A Town Called Mercy: Ranking - 265

  A Town Called Mercy

(Series 7, Dr 11 with Amy and Rory, 15/9/2012, showrunner: Steven Moffat, writer: Toby Whithouse, director: Saul Metzstein)  

Rank: 265

'Ya gonna do something? Or ya just gonna stand around and bleed?!'

DW's 2nd cowboy tale is a little like the 1st, 1966's 'The Gunfighters', in that it looks amazing but it doesn't feel much like DW, sticking out like a sore cybernetic arm-pistol in the rest of their era. A small handful of fans love both for that reason. I'm one of them when it comes to 'The Gunfighters' (which people seem to miss is meant to be a comedy, a parody of the Westerns that were on around DW's timeslot back then, but doing the show's usual thing of making the people that would have been heroes on those other shows look human and silly). Oddly, writer Toby Whithouse was warned not to watch that story and still came up with a plot that's a bit similar-ish, involving a local Doctor who turns out to be a bit of a rogue (though he turns out to be alien in this one - and there's no song, thank goodness). I never fully got 'Mercy' though, which parks the growth of Amy and Rory's increasingly complex and difficult relationship with each other and with the Doctor that's been building nicely across the past few episodes so Matt Smith can dress up as a cowboy and shoot a cyborg. Dw had never done a plot like 'Westworld' before, despite having robots run amok in lots of other situations, so its rather overdue but the plot makes a left turn around the middle too. This is no theme park but part of the real Wild West that got cut off from the rest of Earth due to a civil war on a completely different world. Because all worlds have wild frontiers perhaps? (Odd there's no folklore about it the way there is with, say, Brigadoon. Somebody must have a relative outside the town?) A nice idea and the location filming in Spain is gorgeous. However it turns out to be another of those B Movie Westerns where everyone saves their rooting tooting and shooting for the climax and spend the rest of the time moralising, with a good half hour in the middle where not much happens at all. The Gunslinger might have one of the biggest guns ever seen in DW but he doesn't use it much and is pretty weak as adversaries in this era go. A mixture in other words- one of those episodes that's a bit of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Positives + Legend has it Steven Moffat came up with the idea for this one because he thought the idea of Matt Smith trying to be a Clint Eastwood cowboy would be hilarious. However he's by far the most comfortable actor here, relishing the chance to do something a bit different and outshining the rest of the cast this week. It's not just the action sequences either (or, like me, the fact his natural walk looks as if he's riding an imaginary horse anyway), he shines most when debating the morals of an alien whose changed his ways and feels remorse for those they killed, selling both the harder merciless person he fears the Dr is becoming and his inevitable change of heart well.

Negatives - This is a very odd and sleepy Western town filled with very odd and sleepy characters, none of whom are terribly memorable. Plus there are so few. It's busier in Ormskirk on a non-market day!