The God Complex

[Hotel]

(A lone policewoman walks the corridors of a deserted hotel, then opens the door to room 214. There is a sad clown in there, holding a balloon and sitting on the bed.)

LUCY [OC]: My name is Lucy Hayward, and I'm the last one left.

(Room 215 has an old-fashioned photographer with a girl and a birthday cake.)

LUCY [OC]: It's funny. You don't know what's going to be in your room until you see it, then you realise it could have never been anything else.

(Further along is a second Room 214, and a gorilla comes out of the bathroom. Lucy remembers some news reports, screams and backs out. She writes in her notebook.)

LUCY [OC]: The gaps between my worship are getting shorter. This is what happened to the others. It's all so clear now. I'm so happy. Praise him. Praise him.

(Something big, heavy and snarling comes down the corridor. She stands to meet it.)

LUCY [OC]: Praise him.
VOICE [OC]: Praise him.

[Staircase]

(Of the same hotel. The TARDIS has parked herself on the first floor landing of a staircase which winds its way up the floors in a tight set of flights.)

AMY: Let's go to Ravan-Skala, he says. The people are six hundred feet tall. You have to talk to them in hot air balloons and the Tourist Information Centre is made of one of their hats, he says. I'm sorry, but I don't see any huge hats.
DOCTOR: Amy, Beaky, this could be the most exciting thing I have ever seen.
RORY: You're kidding.
AMY: How can you be excited about a rubbish hotel on a rubbish bit of Earth?

[Reception]

DOCTOR: Because, assembled Ponds, this is not Earth. This has just been made to look like Earth. The craftsmanship involved. Can you imagine?
AMY: What? Then where are we?
DOCTOR: I don't know. Something must have yanked us off course. Look at the detail on that cheese plant!
RORY: Right, but who would mock up an Earth hotel?

(The Doctor finds an apple in a large bowl.)

DOCTOR: Colonists maybe, recreating a bit of home, like when ex-pats open English pubs in Majorca. No, whoever did this, I am shaking his stroke her hand stroke tentacle.
RORY: Have you seen these? Look at the labels underneath.

(A set of photographs on the wall.)

RORY: Commander Halke, defeat.

(A Sontaran.)

RORY: Tim Heath, having his photo taken. Lady Silver-Tear, Daleks.
AMY: Paige Barnes, other people's socks. Tim Nelson, balloons. Novice Prin, sabrewolves. Royston Luke Gold, Plymouth? Lucy Hayward, that brutal gorilla. Doctor, what does it mean?
DOCTOR: I don't know. Let's find out.

(He rings the bell on the desk and three people appear, two of them brandishing objects as weapons, the third waving a white flag.)

RORY: Whoa!
DOCTOR: Blimey, that was a bit quick.
GIBBIS: We surrender.

(A grey alien with slightly rodent front teeth and no hair.)

RORY: No, it's okay, we're not
GIBBIS: We surrender.
RORY: We're nice.
DOCTOR: She's threatening me with a chair leg.
RITA: Who are you?

(Dressed in hospital scrubs.)

HOWIE: Oh god, we're back in reception.

(A bespectacled awkward teenager.)

GIBBIS: We surrender.
DOCTOR: I've never been threatened with a chair leg before. No, hang on, I tell a lie.
AMY: Did you just say, it's okay, we're nice?
RITA: Okay, I need everyone to shut up, now.

(Someone or something is watching on the CCTV.)

HOWIE: Rita, be careful, yeah?
RITA: Their pupils are dilated. They're as surprised as we are. Besides which, if it's a trick, it'll tell us something.
DOCTOR: Oh, you're good. Oh, she's good. Amy, with regret, you're fired.
AMY: What?
DOCTOR: I'm kidding. (silent) We'll talk. (normal) I take it from the pathological compulsion to surrender, you're from Tivoli.
GIBBIS: Yes. The most invaded planet in the galaxy. Our anthem is called Glory To Insert Name Here.
DOCTOR: You with the face, Howie, you said you were surprised to be back in reception.
HOWIE: The walls move. Everything changes.
DOCTOR: You, clever one. What's he talking about?
RITA: The corridors twist and stretch. Rooms vanish and pop up somewhere else. It's like the hotel's alive.

