7X03 A Town Called Mercy (Grading/Discussion) (SPOILERS!)

Discussion in 'Doctor Who' started by Samurai8472, Sep 15, 2012.

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Grade "A Town Called Mercy"

Poll closed Oct 16, 2012.
  1. Geronimo!

    16 vote(s)
    14.0%
  2. Good

    65 vote(s)
    57.0%
  3. Average

    27 vote(s)
    23.7%
  4. Bad

    5 vote(s)
    4.4%
  5. Horrible

    1 vote(s)
    0.9%
  1. Bob The Skutter

    Bob The Skutter Complete Arse Cleft In Memoriam

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    Ah, didn't pay that much attention but fair enough.
     
  2. chardman

    chardman Vice Admiral In Memoriam

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    They are? Funny, when the Doctor first called him Mr Pond, Rory protested only mildly, then totally acquiesced to the title.

    And these days, it's not at all that uncommon for the man to take his wife's name. I personally know two couples who've done this, and know of several others. And hypenated last names are making a big come-back, with not just the woman hyphenating her name, but the husband as well.

    My wife and I both hyphenated our last names. And while it's traditional for the husband's name to take the final and dominant position in a hyphenated name, I know couples who are exceptions to that rule. There's a fairly well known fantasy artist named Randy Asphlund, who used to be known as Randy Asphlund-Faithe, when he opted to append his then wife's surname to his own. (They both thought it rolled off the tongue a bit easier than the inverse).

    The point is that there's next to nothing in the series to establish that Amy and Rory have ultimately opted to use Williams as their official surname, while it's been repeatedly established that they both have embraced the surname "Pond", to the extent that they both refer to their child as Melody Pond, rather than Melody Williams.
     
  3. ITL

    ITL Vice Admiral Admiral

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    "Come along, Williamses!" doesn't have the same ring as "Come along, Ponds!".

    As for this episode...hmmm. Third boring-but-not-awful episode in a row. Pretty indifferent to this season so far. Hopefully things will improve.
     
  4. Photoman15

    Photoman15 Commodore Commodore

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    No, actually, Brian Williams said that.
     
  5. DWF

    DWF Admiral Admiral

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    Amy signed her name as Williams on her divorce paper, you can't get too much morer official than that. Amy Williams is her legal name, Rory didn't take her name. The Doctor even told Amy in The God Complex that her name is Amelia Williams and it was time her her to grow up.
     
  6. Saul

    Saul Vice Admiral Admiral

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    So something is up with the Doctor. Is it possible he is meeting the ponds out of order and already knows their fate which is why he is acting this way or is it edging to the whole Valeyard thing.

    Not a great episode. An ok talky episode. Haven't been that impressed with Who these last few episodes. Next week looks more interesting.
     
  7. Aldo

    Aldo Admiral Admiral

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    Why is it important to you what other people call fictional characters?
     
  8. Mister Fandango

    Mister Fandango Fleet Captain

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    Considering how they've completely ignored the Dalek nanocloud, it's probably related to that.
     
  9. d'Anconia

    d'Anconia Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I have only skimmed through this thread, so I don't know if this has been covered yet.,

    but is it possible that the gun-shot hole in the Stetson might be a reference to the Impossible Astronaut, in which River Song shoots through his stetson with a gun. Could it be the same hat?
     
  10. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Another "Christmas list" hint

    I wonder if when we get to the Christmas special the doctor will say

    "I didn't not ask for a companion on my Christmas list!"


    The Doctor got his Stetson in "Closing Time" from Craig
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2012
  11. d'Anconia

    d'Anconia Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    yes, but I thought it was given to him during his visit to the sheriff office, because he wasn't wearing it when he got there..
     
  12. Timelord Victorious

    Timelord Victorious Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Interesting idea. I got a vibe like this from the last two episodes that something is throwing his moraility compass off as well.

    he clearly has some as of yet offscreen issues to work out.
     
  13. RoJoHen

    RoJoHen Awesome Admiral

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    To those who have been saying "The Ponds really didn't need to be in this episode," I almost wonder if that's the point. They are no longer the Doctor's companions who live in the TARDIS and travel around with him. They are just people that he sometimes picks up when he wants to have an adventure. They absolutely don't need to be there. They're there to tag along for a while and then go back to their normal lives, and I think we're going to see more of that in the next couple episodes.
     
