06x12 - Heartbreak Hotel

[bunniefuu]

This is Matt Smith.
Confidential. Prime time.

You're tuning in
to Confidential on BBC Three.

It's all set in a creepy hotel.

A Doctor Who story in a hotel
with lots of corridors.

That struck me as very Doctor Who.

It is disturbing...

..and scary.

There's ventriloquist dummies.

We've got such a good monster.

STOMPING

David Walliams is in it,
who's brilliant.

We've all got to face
some big fears.

Check in with Confidential,
as we reserve you a room

with a view
of all the backstage action.

February , and
the Doctor Who team gather together

for the script read through
for episode .

Right, everybody. Welcome to
Toby Whithouse's God Complex.

I'll read out the stage
directions very fast.

"It looks like a perfectly ordinary
corridor, doors on either side,

"some with shoes placed outside.

' "We follow the back of Lucy Miller,
as she plods along the corridor.

' "She stands outside the door,
peers into the bedroom." '

When I'm stuck alone in a hotel,

I always think
it's a bit creepy and strange

and you can get lost easily.
I can anyway. Um...

So I suggested that to Toby.

"There's a hotel. The corridors shift
around. What can you do with that?"

"You were surprised to be back, you
walked in the opposite direction."

The walls move. Everything changes.

You, clever one.
What's he talking about?

'The hotel in The God Complex'

is a sophisticated prison
that's going around

plucking up sacrifices and tributes.

What have we got? People being
snatched from their lives

and dropped
into an endless maze

that looks like
a s hotel with bad dreams
in the bedrooms.

But apart from anything else,
that's just rude.

But this is a hotel you definitely
wouldn't want to stay at.

Finding your room isn't a problem,
but finding your way out might be.

'The hotel is, essentially, a maze.

'It struck me that,'

obviously, you want a thr*at,
some kind of monster.

What creature would you have
in a maze?

'It struck me that the most
logical thing to have
in a maze would be a minotaur.'

I'd like to see Spencer walk
that corner. Which corner?

You know,
the route that he would take...

Just come in, stopping in the middle
and going out towards that door.

OK. Shh. Here we go.

Turn over, please.

'The minotaur looked really amazing'

and it was weird. It was all hairy.

It was really cool, that monster.

But this minotaur
didn't start off so hairy.

In early , actor Spencer Wilding
went to Millennium FX Studios
for an early costume fitting.

If we can stick the head on
and stand you up against this wall,

then I need to get some reference
sh*ts from the front and side.

Today we had the first fitting
with the...

with Spencer in the minotaur suit to
make sure everything's working fine.

There's no point in going
ahead with all the fabrication,
painting and furring,

and finding out it doesn't fit under
your arms or it needs alterations.

We'll just get one angle. Just stand
still for one second. Perfect.

Excellent. Can you shift round
to the side? That's great.

It'll be painted and furred
and all the fastenings
and clips and zips put in

so when we're on set
he'll just zip into it nicely.

With the first fitting finished,

work begins transforming the suit
into a scary looking alien.

After painting and furring, it's
time for some minotaur hair styling.

A couple of weeks later, and with
the costume nearly finished,

Spencer returns to try
the creature on for size.

Costume fitting is important
to get everything working together

so on the day you're not trying to
fiddling to make it work.

You save time putting the costume
on the person on the day.

It's great cos it's like growing,
really, with the suit and character.

There's the feet and it grows and
it's connected to the character.

It's when it all comes full.
It's like a jigsaw.

You put your pieces in. Once the
picture's there you're ready to go.

Just hold it and make sure it
doesn't trap the wires.

For the finishing touches,
the mask has to be painted

and the animatronics tested.

We have here the hero's head
for the minotaur,

which is a fully animatronic, all
singing and dancing, talking head.

He has a fully articulated jaw so he
can talk and do a chewing motion.

He has lip movement so he can snarl
but it also makes him articulate.

He has his nose snort,
which is that one.

