Review: Doctor Who: A Town Called Mercy (Or: 'The Doctor actually acts like the Doctor, and is criticised for it.')

Reasons I haven’t updated the blog in a while Uni has restarted, I’ve been insanely busy with work and Fresher’s Week stuff, and I’m also very naturally lazy. So, having finally reached a moment of free time when I don’t just want to lie down and sleep for a month, let’s see how much of the last two weeks’ worth of Doctor Who and Wolfblood I can rattle through tonight.

First up: Doctor Who: A Town Called Mercy.

The First Thing That Struck Me
ATCM is, essentially, a story that feels like it’s being told in the wrong order. At least, that’s the impression I got when watching it, suddenly and violently jarred as I was by the transition from “The Doctor wants to ruthlessly kill whatsisface from Upstairs, Downstairs, but everyone else thinks he’s great” in the first half of the episode, to “the town now suddenly wants to lynch the guy, but the Doctor now wants to save him, despite the fact that it will clearly be putting everyone’s lives in danger.” I mean, the Doctor being the only person to stand up for just principles and liberal morality in the face of public violence smacks of being a very traditional set-up for an episode- hence why the second half of ATCM would actually have a very good tone to it, were the whole cast not abruptly acting contrary to their established behaviour.

I’m just saying that the narrative would probably have made much more sense if the Doctor had gradually ended up coming around to the townsfolk’s way of thinking, and then Amy had stepped in and reminded the Doctor of his principles, rather than, as we actually got, yet another cringeworthy ‘empowering’ scene in which Amy almost shoots the Doctor in the face, which just leaves the audience confused over which protagonist we’re supposed to be siding with.

And, after all, what message was the episode trying to make? I mean, the episode ended with Space Nazi!Mr Pritchard being killed anyway, rather than facing more liberal methods of justice, which one would assume would be the alternative the episode would suggest. Thus, if the Doctor had just been allowed to carry out his plan, not only would proceedings have reached the exact same conclusion much earlier, but Crichton from Farscape wouldn’t have been accidentally killed, and could have stuck around to try and convince the audience that he was actually more than just a bland stereotype.

The Rest of the Plot
Okay, so, what’s this one about? Well, pleasingly, it’s ‘about’ something a heck of a lot more coherent than the previous two episodes. There’s no ridiculous prologue where we have to catch up with Matt Smith gurning at something historical, Rory putting his hands somewhere nurses often put the hands, or Amy setting women’s rights back about forty-nine years. It’s just the TARDIS crew, turning up in an interesting location, and solving a problem. Y’know, like pretty much every episode began until Moffat got his hands on the franchise. And, hey, guess what? You know that tried and tested decades-old formula? It works. If the cast are instantly involved with the plot, then so are the audience.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory have arrived in the Wild West town of Mercy, which, we quickly discover, is being threatened by the Gunslinger.

(From the online comic book review show Atop the Fourth Wall, if anyone's interested.)

No, not that Gunslinger. This Gunslinger.

Why does he dress up in the style of the time, given that he doesn't exactly seem to care about being conspicuous?

This Gunslinger is busy hunting down a group of aliens who look suspiciously like humans with ink smudges on their faces. In the cold open, we see him killing the second- to- last of these aliens. If you were to ask me if the cold open takes place on Earth or not, or how long this takes place before the events of the episode itself, I’d be stumped, but that’s alright, because I have a feeling the writer doesn’t know, either.

The writer this week, by the way, is Toby Whithouse, author of last year’s The God Complex, and the previous year’s Vampires of Venice, and his record of fundamentally interesting and enjoyable stories that nevertheless have a few logical stumbles is maintained well here.

For example, when the Doctor turns up in Mercy and reveals himself to be ‘an alien doctor,’ the townsfolk immediately try to get the Gunslinger to kill him. But, hang on one second. If the Gunslinger has requested that the town hands over an ‘alien doctor,’ then why on Earth would they assume he meant this one, who has just turned up,  and not their own town doctor, who they all know full well is an alien, who was actually there when the Gunslinger first turned up?! And why do these townsfolk seem to have some kind of schizophrenic hive mind that keeps switching between wanting to appease the Gunslinger and wanting to oppose him at all costs? And why do they all blindly accept the existence of alien life? Aargh!

But, in all honesty, aside from these fairly obvious niggles… I genuinely like this episode. As I alluded to earlier, there are some very traditional set-ups and plot devices in there. The isolated, semi- claustrophobic atmosphere works always works much better than any of the many times New-Who tries and fails to convince us that the entire universe is in danger, while the humanoid villain to engage in discussions of morality with the Doctor is a far, far better and more intellectually challenging spectacle than, say, running away from a monster of the week. Best of all, Whithouse actually remembers that this show is about time travel, and uses the period, specifically the recent American Civil War, to shape the characters and their behaviour, and brings the wider world into focus so much more than some cackling monster going “today Mercy, tomorrow the world! Ahahahaha!”

Talking of monsters brings me onto the Doctor himself, and his actions in this episode. As I said in my review of Dinosaurs on a Soundstage, this bizarre obsession with the Doctor never using a gun, or indeed, any violence whatsoever, is a grand old tradition that goes back all the way to David Tennant’s second season. It reached its nadir in the vomit-inducing The Doctor’s Daughter, in Tennant’s third season, the entirety of which I would quite happily see erased from all time. In that… well, episode, I suppose you’d have to call it, a whining emo git pretending to be the Doctor grabbed a gun because his vacuous, over-sexed clone, who didn’t look anything like him, had just been shot dead. He was on the verge of shooting her decidedly unthreatening murderer, when he stopped himself, and instead gurned at the audience, and claimed to be “ay man hoo nevah wood.”

