0:00:02 > 0:00:04This is Matt Smith. Confidential. Prime time.
0:00:04 > 0:00:06You're tuning in to Confidential on BBC Three.
0:00:06 > 0:00:08It's all set in a creepy hotel.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12A Doctor Who story in a hotel with lots of corridors.
0:00:12 > 0:00:13That struck me as very Doctor Who.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18It is disturbing...
0:00:20 > 0:00:21..and scary.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27We've got such a good monster.
0:00:27 > 0:00:28STOMPING
0:00:32 > 0:00:35We've all got to face some big fears.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42Check in with Confidential, as we reserve you a room
0:00:42 > 0:00:44with a view of all the backstage action.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11February 2011, and the Doctor Who team gather together
0:01:11 > 0:01:15for the script read through for episode 11.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Right, everybody. Welcome to Toby Whithouse's God Complex.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24I'll read out the stage directions very fast.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27"It looks like a perfectly ordinary corridor, doors on either side,
0:01:27 > 0:01:29"some with shoes placed outside.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33' "We follow the back of Lucy Miller, as she plods along the corridor.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36' "She stands outside the door, peers into the bedroom." '
0:01:36 > 0:01:37When I'm stuck alone in a hotel,
0:01:37 > 0:01:39I always think it's a bit creepy and strange
0:01:39 > 0:01:42and you can get lost easily. I can anyway. Um...
0:01:42 > 0:01:45So I suggested that to Toby.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49"There's a hotel. The corridors shift around. What can you do with that?"
0:01:49 > 0:01:52"You were surprised to be back, you walked in the opposite direction."
0:01:52 > 0:01:54The walls move. Everything changes.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57You, clever one. What's he talking about?
0:01:57 > 0:01:59'The hotel in The God Complex'
0:01:59 > 0:02:02is a sophisticated prison that's going around
0:02:02 > 0:02:04plucking up sacrifices and tributes.
0:02:09 > 0:02:14But this is a hotel you definitely wouldn't want to stay at.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18Finding your room isn't a problem, but finding your way out might be.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22'The hotel is, essentially, a maze.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24'It struck me that,'
0:02:24 > 0:02:28obviously, you want a threat, some kind of monster.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31What creature would you have in a maze?
0:02:31 > 0:02:34'It struck me that the most logical thing to have in a maze would be a minotaur.'
0:02:47 > 0:02:51- I'd like to see Spencer walk that corner.- Which corner?
0:02:51 > 0:02:53You know, the route that he would take...
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Just come in, stopping in the middle and going out towards that door.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59OK. Shh. Here we go, then.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Three, two, one, action!
0:03:09 > 0:03:11Amy!
0:03:13 > 0:03:14He's beautiful.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19- Stop, stop, stop, stop! - Very good.- Thanks, Spencer.
0:03:20 > 0:03:21It was a Scottish monster,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23because it was wearing a kilt and a sporran.
0:03:27 > 0:03:28CREATURE ROARS
0:03:29 > 0:03:34The minotaur in The God Complex is a god of a civilisation who,
0:03:34 > 0:03:38as the people have become more secular,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41and more religiously apathetic,
0:03:41 > 0:03:44the god has become redundant and so,
0:03:44 > 0:03:51they deposited this god into a very complex prison.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55They're not doors, they're walls, walls that look like doors.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57The windows are... Right.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00The prison travels around through space,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03plucking people from different planets and different civilisations
0:04:03 > 0:04:06who have a very strong belief system.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10- You're a Muslim. - Don't be frightened.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15This faith is what actually feeds the creature.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19And...it will take these people, pop them into this environment
0:04:19 > 0:04:21and generally frighten them.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Filming the biggest fear scene called for the Doctor Who team
0:04:35 > 0:04:38to turn a few heads and try their hands at some creepy puppetry.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42We wanted a big kind of bold visual image.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44Um... And so we walk in,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47and there is this whole gaggle of ventriloquists' dummies.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53There is something very macabre about ventriloquists' dummies.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55So we had this idea that they would walk in
0:04:55 > 0:04:57and there is a whole room of them.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01One wasn't enough, you want a whole room of them and surrounding him.
0:05:03 > 0:05:04With a room full of dummies,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07extra pairs of hands were needed to help handle them all.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09Because we have so many dummies,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13we have had several people coming in all lending a hand.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17We had our production manager lying on the floor operating dummies.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20We've had several of the runners in doing some dummies,
0:05:20 > 0:05:23the rigger, lots of people lending a hand today.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25DUMMIES CACKLE
0:05:25 > 0:05:30We've basically been trying to make them like talk and interact,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33turning their heads, trying to put in some movements
0:05:33 > 0:05:36to make it look like they are talking to each other.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40And then that kind of creepy turn of the head
0:05:40 > 0:05:44which really, really makes them feel quite unnatural and unnerving.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51All the way through,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55the creature has wanted nothing more than its own death.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59' "The Doctor creeps out of the bedroom. The minotaur is stumbling away down the corridor,
0:05:59 > 0:06:01' "its back to the Doctor.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06' "The minotaur's legs give way and it falls to the floor with a crash." '
0:06:06 > 0:06:08Doctor.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10Flicker.
0:06:10 > 0:06:11Lighting.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16' "It lays there, its breath a wheezing rumble.
0:06:16 > 0:06:21' "The Doctor looks down at the dying minotaur. There's no sense of victory, no triumph." '
0:06:21 > 0:06:24I severed the food supply, I gave you the space to die.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26By severing the food supply at that moment,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29it allows the creature to withdraw because the creature is
0:06:29 > 0:06:37a creature of instinct and so, even though it's yearning for this thing, yearning for its own oblivion,
0:06:37 > 0:06:41every time it's offered more food it can't help it.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43It has to just go and feed.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47Shh... Shh...
0:06:49 > 0:06:52' "There's a clanking sound like generators shutting down.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54' "The entire hotel starts to flicker off.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04- ' "Amy joins the Doctor. They look down at the creature." '- What is it? A minotaur or an alien?
0:07:04 > 0:07:08' "The creature is speaking. The Doctor and Amy hurry over." '
0:07:08 > 0:07:12The line where the creature says,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15"An ancient creature, drenched in the blood of the innocent."
0:07:15 > 0:07:20Drifting through space in an ever-shifting maze.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23For such a creature,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26death would be a gift.
0:07:26 > 0:07:32That was the first line of dialogue I wrote for the whole episode,
0:07:32 > 0:07:38because it felt as though there was this bizarre similarity between, um,
0:07:38 > 0:07:45the creature who constantly sort of uses people up and consumes them,
0:07:45 > 0:07:50and also, trapped in this bizarre labyrinth going through space.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53And the echoes between that and the Doctor and the TARDIS
0:07:53 > 0:07:55felt so kind of obvious.
0:07:55 > 0:08:02And accept it. And sleep well.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05It's like the creature has held up a mirror to the Doctor,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08so that he can see the comparison between his life and the minotaur's.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11I wasn't talking about myself.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17It quickly transpires, to the Doctor's chilling horror,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20that the minotaur was actually talking about him.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Of course, since we know the Doctor is two episodes from death,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25'that hits close to him.'
0:08:38 > 0:08:42Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:08:42 > 0:08:45E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk