98.180.51.124 03:37, September 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * The 7 as a reference to 7-year-old Amelia makes sense. But the reference to the 7th companion really doesn't. For one thing, Moffat has always stressed that he's continuing the 1963 series, not just the 2005 series, which means it's off by a few dozen. And, even within just the new series, you have to pick and choose pretty carefully to get Amy to be number 7. You have to start with a definition of "companion" that includes Mickey and Sarah Jane but excludes, e.g., Jackie; then specify that they were in multiple stories (not just multiple episodes, or Wilf would count, and possibly Cassie and Jimmy) as a guest companion (not just in multiple stories period, otherwise Adam would count, and Wilf again), and that they're ordered by when they became a companion rather than when they first appeared (so Amy is before River), and so on. It's not that it's impossible to get the number 7, it's that it's just as easy to get many other numbers. For example, going by the information on this wiki, Amy is number 9. --70.36.140.19 04:04, September 23, 2011 (UTC)


 * Also, it's hard to imagine someone would deliberately put in a reference to the Prisoner's number 6 flat and not use the distinctive Village typeface (or at least Albertus, which it was based on, and which looks enough like it that you'd get the reference, but is under a different and easier-to-license copyright). --70.36.140.19 04:33, September 23, 2011 (UTC)

Maybe the six is referring to "Series 6" a cute tribute to nearing the end. Moogleknight24 talk to me 13:01, June 6, 2012 (UTC)Moogleknight24

Also Amy being the Seventh Multi-Story companion. Did you forget that the Doctor had about 30 companions before her? Moogleknight24 ☎  03:54, September 23, 2012 (UTC)Moogleknight24

Angels
Should Touched by an Angel be added to when Amy has met them, or is the exact time that book takes place still up in the air?Tivis014 14:09, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

Seeing as she talks about the first time she met them, I can't see a point in adding it anyway.-- 14:11, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

I just noticed Blink is listed, but Amy isn't present at the time of that episode.Tivis014 14:15, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

About the Angels, if anything that holds the visage of an angel itself becomes an angel, shouldn't the mock-angels have been real? 71.59.219.221talk to me 01:42, June 6, 2012 (UTC)

Well, in the Byzantium it seems to have taken a really long time for the camera footage to become an angel. (Wasn't it crashed for like 10 years or more?) For all we know the Angels in the room were only there for five seconds and didn't have enough time to become real. I believe that the images only exist if you're in the room to see them thus the angels vanished when everyone left. Moogleknight24 talk to me 12:51, June 6, 2012 (UTC)Moogleknight24


 * They actually were present at the Byzantium Crash. And the Doctor also explained that "angels aren't dormant. They're just VERY patient". (Unsigned comment on APR/27/2013)


 * It hadn't been crashed for very long, there was still radiation there to feed them. Moving on, the Angels in the Byzantium were hurt, accounting for their slowness. The Doctor and River both state that hurt Angels aren't as capable of harm and aren't as fast. In any case, perhaps it requires some form of link to a real Angel to cause an image to become an Angel - an Angel has to be aware of it. --ComicBookGoddess ☎  17:16, April 27, 2013 (UTC)

I think it also has something to do with it being a mock-up of an an angel, a recreation and not a image captured of an angel or a holographic form built from a real angel.--Licourtrix ☎  18:34, September 20, 2012 (UTC)

You have to recall that even a drawing can become an Angel. Which is why in Time of Angels the book explaining them had no illustrations. Moogleknight24 ☎  03:48, September 23, 2012 (UTC)Moogleknight24

"Praise Him" continuity?
Not sure if this is worth a mention, but this episode features repeated use of the words "Praise Him" and I'm wondering if this could be considered a reference to the same words used by the Fat/Thin couple in 'A Good Man goes to War'? - they specifically mention they are "being paid to fight him, not praise him" as "praising costs way more". Baziel 20:04, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

I am pretty sure that this episode is full of words that have been used before.Boblipton 20:11, September 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * It's not about whether we've heard the words before randomly, but if it was intended as the writers to be a significant phrase or meme; which would surely be relevant to continuity. Within recent years there has been a theme of building up the Doctor as somewhat of a 'god' and it seems a bit convenient that the same spin is heard twice within a few episodes when they're building that theme. Personally, I'd suspect that it may be something they'll come back to later in a more concrete manner.Baziel 21:18, September 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * It may be significant. One of the annoying things about Russell Davies' "memes" was you couldn't tell if they wer eimportant until the season ender, and even then you couldn't guess what they meant. I much prefer Moffat's laying the Cracks, Amy's pregnant/not pregnant readings and the Eyepatch Lady so out in front. As to what "Praise him" means, if anything, we'll have to see. If it means anything, we can go back and add it in, which will be a lot easier than taking it out.Boblipton 21:26, September 18, 2011 (UTC)

No, in my opinion, it shouldn't be added to continuity. It's of no significance outside of this story. As for "season enders", I don't this one will crop up.-- 20:10, September 19, 2011 (UTC)

I think Boblipton is right. It doesn't matter that one user thinks it will be significant, or that another user thinks it won't; it matters whether it actually turns out to be significant in a week and a half, and we can wait until then to find out more easily than we can establish who's guessing right. --70.36.140.19 04:07, September 23, 2011 (UTC)

The phrase "Praise Him" is used in everyday modern religion. I think it's just a coincidence. Moogleknight24 talk to me 12:54, June 6, 2012 (UTC)Moogleknight24


 * Considering that the Doctor as the Lonely God has become something of a theme, I'd say it IS significant - but here only as foreshadowing of the ending, where the Doctor finds the monster is talking about him.ComicBookGoddess ☎