He has eyes, left and right,
up and down.

He has a blink.
He has an a*t*matic blink

so he'll blink all the time,
like a natural thing.

I can override that with this little
device and I can close his eye.

If I don't touch it, as you'll see,
it'll blink on its own.

He won't do it now. There we go.

He has a frown so he can
look normal and frowning.

As much as this is all
clever and exciting,

if the performer wearing it
can't act and do his job,

it will look like a big puppet.

% of the performance comes
through Spencer, who has to make it
live. We just do the little details.

Back on set, and with the
monster makeover completed,

Spencer is set to test costume, and
finally bring the minotaur to life.

To help make this alien extra scary,
Spencer has height on his side.

At six foot seven, he's already
a monster of a man.

He was a massive man.

He had little stilts on and
I was like, "You must have
leg extensions or something."

He got out and he was still...
you know. It was like, "Oh, hi."

With the crew ready for a take,

it's time for Spencer and the
minotaur to take to the stage.

Here we go then and...
three, two, one, action!

Amy!

He's beautiful.

Stop, stop, stop, stop!
Very good. Thanks, Spencer.

'It was really disturbing, actually,
when it was'

running down the corridor and
bouncing off the walls and things.

It just looked so clumsy and big,
and...ugh!

When you're running, because it's a
stunt helmet it obscures your vision,

you just try and lock in the memory
and there's a little pattern

whirring in front of you, and a nice
little line, so it's not too bad.

I think it was a Scottish monster,
because it was wearing a kilt
and a sporran. It totally was.

CREATURE ROARS

The minotaur in The God Complex
is a god of a civilisation who,

as the people have become
more secular,

and more religiously apathetic,

the god has become redundant and so,

they deposited
this god into a very complex prison.

They're not doors, they're walls,
walls that look like doors.

The windows are... Right.

The prison travels
around through space,

plucking people from different
planets and different civilisations

who have a very strong belief system.

You're a Muslim.
Don't be frightened.

This faith is what actually
feeds the creature.

And...it will take these people,
pop them into this environment

and generally frighten them.

The rooms have...things in them.

Things? Hello! What kind of things?

Interesting things?
I love things, ask anyone.

Bad dreams.

LAUGHTER

Aagh!

Needs you... I'm sorry.

What is this?

Well, that k*lled the mood.

What people do is, the more
frighten they become,

the more they rely on their core,
fundamental faith.

Thereby giving
the creature more food.

Right, here we go, this is
a rehearsal, so nice and quiet.

We're in a strange hotel, that Lucy,
a young police officer,

finds herself then and she's
already lost her four companions.

So it's just endless corridors
and room after room after room.

Turnover, please. OK, once more,
here we go. Action.

In each of the rooms
are different types of fear.

'Each person has
their own individual fear.'

From the bathroom
a toilet flushes. The door opens,

the woman's eyes widen with horror,

stepping out
is a brutal-looking gorilla.

And cut. Lovely.

They are not necessarily
just objects or creatures,

they might be
certainly more thematic.

For example, the character Rita,
her fear is about disappointment.

A B in mathematics?
And letting down her family.

Daddy, I'm so sorry.

So there are lots of
little individual fears,

things that are specific
to that person.

The door opens and out steps
a man in a tracksuit, cropped head,
whistle on a string.

He stares with at the Doctor
with that mixture and disdain
that only a PE teacher can pull off.

There's a games teacher.
I don't know where I got that from.

Hello, have you
forgotten your PE kit again?

Right that's it,
you're doing it in your pants.

The Doctor turns to find Howie
standing in front of the next door.

He reaches for the handle.
Oh, Howie, don't.

Too late, he's opened a door.

The Doctor dives between Howie
and the room and they peer in,
the room is full of girls.

, take three.

Howie's fear
is a group of attractive girls,

and he's obviously quite nervous.

Action, girls!

And action!

He had the stutter before,
and he's confronted with his fear.

