A Town Called Mercy (TV story)

 was the third episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales.

It was the first televised since 1966's The Gunfighters. Across all media, however, it was merely one of many westerns, and wasn't even Matt Smith's first foray into the genre, since he had read 2010's original audio, The Runaway Train. That story even featured Amy, though not Karen Gillan, so it was at least Amy's second trip to this era.

From a production standpoint, this story was notable for being the first episode of BBC Wales whose visual effects were not credited to The Mill. Although various episodes had, in the past, required help from other companies, The Mill had always managed to retain the main "Visual Effects" credit. The most notable recent example of this was The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, where some of the effects were done by Space Digital. There, Space received an "Additional Visual Effects" credit. Here, however, they become the first company other than The Mill to get the main VFX credit since Rose.

Synopsis
A tale of war, betrayal and vengeance, converging on one small town in the Old West – a town under siege. Just crossing the boundary line summons a not-quite-human killer from the desert heat haze. The Doctor finds himself not just in the crossfire of an ancient conflict between a cyborg killer and an alien fugitive, but he is also faced with a moral dilemma: which side should he take? Who really is the victim here? This time though, the Doctor doesn’t seem to care...

Has the Time Lord been alone too long? Have the long days of travelling between his adventures with the Ponds taken their toll? Because for one of the few times in his long life, the Doctor takes a gun...

Plot
The episode begins with a woman narrating about a story she was told when she was a girl by her grandmother about a man who could never die and was weighed down by the things he had seen.

Kahler-Mas is running away from the Gunslinger and finally gets caught. There is one more person left on the Gunslinger's list: the Doctor.

The TARDIS materializes in a town on the American frontier called Mercy. There are several odd things about the town including a strange stone and wood boundary line surrounding the town. Even more odd is the fact that the town is using electricity which will not be discovered until about ten years later. The trio enter the town unaware the Gunslinger is watching them. The trio take note of the townsfolk's hostile stares and enter the Saloon. When the Doctor introduces himself the patrons become hostile and demand to know if the Doctor is an alien. When he admits it, the three are grabbed and dragged out of town and thrown over the boundary line and held at gunpoint. Before they ask what is going on a man spots the Gunslinger approaching and prepare for the worst.

A shot is fired from the crowd and the town marshal, Isaac, appears and tells the people to let the Doctor and his friends back in, pointing out the Doctor is not the one the creature wants. The Gunslinger departs with the trio inside the boundary. At the marshal's office, Isaac explains the situation; three weeks ago the boundary appeared along with the Gunslinger who demanded they hand over the "Doctor". Though he has not killed anyone the creature has stopped supplies and reinforcements entering and the town is slowly starving to death. The Doctor asks to meet the being the Gunslinger is after and the alien who was hiding in the jail cell introduces himself as Kahler-Jex. The Doctor is delighted to meet Jex explaining the Kahler are a race renowned for their technological expertise.

Jex explains his ship crashed out in the desert some years ago and he was rescued by the townsfolk who took him in. Since then he became the town doctor and cured an outbreak of Cholera and used the remains of his ship to give the town electricity. The Doctor is curious as to why the Gunslinger is after him but Isaac defends his friend saying Mercy is a town of second chances and he is also angry that the townsfolk are thinking of turning their friend over to the creature. The Doctor decides to use the TARDIS to help Jex escape and evacuate the town but first they must engage in a little slight of hand to get past the Gunslinger.

Isaac dressed in Jex's hat and coat along with Rory run off in one direction while the Doctor takes a horse in the other to get to the TARDIS. The Gunslinger takes the bait and chases after the two men but curiously holds back on firing when his systems warn of the high risk of hitting Rory. In town Amy talks with Kahler-Jex who notes she is a mother and cryptically mentions he is something of a father.

In the desert the Doctor finds the power cables from Jex's ship and follows them despite the original plan. The Gunslinger catches up to Rory and Isaac and pins them down behind a cliff face.

The Doctor finds the Kahler ship hidden but undamaged as Jex claimed. After some effort he manages to open it but trips the ship's alarm which echoes throughout the valley alerting Jex and the Gunslinger who breaks off his pursuit of the two men. In town Jex is panicking because the Doctor has gone against the plan. The Doctor enters the ship and manages to override the defense system and asks the computer what it knows about the Gunslinger. Unfortunately the ship does not understand the term so the Doctor tries a different approach and ask it about its crew. His request brings up logs detailing horrific experiments that the Doctor watches in silent shock has he listens to Jex calmly detail the events has his victims scream in the background.