  14. RevdKathy

    RevdKathy How scared are you? Moderator

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    Oh I think they needed to be there. How else could the Nice Medical Genius Doctor fix whatever it was/is making Amy infertile? Eventually they'll stop travelling to raise little puddles.
     
  15. 3chordboy

    3chordboy Commander Red Shirt

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    Moff has said when The Ponds leave it will be a tearjerker... i don't think he is implying death, i think he's implying that they will turn around to The Doctor and say "we've had enough". thats the vibe that i see building over these first 3 episodes anyway
     
  16. Orac Zen

    Orac Zen Mischief Manager Super Moderator

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    Yeah, I've been getting the same impression. I can't quite put my finger on it but some of his actions (in this ep particularly) have made me wonder if he's ignoring River's "what the hell have you been doing?" speech in "A Good Man Goes to War". Or maybe he hasn't heard it yet...nah. But something's definitely going on.
    That's a real possibility. There has to be some sort of repercussions from that. Although maybe the quack in this episode cured that while he was reversing Amy's infertility. Or something. :D
     
  17. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm expecting an ending similar to The Time Traveler's Wife -- the Doctor doesn't see them again for a long time, and then he sees Amy for the last time on her deathbed, decades after they last traveled together.
     
  18. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    Or "Hook" the 1991 movie with Robin Williams

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yn98IwkKOMc#t=310s


    It's like Amy's comment where her friends might just start noticing they're getting older.
     
  19. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    A decent enough episode. Some really cool moments, especially the final scene with the Gunslinger watching over the town. The episode wa a bit predictable, Jex's fate was too easy to see coming. Still a cool episode, the Doctor speaking Horsey and talking about Susan the Horse's lifstyle choices was hilarious. And it's nice to see Ben Browder again, especially in a role that's different from his usual John Crichton/Cameron Mitchell mold.

    To be honest, I'm not buying the Doctor's bad attitude. It essentially came out of nowhere and he's back to his normal self after the dark side is revealed. It would have been better if they had have shown him getting progressively darker in the previous episodes of the season. Though I suppose that is the point, have the audience have the same reaction to darker Doctor that Amy and Rory have. A good idea which lost something in the execution.

    So the Doctor is now 1200 years old, meaning he's aged 100 years since season 6 and 300 years since regenerating. This is good since it means among other things that there's plenty of room for various adventures in novels and comics for the Eleventh Doctor to have., bith now and after Matt Smith moves on and this era is revisited in a PDA or something. However, what I don't get is why after 300 years the Doctor hasn't aged noticeably, and yet in the finale arc of season 3 when the Master aged the Doctor 100 years it turned him into an elderly person requiring a wheelchair?

    I'm going to have to agree that Amy and Rory served no purpose in this episode. Well, okay, Amy did have the whole thing of reminding the Doctor to do the right thing, but really that could have been done by any companion. Hell, you could have brought back, oh I Don't know, Martha and Mickey and still have had the same episode.

    I'm going to take this a bit further and agree with a growing sentiment that's been going around these past few weeks that they shouldn't have bothered bringing Amy and Rory back. Don't get me wrong, I like the Ponds, they're probably among my top five farourite companions in all Doctor Who. But their story is done and they had their good-byes. It would have been better to have left them as they were, eseentially living happily ever after with the potential to someday make a guest appearance. Either in a Journey's End style all companions reunited thing, guest appearances in the 50th or even 60th annniversary specials or perhaps used in guest apperances the next time the show is relaunched after a decade's hiatus like Sarah Jane was featured in the RTD years. Instead, they're returning again and again, having one more advenure in the TARDIS until something happens in episode 5 which will apparentally permanentally finish off their story.

    Just why are Amy and Rory back with the Doctor anyway? They were dropped off back at their home after Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, but here they with him at the very beginning and the mention of Rory leaving his cell phone with Henry VIII could mean they've had a couple of other adventures prior to this episode. Though that could just be a reference to an untold story during seasons 5 or 6.
     
  20. DWF

    DWF Admiral Admiral

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    I didn't think Ben Browder was wasted, his part was meaty and pivotal to the story and his death was well done. But I could see the parallels between the Doctor actions during the Time War and Jex's actions during his planet's war.