Doctor Who (TV Series) A Town Called Mercy (2012) User Reviews

An episode for the grown ups

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 8 September 2015]

The Doctor, Amy and Rory head to the wild west, a town called Mercy, where a rogue Cyborg (The Gunslinger) is seemingly terrorising the locals, next victim on it's list is the Doctor.

I like the design of the Gunslinger, looks almost a little bit Freddie Kruger, really well designed.

Moffat is trying his hardest to push the American angle on the episodes. Some of the accents are definitely better then others.

Adrian Scarborough is pretty good, if Carry on Films were still made today, he'd be in them, I like the funny side of him, but he does a good job, I liked his scenes with Amy.

I actually think it's quite a deep and intelligent episode. I liked the flip in it, it's not one you'd watch regularly, but it's pretty good. It's one the older viewers would appreciate more then the younger viewers, they'd be bored.

Cowboys & Aliens

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 6/10 · 11 February 2019]

In my opinion, this episode is nothing special but nothing remotely awful either.

The story is set in a Western town with aliens who have historic disputes based at the town of Mercy in the 'old West' and endangering the locals.

It has a similar cowboy comedy/drama feel to the 1st doctor story The Gunfighters. Similarly to that I think it is a little bit too uneven in tone with comedy not mixing fully well with dark drama. It takes skilled writing to merge such aspects and in this case I feel it does not quite work as well as it could. The dark moral issues are interesting but are presented a little bit heavy handedly so feel rather grim and the scenes feel slightly repetitive and dull in my view. The humour popping up does not feel merged naturally enough with this dark drama for me.

It has rather a lot of moralising talk which is not bad in itself at all but it essentially leads nowhere as in the final scenes the Doctor's moral choices are rendered unimportant due to the choices of others.

There is one scene I have a problem with amongst all the moral judgement themes when the Doctor is so enraged by the awful past immoral behaviour of the alien antagonist Kahler Jex that he throws him physically out to be killed by his enemy and even threatens him with a gun. This is so jarringly out of character for the Doctor and is insufficiently explained given similarly awful death and suffering being caused by so many adversaries he has met before without him reacting in such a way. He does not even usually point guns at Daleks. This could have been made to work with skillful handling but it is not done in a way that convinces me.

Having Amy have to act as his moral compass seemed contrived to me. It seems yet another example of writer Toby Whithouse and showrunner Steven Moffatt wanting to hammer home their obsession with the 'dark side' of the Doctor. I personally think that aspect is over-emphasised.

Apart from that one problematic scene and the climax which I found somewhat unsatisfying this is an OK but unexceptional story. It is well acted with the main cast and guest cast all engaging. It has some good dialogue too but somehow drags at some points. Then we get the unsatisfactory end. Overall it just falls a bit flat for me.

My Rating: 6/10.

Strong, adult episode

[gridoon2024 · 7/10 · 13 April 2015]

At first, "A Town Called Mercy" looks like it's going to be a slight send-up of the most familiar Western clichés (the Doctor entering a saloon through the swinging doors, etc.), but, as in the previous episode, "Dinosaurs On A Spaceship", don't rush to judge a book by its cover. This is actually one of the most serious and adult episodes of the series, dealing with heavy themes and eternal questions (including war crimes and violent revenge) in a thought-provoking way. It's not black-and-white; it's morally complex. There is also a good twist concerning the "man who fell from the stars" who is referenced in the opening scene. Episodes like this one belie the ignorant notion that "Doctor Who" is a "children's show". *** out of 4.

Not as bad as some people are making it out to be

[warlordartos · 7/10 · 8 April 2021]

But not brilliant or ever very good either, just good. It has the feel of the more older style Doctor Who's (a little like last weeks but better) where i's more about the journey than the ending. While most people found this too slow for their liking and too boring, I found it okay

Yes I think it's good to see these older style episodes every now and then (perhaps once a season, twice max) but I wouldn't want to see these sorts of episodes too often as it isn't entertaining in the modern sense.

Substance over style.

[W011y4m5 · 10/10 · 21 January 2020]

I had no previous desire to write this review but after reading the countless dire ones here, I felt an overwhelming sense of obligation to defend this underrated, remarkable gem of an episode - as nobody else surprisingly seems willing to.

