Doctor Who - The God Complex Review

This review can also be found on Step2Inspire.


The God Complex, written by Toby Whithouse (probably best known for writing Being Human, and two other episodes of Doctor Who – School Reunion and Vampires of Venice), is a surreal adventure in an infinite hotel of nightmares. Again, we're presented with an episode which explores the emotional bonds between the characters, and continues to build on the darker aspects of travelling with the Doctor.

Arriving in a rather traditional looking hotel (and one I'm relatively certain I've stayed in before...), the Doctor and co encounter a small band of people who too have inexplicably found themselves there. With no apparent way out and the TARDIS suddenly absent, the Doctor endeavours to find a way to escape the endless, shifting maze of the hotel. But for every guest there is a room, each containing that person's worst nightmares, and an even more deadly threat marauds the corridors of the labyrinthine hotel...

Although the pre-title sequence seemed to be setting up for an episode of frights, The God Complex focussed primarily on the personal fears and faiths of the characters involved. These were often mundane manifestations, such as a sad clown and a berating father, but things like the Weeping Angels could have had a larger impact if their threat had been made more prominent. Each fear was meant to be a trigger for the person it was intended for, to fall back on their core faith, be it religious, superstitious or, in Amy's case, the Doctor. Of course, these faux-monsters and nightmares were the set-up for the actual threat – a Minotaur-like creature who feeds on faith. Specifically, a faith in it. As such, when each character was presented with their fears, they revealed their faiths which were slowly superseded by an involuntary faith in the Minotaur – caught in the rapture of it's presence in their final moments.

One of the most interesting aspects of this episode was the parallel it drew with the Doctor. An ancient creature, drenched in the blood of the innocent (a link the Minotaur itself made with the Doctor), which feeds on people's faith in it. It could be argued that, although he doesn't do it intentionally, the Doctor requires his companion's faith in him to satiate his vanity, which more often than not puts them in unnecessary danger. This is something that's not fully realised until the final scenes of the episode.

The moment in which the Doctor de-constructs Amy's faith in him was fantastically executed. The incorporation of Caitlin Blackwood depicting young Amelia Pond worked wonderfully, illustrating how despite her many adventures in the TARDIS and her marriage to Rory, she's still that little girl who idolised the mad man in the magic blue box. Continuing with the theme of the Doctor's guilt, and the dismantling of his Universal acclaim, this followed on well from the events of The Girl Who Waited and the Ponds' growing realisation that you can't always rely on the Doctor. Although Matt Smith was on top form throughout, it was during this and the final scene that he shone the brightest, revealing a glimpse into the Doctor's inner torment and vulnerability.

Concluding with a sombre farewell to the Ponds, the Doctor goes off to travel on his own once again. With the guilt of putting so many companions at risk just to feed his vanity, he leaves them with the best life he could give them outside of travelling in the TARDIS - an ideal townhouse and Rory's dream car.

Again, though, the River Song situation has been somewhat brushed over. Perhaps Amy and Rory have gone through the grief of their baby being abducted, growing up alongside her as a childhood friend without realising who she was, off screen. It just feels a little disjointed to me that the only mention of River since Let's Kill Hitler is Amy saying “if you bump into my daughter, tell her to visit her old mum sometime.”

Is this the last we'll see of Amy and Rory? I doubt it. If it is, then the departure Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill will be a sad loss for the series, and personally I think they deserved more of a send off than a slightly teary goodbye...

But that's fine, because they'll be back (he said, confidently)!

If you missed The God Complex, it is available on iPlayer here.

Raindance Film Festival: Hollow

This review can also be found on Step2Inspire.

Generally speaking, the things that scare me most are unexpectedly high utility bills and Janet Street-Porter, but I do have a weakness for psychological horror films. Not the in-your-face horrors of films like Saw, but the kind of fear that lurks at the back of your mind, nudging and prodding your unconscious, much like walking home alone late at night down a hauntingly empty alleyway. This is the kind of horror that Hollow achieves.

The first thing that strikes you about the piece is that it’s filmed entirely from the perspective of a video camera. It’s a bold move, one which has worked well for the likes of Cloverfield, and certainly feels like the perfect way to convey Hollow's narrative. Depicting two couples embarking on a weekend trip to the countryside, the story takes a sinister turn, embellished with ominous folklore and the complex character dynamics of the foursome. Scripted and produced by Matthew Holt, Hollow is an incredibly atmospheric film that draws you in from the outset.

