First broadcast 17 September 2011.

Writer Toby Whithouse, best known for creating the series Being Human, returns for his third episode of Doctor Who. Previous episodes “School Reunion” and “The Vampires of Venice” I found solid but unexceptional. “The God Complex” feels just a bit superior to both of them. It is a strange, slightly odd story, but boasts some excellent supporting characters and a rather unexpected conclusion.

The TARDIS is drawn to an anonymous, deserted hotel. It is dilapidated and largely deserted, save for a small group of people who have been pulled there by unknown means. Inside each room lies somebody’s worst fear – and that includes the Doctor (Matt Smith) and Amy (Karen Gillan).

This is the sort of slightly surreal, odd science fiction that Doctor Who does really well. The set-up is strange, and is immediately complicated by both the presence of a minotaur marauding the hotel corridors and a strange effect where the prisoners start to involuntary declare ‘praise him’ as their time in the hotel begins to run out. It is also a showcase for a couple of properly interesting and inventive guest characters. Rita (Amara Karan) in the latest in a decades-long line of ‘could have been’ companions: inquisitive, smart, and immediately capable of recognising some of the Doctor’s worst tendencies. She is also a Muslim, which in 2011 still felt quite progressive and challenging. (‘You’re a Muslim,’ the Doctor exclaims. ‘Don’t get frightened,’ is her wry reply.) Howie (Dimitri Leonidas) is a fairly amusing conspiracy theorist. Gibbis is a meek, nervous alien, with prosthetics to make him look rather like a humanoid hamster. He is played with surprising effectiveness by comic actor David Walliams; I’m not usually a fan. Sadly in this last case the jokes – his people are the most invaded species in the universe – do wear thin well before the episode’s climax.

All of this does wind up feeling a bit like filler by the episode’s conclusion. There is not really a plot-based climax, and more of a realisation by the Doctor that if he continues to allow Amy and Rory (Arthur Darvill) to travel around with him he is going to eventually get them killed. Part of it is tidying up the season’s back end to fit the Doctor’s apparent death – when he was travelling alone. The other part simply does not sit quite right.

Within the constraints of Whithouse’s script and Nick Hurran’s strong direction, the scenes play out logically and with great emotional effectiveness. The Doctor takes Amy and Rory back to modern-day Earth, sets them up with a dream house, and then leaves to travel alone. It could be a significant moment for the character, realising the damage he can do to people and the enormous ego involved in having humans travel with him to make him feel clever and important.

Within the broader context of the series, it simply fails to play out. Audiences have seen a good two-to-three dozen companions travel with the Doctor, and one can count the ones that actually died with less than five fingers. There is mayhem and terror for sure, and a lot of running down corridors, but the damage the Doctor does to his friends is a lot less catastrophic than the events here seem to claim. As with the previous week’s terrible dilemma over which Amy to save and which to condemn, there isn’t really a particularly powerful choice to be made here.

That said, as showrunner Steven Moffat does seem to stick to his guns here: nobody travels full-time with the Doctor again until Season 11.

“The God Complex” works marvellously in the heat of the moment, which is how this sort of family-oriented action-adventure is supposed to play out. To be honest, I think it only unravels when fans like me start furiously tugging on threads.