Oh, man up, you pathetic whining arrogant dimwit.

The show then took this and ran with it, as apparently guns now have the same effect on the Doctor as water does on the Wicked Witch of the West, or something. This is all despite the fact that the Doctor used weapons a hell of a lot right up until Christopher Eccleston’s terribly underrated incarnation. And no, it never harmed the character, because the Doctor using a gun told you things had just got very serious indeed. The Doctor not using a gun when he clearly should just makes him look like an idiot who’s putting his principles before the safety of his friends.
Oh, look, just watch this video.

So, yeah. Was the Doctor right to want to send Nazi!Pritchard to his death? Probably not, although the end of the episode kind of solidifies the fact that there were no real alternatives. Were the Doctor’s actions in character? Hell, yeah. In fact, something that impulsive and crazy triggered by something so inherently evil is very in character. I’d say that this, much as people who like to pretend that the show didn’t even exist before Tennant’s eyes first filled with emo tears will disagree with me, is the most Doctorish Doctor we’ve seen in quite a while.

The Eleventh Doctor finally does something proactive, instead of letting his reputation solve everything. I just wish they hadn't had to rewrite the entrie universe to allow such competence.

However, there is one part of the Doctor’s behaviour this episode that I simply can’t stomach. I’m talking of his essentially forcing of the Gunslinger into servitude for centuries at the end of the episode, simply because he (read: Moffat and Whithouse) is too lazy to face up to the problems of taking the Gunslinger back home. So, having saved him from a life of being ordered against his will to take one group of people’s side against another, the Doctor then forces him right back into the exact same fate by forcing him to wander around the desert outside the town, never showing his face, never able to talk to any other beings, for centuries on end, waiting for his power cells to run down and for the mercy of death to claim him. Ridiculous. You can’t just establish a concept like the Gunslinger and then not face up to giving him an eventual fate at the end of the episode. Otherwise your audience might just begin to suspect you’re not quite mature enough to write a Nazi parallels story. Because you’re not.

Other Random Observations:
-I had no idea what the fill on the logo was this week. Nor do I care.

-The Doctor can speak ‘horse’ now. Given how the sudden reveal that he can speak ‘baby’ last year was one of the most insulting and repulsive things I’ve ever heard, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I wasn’t a fan of this development. The whole “Susan” bit was at least an attempt to do something new and challenging, and I suppose I can respect that. But the fact remains that this whole gag pushes the entire franchise beyond the level of plausibility and competent writing in a way that few things, if anything, have before.

-At one point, Eleven seems to be wearing the Eighth Doctor’s coat.

What is it about Matt Smith that makes him look really goofy in long coats? The dark green greatcoat from last year was a failure as well.

-Is a goofy tattoo really the only biological difference between humans and aliens? Really? That’ll make fancy- dress parties very boring once we achieve first contact.

-So… what’s going to happen once electricity is discovered for real, and the rest of the world finds out that this one town already had it for several years?

-Stetson's aren't cool, especially when you have a face the same shape as Matt Smith's.

-Why aren’t the townsfolk more surprised at the existence of aliens? Yes, I realise I’ve already asked this, but it annoys me. The answer is, of course, ‘so that the story can be told within 45 minutes,’ which is a rant I’ve already had several times.

-Is it even worth pointing out that the sonic screwdriver is just a blatant magic wand by now? Making lights explode, turning off Jex’s capsule’s self-destruct… Not really, since that seems to be a major problem that the writers do actually know about… they just don’t care.

-Apparently, Whithouse was going to watch the William Hartnell episode The Gunfighters, also set in the Wild West, but Moffat told him not to bother as it was crap. Quite apart from the fact that Moffat thinks almost all Classic Who is crap, surely Whithouse is capable of making up his own mind? Say what you like about RTD, he genuinely loved the show, even if he demonstrably never really understood it.

Final Thoughts
I do find it somewhat problematic that the Doctor is finally acting like a rational person, and that the current writing team are trying to portray this as being somehow out of character. However, unless some kind of character or plot development actually comes out of this behaviour, and given Moffat’s track record, this seems unlikely (we’re still waiting on an explanation of how the Silence made the TARDIS explode way back in Smith’s first season, remember), I’m just content to sit back and enjoy the Doctor making morally dubious decisions that I can actually think about, rather than just mindlessly lap up.

As for the rest of the episode, kudos must primarily be given to Adrian Scarborough and Matt Smith, who squared off against each other sizzlingly well. Their compelling discussion of actions and consequences confronts the Doctor’s morally dark choices far better than Karen Gillan almost accidentally murdering someone through her own stupidity.

Where did you even get a gun from? And since when did you become the voice of pacifism and mercy, given your track record?

Indeed, Amy and Rory do so little in this episode, they might as well not be here. If it had been Isaac to point out the ethics of the Doctor’s actions, it would have been a wake-up call for the Doctor, a reminder that he needs people like that around him, and would have actually given a purpose to having that character in there. Plus, Isaac’s death would have been good foreshadowing of Amy and Rory’s imminent departure.

However, overall, A Town Called Mercy was a strong, thought- provoking entry with an excellent cast and an evocative setting. Definitely in the top five episodes of the Smith era, and a darn sight better than the previous two.