This Is Our Town's Sheriff, Marshal The-Doctor

Welcome to the Wild Wild West, where we Whovians watch ... Williamses?

Okay, enough alliteration, and onto the episode.

The Background

We see and hear about this terrifying thing called "Gunslinger", who looks like Darth Vader and Dick Cheney had an illegitimate child, and then added an extra layer of terror

He's ARMED! Get it?

But it turns out that he's actually the victim in this story, and the real bad guy is the harmless-looking grandfatherly figure with the weird tattoo.

Why would the Kahler have evolved facial tattoos?

Which was actually kind of obvious as soon as we saw that Gunslinger was concerned about the possibility of injuring innocents.

That means 13% chance of PURE JUSTICE! I've gambled on worse odds.

This leads the viewer and the Doctor into a fairly interesting conundrum, whether to deliver Kahler Jex to justice at the hands of Gunslinger or judge Jex more for his recent virtues than his past vices.

Although wouldn't breaking the laws of time count as a bad thing?

I like the dilemma presented in this episode. Do you condemn this man for the horrible things that he's done in the past? Or do you redeem him because of the good he's accomplished since then? Or do you redeem him because of the good that his bad deeds accomplished?

Here's what happened:

• The Kahler were engrossed in a war.
• Jex engineered some cyborgs in a less-than-ethical way.
• Those cyborgs ended the war in a week.
• Jex went on to save the town of Mercy several times.

It's a really interesting ethical question, and I honestly don't know what my judgment would be. Thankfully, I've got the writers to answer that ethical question for me, right?

Unfortunately, I will add, I thought that it was wrapped up just a little bit too cleanly when, after an accidental death and a show of mercy [oh I get it - the town's name is a metaphor!] from Gunslinger, Jex decides that his cyborg creation has a point, and blows himself up.

It wouldn't be Doctor Who without an explosion.

Marshall Doctor... Doctor Marshall?

That was weird. Isaac is fatally wounded and has to appoint a replacement for himself. The job is often a stressful one, one that requires cool judgment and a clear head. Oh, and Isaac has a very specific agenda: keep Kahler Jex alive. That means that the following would be good criteria for a replacement Marshall:

• Someone that he knows and trusts.
• Someone who actually lives in the town, not a visitor, since visitors have a habit of not staying for very long.
• Someone who has demonstrated an ability to keep composed under modest pressure.
• Someone who has not, seconds before, thrown Jex out of the Circle of Life, directly leading to Isaac's death.

The Doctor fulfills all of these requirements, except, oh wait, ALL OF THEM!

This is clearly a level-headed guy.

Conveniently, Amy's little lecture to the Doctor seems to have given him such an extreme change of hearts that he not only doesn't throw Jex out to his demise, but he even comes up with a zany scheme to trick Gunslinger into lowering his guard and letting the Kahler doctor free.

Doctor: "So the disguise consists of some sharpie on your face."
Rory: "...And...?"
Doctor: "And what?"

Wait, that fooled the cyborg? Kahler Jex clearly didn't put much effort into its facial recognition software.

The Doctor is a Mirror

Here's an exchange that we seem to see a lot.

Bad Guy: "Doctor, you're similar to me in some way relating to how I'm evil."

Doctor: "This obvious cheap psychology trick bothers me for some reason. Let me react with either extreme guilt or extreme anger."

I've seen it most often used by the Daleks to convince the Doctor not to kill them, but other bad guys have used it too. It's starting to get really old. 

I don't have a good picture for this, so here's a picture of Amy.

Corn

The end of the episode had what was quite possibly the corniest scene I have ever seen.

Finger-gun duels are serious business.

And then the corniest resolution.

At least he's more stable than the last guy.

I don't know if I can handle all the corn!

The Doctor's Hat

The Doctor got this nifty new hat this episode. It brings back memories of the last time he wore a hat like that.

Spoilers!

Ah, so satisfying...

Amy

I did not get the sense that Amy was really a part of this episode. She felt sort of tacked on at the end. Which isn't really a huge problem except that the writers' attempts to shoehorn her in resulted in a particularly jarring scene.

