Doctor Who review: A Town Called Mercy

© BBC; Image credit: BBC

“We all carry our prisons with us. Mine is my past, yours is your morality.”

Ah, yes, the story where the Doctor looks into the abyss/another character, and finds himself staring back. Or something like that.

Which isn’t to say that ‘A Town Called Mercy’ doesn’t have something interesting to say. But this is a well that they definitely have to be careful not to go back to too often, or it could certainly become a bit expected. Here, it was pretty likely that the opening monologue was talking about someone other than OUR Doctor, although having another alien doctor was a nice touch. As soon as Jex did appear, it was really obvious what sort of thing we would be dealing with here; just like Oswin and her ability to do exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment, Jex was just too good to be true. And when people are too good to be true on Doctor Who, they usually turn out to be extremely not too good. Certainly, there was a little too much ‘let’s stand around and debate this moral issue’ in the middle part of the episode for my liking, especially when it has an added touch of ‘two characters arbitrarily taking opposing sides to make the debates smoother’, à la Rory and Amy here.

Thankfully, this slightly forced debating was surrounded by some absolutely joyous and brilliant scenes. Being Human maestro Toby Whithouse brought plenty to the table, starting from the opening moments of the cyborg killer being narrated by an old-timey Western narration. The whole opening section was great fun to watch; I especially enjoyed the look of quiet delight on Matt Smith’s delicious face as he delivered some of the lines, like “Anachronistic electricity, keep out signs, aggressive stares... has someone been peeking at my Christmas list?” and my new coffee shop ordering line, “Tea. But the strong stuff. Leave the bag in.” Good work, Whithouse.

© BBC; Image credit: BBC

For all my gripes, the arrival of Jex did bring an interesting dynamic; the fact that his wonderfulness was so overplayed made it clear that we were meant to expect something awful about him. And how awful it was. His crime, the use of people from his home planet to make cyborgs to end an unwinnable war, played right into the ideas that make the Cybermen such a terrifying idea: humans with their emotions removed, killing machines to be turned against their own kind. And, as with Toby Jones back in ‘Amy’s Choice’, it seriously helped that the Doctor’s counterpart was played by a great actor. Jex’s brutal honesty after the revelation of the truth, and his unflinching arguments that he can be both the monster that created the cyborgs and the great doctor who saved Mercy, were given a realistic edge by the sheer brilliance of Adrian Scarborough.

The final climax, Jex’s final sacrifice and the installation of The Gunslinger as the town sheriff, was fun to watch and tied the rest of the episode together nicely. As for the overall arc, the idea that the Ponds are weaning themselves off the Doctor came into play once more, as did the recurring notion that a Doctor who’s travelling alone is a very dangerous Doctor. This is an idea that’s come into play again and again since the start of new Who, especially in the post-Rose ‘Runaway Bride’. His lack of mercy last week, coupled with his initial brutality towards Jex, definitely confirmed Amy’s words.

Interestingly, despite these words, Amy and Rory chose to go back home instead of travelling on with the Doctor. Things are definitely coming to a head between the Ponds and the last of the Time Lords.