(The Doctor turns off the musak.)

DOCTOR: That's quite enough of that.
HOWIE: Yeah, and it's huge, with, like, no way out.
RORY: Have you tried the front door?
RITA: No. In two days it never occurred to us to try the front door. Thank God you're here.

(Amy laughs. The Doctor opens the front doors.)

DOCTOR: They're not doors, they're walls. Walls that look like doors. Door-walls, if you like, or dwalls. Woors even, though you'd probably got it when you said they're not doors. I mean, the windows are

(Pulls back the curtains to reveal more bricks.)

DOCTOR: Right, big day if you're a fan of walls.
RITA: It's not just that. The rooms have things in them.
DOCTOR: Things? Hello! What kind of things? Interesting things? I love things, ask anyone.
RITA: Bad dreams.
DOCTOR: Well, that killed the mood. How did you get here?
RITA: I don't know. I'd just started my shift. I must have passed out, because suddenly I was here.
HOWIE: I was blogging. Next thing, this.
GIBBIS: Oh, I was at work. I'm in Town Planning. We're lining all the highways with trees so invading forces can march in the shade.
DOCTOR: Ah.
GIBBIS: Which is nice for them.
ALL: Yeah.
DOCTOR: So, what have we got. People snatched from their lives and dropped into an endless, shifting maze that looks like a 1980s hotel with bad dreams in the bedrooms.

(The Doctor takes George's Rubik's cube from his pocket.)

DOCTOR: Well, apart from anything else, that's just rude.

[First floor landing]

DOCTOR: We'll pop back to the TARDIS, I'll do a planet-wide diagnostic sweep, and then we'll have a sing song.
AMY: Where's the TARDIS? You parked it there, didn't you?
HOWIE: What's a TARDIS?
RORY: Our way out. And it's gone.

(The musak starts up again.)

DOCTOR: Okay, this is bad. At the moment, I don't know how bad, but certainly we're three buses, a long walk and eight quid in a taxi from good. Are there any more of you?
RITA: Joe. But he's tied up right now.
DOCTOR: Doing what?
RITA: No, I mean he's tied up right now.

[Restaurant]

(Joe is tied to a chair. All the tables are populated with ventriloquist's dummies, which are laughing. They fall silent and look around as the Doctor enters, followed by Amy and Rory, then the others.)

DOCTOR: Hello. I'm the Doctor.
JOE: We're going to die here.
DOCTOR: Well, they certainly didn't mention that in the brochure. Is Joe there? Can I have a quick word?
JOE: Oh, it's still me, Doctor, but I've seen the light. I lived a blasphemous life, but he has forgiven my inconstancy, and soon he shall feast.
DOCTOR: Well, you've been here two days. What's he waiting for?
JOE: We weren't ready. We were still raw.
DOCTOR: But now you're what, cooked?

(The Doctor observes Joe's horseshoe tie clip and dice cufflinks.)

JOE: If you like. Soon you will be, too. Be patient. First, find your room.
DOCTOR: My room.
JOE: There's a room here for everyone, Doctor. Even you.
DOCTOR: You said you'd seen the light now.
JOE: Nothing else matters anymore. Only him. It's like these things. I used to hate them. They make me laugh now. Gottle o' geer. Gottle o' geer.

(Laughter.)

JOE: You should go. He'll be here soon.
DOCTOR: I think you should come with me.

(The Doctor slides a luggage trolley under Joe's chair.)

[Reception]

DOCTOR: Why you four? That's what I don't understand. Aside from all the other things I don't understand.
GIBBIS: What does it matter? Sooner or later, someone will come along and rescue us.

(He turns off the musak.)