Oh, look, girls.
It's How-How-How-Howie!

HE SCREAMS

What's loser in K-K-K-Klingon?

And once he opens the door,
the stutter comes back

and throughout the rest of
the episode he has to deal with it.

Shut the d-d, the-the, d-door.

'The doctor slams it shut.'

And cut it. Once more, please.

There is a room in the hotel
for absolutely everyone.

'The Doctor is about to move off,
but something stops him.

'One of the doors
looms large in his eye,

'ominous but enticing,
it's room number .'

He reaches towards it,
opens the door and peers in.

I'm sure that the contents of room
are going to be hotly debated.

Of course. 'We don't see
what the Doctor has seen,'

but the sight before him clearly
shakes him to the core.

Who else?

He closes the door,
and hangs a Do Not disturb sign on
the outside and walks quickly away.

Filming the biggest fear scene
called for the Doctor Who team

to turn a few heads and try
their hands at some creepy puppetry.

We wanted a big kind
of bold visual image.

Um... And so we walk in,

and there is this whole gaggle
of ventriloquists' dummies.

There is something very macabre
about ventriloquists' dummies.

So we had this idea
that they would walk in

and there is a whole room of them.

One wasn't enough, you want a whole
room of them and surrounding him.

With a room full of dummies,

extra pairs of hands were needed
to help handle them all.

Because we have so many dummies,

we have had several people coming in
all lending a hand.

We had our production manager lying
on the floor operating dummies.

We've had several of the runners
in doing some dummies,

the rigger,
lots of people lending a hand today.

DUMMIES CACKLE

We've basically been trying
to make them like talk and interact,

turning their heads,
trying to put in some movements

to make it look like they are
talking to each other.

And then that kind of
creepy turn of the head

which really, really makes them
feel quite unnatural and unnerving.

Here we go. And chattering,
and action. Matt comes in.

They stop chattering,

and all their heads together
now rotate to look at Matt.

Moving all the way round.
Just pause for a moment
to see where your heads are.

We're filming scenes where Rita
and all the other hotel guests

introduce the Doctor to Joe,
who was formerly their colleague

and friend but has subsequently
been possessed by the creature.

Here we go then. And, puppets!

And action!

Chatting, chatting, chatting.

Chatting stops.

All heads turn to the Doctor.

The Doctor stops. Don't track yet.
And as he moves forward,

now we start tracking the Doctor.

This is the first time we actually
see, the first time the Doctor

and our heroes see any of the fears.

Hello.

I'm the Doctor.
Now watch him walk up.

The dummies are a manifestation

of my character
Joe's worst nightmare.

It's still me, Doctor.

But I've seen the light.

I've lived a blasphemous life,
but he has forgived my inconstancy.

And soon, he shall feast.

We've been here for two days, what's
he waiting for? We weren't ready.

We were still raw.

Joe is the first person
in that party who has succumbed

to the...the power
of the minotaur creature.

The first one who has started
to begin the process of worship,

and thereby feeding the creature.

Like these things.

I used to hate them.

They make me laugh now.

CHIRPING LAUGHTER

Gottle o'geer! Gottle o'geer!

'I'm Toby Whithouse,

'writer of this week's episode
of Doctor Who, The God Complex.

'These are my children,
Maddie and Lucas,

'we're in Cardiff for a day out
with a difference.

'A guided tour of the Doctor Who set

'to see how my script
is coming to life.'

Are you ready? Yeah.

'One of the most difficult parts
of being a writer
on Doctor Who is having

'to keep everything a secret,

'even from my family.'

I'm not allowed to tell you anything,
really. I'm so worried about them
at school saying,

"Oh, and then this happens...",
and then I'll be sacked.

These are the studios
and all the offices are up there

where we have our meetings
and the read-through.

Really nice to see, are you well?

Can I introduce you to Maddie.
This is Karen.

Hi, I'm Karen.
This is Lucas. Lucas, hi, I'm Karen.

