Rate and Discuss: A Town Called Mercy

[Philipnet]

A Town Called Mercy

The Doctor gets a Stetson (and a gun!), and finds himself the reluctant Sheriff of a Western town under siege by a relentless cyborg.

[Utermazan]

Best of the season so far. What could have been a bog standard Firefly rip off exceeded my expectations.

Had a really interesting dilemma at the centre of the story which was nice and gave Matt Smith a chance to play a darker version of the character. Had some great dialogue.

The Doctor letting the "villain" of the story go seemed a bit inconsistent with last weeks "I'm blowing up Soloman" but I'm willing to let it go. The girl narrator was a little cheesy.

Basically, less Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, more this level of quality!

9/10

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Tonnes better than last week. I'm a bit niggled by the... well I wouldn't say plot holes exactly, but by the rather arbitrary and illogical rules about who the cyborg would target and when. I can understand him laying siege to the town to get them to kick out the alien doctor, and him not wanting to go into the town because he didn't want to hurt innocents... but then why set up a very specific stone circle as if it had magical properties when a simple "don't leave town" would have done? When he was targetting Rory and the Marshall and then had to back down because there was an 87% chance of hitting an innocent... which one was he targetting and which one was the innocent? Surely they were both innocent? Why say "I'll kill the next person who steps out of the circle", when that seems to go against everything he wanted and his own moral code?

Like I say, tonnes better than last week, and very atmospheric, and a nice central premise, but... it doesn't take much thought before the logic of the situation crumbles to pieces.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

It was never going to be as much fun as last week but I did really enjoy it and relieved that my fear that it would be the rubbish one were unfounded.

Overall this mini season is shaping up to be the most enjoyable set of episodes since the days of Ten and Donna.

[Darren]

7 out of 10

Not as good as the last couple of weeks but Series 7 is proving to be consistently good. The Doctor seems to be growing ever darker and unpredictable.

[Andrew Curnow]

I really enjoyed it. I will admit to feeling a little 'been there, done that' about the Doctor not being 'safe' when he travels alone, but it didn't bother me while watching this - a really neat dilemma for the Doctor, I thought Smith was brilliant throughout, particularly his fury when he throws the other doctor outside the town. Good performances all round, I thought Adrian Scarborough was particularly good, and just a greatly enjoyable episode.

After moaning a lot about last year's season, I'm (for whatever reason) enjoying this year a lot more - and next week's looks rather good too!

Oh and an early delight in this episode - the comment about 'dry clean only' was spot on!!

[Dino]

The only two things that might have bothered me was the computer explaining stuff. But I'm not bothered that much of them choosing that plot device.
Matt Smith has angry Doctor down. It's just his cheery persona needs work.

But there wasn't anything like the robots from last week. And I don't even like westerns. (Seriously, there is a picture of me with my Dad and my sister and the kids are dressed up in cowboy gear. Western loving Dad smiling massively, but I look uncomfortable and wanting to be anywhere else)
But this would have made a fantastic Sc-Fi Western movie. I agree it's the best of the season so I voted full marks.

Join us next week when Doctor Who does David Icke!

[Alex]

I've just watched and quite enjoyed it. It wasn't a classic by any means and some of the writing was a bit clunky, but I thought it was nice to see a slower episode which explores more of the Doctor's character and why he acts the way he does at times. It was dodgy in places, and the cyborg assassin didn't quite work for me, and the bit at the end was terribly cheesy, but I still quite liked it overall. 7/10.

[Si Hunt]

I really enjoyed it - another strong episode this year. It wasn't really a "western" as such more a small-scale sci-fi mystery, but it looked gorgeous and it was all very intriguing and just about held the attention. The plot was a bit... weird, really, in Hines sight, and could have done with being simpler what with the weird shifting policy on who to kill and who not to kill. Why didn't he just march in, drag out the criminal bloke, and THEN kill him? Can't have been that hard, surely.

But all good fun, and this season just feels RIGHT in the way the previous two felt a bit WRONG.

Si.

[Alex Me]

Another good story, seem to be getting a really strong run this year.

Though I thought the beginning was a bit disjointed. Namely on the Doctor's first excursion out to the spaceship. He leaves the sherif's office on his own, but then we cut to Rory and The Sherif characters outside the town trying to distract the gungslinger, then when the doctor has checked out the spaceship suddenly Rory and the Sherif are back in the town. I thought the Doctor was meant to be picking them up in the Tardis, but there is no indication if this happens or not.

Apart from a few odd plotting details it was a great Morality tale examine the Doctor's Mercy. 7/10

[J.R. Southall]

I had a busy evening yesterday / morning today so I've only just been able to catch up with what people are saying.

Loved Toby Whithouse's last episode, and even though I enjoyed this one immensely it still left me feeling a little confused as to what it was really about.

If anyone wants to read my thoughts in more detail, my Starburst review is here. Meanwhile, the Blue Box team and I recorded a podcast immediately after watching the episode, and that's here (with the iTunes feed here).

[Perry Vale]

A rather good episode.....of Star Trek: Voyager, but not Doctor Who. Not bad, by any means, but just another safe pair of hands story from Whithouse. Great casting for the other Doctor.

Random thoughts....

The "you're both good men" line seemed very misplaced.

Liked the "I speak horse" bits.