GIBBIS: Or enslave us.
DOCTOR: First, we find the TARDIS. Quick thing before we go. If you feel drawn to a particular room, do not go in, and make sure someone else can see you at all times.
RITA: Joe said, he will feast. Is there something here with us?
DOCTOR: Something to add, Joe?
JOE: Here comes a candle to light you to bed. Here comes a chopper to chop off your head. Chop, chop, chop, chop.
HOWIE: Can we do something about him?

[First floor corridor]

(Joe's mouth has been taped shut, and Gibbis is wheeling him along.)

GIBBIS: Personally, I think you've got the right idea. Times like this, I think of my old school motto. Resistance Is Exhausting.
HOWIE: I've worked out where we are.
RORY: Hmm?
HOWIE: Norway.
RORY: Norway?
HOWIE: You see, the US government has entire cities hidden in the Norwegian mountains. You see, Earth is on a collision course with this other planet, and this is where they're going to send all the rich people when it kicks off.
RORY: Amazing.
HOWIE: It's all there on the internet.
RORY: No, it's amazing you've come up with a theory even more insane than what's actually happening.

(A man in his underwear and with a whistle around his neck steps out of room 158.)

DOCTOR: Hello.
TEACHER: Have you forgotten your PE kit again? Right, that's it, you're doing it in your pants!

(And goes back inside the room.)

DOCTOR: Hey! Don't!

(Howie opens room 155. There are a lot of pretty girls there.)

BLONDE: Oh, look, girls, it's H-H-H-Howie!
BRUNETTE: What's loser in K-K-K-Klingon?
HOWIE [OC]: Praise him.
HOWIE: Shut the d, d, d, the door. This is just some m, m, messed up CIA stuff, I'm, I'm, I'm telling you.
DOCTOR: You're right. Keep telling yourself that. It's a CIA thing, nothing more.

[Second floor corridor]

(They find the pages from PC Lucy's notebook. Rory kneels to tie his shoelace and spots a Fire Exit.)

RORY: Er guys?
AMY: Look.

(Something roars.)

AMY: Okay, whatever that is, it's not real, yeah?
DOCTOR: No. No, I'm sure it isn't, but just in case, let's run away and hide anyway. In here.

(Rita pulls Joe's chair into a room.)

RORY: No, this way! I've found a

(The Fire Exit door becomes room 219.)

[Rita's room]

FATHER: A B in mathematics? You are lazy. Do you understand me, girl? Lazy.
RITA: I'm sorry. Daddy, I'm so sorry.
RITA [OC]: Praise him.

[Second floor corridor]

DOCTOR: Rory, come on!
RORY: There was a
DOCTOR: Come on!

[Gibbis' room]

DOCTOR: Eek!

(There are Weeping Angels here.)

AMY: Don't blink.
HOWIE: What?

(The lights flicker. The Angels have moved forward.)

DOCTOR: Amy, get back. Why haven't they got us yet?

(He steps forward and tries to touch an Angel. His hand goes through it.)

DOCTOR: Amy, they're not real.
AMY: What?
DOCTOR: They should have got us by now. Amy, look at me. Focus on me. It's your bad dream, that's all.
RORY: I don't even think they're for us.

(Gibbis is hiding in the wardrobe. Something is stomping slowly down the corridor.)

AMY: Doctor, what are you doing?
DOCTOR: I'm sorry, I just have to see what it is. I just have to see.

(He looks through the security peep hole in the door.)

DOCTOR: Oh, look at you. Oh, you are beautiful. Oh, dear.

(The ropes fall off Joe. He rips off his gag and goes into the corridor.)

DOCTOR: I think it's going after Joe.

[Second floor corridor]

JOE: Come on, come to me. Come to me. Argh!
JOE [OC]: Praise him.

(It all goes quiet. Gibbis looks out of the wardrobe and the Doctor goes into the corridor. He sees a shadow turning the corner at the end.)

DOCTOR: Leave him alone!

(He runs through the maze of identical corridors.)

[Staircase]

DOCTOR: Joe!

[Corridors]

DOCTOR: Joe! Joe!

(He finds him slumped by a wall.)

DOCTOR: Joe? Joe! Joe. Joe, what happened?