Of course, it's fair to begin with stating the obvious - this is clearly not to everyone's tastes; some prefer the fast paced, mindlessly bombastic sci-fi epics that are so often associated with the show but by contrast, "A Town Called Mercy" is an unrepentantly stripped back, slower, simplistic, contemplative character dissection which beautifully delves in to the Doctor's personal morality & ethics through a series of scenes containing deep, exploratory dialogue. Instead of having the protagonists attempt to save the entire universe, for once it's refreshing to see them endeavour in just saving one person's soul. The stakes aren't heightened with the usual threat of planetary destruction - this time they're incredibly personal; the Doctor isn't faced with a monstrous beast or a Machiavellian nemesis to conquer - he's forced to confront a reflection of himself in the form of Kahler-Jex, a flawed individual with a past which understandably haunts him. In order for a solution to be found, battles aren't fought & wars aren't waged - he merely has to accept the consequences of his actions as opposed to running from them, reconciling for his crimes in an attempt to finally come to terms with the misdeeds he committed.

Hence, the narrative isn't complicated with timey-wimey subplots or sequences of extraterrestrial invasions - the complexities in this story are found in the moral ambiguities of the characters.

Quite frankly & to summarise it bluntly, instead of offering spectacle, this Western offers a rare alternative - substance; something which many unfortunately neither appreciate nor barely recognise in the age of the Transformers & MCU franchises.

Without intending to deliberately generalise, most have grown accustomed to CGI explosions & superficial fight sequences between incorruptible good VS irredeemable bad so the concept of having to actually enjoy well written dialogue & verbal exchanges may seem (ironically) alien but Toby Whithouse proves that compelling interactions amongst fleshed out characters can be equally as compelling if you give it chance.

This isn't Doctor Who for children - it's very mature & fiercely intelligent, blurring the black & white lines until they're indistinguishable & grey - it's not boring, just different - & to he honest, I'd call it a masterpiece.

RoboCop goes West

[dkiliane · 7/10 · 29 March 2019]

Toby Whithouse is not one of my favorite writers to be honest. I may even enjoy his episodes less than the ones written by Mark Gatiss (blasphemous, I know, but true). Whatever their writing credentials outside of Doctor Who (from what I hear, Mark Gatiss is quite good with Sherlock) they seem to be in a competition to see who can write the most forgettable episode of Doctor Who.

Now that that rant is over with let's get on to the specific of this episode. It's not terrible, to be fair, but it's not great either. It really feels like they just plucked RoboCop from his own series, gave him an alien backstory and sicced him onto a western town. Oh, and the Doctor, Rory, and Amy are there too.

The moral dilemma was set up interestingly enough (revenge vs being given the opportunity for redemption) but most of the emotional impact falls flat and the ending (Jex's sacrifice) kinda renders almost the entire plot of the episode moot.

The best character by far was the sheriff, Isaac, who was basically killed off halfway through so the Doctor could play sheriff or marshall or whatever. The Doctor also feels out of character here almost shooting Jex in cold blood and while his reasoning makes sense, what happened to the "man who never would?" The journey to that mental state is just not well developed, though it definitely makes for some tense moments.

The episode still manages to have some humor and genuinely entertaining moments and the final showdown was pretty neat, but if I had to choose one word to describe this episode, it would be "contrived." 7.5/10

The Wild West Sci-fi Adventure

[freemantle_uk · 8/10 · 18 September 2012]

After two adventures set in the depths of space, Doctor Who comes down to Earth for a historically set adventure, which takes The Doctor to the wild wild west. While on route to Mexico for the Dead of the Day Festival, The Doctor and his companions land in a strange American Frontier town held under siege by a cyborg, The Gunslinger (Andrew Brooke), wanting the alien doctor.

Previous seasons of Doctor Who have had an interlinking, underlining theme/threat, something the series is building up to. The seventh series so far has felt more like a collection of standalone adventures and "A Town Called Mercy" has continued this thread. As a standalone episode, it's fun enough since it takes a humorous approach with the material and theme of the episode.