Glad they didn't waste any time with the picking up Amy & Rory stuff (and a nice surprise for me as I didn't know if they'd be in it).

The ships's self destruct was far too blatant and obvious, imo.

Nice to see BBC One HD losing the onscreen DOG, hope it continues.

It was a pretty small spaceship to be carrying a couple of miles worth of spare electric cabling.

The Doctor keeps mentioning his Chrsitmas list!

A 7/10 from me, which is probably a little low, but didn't feel it warranted an 8.

[Larry]

very enjoyable stuff 8/10

[SiHart]

Best of the season so far me. Brilliant episode, with a neat dilemma, some very strong direction- loved the bits of the Doctor on the top of the spaceship, the readouts over his face and all that- nicely done I thought. It looked so lavish and authentic.

Oh and Ben Browder looked so damn foxy!

[Dirk Gently]

I may be in a camp of 1, but I was a bit underwhelmed by this after the first 2 episodes.

It may have been because I was tired, I'll needed to see it again I think.

[Nyder]

This is the one that I liked the look of least when it was first previewed (partly because I don't like the Western genre) ..... but I have to say, this has been the most enjoyable story of the season so far

I liked the twists and turns of the plot, and here was a chance to see the Doctor really get angry! I loved the "crumbs on the console" line. Amy wasn't given much to do (Rory even less) but sometimes it's good to let the companions take a back seat and let The Doctor interact more with the locals y'all

Did anyone else spot the likeness between the alien Doctor and Rory? He would have been a better choice to play Rory's dad.

It would have been nice to have had a sly reference to "The Gunfighters" in there wouldn't it?

A cotton-picking 8 out of 10 for me!

[Llordllama]

I really wanted to love this episode (especially with Ben Bowder in it) but...it just felt a bit flat to me. Maybe after loving last week's antics and character depth, this felt a bit more formula. I also appeared to be missing about 10 minutes of exposition from the episode. And boo to Rory and Amy being given precious little to do. However, Susan the horse get's it extra marks! As did the continuing Darker Doctor (TM)

Doctor WHeasel takes on A Town Without Mercy over here.

[Si Hunt]

It was more complicated than it needed to be, I felt was the only problem. They could have had the alien disguised as one of the villagers (negating the need for the half hearted "we need some make up to show he's alien, but nothing we can't apply in the seering spanish heat) with the Cyborg trying to identify which one he was. The script seemed to jump through hoops to explain why he hadn't killed him yet.

This episode wasn't a bad one by any stretch, but it's interesting that with a multi-million dollar prime-time BBC1 production, a star cast and an exotic location, you can still have a script that looks like it needs a couple more drafts.

Si.

[Jon Masters]

6/10 from me - not as much fun as last week. The basic premise was OK but the morality was laid on with such a heavy trowel that it started to get annoying (and I really hate the Nu Who idea that without his companions the Doctor completely loses his moral compass - that's heading into Star Trek 'humans are always right' territory and was bad enough with Rose in Dalek).

There were some great moments of characterisation from the guest crew (loved the undertaker) although alien Doc queered his pitch a bit by acting like a real git at some points. Ben Browder did a great job of playing a completely unlike John Creighton role. But we still had to have lovely 'Pond' moments crowbarred in with complete unsubtlety.

The setting was well used and there were plenty of Western cliches to enjoy (though the narration made for some teeth grinding moments). However, they also made the Star Trek mistake of having an alien whose alien features could be easily replicated - and there were some very odd leaps of logic going on (the Target recognition system made no sense at all).

Possibly the main disappointment was that, once more, the Doctor didn't solve the problem - indeed his plan to let the guy go was a bad one. It might have been better if somehow talking to the Doctor had caused his change of heart, rather than it seeming to be a sudden surprise.

[duncan]

I was engrossed from start to finish. The best of the series so far for me.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

This episode wasn't a bad one by any stretch, but it's interesting that with a multi-million dollar prime-time BBC1 production, a star cast and an exotic location, you can still have a script that looks like it needs a couple more drafts.

Si.

There was a star cast?

[Zbigniev Hamson]

(and I really hate the Nu Who idea that without his companions the Doctor completely loses his moral compass - that's heading into Star Trek 'humans are always right' territory and was bad enough with Rose in Dalek).

It might explain why he was happy to almost stone cavemen to death before he started travelling with Ian and Babs. Or indeed why he was happy to blow up the Graff Vynda K as soon as he stopped travelling with humans again

[Antony Cox]

A good episode!

A nice little set-peice with lots of atmosphere and good performances. It got a little twisted towards the end in which way it wanted to go, I think, but other than that it was very enjoyable.

As much as I love The Gunfighters, it's amazing how much more believable a story like this is when it really is filmed in the Wild West (at least I assume it was!).

[Paul Monk]

A five from me. Not an awful episode but just dull, Who by numbers. I felt it was unexciting, predictable and completely waste Ben Browder.
Wasn't really sure why the cyborg didn't just teleport next to Jax and kill him and what the point of that line round the town? Did I miss something or was it literally a line of stones and wood?
It seems that I may have been watching another show entirely because everyone else thought it was great.

[SiHart]

It seems that I may have been watching another show entirely because everyone else thought it was great

Ahh, the Blink effect as I call it