[Restaurant]

(Someone boils a kettle. Joe is laid on a table and the Doctor is scanning him.)

RORY: If we can wedge a chair under the door handles, that should stop anything from getting in.
RITA: Help yourself to tea. Guys, tea over here.
AMY: If it's any consolation, I've met the Weeping Angels, so I know how. In fact, I thought that room was for me.
GIBBIS: Joe was right. Whatever it is in here, it actually wants to kill us. Not oppress us or enslave us, kill us!
AMY: Listen. The Doctor's been part of my life for so long now, and he's never let me down. Even when I thought he had, when I was a kid and he left me, he came back. He saved me. And now he's going to save you. But don't tell him I said that, because the smugness would be terrifying.
GIBBIS: Of course, if the Weeping Angels were meant for me, then your room is still out there somewhere.
RITA: Tea?
RORY: Every time the Doctor gets pally with someone, I have this overwhelming urge to notify their next of kin. (laughs then flinches) Ooo. Sorry. The last time I said something like that, you hit me with your shoe. And you literally had to sit down and unlace it first.
RITA: What exactly happened to him?
DOCTOR: He died.
RITA: You are a medical doctor, aren't you? You haven't just got a degree in cheese-making or something.
DOCTOR: No! Well, yes, both, actually. I mean, there is no cause. All his vital organs simply stopped, as if the simple spark of life, his loves and hates, his faiths and fears were just taken, and this is a cup of tea.
RITA: Of course, I'm British, it's how we cope with trauma. That and tutting.
DOCTOR: But how did you make it?
RITA: All hotels should have a well stocked kitchen, even alien fake ones. I heard you talking when you arrived. Look, it's no more ridiculous than Howie's CIA theory, or mine.
DOCTOR: Which is?
RITA: This is Jahannam.
DOCTOR: You're a Muslim.
RITA: Don't be frightened.
DOCTOR: Ha! You think this is Hell.
RITA: The whole '80s hotel thing took me by surprise, though.
DOCTOR: And all these fears and phobias wandering about, most are completely unconnected to us, so why are they still here?
RITA: Maybe the cleaners have gone on strike.
DOCTOR: Ha! I like you. You're a right clever clogs. But this isn't Hell, Rita.
RITA: You don't understand. I say that without fear. Jahannam will play its tricks, and there'll be times when I want to run and scream, but I've tried to live a good life, and that knowledge keeps me sane, despite the monsters and the bonkers rooms. Gibbis is an alien, isn't he?
DOCTOR: Yeah. Sorry.
RITA: Okay. I'm going to file that under Freak Out About Later.
AMY: Doctor, look at this. I found it in a corridor, I completely forgot I had it.
DOCTOR: (reads) Er, my name is Lucy Hayward and I'm the last one left. It took Luke first. It got him on his first day, almost as soon as we arrived.
DOCTOR AND LUCY [OC]: It's funny. You don't know what's going to be in your room until you see it, then you realise it could never have been
DOCTOR: Anything else. I just saw mine. It was a gorilla from a book I'd read as a kid. My God, that thing used to terrify me. The gaps between my worships are getting shorter, like contractions.
LUCY [OC]: This is what happened to the others, and how lucky they were. It's all so clear now. I'm so happy. Praise him.
DOCTOR: Praise him.
HOWIE: Praise him.
DOCTOR: What did you just say?
HOWIE: Nothing. Praise him!
GIBBIS: This is what happened to Joe!
HOWIE: God, it's going to come for me now.
GIBBIS: You'll lead it right here.
DOCTOR: I won't leave you. I promise you. You have my word on that.
HOWIE: I don't want to get eaten.
AMY: Calm down.
GIBBIS: He's going to lead the creature right here!
DOCTOR: Hold it!

(He fires his sonic screwdriver to get silence.)

DOCTOR: Thank you.
GIBBIS: Don't you see? He'll lead it right here.
RITA: What do you suggest?
GIBBIS: Look, whatever it is out there, it's obviously chosen Howard as its next course. Now, tragic though that is, this is no time for sentiment. I'm saying if it were to find him, it may be satisfied and let the rest of us go. All I want to do is go home and be conquered and oppressed. Is that too much to ask?!
RITA: It's okay. I'll stay with Howie. You take the others and go.
DOCTOR: No. We stay together.