The biggest strength of this episode is the moral dilemmas along with the themes of guilt, forgiveness, and redemption... even though the writing is very much on the nose. There are big blurs of grey instead of a being a clear line between good & evil. It's easy to sympathise with both the Gunslinger, a creature who had been wronged with a mission of revenge and unwilling to hurt innocent, and Kahler Jex (Adrian Scarborough) who's a character who has done bad things in his past, but has ended up being useful and offered a social good to the town. The conflict and relationship between the two is similar to V and Dr. Surridge from V for Vendetta, one being the creator of the other for an evil cause, but the creator ended up becoming a good guy. That was despite the writer's best efforts to try and make Jex unlikable with his actions.

The episode embraces the western setting and clichés, particularly in the later half as The Doctor becomes the town's marshal or when the Gunslinger demands for Jex and a showdown at high noon. There is also very a Saturday morning cartoon feel to it plotting and action wise.

Previous Doctor Who episodes set in the past have been about some sort of secret alien invasion or aliens hiding in human society. "A Town Called Mercy" fortunately dispenses with this tried premise and just runs with a fun sci-fi Western premise and has no pretence of doing an investigation to find the aliens, they are there right at the beginning and in the foreground.

There is an acknowledge in the episode of previous events in the Doctor Who canon, but this is when The Doctor acts the most out of character, such as being overly angry and aiming a gun at Jex. The Doctor would never use physical force or firearms; what would make Jex so special to break this rule? Especially when The Doctor has faced much worse in the past. "A Town Called Mercy" is at times goofy, but Doctor Who is like that some times. This is simply a light hearted, entertaining little episode with a few flaws.

7.5/10 Please visit www.playeraffinity.com

The Doctor heads West

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 16 September 2012]

This episode sees The Doctor, Amy and Rory visiting the old west; something isn't quite right with the town of Mercy though; the people look suspicious and even more strangely there are electric street lamps... ten years before they were invented! When they go into the saloon and The Doctor identifies himself as The Doctor the locals ask if he is an alien; his honest answer gets him thrown out of town... a cybernetic gunslinger arrived two weeks earlier looking for an alien doctor and since then the town has been under siege. As the gunslinger approaches the town marshal says that The Doctor can stay.

We soon learn that The Doctor isn't the alien doctor isn't the gunslinger is after; he is after Kahler Jex; the man who made him into a cyborg to make him fight in a war. After the war these soldiers were deactivated but for some reason this one didn't shut down, instead he hunted down those who put him through an agonising procedure. This leaves The Doctor with a dilemma; Jex has clearly committed atrocities that deserve punishment but since then he has worked for good and delivering him to the gunslinger would effectively be signing his death warrant.

This was a decent enough episode although the setting never felt real despite the fact that they had clearly gone to the trouble of filming in a real desert. I liked the fact that neither possible villain was portrayed as evil; the gunslinger just wanted justice and Jex had done what he thought was right to end a long running war but still felt guilty about what he had done. It was nice to see Ben Browder, best known as Farscape's protagonist John Crichton, make a guest appearance although I almost didn't recognise him his character looked so different! I was surprised just how little Amy and Rory had to do this episode; normally I expect them to get in real danger but I never thought either was in danger here; it seemed they were just there so Amy could act as the Doctor's conscience when he made a wrong decision.

A Town Called Mercy

[MrFilmAndTelevisionShow · 8/10 · 11 April 2021]

I am not the world's greatest fan of this episode but I do consider it to be a very good one indeed. Certainly there are many fantastic elements, the plot itself is solid, the acting is as usual top notch my only real complaint is there was not quite enough wild-westy cliche's which is admittedly a strange thing to complain about but there we go.

Two Doctors for the Price of One

[boblipton · 5/10 · 15 September 2012]

When the Doctor, Amy and Rory land by accident in the town of Mercy in 1870, they discover a cyborg hunting an alien doctor: another alien doctor. It has the entire town besieged and waits for the other doctor to come out.

The last time the Doctor visited the Old West was in 1966's THE GUNFIGHTERS. That was a straight historical about the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Since then straight historicals, in which the Doctor and companions visit Earth's past and don't fight a lurking alien menace, have been scarce. Still, it is an excuse for Matt Smith to put on a Stetson.

