Doctor Who 'A Town Called Mercy': Guns and the Doctor's Dark Side

After the fun in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, it was time for Doctor Who to get down and get dark. A Town Called Mercy shows the audience what happens to the Doctor after being alone for some time. In addition to how much he need companions more than he thinks.

So the Ponds rejoin the Doctor to go to Mexico to see the festival of the Dead when the tardis takes them to a desert in old west. In typical Doctor fashion, he wants to explore, so they set off to see what there is to see. The Doctor soon finds a town called Mercy plagued by a cyborg called the Gunslinger who demands the town to give over an alien doctor. The Doctor soon finds out that the Sheriff (Ben Browder) was hiding the Gunslinger's true target, Kahler-Jex.Things take a turn for the worst then the Doctor discovers that Jex is a war criminal who created the Gunslinger. The Doctor is soon forced to deal with the decision whether to give Jex up or feed him to the Gunslinger to save the town.

A Town Called Mercy forced more on the emotional state of the doctor, more than anything else. The first 5 minutes of the episode were dedicated to the Doctor's usual antics as he explores the town and wonders into a bar. It was humorous to see the Doctor pull out a toothpick and play around with it in this mouth and it eventually getting stuck. In addition to the Doctor ordering tea at the bar, asking for the hard stuff and leave the bag in. What made A Town Called Mercy an interesting episode was the Doctor's reaction to finding out that Jex was a war criminal who experiment on the people of his planet. Gone were the days the Doctor would attempt to save people like Jex, but a bitter and hurt Doctor decides to throw Jex to the Gunslinger to save the town.

The Doctor has visited a lot of people during his adventures without the Ponds, but no one really knew him like his companions did. In a way it shows the Doctor to be a bit like us and how we turn out if we cut ourselves out from the world. Left alone with our thoughts sometimes cannot be the best thing since we tend to think about the bad we have done in our life. Now think of what the Doctor has gone through in his adventures and with his companions. The Doctor is forced to deal with the fact that all his companions will leave him at one point, and we're beginning to see this with the Ponds. The Doctor needs his companions as we saw with Amy stopping the Doctor from doing something he might regret. The Doctor sees the point of this, but does not like that Jex can do such awful things, but is attempting to redeem himself. In addition to the similarities the two share.

Like Asylum of the Daleks, this episode felt very much like a movie more than an episode of Doctor Who. The beginning felt random until it was latter explained in the episode. Although didn't explain why the Ponds had once again decided to travel with the Doctor. A Town Called Mercy in some moments, was a bit predictable, but it was at moments were it was alright to be predictable.

A Town Called Mercy was in a way a prequel to the Pond's final episodes and setting up the arc for their departure. We also saw development in the Doctor, which is always interesting to see (ie. A Good Man Goes To War and The Wedding of River Song). Although I'm looking forward to seeing an arc coming up in Doctor Who (I'm a big fan of season long arcs in television shows). Next week, The Power of Three airs, and it looks awesome. Promo below.

Did you respect Susan the horse's life decision?