Oh, it was like Thatcher’s death around me on Thursday afternoon. I was singing about a witch being dead, dancing, and generally being overly happy about the whole state of affairs. For those of you who don’t know, Chibnall has been given the axe and told to pack his bags by August 2022, which I am more than happy about. Now, does anyone have a good contact at the BBC? I’ve got a good regen story in the works for November the 23rd of 2022, and a massive idea for a proper season opener a year later. No, no one? That’s what I thought after the DWCU article. Anyway, sad to see Jodie go, I like her, but Chibnall can live in a bin from here on out for all that I care.

Last week I said, “I don’t need [the Doctor’s] backstory explained;” I mentioned that we don’t need a show called Doctor Who to focus on who the Doctor is. I still hold true to that when it comes to the origins of the Doctor. I find those to be too fantastical and generally poorly done. However, when there is weight added to the character, showing he or she is dealing with the PTSD of all the deaths through the hundred and by now thousands of years, I don’t mind that. “A Town Called Mercy” is one of those episodes where it is trying to add the weight of the deaths and do so to Smith’s Doctor overall. It shows that for all the talk of Jammie Dodgers, fish fingers and custard, bowties, and Geronimo’s, there is an old man that’s seen more death than it is worth counting.

With all the Toby Whithouse episodes taken into account, I think this is probably my favorite of them all. It isn’t overly dark or grim, there isn’t too much fantasy about it, and it is that Doctor Who brand of sci-fi. There isn’t much that is overly complex or that asks too much of you while watching that requires a second viewing, but it simply plays with space-y mystery in a wild-west era town with a Terminator stomping about. What some would call Sci-fi lite.

One of the biggest criticisms I see when I talk with a few who fell off the show when it returned in 2005 was “well, it is not as sci-fi as it was in the 70s.” There are multiple reasons for that, most notably, we had optimistic ideas of small personal computers that were just fiction in the 70s. Now for every human being alive, there is at least one mobile phone (probably). The episodes are shorter, but they still get big concepts across, and are arguably better for our shorter attention spans. The reason I say this is that Doctor Who isn’t meant to be hard sci-fi, it never should be. It is an adventure show with sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and several other elements, all for a family audience.

No, maybe Whithouse isn’t breaking new ground with the episode. The alien doctor that the cyborg-humanoid is searching for and looking to kill in an act of revenge is (in fact) seeking recompense for all the ills he had done. It is a little trope-heavy, and ultimately there is a reason I draw the comparison of the Terminator, but it never feels like the point. The A-plot is more or less a vehicle to showcase who the Doctor (our Doctor, not Kahler-Jex) is deep down. He’s the ultimate protector, the one seeking to resolve problems without murder. Meanwhile, the town is filled with 18-year-old men and old gunslingers themselves seeking to fill the gunslinger’s resolution so they can just be left alone.

Some will take the actions of the Doctor as some kind of out-of-character moment, criticizing the anger against Jex, and later turn. Is it really? I mean, Kahler-Jex has committed genocide. He has taken normal people of his world, Frankenstein’s monstered them into killing machines, and has sought to kill the latest companion of the Doctor. He’s one bobbily dustbin over his head short of shouting “ex-term-inate!” Is he a great villain or someone who deserves to be killed? No, that’s the point of the later switch once the Doctor comes to terms with everything. Cooling the temperature and looking for a better resolution, rather than sending another being to his death by a thing of his own creation.

That said, the pacing is all over the place. One minute it is slow and angry, the next is hyper and fun. I like the line to the Preacher about his horse that he called Joshua because it is a name in the bible, and the Doctor says, “No, he isn’t. I speak horse. He’s called Susan, and he wants you to respect his life choices.” I like those little Moffat-era moments that are fun and generally reinforce that the show is about accepting what might seem strange to you. Then there is the whiplash of sudden changes in direction, not only from characters but the episode as a whole. To the point that it is a little distracting while watching.

It is also a little weird to see Ben Browder, after recently watching a bit of Farscape (a cheap man’s Stargate SG-1), who you might also know as Cam from SG-1, but mostly as Farscape‘s John Crichton. I’ll say it, I am not a big fan of Farscape; I think it is too cartoony with such a reliance on makeup and Jim Henson puppetry. However, Browder works well as the tired old Sherriff looking to keep the peace and his people alive no matter what it takes. For once, I actually like him and wanted him to be around at the end for the goodbyes.

Ultimately, “A Town Called Mercy” isn’t the greatest episode of Doctor Who, that’s “Blink.” Though it reinforces the “don’t touch my companions or the innocent” that is the smell from the breath under the Doctor’s every threat. It does so by simply showing that big concept with a small gesture; the gunfight, talking an 18-year-old out of a suicide mission, and compassion. Unlike other Whithouse episodes, it isn’t overly dark, which I think is one of the biggest issues I’ve always had with his episodes previously (and soon to come). As I say, I like it, despite the wavering pacing and slightly two-minded Doctor.

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Doctor Who "A Town Called Mercy"

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• It's an episode about compassion.
• Look, Amy can be a useful companion. Yas!

Cons

• Pacing bouncing on a seesaw.
• The Doctor with a gun in hand.