(He goes over to Gibbis.)

DOCTOR: Your civilisation is one of the oldest in the galaxy. Now I see why. Your cowardice isn't quaint, it's sly, aggressive. It's how that gene of gutlessness has survived while so many others have perished. Well, not today. No one else dies today. Right? Brilliant. Howie, any second, it's going to possess you again. When it does, I'm going to ask you some questions. Please try to answer them.
HOWIE: I hope my mum's all right, she's going to be w, worried.
DOCTOR: Howie? Howie. Howie, you're next. We're all dead jealous. So, tell us. How do we get a piece of the action? Why isn't he possessing all of us?
HOWIE: You guys have got all these distractions, all these obstacles. It'd be so much easier if you just let it go, you know? Clear the path.
AMY: You want it to find you even though you know what it's going to do?
HOWIE: Are you kidding? He's going to kill us all. How cool is that?

(They leave Howie at the table.)

DOCTOR: It's as I thought. It feeds on fear. Everything, the rooms, Lucy's note, even the pictures in reception, has been put here to frighten us. So we have to resist it. Do whatever you have to. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, think of a basket of kittens, but do not give in to the fear.
AMY: Okay, but what are we actually going to do?
DOCTOR: We're going to catch ourselves a monster.

[Pasiphae Spa]

(They scatter around to try and trap it. The name Pasiphae confirms the monster as a Minotaur, to me at least.)

HOWIE [OC]: Bring me death! Bring me glory! My master, my lord, I'm here! Come to me. I'm waiting here for you. He has promised me a glorious death. Give it to me now. I want him to know my devotion.

(Rory is armed with a mop.)

[Room 216]

(The sad clown.)

RITA: Anything to do with you? How's it going?
AMY: Don't talk to the clown.

(Something with hooves stomps past the door, its horns scraping on the ceiling, and into the Spa.)

[Second floor corridor]

HOWIE [OC]: Praise him. Praise him.

(Amy gets a baton of wood. Rita shuts the Spa doors and Amy jams the wood through the handles.)

AMY: Rory, he's in!

(He uses the mop to jam the other doors. The Doctor turns out the lights.)

HOWIE [OC]: Let his name be the last thing I hear. Let his breath on my skin be the last thing I feel. I was lost in shadows, but he found me.

[Reception]

(Howie is actually here, tied to a chair, and his voice is being transmitted through the intercom.)

HOWIE: His love was a beacon that led me from darkness to light, and now I am blinded by his majesty. Humbled by his glory! Praise

[Pasiphae Spa]

DOCTOR: That's quite enough of that.
HOWIE [OC]: Him.

(The Doctor pulls out the wires.)

[Reception]

HOWIE: What's going on? You lied to me.
GIBBIS: Calm down, Howie. This is for your own good.
HOWIE: Oh, at least stand where I can see you.
GIBBIS: I've been told not to speak to you.
HOWIE: Don't mean you can't listen.

[Pasiphae Spa]

DOCTOR: Nothing personal. I just think we should take things slowly. Get to know each other. You take people's most primal fears and pop it in a room. A tailor-made hell, just for them. Why?

(The Minotaur, for that is what it looks like, answers in snarls.)

DOCTOR: Did you say they take? Ah, what is that word? The guard? No, the warden? This is a prison.

[Reception]

HOWIE: You were right, you know. Chances are, if you hand me over, he'll leave you alone.
GIBBIS: Yes, well, we saw how that idea got shot down in flames.
HOWIE: It's not like chucking me out of a plane to lighten the load. I'm asking you for this. I'm begging you.
GIBBIS: You're possessed. You'd say anything.
HOWIE: Possessed guys can be quite strong. Who's to say I didn't overpower you?