Nice to meet you.

This is Lindsey, who I work with
on Doctor Who.

'For the first stop on our tour,

'script executive Lindsey Alford
takes us to the s hotel set.'

'I haven't seen this yet, so
I'm interested to catch a glimpse

'at how my ideas have been
interpreted by the production team.'

Try and remember I told you
it was set in a hotel. Whoa! Wow!

Oh, look. That's great.

That's perfect.

Look.

They have all the little
individual rooms going off.

It's brilliant. It's really good.

It kind of gets spookier as it
gets darker. It's an angel!

They go into one room,
and there's a weeping angel in there.

Oh, that's horrible.
Isn't it creepy, though?

God, it's huge though.

Hello. You're Maddie?
'Brian Minchin, producer of
The Sarah Jane Adventures leads us

'to the Aladdin's cave of the
Doctor Who world - the prop store.'

Oh, wow! Look!

Oh, they've got some angels.

That's one before it becomes a fully
formed angel. Don't blink. What?

How much stuff?
It just goes on forever.

Lovely to see you. Hi, I'm Piers.
These are my bosses.

Hello, I'm Beth, lovely to meet you.
We are doing the full tour.

Whoa!

We're dying to see the minotaur.
The minotaur's amazing.

He's huge. It's...

They sent me some pictures
and they sent me

a little bit of footage of the guy,
Spencer.

He kind of has to walk like this.

It's incredible.

Oh, is this going to be
The God Complex? 'Next port of call,

'we don some blue shoes
to protect the floor of the set.'

In the end of the episode,
it turns out that the hotel

was all hologram and then the hotel
gradually disappears.

Look over there. Is that
the minotaur head? Look at that.

Look at that.

Do you want to go and stand next
to it and I'll take a photo?

Are you guys hungry?
Do you want something to eat?

I'm a bit hungry. OK, let's go
and get something to eat.

These are my kids,
this is Maddie and Lucas.

How are you? That's David.
Are you having fun?
Have you had a look round? Yeah.

Have you been here before?
You must have done. Hello.

Hello. I won't shake hands,
because I've got messy hands!
I'm sorry.

Hello.

'After lunch, even the show's cast
can't resist a trip'
to see the TARDIS.

Wow! Look at that.

'It's such an extraordinary, iconic
set. As a -year-old writer,'

there is a special joy in writing
"interior, TARDIS".

And you do it rarely
within an episode.

Do you need to come and see the
TARDIS to know what it does? No.

Well... You just need
to know its concept?

You don't need to know
it's got a keyboard. No, no.

Oh, no, because, in the script,
you put generic stage directions.

"The doctor pulls levers,
presses buttons."

It still has such an effect on you,
coming in.

Whatever else is going on in your
life, you come in and go,
"It's the TARDIS!"

'A quick stop at the set
of the beauty salon.'

There's a scene where the minotaur
is having a conversation
with the Doctor.

HE GROWLS

Running down this will be water.
Tell me. Tell me how to fight you.

'And then it is on to our final
treat of the day.

'We get the chance to see
the rehearsals for the important'
final scenes of the episode.'

Here we go. And action.

And we cut. Hello.
LAUGHTER

Shake hands. Shake hoofs.

What's your name? Maddie.
Hello, Maddie.

What's your name? Lucas.
Hello, how are you doing?

Hasn't it come up well.
Move your nose, move the nostrils.
Sorry?

Do the nostrils.
There are the nostrils!

CHILDREN LAUGH
Big hairy back.

MINOTAUR GRUNTS

They'll have nightmares now.
Yeah, thanks, thanks for this guys(!)

Seeing your own monster
is absolutely thrilling.

It's been brilliant.
I've said it's for my kids.

This is... It's for me,
if I'm honest.

We've had a fantastic day.

I kept saying to my agent,

"Have they asked me to be
in Doctor Who yet,

"because everybody else has been
it?! Why haven't I been in it?"

