A Town Called Mercy

His name is Susan and he wants you to respect his life choices.

I've felt a little bit of a Western pull today. I've actually got The Gunfighters in my DVD queue but alas, I have not seen that one yet. So let's go with A Town Called Mercy.

This episode in generally regarded as the best one of Series 7A and I hear a lot of "I'm not a fan of Westerns, but I liked this." I actually grew up with Westerns and have a general appreciation for them. I loved The Lone Ranger growing up (the animated series specifically) and I absorbed a lot of Western appreciation from my dad who loved both John Wayne and Clint Eastwood Westerns. So I should be in a position where this was right up my alley.

And yet, this episode didn't really do it for me. The premise is pretty straight forward. The Doctor and his companions arrive in an Old West town that is under siege from an alien cyborg hunting his creator, Kahler Jex. That creator is being protected by the town Marshall because of the great help he has provided the town. The cyborg seeks revenge not only for what was done to him but also what his cyborg conversion forced him to do, for which he blames Jex. When the Marshall is accidentally killed, the Doctor takes over to protect the town. He arranges for a distraction that allows Jex to escape, but Jex then kills himself to avoid bringing other innocents into harm's way. The cyborg realizes the emptiness of his revenge and aims to destroy himself but the Doctor instead gives him new purpose in defending the town.

I greatly enjoyed the moral ambiguity of the story as that was perhaps the most Western thing about it. But it also led to the thing that bothered me the most about the story: the cop out at the end. An argument could easily be made that no amount of good deeds could atone for the crimes that Jex committed in his planet's war. Likewise, the other side is that although Jex did evil, it was for the greater good of ending the war and he has continued to atone for that evil in the acts of working to preserve life in Mercy. The fact that the Doctor takes both sides at different points in the story is also a credit to the difficulty of which is the best path.

But then it all gets thrown away at the end. The whole time, Jex has lived in fear, terrified of the punishment he will receive in the afterlife. It drives his will to live, despite the danger to the innocents around him. The Doctor even provides a method of escape towards the end (in a nod to The Three Amigos) which shows that the Doctor is opting to side with the Marshall and the idea that Jex has atoned. But despite all that, Jex does a sudden about face and opts to kill himself so that no innocents will be harmed when the cyborg follows him. It removes the decision from the Doctor and makes it feel as though the previous thirty minutes were an exercise in futility. If Jex genuinely felt that way, why go through the escape? Why not stand at the gate of the town and apologize to his creation and note that he will not permit any more bloodshed. It would have still removed the Doctor from the decision but it would have given Jex more of a sense of nobility as he sacrificed himself for the greater good (the greater good) as well as for his ultimate atonement.

I cannot call this episode bad as the set up is good and the acting is absolutely superb. The setting, make-up, and costuming also all contribute to giving you that full Western feel. Even having Rory and Amy each favoring both solutions is an excellent set up as the Doctor cannot even rely on consensus to force him to choose. But even the best set ups fizzle based on a bad plot turn. I will have to go back to this one again to see if my mind changes, but it still gets a downgrade because it wouldn't own up to it's own set up.

Overall personal rating: 3 out of 5