[Pasiphae Spa]

DOCTOR: So what are we, cell mates? Lunch? We are not ripe. This is what Joe said, that we weren't ready. So, what, what, you make us ready. You what? Replace? Replace what, fear? You have lived so long even your name is lost. You want this to stop. Because you are just instinct. Then tell me. Tell me how to fight you.
HOWIE [OC]: My master, my lord. I'm here!

[Outside the Spa]

RITA: That's Howie.
AMY: He's got out.

[Staircase]

HOWIE: Oh, bring me death.

[Pasiphae Spa]

DOCTOR: No, no, no, no, no! Rory, watch out!

(Amy and Rita burst in.)

DOCTOR: Stay back!

(The Minotaur smashes a glass door and knocks Rory down.)

DOCTOR: Pond, bring the fish.
AMY: What, the fish? Oh, the fish.
DOCTOR: Where'd he go?

[Outside the Spa]

RORY: Somebody hit me. Was it Amy?

(The Doctor gives chase, and finds Howie's broken glasses.)

RITA: Rory, are you all right?
AMY: We should find the Doctor.

(Amy is drawn to room 7. She opens it.)

VOICES: Praise him. Praise him.

(Rita pulls her back and shuts it.)

RITA: You shouldn't have done that. What did you see?
AMY: Nothing. Nothing. I don't know. It was weird.
RITA: Come on.

[Corridor]

(The Doctor finds Howie's body and returns his glasses. Gibbis approaches from the opposite direction to Amy, Rory and Rita.)

GIBBIS: He got free. He overpowered me. It might leave us alone now. Maybe now we'll be safe. Wait!

[Reception]

(Howie's photograph is on the wall.)

DOCTOR: Have you found your room yet?
RORY: No. No. Is that good or bad?
DOCTOR: Maybe you're not scared of anything.
RORY: Well, after all the time I spent with you in the TARDIS, what was left to be scared of?
DOCTOR: You said that in the past tense.
RORY: No, I didn't. You know, Howie had been in speech therapy. He'd just got over this massive stammer. What an achievement. I mean, can you imagine? I'd forgotten not all victories are about saving the universe.

(Two bodies are laid out in the Restaurant. Amy puts the goldfish bowl from the Spa on a side table in Reception.)

[Staircase]

DOCTOR: Rita! Brilliant! How are you? Not panicking, are you? Good, good. Because I am literally an otter's toenail away from getting us out of here.
RITA: Why?
DOCTOR: Excellent question. Excellent question. Why what?
DOCTOR: Why is it up to you to save us? That's quite a God complex you have there.
DOCTOR: I brought them here. They'd say it was their choice, but offer a child a suitcase full of sweets and they'll take it. Offer someone all of time and space and they'll take that, too. Which is why you shouldn't. Which is why grown-ups were invented.
RITA: All of time and space, eh?
DOCTOR: Oh, yeah. And when we get out of this, I'll show you too.
RITA: I don't know what you're talking about, but whatever it was, I have a feeling you just did it again.

(The Doctor spots the CCTV camera.)

DOCTOR: Right down to the smallest detail. Got you, Mister Minotaur.

(The Doctor goes back downstairs. Rita goes up to the camera.)

RITA: Praise him.

[Corridor]

VOICES [OC]: Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him.

(The Doctor is drawn to Room 11. He opens the door.)

DOCTOR: Of course. Who else?

(He shuts the door and puts the Do Not Disturb notice on it. Downstairs, Gibbis is drawn to the goldfish.)

[Security room]

(Nine screens in a bank on the wall.)

DOCTOR: Oh, you beauty. Come on, big fellow, where are you? Rita, where are you going?

(He phones room 311. She hears it and stops.)

DOCTOR: Come on, come on, come on! Come on.

(The phone is answered.)

DOCTOR: Rita, where are you going? Can you take the phone into the corridor? Will it reach?

(She does.)

DOCTOR: You started to praise it, didn't you?

(She nods.)