As both a psychological horror and a character drama, the piece hinges strongly on the believability of the cast. With the combination of superb acting and sublime dialogue, along with the video camera perspective too, Hollow absolutely excels in portraying this group of friends in a chilling and engrossing narrative that's guaranteed to unnerve you. It takes a fair amount for something to scare me (I blame this relative immunity on my father for introducing me to the Alien films when I was eight! Having said that, though, I was terrified of the goblins in Noddy when I was four...), and although I can't profess to being truly terrified, I was definitely aware of a lurking sense of uneasiness throughout, a sense that grew more and more prominent towards the end!

It's exactly that kind of tantalising horror that I enjoy – the fear of knowing that something's going to happen any minute now, but it just keeps maliciously not happening. There's no release from that impending fear, and the tension continues to mount...

It's no mystery, then, as to why Hollow is nominated for Best Feature Film at Raindance Film Festival - an accolade it's more than deserving of. As I remarked immediately on exiting the auditorium, grinning moronically at Michael Axelgaard, director of Hollow, “thank f**k it's still light outside!”

If you're attending Raindance this year, this is one film you absolutely must not miss! For more information of Hollow, please click here.

Raindance Film Festival: How to Start a Revolution

This review can also be found on Step2Inspire.

With the recent struggles in Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, it is now more than ever evident that people oppressed by dictatorial regimes have the power to claim back their lives and their freedom from their rulers. These primarily non-violent revolutions (Libya excluded) have reshaped the face of many nations across the globe and, whether people know it or not, these movements bear the hallmarks of the writings of Gene Sharp.

How to Start a Revolution documents the work of Gene Sharp, founder of the Albert Einstein Institute and author of From Dictatorship to Democracy, a thinker who propagates the dream of freedom to otherwise oppressed nations. His ideas and theories of non-violent protest and civil disobedience have helped bring this freedom to former dictatorships, inspiring revolution and unity among the oppressed, and bringing about new found liberties.

Sharp's ideas have been incorporated across the globe, reshaping oppressive governments and bringing power to the people through peaceful means. With his work being linked to the revolutions in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus Lithuania, and more recently in Syria, Tunisia and Egypt, it's clear that Sharp's influence has the power to change the face of the Earth. His writings have even gained him notoriety with many of the politicians they seek to overthrow, to the extent that two print shops that had dared to publish his writings were burnt down. Despite this, his word finds a way of reaching those who desire change, and help to inspire and galvanise revolution.

From the disturbing images of undue violence under dictatorial regimes and clips from the Korea and Vietnam wars, to the inspiring footage of tens of thousands of people in non-violent protest against their governments and snippets from interviews with Gene Sharp and his associates, How to Start a Revolution is a powerful and moving piece about the struggle for freedom that so many people face, and how the non-violent alternative is the best approach to bringing down dictatorships.

His 198 methods of non-violent protest literally are revolutionary, indicating that the fight for freedom needn't be fought with weapons, but with unity and justice. Gene Sharp is truly a shining exemplar for humanity, and although his work is not fully appreciated in our time, I hope that his legacy will one day go down in the history books as the man who helped liberate the oppressed and reshaped the civilisations of the world.

If you get a chance to see this documentary, I would highly recommend it. For more information on How to Start a Revolution, please click here.

Doctor Who - The Girl Who Waited Review

This review can also be found on Step2Inspire.

Amelia Pond, the girl who waited... In this highly emotional episode, Tom MacRae's The Girl Who Waited took us to a weird world of parallel time streams, lethal doses of kindness, and a difficult choice for Rory...

Arriving on Apalapucia - voted number two planet in the top ten greatest destinations for the discerning intergalactic traveller – the Doctor, Amy and Rory are set for a spot of sight-seeing, only to discover that the entire world is under quarantine due to a virulent plague that only effects species with two hearts – not a brilliant start to a holiday! If the Doctor were to set foot in the facility, he'd be dead within a day, and although this infection won't harm either Amy or Rory, the well-meaning Handbots' attempt to medicate them almost certainly would. Adding to the problems, soon after arriving on Apalapucia, Amy is separated from Rory and the Doctor by a quirk of the Apalapucian Kindness facility, and finds herself caught in a parallel time stream. In a bid to rescue her, the Doctor and Rory attempt to break through the time barrier and find Amy before the Handbots do.

Having successfully breached the parallel time stream, Rory ventures out into the facility to locate his wife, whilst the Doctor stays in the TARDIS – away from the plague. It's not long before Rory finds her - or rather, she finds him - but she's now 36 years into her future, still trapped in the Kindness facility, and less than pleased that she'd been abandoned there. However, it becomes clear that there's still a chance to save Amy before her 36 years of hell, and Rory is left with a difficult choice: To save the older Amy now after her time in the facility, or to try and rescue her past-self shortly after she got caught in the time stream, essentially killing the other Amy and erasing her from existence...