And then I just got an e-mail.
It said "subject - Doctor Who".

I was, "Ah, here it is."

Gibbis and Joe in the lead,
the Doctor, Rita, Amy and Rory
spread out behind them.

Personally, I think you've got
the right idea.

At times like this
I think of my old school motto.

"Resistance is exhausting".

Gibbis is from the most invaded
planet in the universe.

Our anthem is called
Glory To... Insert name here.

They are a species
who are basically cowards

and the most cowardly
race in the universe.

All I want to do is go home
and be conquered and oppressed.
Is that too much to ask?!

He is a brilliant person
to have trapped,

or awful person
to have trapped with you,

in a completely sealed hotel
complex, which is full
of your worst fears.

David Walliams.
Hi, welcome to Doctor Who.

I'm very excited to be her.
Are you? Yeah.

How long does your prosthetic
take in the morning? About two hours.

So you've got the earliest call
and the latest finish? Yeah.

But I don't mind, because it's nice
to do something memorable, isn't it?

Yeah. And I was quite glad
to be an alien.

This make-up would completely
cover David's face,

so he wanted to make sure
he would still be able to act
with the prosthetic on.

Are we actually putting on today?
Just a quick fit.

Has anyone else got this make-up?
It's just you. (Yeah!)

Somebody people do actually
have teeth like that.

'I think David's got used
to being in prosthetics'

but it's the same with everyone
who comes and has a different face
to their own.

Because they are in earlier than
everyone and leave much later,

we didn't see him
with his own face.

I think it looks amazing.

You know, it's a bit worrying
as an actor when you got lots
of make-up on,

because you think,
"Is my mum going to know it's me?"

HE CHUCKLES

Well, also you sometimes
think I can't perform.

If you've got a prosthetic on
and it's really still,

it's like you can't give
a performance other than through
your voice and your eyes,

because you can't move your face.
But, actually,
I think this is really expressive.

On the first day,
when I got the prosthetics on,

I sat in front of the mirror
in the dressing room

and went through everything
in the script because the thing
you don't realise when you're in it

is how much expression you've got.
This is very... It moves.
It's fantastic.

Happy with the prosthetic, it's down
to David to deliver the performance
he wants for Gibbis.

I take it from the pathological
compulsion to surrender
you are from Tivoli? Yes.

The most invaded
planet in the galaxy.

What David did so brilliantly
with his performance

is he didn't give us what we've
seen before with David Walliams.

He's worn prosthetics
a lot for his comedy shows

and yet this felt very different.

Of course, if the weeping angels
were meant for me,

then your room is still out there...

somewhere.

'I'm cowardly...'

At first you think in a funny way,

but then you start thinking
he's a little bit sinister.

And really he would let anyone die
other than himself.

He is willing to sacrifice his new
companions to save his own skin

and I think, in that sense,
he is a much darker character than
the minotaur.

And I think that David did that
with just a tiny glint in his eyes.

Look, whatever it is out there,
it's obviously chosen
Howard as its next course.

Tragic though that is,
this is no time for sentiment.
I'm saying if we are to find him,

it may be satisfied
and let the rest of us go.

I love that character
and I think as Beth said,

he is one of the darker characters
that we have.

You know,
we've had in the series this year,

and yet he's also terribly funny
and you just want him
to be in scenes, I think.

So who would you say
is your favourite guest star ever?

Um... Well, there's James Corden.
Yes.

HE CHUCKLES
Who else have we had?
Michael Gambon.

Well...you know,
he's all right as an actor.

We've got a script

and our winning writers have
a bird's-eye view on rehearsals.

Let's block this through,
shall we, chaps?

Um, what lever am I going
to aim for?

It will be easier if you could go up
a step rather than down a step.

I think you should come up here.
Yeah.

Then you can quite easily do...
You can catch that.

Yeah, perfect.
Perfect. Rather than down.
That means you can catch that one.

