A Town Called Mercy (3303/703)

[GateFanSamJack]

I liked it. It was nice to let things slow down a bit to feel more like a Western. Some breathing space.

They could've used the Ponds more.

The Doctor's personality differences were interesting.

That feel of non-British characters written by British writers was there at times. I have to think too much for why a Marshall would be part of the town for so long, so I just don't. There was a little more looking to authority by the townspeople than we should have seen, but snippets of that can be justifiable for the circumstances and because it wasn't like that across the board.

[pjt]

Wasn't a bad episode but it was quite straightforward and predictable, at least by DW standards. But if we look at it as an episode that had a task to point out important things, nah, still too predictable . On the other hand we learned that the Doctor is losing his humanity, and Any and Rory are declining trips because people would notice they are aging faster than them? That's an interesting twist on the companion problem. It also means that the doctor will be more and more alone (at least until Christmas).
All in all not a usual episode, but quite enjoyable.

[aretood2]

I liked it. It was nice to let things slow down a bit to feel more like a Western. Some breathing space.

They could've used the Ponds more.

The Doctor's personality differences were interesting.

That feel of non-British characters written by British writers was there at times. I have to think too much for why a Marshall would be part of the town for so long, so I just don't. There was a little more looking to authority by the townspeople than we should have seen, but snippets of that can be justifiable for the circumstances and because it wasn't like that across the board.

That was bothering me the whole time >.>

It was an OK episode. Loved Browder's appearance, that was a nice touch. For me, this episode wasn't really that memorable. The whole thing about the Doctor going on the off end is interesting, it really gives meaning to what he did to Solomon. I can't help but wonder how this is different from past situations though.

Jex wasn't threatening nor harming humans, or anyone else at the time. If anything, the threat ways the gunslinger. The gunslinger we taking the law into his own hands, a law that didn't apply in Mercy in late 1800's USA. If anything, the Doctor went against the wishes of local law enforcement, which would make him the criminal (At least for a moment).

The Doctor never really did play the numbers game before. Thus I don't see a justification going along the lines of "Sacrificing one dude for the many" a la Spock.

Solomon on the other hand committed Genocide like if he was picking what pair of socks to wear. and showed no redeemable qualities (something that Jex pointed out to the Doctor, that he wasn't exactly a 2 dimensional big bad guy) and consistently wanted to do bad. The Doctor took the role of Judge, Jury, and Executioner with Jex, for a crime he didn't commit on Earth if one want's to argue the Doctor as a defender of Earth.

It's not like if he is the Shadow Proclamation or something. I think he skirted the morality horizon there, almost going to "Dude, you just did something really bad there." Like 11 in that Mars episode.

That's what I got from the episode, anyway.

[iJOKE]

I think after the next two episodes, you will be sold... definately after episode 5...

I hope so. this is the first ever episode i switched off. it was boring and predictable. i have a feeling the next episode will be likewise.... i have faith in ep 5.

[GodAtum]

Anyone noticed in this and the previous ep they explicitly state that "the Doctor" is not known. Also he lost his compassion after the last ep when he allowed Solomon to be killed?

[aretood2]

Anyone noticed in this and the previous ep they explicitly state that "the Doctor" is not known. Also he lost his compassion after the last ep when he allowed Solomon to be killed?

I wouldn't say compassion has anything to do with this.

[Quizziard]

It's partially the time war, I think. Didn't the 9th say he "used to be so compassionate"?

[aretood2]

It's partially the time war, I think. Didn't the 9th say he "used to be so compassionate"?

In my opinion 9th was a PTSD doctor. I don't recall him saying that. Compassionate with bad people?

[Cold Fuzz]

Anyone noticed in this and the previous ep they explicitly state that "the Doctor" is not known. Also he lost his compassion after the last ep when he allowed Solomon to be killed?

The Doctor didn't suddenly lose his compassion. He's had a history of scragging his opponents, just not very often, but he's certainly eliminated his share of enemies. Nearly allowing the Gunslinger to have his way with Kahler-Jex was simply a continuation of this trend. Here's just a partial hitlist for the Doctor:

• Killing Daleks in Asylum of the Daleks
• Allowing Solomon to get killed by missiles in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
• Forcibly and painfully extracting information from a dying Dalek in The Wedding of River Song
• Destroying an entire Cyber-Legion to coerce them into giving the location of Demon's Run in A Good Man Goes to War.
• Allowing the TARDIS Matrix to kill House in The Doctor's Wife. He could have given House a chance to leave the TARDIS but he didn't.
• Allowing River to scrag a Dalek in The Big Bang. He could have stopped her but didn't.
• Using humanity to kill the Silence en masse in Day of the Moon. Let's be frank here. This is pretty much genocide. I think his actions were justifiable from a certain point of view considering that they essentially enslaved all of humanity but the scope of it is still staggering.
• Consigning the Family of Blood to eternal sentences--a fate arguably worse than death.

There are many more examples of this kind of behavior and I haven't even touched the Time War yet. To say that the Doctor is a strict pacifist or always compassionate simply isn't true.

What really got me about A Town Called Mercy was Amy's behavior. Kahler-Jex threatened her with a loaded gun and was about to take her hostage. The only reason this didn't happen was because Isaac intervened at just the right moment. Two scenes later she's defending Jex and then poorly tries to threaten the Doctor with a gun? *shakes head*

Even further, Amy wasn't complaining or objecting when the Doctor rescued her from the Silence in Day of the Moon where he killed almost their entire race. Yet, she has a problem with him handing over a single war criminal to his arguably just fate. It's OK to kill an entire race of hostile aliens but not OK to hand over a war criminal? Amy isn't exactly being consistent with her behavior.

The Doctor has been consistent with his behavior. True, his behavior is trending towards a darker outlook but that behavior has been consistent.

It's partially the time war, I think. Didn't the 9th say he "used to be so compassionate"?

Actually, those are the 10th Doctor's words, and the exact words were, "I used to have so much mercy." You would think that it would be the 9th who said it but it wasn't. The 10th said it to the leader of the Krillitanes in School Reunion.

[SGalisa]

I had mixed feelings about the eppy thruout most of it, until the very ending.
I loved the ending! It made the story worth watching. How the Gunslinger managed to become both friend and protector in a place where he was needed.
I was afraid he was going to self-destruct somehow after his primary reason for being there ended (to terminate the alien doctor (not THE Doctor)).
Wonder how much talking it took THE Doctor to convince the Gunslinger to become an *Angel* of sorts...
Ben Browder.. had a rather short-lived role. Ah well.

[maneth]

Loved BB in this! Great to see him again. It was an interesting story I think, and very different to most of the episodes.