The Girl Who Waited is another prime example of a strong stand-alone adventure, and for a relatively Doctor-lite episode it had an engaging plotline. There were chances throughout for it to become overly complex and convoluted, but it maintained an easy to follow narrative without unnecessarily over-complicating things. As the episode contained only a handful of Handbots and the facility's interface, the story was purely driven by the relationships between the three main characters, exploring the unbreakable love between Amy and Rory, and how travelling with the Doctor can often go awry. This, as with Let's Kill Hitler, followed on nicely from A Good Man Goes To War, with the Doctor having to face his demons and come to terms with the guilt of how travelling with him has effected his companions.

As the main focus of the episode, Karen Gillan provided an absolutely fantastic performance as the older Amy. Wrought with the bottled-up emotions of being left to fend for herself in this facility for 36 years and the bitter resentment towards the Doctor for leaving her behind, she was a far cry from the Amy Pond we're familiar with, and certainly stands out as one of her best performances to date on Doctor Who.

As with Night Terrors, there was very little in the way of the overall series arc in this episode with no mention of River, or the Silence, although I do wonder if the Doctor saying “sometimes knowing your own future is what enables you to change it,” will somehow be pertinent to saving him from his fate on the shore of Lake Silencio.... 

Overall, The Girl Who Waited is an incredible blend of Science Fiction and personal drama, packed with sublime characterisation and a wealth of emotion. If you missed the episode, it can be seen on iPlayer here.

Doctor Who - Night Terrors Review

This review can also be found on Step2Inspire.

Scripted by Mark Gatiss - the brilliant mind behind other Who stories such as The Unquiet Dead, The Idiot's Lantern, and Victory of the Daleks - Night Terrors sees the Doctor return to contemporary Earth, investigating the scariest place in the Universe... The bedroom of an eight year old boy; George. Filled with humour, tension and a constant sense of uneasiness, Gatiss's adventure is certainly best described as bizarre and creepy!

After receiving a mysterious psychic distress signal, the Doctor and co travel to present-day Earth in search of whoever – or whatever – sent the message. The sender turns out to be George, a haunted child who's terrified of almost everything, including a rather sinister cupboard (which does not contain Hitler). Everything George is ever afraid of goes in the cupboard, and is subsequently the place where most of the terrors manifest themselves.

With Amy and Rory suddenly separated from the Doctor and trapped in a dark and foreboding house, they are left to fend for themselves as they're hunted by the creepiest dolls since Pipkins was on the air (and that ended about a decade before I was born; such is the potency of Pipkins' terror!). Meanwhile, the Doctor and George's dad, Alex (Danny Mays), endeavour to find out what it is that makes this little boy's cupboard so terrifying, and bring an end to the nightmares...

Night Terrors keeps you in suspense throughout, preparing you to jump at any second, but it just keeps you waiting in anticipation... With a continuous sense of uneasiness lurking in the back of the mind, every moment felt as if there was something hanging in the air waiting to pounce, exuding an atmosphere that keeps you on the edge of your seat. My favourite kind of fear!

Of course, bringing this fear to life was George, played by Jamie Oram. Given his incredibly young age, Oram produced a fantastic performance and – judging by footage from behind the scenes – is full of energy and enthusiasm, completely in his element on set. A natural actor and certainly one to watch out for in the future.

After the recent story-arc based episodes, it was a pleasant change to have something that felt like more of a stand-alone adventure. With the exception of the very last minute, which foreshadows the Doctor's imminent death with a rather haunting nursery rhyme, Night Terrors is very much a one-off episode without any ties to the current arc. However, it did seem a little odd that Amy and Rory were more interested in exploring time, space and a weird doll-house than what has happened/is happening/will happen to their daughter. This isn't actually a fault with the episode, but more with the schedule, as Night Terrors had originally been billed to air in the first half of the series – prior to the revelations of River Song. Episodically, this probably would have been better off in it's original slot, but that's just a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent episode.

Overall, Mark Gatiss provides a marvellous stand-alone narrative with a genuine sense of the surreal and sinister. Ranging from the haunting exploration of George's fears to the touching finale (which may or may not have made me well-up...), Night Terrors was a return to the traditional staple of Doctor Who – an enjoyable 45-minute adventure, where even the most mundane and domestic of objects can be scary. If I were still eight (and to an extent, I still am!), I would have certainly been having a sleepless night after that!

If you missed Night Terrors, it's available on iPlayer here.