This week, brings us one of the most talked-about and anticipated episodes of the first half of the series: Episode 3: A Town Called Mercy. This is the Western episode, filmed in Spain on the same sets that Sergio Leone used to film A Fistful of Dollars and other Spaghetti Westerns. So, is it worthy of the location and the pedigree it represents? Read on and find out.

FIGURES AND MORE EXCLUSIVE EPISODE REVIEW

Show:                        Doctor Who

Series:                       7

Episode #:                3

Title:                           A Town Called Mercy

Writer:                       Toby Whitmore

Cast

The Doctor                     Matt Smith

Amy Pond                       Karen Gillan

Rory Williams               Arthur Darvill

The Gunslinger            Andrew Brooke

Kahler-Jex                    Adrian Scarborough

Isaac                               Ben Browder

Kahler-Mas                   Dominic Kemp

The Preacher                Byrd Wilkins

Dockery                         Sean Benedict

Abraham                      Garrick Hagon

Sadie                             Joanne McQuinn

Plot

The Doctor, Amy, and Rory, while en route to the Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico via the TARDIS, instead arrive at the small American Frontier town of Mercy. The Doctor is curious as to a ring of stone and wood that surround the town’s border, and the availability of electricity to the town about ten years too early. They learn from the town’s marshall, Isaac, that they have been kept within town for the last three weeks by “The Gunslinger”, who uses alien weaponry to threaten to kill anyone trying to leave town and blocks the town from receiving any supplies. The Gunslinger has demanded the town turn over “the doctor”, which the Doctor deduces is not himself but a humanoid alien hiding in the marshall’s jail. The alien introduces himself as Kahler-Jex, who had crashed on Earth about ten years earlier, and was rescued from his craft by the town; in return, Jex has helped the town as their physician including ending a cholera outbreak and providing the town with primitive electricity. However, the town’s food supplies are nearly empty, and while the situation has become more dire, the marshall is reluctant to hand over Jex.

The Doctor offers to get his TARDIS and evacuate the town, riding off on horseback to collect it while Isaac and Rory distract the Gunslinger. The Doctor comes across Jex’s craft, surprisingly undamaged. He enters the craft, though setting off an alarm heard across the plains, and reviews Jex’s records, discovering that Jex was part of a team of scientists from his war-torn homeworld that experimented on a number of volunteers to convert them into cyborgs, who either died or killed countless people in the battle. Aghast, the Doctor leaves the ship to find the Gunslinger waiting for him. The Doctor realises that the Gunslinger is one of Jex’s subjects and is looking for revenge. The Gunslinger explains that its programming prevents it from harming innocents, creating the ring of wood and rocks to protect the townsfolk, but demands from the Doctor that the next person that crosses that line must be Jex.

The Doctor returns to Mercy, and angrily drags an apologetic Jex to the edge of town, followed by his companions and the concerned townsfolk. As he forces Jex to cross the line, Amy asserts that the Doctor has changed for the worse from months of travelling on his own. The Gunslinger arrives, and holds Jex to his weapon; Jex tries to offer that he has had turned a new leaf and rejects his past actions, but this does not sway the cyborg. As the Gunslinger is about to fire, Isaac pushes Jex out of the way, taking the lethal shot. Isaac’s final action is to hand his marshall badge to the Doctor and ask him to protect the town. The Gunslinger leaves, warning that he will return at noon tomorrow to collect Jex, even if it puts the townspeople at risk.

During the night, Jex explains his guilt to the Doctor, trying to repent for his past knowing what will await him in his afterlife. An angry mob of townsfolk arrive to demand Jex, but the Doctor warns by doing so, they would have Isaac’s death mean nothing. Further discussions with Jex provide the Doctor with an idea for a plan. The next day, when the Gunslinger arrives the Doctor distracts it by amplifying the electricity sent through town, while other townsfolk, wearing makeup applied in the same fashion as Jex’s facial markings, dash between buildings to confuse the cyborg. Jex flees out of town to his ship as the Doctor planned, but instead of returning to space, Jex initiates the ship’s self-destruct, thanking the Doctor and town before he is destroyed. The Gunslinger becomes desolate with his quest for revenge complete, and is ready to self-destruct far away from town, when the Doctor offers him a suggestion. As Mercy recovers from the previous weeks and the Doctor and his companions say goodbye, the Gunslinger remains in the outskirts of town as its protector, wearing Isaac’s marshall badge.

MY TAKE: I liked it, but didn’t love it. It is, by far, the slowest paced of the episodes so far. In fact, there are points where you wait and wish for something to happen. That being said, when it happens, BOY, does it EVER happen! The set pieces are bigger and drama higher than ever before. This is also the episode where it becomes Amy’s turn to teach the Doctor a lesson all of his companions teach him at one point: why he needs to travel with companions. Matt continues to open up new emotional avenues for the Doctor, really tapping into his pent up rage over all the atrocity he has seen over his long life. In fact, it is almost unheard of to believe that the Doctor would hand a man over to be killed. It is absolutely shocking to think that it almost happens in this episode, until Amy brings him back from the brink of madness. The Gunslinger is a fascinating character, existing only for revenge, until the Doctor gives him a new purpose. Kahler-Jex is also a complex and complicated character, a war surgeon who committed terrible atrocities in the name of victory, but is now trying to repent by ministering to the sick of Mercy. Ironically, unlike most of the villains the Doctor usually encounters, he is aware of what he was done, and that he must atone for it. But, he is afraid of his fate, which gives him a humanity that most other Doctor Who villains do not possess. Adding some added Sci-Fi muscle to this episode is Ben Browder, best known for his appearance in the TV show Farscape, does a terrific job as Issac, the forward thinking Sheriff of Mercy whose belief in second chances proves fatal for him. As with the other episodes so far, the drama is balanced with humor. Most of the humor comes from the Doctor attempting to fit into the Old West setting. He wears a Stetson, speaks horse and gets thrown out of town.  Also, Amy’s interaction with a handgun provides some more hilarity. Issac speaks one of the funniest lines of the episode: “Anyone who isn’t an American, throw down your guns.” Speaking of guns, this episode is notable because the Doctor picks one up, which is WAY out of character for him. Arthur Darvill as Rory, unfortunately, doesn’t have much to do. Rory does, however participate in a brief bit of deception with Isaac. But, mostly, he lets Amy take the spotlight in this episode. Also taking a larger part in this episode than normal is religion. One of the main characters in the episode is a preacher, and as the Doctor and the Gunslinger have their showdown, the townspeople are all holed up in the Church. It is an unusually large part of the episode, but the episode itself is a morality tale, dressed up as a Western, so it sort of fits. Speaking of the Gunslinger, Andrew Brooke does an amazing job of reconciling the cyborg’s human memories with the cold, mechanical logic he employs in executing his purpose. And, he does all this with JUST ONE EYE, due to the heavy prosthetic he has to wear. The scenery is beautiful and the cinematography is spectacular. The effects, though minimal, are well done. The episode is written by Toby Whithouse, who is the creator of Being Human. he has also written several other episodes of Doctor Who, including School Reunion, from Series 2, featuring Sarah Jane and the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant, and The Vampires of Venice, from Series 5, and The God Complex, from Series 6, both featuring the 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith. Toby confessed that he had never written about the Wild West before, and he looked forward to the challenge.

SCORE: 4 out of 5
NEXT TIME: It’s a slow invasion of little black cubes, the return of both Brian (Rory’s Dad) and UNIT and The Power of Three