The story is told in a fairly straightforward fashion, typical of westerns, at a slow, foreboding pace -- which gives the viewer time to ask all the right questions and come up with answers about what is really going on before the plot has a chance to twist. It's a little slow for my taste.

The pleasures in this episode, if you choose to look for them, are about the production values: the mobile camera that settles into occasional odd point-of-view shots; the careful costuming and understated performances that force you to pay attention far better than shouting; and even Murray Gold's score. I have not been a great fan of Mr. Gold's work, but he has been showing a bit of range this season. This time he steals a bit from Morricone and marries it with fiddlework for an appropriate score -- although he does pull up his favored chorale work too readily.

This is Toby Whithouse's fourth script for Doctor Who -- mostly he has been busy with his own series, BEING HUMAN. His rhythms of storytelling here are not the typical rhythms of Doctor Who. It seems as if he is trying to operate within the framework of westerns, where little is said and much is already known. Even the plots are limited in number. In sf, particularly Doctor Who, there is a constant stream of exposition. It's an interesting experiment in mixing the two sets of tropes that doesn't quite work. I'm glad they tried it, though.

Aliens & Cowboys & a Cowgirl...

[Xstal · 5/10 · 26 December 2021]

Camcorder man with a Gatling Gun arm. Kahler-Jex, the one he wants to harm. The Doctor might agree. If it wasn't for Amy. A token episode with little charm.

Great Concept Terribly Executed

[pinkled5 · 4/10 · 27 November 2012]

My primary point of contention with this episode was the terrible writing. Every scene seemed so contrived with many silly, groan inducing moments. For example, when Amelia is talking to the alien doctor, for no apparent reason she walks over, picks up his jacket, and puts it over his shoulders. Then he says to her "You're a mother, aren't you?" This scene is so contrived it's cringe-worthy.

Then there's the feeble attempt at humor. While the self-destruct sequence in the alien doctor's ship is audibly counting down, the system informs the user of the manufacturer's name and that they've "been incinerating clients for XX amount of years." I almost turned off the television at that point.

The episode was also riddled with plot holes. For example, although the cyborg gunmen refused to attempt to shoot his target because he might injure a civilian, the following day he was willing to kill everyone in town if they didn't give up the victim.

I could go on and on but basically it boils down to the fact that I'm really disappointed with the script writer. What a waste of an episode.

A Town Called Dull And Predictable

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 15 September 2012]

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 ?

A Town Called Mercy

[studioAT · 5/10 · 15 August 2023]

All three epidoes so far in the seventh series have had a great premise, and an iconic image linked to them to boot.

Unfortunately though in this case the delivery of the that premise falters as the episode goes through. It feels a very long episode, with some points being repeated again and again.

I didn't think Adrian Scarborough was much good in his role, and Rory seemed sidelined too.

Amy and Rory repeatedly saying they want to get back to normal life at the end each episode is a bit annoying too.

There are lovely moments, and goodness knows I'd rather see an average 11th Doctor outing than a whole series of those fronted by the 12th and 13th any day, but this just didn't seem to build on the promise of its premise.

You can skip this episode, believe me

[laura-bonaventura1 · 4/10 · 25 April 2014]

Do you remember Wild Wild West? Me neither since it was awful. Consequently when I saw the Doctor, Amy and Rory heading to the far west I knew it was going to be terrible.

This episode it's absolutely a mess, I thought season could be an improvement, but I start to be hopeless. The Doctor for some god-knows- reason decides that maybe saving one at the price of a 100 is kinda stupid: this wiseness lasts for about a minute, when Amy basically tells him "there are 20 minutes left, if you let him die now, what are we going to do?". And at this point the marshal dies but we don't care about him, do we?

So the Doctor becomes the marshal, there's a duel between him and Isaac where the Doctor, surprise surprise, uses the sonic screwdriver. Isaac nearly kills every human being in the village but again, who cares? The Doctor makes Jex escape so his executioner can follow him on tons of different planets and maybe shoot someone in the meantime (brilliant plan, ain't it?), but Jex commits suicide, thank God.

I believe there was an attempt to follow the same path of "Midnight" (4x10) but the result here is a disaster: it's boring and predictable as much as "Midnight" was deep and emotional.