Yeah. Great.
You can go like that.

Then it's going to be able
to fly out of your hands.

Yeah.
With rehearsals in full flow,

the children leave for a meeting
with a very important monster.

Have a good day, guys. I'm sure we
will see you later this afternoon
when you're giving us notes...

LAUGHTER

..on how to be better. Thanks, guys.
Have fun.

It's the day of the sh**t.
We are on the TARDIS in Cardiff.

The competition winners,
the children,

came in
and watched the first block.

I was a bit nervous,
because I was realising
their script for the first time.

But, I could hear
laughter coming from behind me,

so I think they appreciated
what we were doing in trying
to bring their script to life.

So they've seen the first rehearsal.

Now, as we continue to sh**t it,
the rehearsal turns
into a performance

and the actors get into the rhythm
of it. Hopefully, next time
they pop in and see us,

they will like what
we are doing even more.

I think this liquid is the key.
Um, yes.

Then is it yes or no? No.

LAUGHTER

'I think it is a great idea that
kids are encouraged to write
scripts for Doctor Who.'

So I applaud them.

I particularly applaud
the master or teacher

who instigated
and initiated the idea.

Big smiles!

I hope it encourages them
to write for television.
We need young writers.

The ideas in this are great
and they have refined their script
and we have worked on it.

I congratulate them.
They've done a great job.

It's time to get hands-on
with Ood actor Paul Kasey.

That's cool!

This took about an hour and a half.

ALL: Wow.

Do you like people stroking
your hand?!
LAUGHTER

I hadn't really thought about it!
I suppose I do!

Ah! That looks really cool.

Look at that!

Twitchy eyebrows!

Do you play Nephew in the
The Doctor's Wife? I did. Ah!

He had green eyes, though.

The children have really captured
the essence of an Ood

very cleverly, I might add.

With the dialogue he has and what
he says and he's got red eyes,

so it was a good choice
of a monster.

And action.

The vectors are going.
I guess you are keeping the fez?

Well, you know, fezes look better
on me than you.

Next week,
it's time to start filming.

Oh, well, goodbye.

The Doctor turns to the others. He
says, "I thought it feeds on fear."

Everything, the room,
even the pictures in reception,

has been put here to frighten us.
So we have to resist it.

Do what you have to,
cross your fingers, say a prayer.

Think of a basket of kittens,
but do not give in to the fear.

The Doctor tells all of the people
to actually rely on their faith,

to dig deep and find the thing
that keeps them strong.
But, of course,

rather than protect the people,

what he's done is made them expose
their faith and expose the thing

that the creature is looking
for and needing to feed upon.

Hi, Confidential, how are we? So we
are in a hotel. Let's rehearse.

Episode , The God Complex, um,

David Walliams
down there in his prosthetic.

And we are about to rehearse.
I get to smash loads of stuff up,
which is quite exciting.

Through this little slither,
we'll see the back of you.
Do something. Smash.

Is there any value in having
something just fly across there?

Yes, I'm just worried about that.
Yeah, cool.

That can come off? Just those.
OK, those.

Um, can I get this through here?

No.

Right, here we go. Guys...
HE GRUNTS

HE SHOUTS

Smash, smash, smash. Grab.
HE IMITATES AN expl*si*n

And then we sort of miss
this bit out.

As if by magic,
we'll see a reaction of you two.

And then we cut here and, as if by
magic, the Doctor is now down there.

Oh, no.

Oh, no, no. Doctor, what is
wrong? It's not fear, it's faith.

That's the connection -
you all have faith.

Not just religious faith,
faith in something -

in conspiracies,
the external forces...that...that
control the world.

Everyone in there
has, you know, a faith in something.

Jo had dice cufflinks and a chain
with a horseshoe. He was a gambler.
They believe in luck -

an intangible force
that makes them win or lose.

When someone was confronted
with their most primal fear

they fell back on their most
fundamental faith.

'I've been telling you to dig deep,
find what keeps you brave.'