Back in Mercy, Amy finds herself staring down the barrel of a gun held by Jex who has figured by now the Doctor has learned some things about him that the townsfolk won't understand or forgive. He is going to flee and take Amy with him as a hostage since the Gunslinger's programming forbids him from harming civilians unless the situation is extreme. Jex's escape is thwarted by the return of Rory and Isaac who demand answers.

In the desert the Doctor runs into trouble of his own when he the leaves the ship to come face to face with the Gunslinger. He manages to get the creature to stand down by revealing he knows what Jex did and he knows who the Gunslinger is. The cyborg lowers his weapon slightly. The Doctor has worked out the creature is one of Jex's test subjects and pleads with him to spare the town and let Jex be brought to trial. The enraged cyborg refuses but reveals he hasn't gone after Jex in the town because he doesn't want to harm the civilians who would likely get in the way. He leaves but warns the Doctor the next person who tries to leave the town will be killed unless the Kahler is handed over.

At the marshal's office Jex tries to wave off his actions as a moment of panic but the Doctor returns and accuses Jex of being a liar and murderer. He explains to Isaac, Amy, and Rory that the Gunslinger is a cyborg created by Jex and a team of scientists. He goes on to explain that they took unsuspecting volunteers on the pretext of military training and experimented on them and those that did not die were turned into weapons. Rather than deny his action Jex admits and even defends them explaining Kahler was suffering a devastating nine-year long war which had already decimated half the planet. The Kahler authority ordered the scientists to create weapons that could end the war and they did. In under a week the cyborg army defeated the enemy before deactivating. Unfortunately the Gunslinger didn't. As far as Jex can guess he was damaged in battle leading to his original Kahler personality returning and disregarding his pre-programmed orders. Since then he has has hunted down and killed the people responsible for turning him into a monster and now he wants to finish it with Jex.

The group is unsure of what to do but the Doctor makes a decision when Jex says he could never make a hard choice like the scientist did and drags him outside. The townspeople gather has the Doctor pushes him over the boundary to face the creature he tormented. Amy stops the Doctor with a gun pointing out this isn't his way. The Doctor responds that every time he is merciful innocent people are caught in the crossfire. For one he is going to think of the victims but Amy reminds him that this isn't the right way to deal with things and talks him down.

Before the Doctor can get Jex back over the boundary the Gunslinger appears behind him gun pointed at his head ready to kill. The scientist addresses the creature by its original name Kahler-Tek; having remembered the name of all the test subjects.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill
 * The Gunslinger - Andrew Brooke
 * Kahler-Jex - Adrian Scarborough
 * Kahler-Mas - Dominic Kemp
 * Sadie - Joanne McQuinn
 * The Preacher - Byrd Wilkins
 * Abraham - Garrick Hagon
 * Isaac - Ben Browder
 * Dockery - Sean Benedict
 * Walter - Rob Cavazos

Story notes

 * Working titles for this story included The Gunslinger and Mercy.
 * Adrian Scarborough (Kahler Jex) previously played Rupert Van Thal in BFA: The Boy That Time Forgot.
 * Garrick Hagon (Abraham) previously played Ky in DW: The Mutants.

Ratings
Overnight ratings showed that a total of 6.6 million people watched the episode in the UK.

Filming locations

 * Mini Hollywood, Spain
 * Texas Hollywood, Spain

Production errors

 * The marshal badge shown prominently throughout the episode uses the British spelling of the word "marshall" whereas the badge should use the American spelling "marshal" as the episode is set in the United States.
 * When the Doctor first puts on the Marshal badge, he puts it on his lapel. Later on it changes between the lapel and his breastpocket
 * There is an anachronism. This episode is set in 1870 and a Colt Single Action Army can be seen aimed at the Doctor at the beginning of the episode, yet this revolver was not invented until 1872.

Continuity

 * The Doctor claims to be 1200 years old.
 * The Doctor, in his first incarnation, has previously visited the American Old West. (TV: The Gunfighters)
 * In the previous episode, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, the Doctor states he has a Christmas list. He again makes reference to one here, asking if anyone has been peeking at it.
 * Once again The Doctor dons a Stetson, wearing one in The Impossible Astronaut and then once again in Closing Time and subsequently in The Wedding of River Song.
 * The Gunslinger has some similarity to the Clades, who appeared in Peacemaker (novel).

DVD releases
to be added

Blu-ray releases
to be added