Amy is a mother, as Kahler Jex so perceptively figured out. The scene was there, I think, for two reasons, to establish that Kahler Jex has redeeming qualities, and to tie this episode in with the overall show, by showing us that this is the Amy that we know and love.

The scene also served as an important transition for that jacket, from slung over a chair to draped on Jex's shoulders.

But I wouldn't say it was well done. Jex's conclusion that Amy was a mother could easily have been wrong, since the look of caring and sadness and guilt could easily apply to anyone in a position of responsibility, like someone in the medical profession, say, I dunno, a Doctor.

This is obviously the Doctor that I'm referring to.

His Name Is Susan

I think the horse was my favorite character in this episode. From his denial of cultural norms to his vulgar language, Susan (or Joshua, as the townsfolk call him) is truly a rebel.

Can't you just feel the rebelliousness?

I did enjoy learning that Horse Language has a concept of swearing.

Corporate Slogans

If I ever create a company, I want a direct and to-the-point slogan like "Abaraxas Security: Incinerating Intruders for Three Centuries".

The logo could use some work though.

Is the Doctor Getting Harsher?

I'd say no. Here is an image of him watching a human trampoline die.

Cold, hard determination.

 And here's one of him watching a bunch of infant spider-things die.

This is not a merciful face.

That's not exactly a soft man.

Fear

The fact that the city has been "prisoners" for three weeks strongly suggests that someone tried to leave or enter. The episode doesn't say what happened to them, but the fact that the whole town obeys the boundary out of fear strongly suggests that Gunslinger was willing to abandon his "don't kill innocents" creed at least once.

At least they had three weeks' worth of beer.

The Line

I spent hours after watching A Town Called Mercy trying to puzzle over a number of questions that I had about the story in this episode, such as:

• Kahler Jex was the only "guilty" party (well, the other Kahlers, but they're all dead). So why was Gunslinger aiming at Rory and the Sheriff, when they are both innocent? Maybe the 13% chance left over after the "87% chance of injury to innocent" was that he would miss, but then why bother aiming?
• If Gunslinger was unwilling to injure Rory, why did he almost shoot at the Doctor when he stepped out of the circle?
• If Gunslinger's facial recognition is good enough to tell the difference between Rory and Isaac from like a mile away while they're moving, why can't he tell that Rory or the teenager is not Kahler Jex?
• What was the point of the line to begin with? Why didn't Gunslinger just march and take Kahler Jex? Sure, that would scare people, and someone might get injured, but if the Doctor hadn't shown up, the town called Mercy would have starved to death.

I must have rewatched Mercy three or four times trying to figure these things out. And then I realized what the obvious answer to those questions was: there is no answer. The writers didn't answer these questions because they didn't think of them. Gunslinger did whatever he needed to in order to make the plot go where the writers wanted it to go, and if his actions have no internal logic, who cares?

This wall is the difference between an easy-to-write episode and a coherent narrative: Easy to step over, but for some reason, no one is willing to do it.

Overall

This episode could have been wonderful. For the first time this season, we actually get to tackle an interesting question: Should this man be condemned for his past atrocities, or redeemed for his more recent acts of kindness? Or should he be forgiven for the bad, because it likely averted a worse outcome?

These are not simple questions, and I don't think that A Town Called Mercy answered them. Which, by the way, is a good thing, since these are questions that don't have clear-cut answers. I'm not sure that I liked how it was resolved, but that's because questions like this can't really be resolved. No matter what, someone is going to feel, and arguably be, wronged, and not everyone will agree that any outcome of a situation like this was fair, and Mercy didn't really portray that realistically.

But what really ruined this episode for me was the utter contempt that the writers showed for their audience. Even though Gunslinger is the central character of Mercy, his actions demonstrate a complete lack of consistency or coherence, and any viewer who is trying to take the show seriously is effectively prevented from doing so.

NEXT EPISODE: THE POWER OF THREE

The year of the Slow Invasion, and the Return of Rory's Dad!

That's like halfway to "Are you my mummy?"