I made you expose your faith,
show them what they needed.

But there is an expectation that
the Doctor will save the day,

the Doctor will work out the mystery
and get them out.

Um... And, of course, again,

what we realise is that it's that
faith is what actually brought Amy,

and thereby, the Doctor and Rory to
the Labyrinth, to The God Complex.

The Doctor's been
part of my life for so long now

and he's never let me down.

Amy has an undying faith in the
Doctor, and she always has done.

He...saved me.

And now he's going to save you.

She has this faith,
she has this belief that the Doctor
will always save the day.

And so what the Doctor has to do is
he has to break her faith,

because, by doing that,
he's severing what is essentially
the food supply for the minotaur.

It wants her. Why? Your faith
in me. It's what brought us here.

He had to work out what
Amy's fear would be,

and we play a little red herring
near the beginning
that it's weeping angels.

Aargh!

Don't...blink. What?

Actually, what her fear is
is a fear of being abandoned
by the Doctor.

In Amy's room it's the night
that she waited for the Doctor

when she was seven years old,

and it's that horrible, horrible
night that she waited all night
and he didn't come back.

They dive into a hotel room and
shut the door. Amy gasps because,

sitting on the floor, looking out
the window into the sky is Amelia,

the little girl waiting
endlessly for the raggedy Doctor,
abandoned and forgotten,

a sight that shocks even the Doctor.
And the return of young Amy
calls for a return

for Karen's younger cousin, Caitlin.

It is always, always a pleasure
to have Caitlin back.

We kind of look forward
to those episodes, although...

She keeps growing up. Yeah.
I mean, she's...
She is getting older.

So here is the rehearsal.

We see young Amy, she looks round,
she looks out the window.

And, during that,
we're going to set you in

and do the scene again with you
sitting there as if you're her.

It's actually a very
important moment in the Doctor
and Amy's relationship

because it's where he, you know,
where he convinces her to be
less in awe of him.

Just come nearer to him, because
they were really tight together,

faces really tight together.
I stole your childhood.

HE LAUGHS

Amy Williams,
it's time to stop waiting.

And by that time she's gone back to
being Karen again.

Aww. That's going to be beautiful.

You're so much cuter than your older
cousin, aren't you? Yes. All right!

Yeah, K. Thank you for that.
That's going to be gorgeous.

Action! Amy grabs her head,
falls to her knees. Doctor, it's
happening, it's changing me,

it's changing my thoughts.

Rory tries to brace the door as,
outside, the minotaur
hurls its body against it.

Gibbis quavers in a corner while the
Doctor crouches in front of Amy then
twists her head to face him.

Amy, listen to me, I can save you,
I can't do anything to stop this.
What?

Look, I stole your childhood
and now I've led you by the hand

to your death, but the worst thing
is I knew this would happen.

I took you with me
because I was vain, because I wanted
to be adored. Glorious Pond,

the girl who waited for me.

It's so sad because
that's her biggest thing,

and he has to completely destroy
that right in front of her.

I'm not a hero.

I am really just a madman in a box

and it's time we saw each
other as we really are.

He leans forward to kiss the top of
her head but now little Amelia's
gone and Amy has returned.

Amy Williams,
it's time to stop waiting.

The minotaur gives another deafening
bellow and the Doctor and Amy don't
blink, lost in each other.

But nothing happens. Tentatively,
they look up. The minotaur has gone.

And cut. Cut there,
thank you. Thank you.

All the way through,

the creature has wanted nothing
more than its own death.

'The Doctor creeps out of the
bedroom. The minotaur is stumbling
away down the corridor,

'its back to the Doctor.

'The minotaur's legs give way and it
falls to the floor with a crash.'

Doctor.

Flicker.

Lighting.

'It lays there,
its breath a wheezing rumble.'

The doctor looks down at the dying
minotaur. There's no sense of
victory, no triumph.

I severed the food supply,
I give you the space to die.

