Toby Whithouse wins this reviewer's prize for most unpredictable writer of NuWho . He wrote the satisfying nostalgia piece of School Reunion but Vampires Of Venice was a dull runaround whilst The God Complex didn't gel for me . The trailers suggested this was going to be the show's version of COWBOYS AND ALIENS , a film so bad that the executive producer came out and criticised it . Surely we wouldn't see Steven Moffat himself come out and say it was going to a mediocre episode . If you're reading this Steven I will save you the bother in saying it's a mediocre story
The premise involves a cyborg going around blasting people who want to escape the Wild West town of Mercy and things aren't what they seem . Right away a thinking audience notices the cyborg isn't in the habit of killing people without giving them several chances to retreat back to Mercy . The cyborg is looking for the Doctor , but as Rory points out he hasn't met the Doctor . Oh he's not THE Doctor he's after it's another alien Doctor. So the cyborg - who doesn't kill lightly - is after another alien Doctor
It's at this point that anyone with an IQ in double figures will be able to work out that the cyborg isn't really the villain of the story - it's the alien Doctor . The bad news is that there's another 30 odd minutes of running time to the episode which predictably plays out as a runaround . Entertainingt ? Well to an extent but there's something painfully uninvolving to all this . Another aspect is the subtext that " you should never judge someone by their appearance " Classic Doctor Who was absolutely brilliant at this , especially during the Jon Pertwee era. Here however it's skated over with no emotional or dramatic impact
I'm very disappointed with this story . In fact I'm slightly disappointed with myself . Moffat has thankfully dumped all the timey wimey nonsense from season 6 , he's continued making DOCTOR WHO stories abroad , production values are brilliant and die hard fans from childhood like myself should be loving all this yet there's something very very uninvolving in the finished product that can't put my finger on . Perhaps it's proof that a good writer doesn't necessarily make a good producer ?
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