Doctor Who: Series 7, Episode 3 – “A Town Called Mercy” (2012)

When Toby Whithouse writes for Who, he tends to create villains that serve as a means to better examine the Doctor himself.  He does it with the Krillitane in “School Reunion,” Madame Calvieri in “The Vampires of Venice,” the Minotaur in “The God Complex,” to a lesser extent with the Fisher King in “Before the Flood,” and he does it here with Kahler-Jex as well.  Overall, not my favorite Whithouse episode, but definitely one of series 7’s better showings.

The Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory arrive at a Wild West town under siege.  A fence has been erected around their border and no one goes in or out, with the understanding that anyone found “crossing the line” is fair game for the Gunslinger, the suped-up cyborg holding the town hostage.  The Gunslinger is after a particular newcomer, the “alien doctor” (for once, not the one you’d expect!), but for reasons of his own, he wants the townsfolk to deliver his quarry to him.  The Doctor’s automatic response—to protect the wanted man, naturally—suffers a crisis of faith when he learns more about the circumstances between the Gunslinger and his target.

There’s a whole bundle of inner conflict for the Doctor to unpack in this episode.  There are unspoken references to his actions during the Time War (shh, this is pre-50^th anniversary—we’re all just supposed to politely pretend that actually happened) and the usual doubts and fears that go along with that.  Is the Doctor really as good as he tries to be?  Can good actions erase bad ones?  What about intent?  Are some sins unforgiveable?  And alongside all of that, there’s the question of mercy itself, and whether it’s always right.  The Doctor examines the collateral damage of his own mercy here, and he wonders if it’s really a virtue he can afford.  However, while these are good points to explore, the episode’s way of going about it feels kind of heavy-handed and reductive.  There isn’t anything to equal the “swimming pool” scene in “School Reunion” or the Doctor’s reaction to the Minotaur in “The God Complex.”  Those moments pack a hard emotional punch; here, everything feels more surface-y. 

Amy and Rory are kind of shortchanged, to be honest.  While Rory in particular gets a few running-around-risking-his-neck moments, neither does much that’s they’re not expressly instructed to do.  Don’t get me wrong—I like my companions brave, but I like them even better smart.  Amy has a good scene with the Doctor where she reminds him of his path, recognizing that he might be getting a bit lost and realizing he’s been traveling on his own too long (this is during the Ponds’ tapering-off period.)  However, the lovely moment between them is completely ruined by the end of the episode, when the Doctor starts making plans for their next adventure and Amy prefers that he drop them back off at home.  It’s just, I mean… you just said that it’s not good for your best friend to be alone so much, and how do you help?  By leaving him alone again the first chance you get?!  Did Moffat add this in service of the ongoing “tapering-off” theme and not notice the earlier scene, because I really have a hard time believing that Toby Whithouse wrote both of these in a single episode.

On a few happier notes, this episode also offers 1) the Doctor getting delightfully excited at a mystery, 2) interesting details about an alien culture, 3) the Doctor trying to act like he’s in an old western, 4) Susan the transgender horse, and 5) Ben Browder a.k.a. Farscape’s John Crichton.  You could do a lot worse than watching the Doctor hanging with a Wild West John Crichton and ordering tea at the saloon.