By severing the food supply
at that moment,

it allows the creature to
withdraw because the creature is

a creature of instinct and so, even
though its yearning for this thing,
yearning for its own oblivion,

every time it's offered
more food it can't help it.

It has to just go and feed.

Shh... Shh...

There's a clanking sound like
generators shutting down.

The entire hotel starts to
flicker off.

Amy joins the doctor. They look
down at the creature. What is it?
A minotaur or an alien?

'The creature is speaking.
The doctor and Amy hurry over.'

The line where the creature says,

"An ancient creature, drenched
in the blood of the innocent."

Drifting through space
in an ever-shifting maze.

For such a creature,

death would be a gift.

That was the first line of dialogue
I wrote for the whole episode,

because it felt as though there was
this bizarre similarity between, um,

the creature who constantly sort
of uses people up and consumes them,

and also, trapped in this bizarre
labyrinth going through space.

And the echoes between that
and the Doctor in the TARDIS

felt so kind of obvious.

And accept it. And sleep well.

It's like the creature has held up
a mirror to the Doctor,

so that he can see the comparison
between his life and the minotaur's.

I wasn't talking about myself.

It quickly transpires,
to the Doctor's chilling horror,

that the minotaur was actually
talking about him.

Of course, since we know the Doctor
is two episodes from death,

'that hits close to him.

'That hits the doctor like a slap.

'We pull away from the Doctor
and the dying god,

'diminishing figures on the floor of
the complex. And far off,

'the familiar lights of the TARDIS.'

We hear the grind
of ancient engines.

A street, day,
the TARDIS materialises,

the Doctor, Amy and Rory step out
and stare at the scene.

Real Earth, real house,
real door keys.

I think one of the tragedies
of the Doctor is you see him

so close with his friends so often.
That's not how we normally see him.

And the Doctor, Amy and Rory
have become such a unit,

such a little family unit,
literally in this case cos he's
practically dating their daughter,

that you think, "This'll be what
it's like forever."

Of course, at a certain point,
like Wendy and Peter Pan,
they have to go away and grow up.

So...

You're leaving, aren't you?

It was saying, "No, you've got to
grow up and move into a proper
house and have a proper life,

"and I have to get the hell out
of here. Enough of this."

There's only one way
this...relationship

between him and Amy
and Rory is going to end.

It can't happen like this,
after everything we've been through.
You can just drop me off at my house

and say goodbye
like we shared a cab.

She absolutely
doesn't want to go home.

She absolutely doesn't want this
to be happening,

but she can see the moral dilemma
that the Doctor's in.

It's the last thing
he wanted to do but,

in order to guarantee her safety,
it's what he had to do.

What's the alternative?
Me standing over your grave?

Over your broken body?
Over Rory's body?

It has to stop, Amy.

It has to stop.

'She's actually sacrificing
what she wants for him'

because she can see how much torment
he is going through

at doing this to them.

And he's like a little
boy in that scene.

And it's almost that she becomes
the adult of the situation.

The roles are flipped,
and she almost takes control

and lets him know
that it's all right
and that she is going to go home.

'He holds her at arms length to
look at her a final time'

and then enters the TARDIS
and shuts the door.

The engines start, Amy's shaking,
tears in her eyes.

As that TARDIS is flying off
into the sky, and that's the end,

that's when her faith
in the Doctor is restored

because you can see, actually,
what a noble being he is

'because he's sacrificed
having his friends around.'

He's saving us.

We pull back away from them
and up and over the town,

high in the air, looking down on
a world without the Doctor.

The Doctor at the controls. He hums
and pom-poms as he yanks levers

and turns dials -
a flurry of displacement activity
that eventually dies.

Now all is quiet aside
from the grind of the engines.

The TARDIS had never seemed so big
and empty. The doctor steadies
himself against the desk

as the loss of Amy crashes into him
like a wave.

A sob escapes and he looks so old,
so sad, and so alone.