When you phrase it like that, it sounds more like Steven Moffat is saying that to us. "Watch Doctor Who... Buy more merchandise... Praise him..." Moogleknight24 ☎  04:46, March 10, 2013 (UTC)Moogleknight24


 * Ha ha. It's also part of the theme where the Doctor is, slowly yet constantly, becoming something that he hates. It's yet another law of the Time Lords, broken, even if unintentionally. He plays god - the ultimate moral authority - on a regular basis. I giggle, thinking that he's probably the angels that visited in the Bible or all those stories of Odin testing people's hospitality. ComicBookGoddess ☎  07:44, March 10, 2013 (UTC)

Well he did admit to being in the story of the Birth of Jesus. (I had gotten the last room) Moogleknight24 ☎  03:11, March 12, 2013 (UTC)Moogleknight24


 * Come to think of it, Davies was doing it, too, wasn't he? That bit with the Face of Boe, and playing him off the Dalek Emperor who was calling himself God. --ComicBookGoddess ☎  04:43, March 12, 2013 (UTC)

The Doctor's Gifts
I don't know exactly what to classify those gifts as. Production note? I did note that the door to the house the Doctor brought them was Tardis blue, just like the door on Amy's house before she was married. I don't know what kind of car that was.


 * I wonder if the house was in Leadsworth. Hopefully so. 78.105.95.95 19:49, September 20, 2011 (UTC)


 * The car is a series-3 Jaguar E-type (aka XK-E), from the early 70s. It seems to have the US bumper, the headlight trim from the series-1, and the wheels from a series-1 XJS, which implies that it was restored and customized in the 2010s, rather than picked up in the 70s and transported through time. --70.36.140.19 04:26, September 23, 2011 (UTC)

Mickey?
At about 2:54, just after the title scene while the Doctor, Amy, and Rory are in the stairwell, it sounds like the Doctor calls Rory "Mickey" or something similar. Can anyone confirm what exactly he says?Yumekage 03:06, September 20, 2011 (UTC)


 * He calls Rory "Beakey," a reference to his nose. Shambala108 14:40, September 20, 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, no, he says A-mee And B-kee, as in A and B.
 * OR it's both. Given the Doctor's playful reliance on cleverness, I'd say that.ComicBookGoddess ☎  05:59, March 6, 2013 (UTC)

"Mad Man with a box" continuity
To make Amy break her faith in him, the doctor tells her that he is simply is a mad man with a box, and that's the tipping point in her loosing her faith in him. In "The eleventh Hour" he tells Amy that he is "definitely a mad man with a box" and that one day, it may save her life. I think it should really be added to the continuity section, it was clearly planned from the very beginning of series 5.Merchillio 15:45, September 20, 2011 (UTC)


 * Go on then, add it.-- 16:08, September 20, 2011 (UTC)

Dropping Gibbis off
The article said, "The Doctor uses the TARDIS to drop Gibbis off on his homeworld…" Rewatching the episode, all Gibbis asks for is a lift to the nearest galaxy, and he's never heard from or mentioned again, so we have no idea where the Doctor dropped him off. So, I changed it to just say "The Doctor uses the TARDIS to drop Gibbis off…". --70.36.140.19 04:28, September 23, 2011 (UTC)
 * Not changing it back, but I'd like to note that the figure of thought for most people is that farther away is more trouble. Gibbis doesn't know the capabilities of the TARDIS can (ordinarily) make the difference irrelevant.ComicBookGoddess ☎  06:02, March 6, 2013 (UTC)

It's good of you to notify people fo the reasons for the change, but the talk page is not the place for it until there is a dispute. Until then, just note the reasons for the change in the box on the upper left. If a dispute does develop in which someone changes it back, then it's a good thinkg to discuss it here. But until that happens, just assume that other people are a little sloppier than you are. In the meantime, thanks for the change. I think it's a good one.Boblipton 18:20, September 25, 2011 (UTC)

I don't think we should tell people not to leave a notice here. It doesn't take up much space, and if there's a contentious edit, wikia policy is to check the talk page first, so leaving a notice here is probably the easiest way to say it.--Licourtrix ☎  18:38, September 20, 2012 (UTC)

Setting
The location box should say Prison ship, 21st century, judging by the clothes worn by Lucy, Joe, Howie and Rita. 31.51.109.247talk to me 17:04, July 1, 2013 (UTC)


 * Assuming 21st century based on clothing is a violation of T:NO RW. Shambala108 ☎  19:42, July 1, 2013 (UTC)

Bow-tie
We've seen in The Impossible Astronaut that the near-death Doctor was wearing a purple bow-tie. In this episode I noticed he did as well, just pointing it out because I've seen nobody else did. Any remarks? 186.56.187.63talk to me 23:55, July 4, 2013 (UTC)ZeOutcast

Marcus Wilson picture
I can see clearly a picture of Marcus Wilson among those pictures and yet it is not noted in the article. 49.3.72.79talk to me 06:49, September 23, 2020 (UTC)

What did he say?
Hi, I did not watch all episodes of Doctor who yet and none of the classic ones. But as far as I know to this point, the TARDIS telepathically translates other languages between the TARDIS travelers and other people. If this is true, who could the humans in the hotel speak with Gibbis before the TARDIS arrived?

Perhaps, as the TARDIS exists in all times (The Doctor's Wife), the telepathic translation could work even before the TARDIS arrives. Or, Gibbis species use some sort of on-body translators, if every now and than another ruler shows up, probably speaking another language. 80.139.237.183talk to me 12:41, 2 January 2021 (UTC)