DOCTOR: Rita, come back, please. We'll find a way to stop it, I swear to you.
RITA [on screen]: No, I need to get as far away from you all as possible.
DOCTOR: No, no, no, you don't. The creature only wants whoever's praising it.
RITA [on screen]: And then you'll put yourself in its way.
DOCTOR: I'm coming to get you. Block out the fear and stay focused on your belief.
RITA [on screen]: The hotel will keep us apart. I could be fifty miles away by now.

(Growl.)

RITA [on screen]: I want you to do me one last favour, Doctor. I can feel the rapture approaching, like a wave. I don't want you to witness this. I want you to remember me the way I was.

(Amy and Rory enter.)

AMY: What's going on? Rita's disappeared. What's she doing there?
DOCTOR: Rita. Rita, please. Let me find you.
RITA [on screen]: You stay where you are. Please, let me be robbed of my faith in private.
DOCTOR: Look, Rita. Rita. Go into the room. Lock the door.
RITA [on screen]: I'm not frightened. I'm blessed, Doctor.

[Corridor]

(The Minotaur is close.)

RITA: I'm at peace.

[Security room]

RITA [on screen]: I'm going to hang up.
DOCTOR: No. No, no, Rita.
RITA [on screen]: Goodbye, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Rita!
RITA [on screen]: Thank you for trying.
DOCTOR: Rita, please! Please! Please.

(Rita puts down the phone and waits, smiling, as the shadow of the Minotaur is cast over her. The Doctor sonics the monitor off.)

[Bar]

(Gibbis is raiding the kitchen. Three bodies laid out now. The Doctor is smashing breakables in frustration.)

DOCTOR: Okay. It preys on people's fear and possesses them. But Rita wasn't afraid. She was brave and calm. Maybe it's something to do with the people, some connection between the four of you that'll tell me how to fight it.
GIBBIS: Yes, you keep saying that, but you never do. And while we wait, people keep dying. And we'll be next.
AMY: Look, he'll work it out. He always does. Just let him riff and move anything expensive out of his way.
DOCTOR: Oh, no. Oh, no, no.
AMY: Doctor, what is wrong?
DOCTOR: It's not fear. It's faith. Not just religious faith, faith in something. Howard believed in conspiracies, that external forces controlled the world. Joe had dice cufflinks and a chain with a horseshoe. He was a gambler. Gamblers believe in luck, an intangible force that helps them win or lose. Gibbis has rejected any personal autonomy and is waiting for the next batch of invaders to oppress him and tell him what to do. They all believe there's something guiding them, about to save them. That's what it replaces. Every time someone was confronted with their most primal fear, they fell back on their most fundamental faith. And all this time, I have been telling you to dig deep, find the thing that keeps you brave. I made you expose your faith, show them what they needed.
RORY: But why us? Why are we here?
DOCTOR: It doesn't want you. That's why it kept showing you a way out. You're not religious or superstitious, so there's no faith for you to fall back on. It wants her.
AMY: Me? Why?
DOCTOR: Your faith in me. That's what brought us here.
RORY: But why do they lose their faith before they die and start worshipping it?
DOCTOR: It needs to convert the faith into a form it can consume. Faith is an energy, the specific emotional energy the creature needs to live. Which is why at the end of her note, Lucy said
AMY: Praise him.
DOCTOR: Exactly.
RORY: No. Oh, please, no.

(Stomp, stomp, growl.)

[Corridor]

(They run. Amy stops at a crossroads.)

DOCTOR: Amy? What are you doing?
AMY: He is beautiful.
GIBBIS: Leave her! Just leave her!

(The Doctor grabs Amy and half-carries her away into -)

[Amy's room]

(Little Amelia is sitting on her suitcase, looking out of the window. Rory tries to hold the door shut as the Minotaur pounds on it. Amy drops to her knees.)

AMY: Doctor, it's happening. It's changing me. It's changing my thoughts.
DOCTOR: I can't save you from this. There's nothing I can do to stop this.
AMY: What?
DOCTOR: I stole your childhood and now I've led you by the hand to your death. But the worst thing is, I knew. I knew this would happen. This is what always happens.

(The Minotaur bursts in.)

DOCTOR: Forget your faith in me. I took you with me because I was vain. Because I wanted to be adored. Look at you. Glorious Pond, the girl who waited for me. I'm not a hero. I really am just a mad man in a box. And it's time we saw each other as we really are.

(The Minotaur staggers backwards.)

DOCTOR: Amy Williams, it's time to stop waiting.

[Corridor]

(The Minotaur collapses. The Doctor goes to it as the lights flicker.)

DOCTOR: I severed the food supply, sacrificing their faith in me. I gave you the space to die. Shush, shush.

(The hotel dissolves into a hologrid.)

[Hologrid]

AMY: What is it, a minotaur or an alien? Or an alien minotaur? That's not a question I thought I'd be asking this morning.
DOCTOR: It's both, actually. Yeah. Here we go.

(He reads a holographic database.)

DOCTOR: Distant cousin of the Nimon. They descend on planets and set themselves up as gods to be worshipped. Which is fine, until the inhabitants get all secular and advanced enough to build bonkers prisons.
RORY: Correction. Prisons in space.

(He and Gibbis are looking down through a porthole.)

AMY: Where are the guards?
DOCTOR: No need for any. It's all automated. It drifts through space, snatching people with belief systems and converts their faith into food for the creature.
GIBBIS: See that planet there?
RORY: Which one?
GIBBIS: There. The grey one there.
RORY: Mmm hmm.
GIBBIS: That's where I'm from.
AMY: It didn't want just me, so you must believe in some god or someone, or they'd have shown you the door too. So what do Time Lords pray to?
DOCTOR: According to the in-flight recorder, the programme developed glitches. It got stuck on the same setting, the fears from the people before us weren't tidied away.

(The Minotaur growls.)

AMY: What's it saying?
DOCTOR: An ancient creature, drenched in the blood of the innocent, drifting in space through an endless, shifting maze. For such a creature, death would be a gift. Then accept it, and sleep well. I wasn't talking about myself.

(The Minotaur dies.)

GIBBIS: Could I have a lift? Just to the nearest galaxy would do.

[Street]

(The TARDIS materialises on a leafy suburban street, with a row of terraced houses opposite a small park. One of them has a well preserved E-type Jaguar parked outside.)

AMY: Don't tell me. This isn't Earth, that isn't a real house. And inside lives a goblin, who feeds on indecision.
DOCTOR: No. Real Earth, real house, real door keys.
AMY: You're not serious?
RORY: The car too? But, that's my favourite car. How did you know that was my favourite car?
DOCTOR: You showed me a picture of it once and said this is my favourite car.
AMY: Rory, can you give us two minutes? Two minutes?
RORY: She'll say that we can't accept it because it's too extravagant and we'll always feel a crippling sense of obligation. It's a risk I'm willing to take.
AMY: Hey.

(The Doctor leans against the long red bonnet with Amy.)

AMY: So. You're leaving, aren't you?
DOCTOR: You haven't seen the last of me. Bad Penny is my middle name. Seriously, the looks I get when I fill in a form, it's
AMY: Why now?
DOCTOR: Because you're still breathing.
AMY: Well, I think this is about the washing up, personally.
DOCTOR: I mean, you're right, there's still heaps of stuff out there to look at. Do you know, there's a planet whose name literally translates as Volatile Circus? Or maybe there's a bigger, scarier adventure waiting for you in there.
AMY: Even so, it can't happen like this. After everything we've been through, Doctor. Everything. You can't just drop me off at my house and say goodbye like we've shared a cab.
DOCTOR: And what's the alternative? Me standing over your grave? Over your broken body? Over Rory's body?
AMY: If you bump into my daughter, tell her to visit her old mum sometime.
DOCTOR: And look after him.
AMY: Look after you. Bye.

(The Doctor goes into the TARDIS, and it dematerialises. Rory comes out of the house with champagne and glasses.)

RORY: What happened? What's he doing?
AMY: He's saving us.

Transcript originally provided by Chrissie. Adapted by TARDIS.guide. The transcripts are for educational and entertainment purposes only. All other copyrights property of their respective holders.

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