7X03 A Town Called Mercy (Grading/Discussion) (SPOILERS!)
- Thread starter Samurai8472
- Start date
Not bad, but not as good as the first two. A bit too lecturing on the Doctor's - and by extension the writers' - morality. Felt like being preached to.
Music was disappointing too.
On the upside, I loved that the rogue simulant - er, I mean, the Gunslinger - ended up as the town's legendary guardian angel.
Music was disappointing too.
On the upside, I loved that the rogue simulant - er, I mean, the Gunslinger - ended up as the town's legendary guardian angel.
That was my favourite episode of the series so far. Very engaging, nice little story with strong characters. Wish more were like this.
It was ok. At least it wasn't neoplasmically dreadful like the previous two. The ending did look like Buzz Lightyear nicked Woody's badge.
Why was the Cyborg dressed like a cowboy anyway?
Why was the Cyborg dressed like a cowboy anyway?
NuWho's Episode Three syndrome strikes again, though not as heavily as last year or the year before. It wasn't terrible by any stretch but it did feel like a wasted opportunity and as if the dialogue lacked a once-over by someone like Moffat. It also felt like a storyline from the recent US comic book, which had variable quality and imo deteriorated towards the end. Full disclosure, though: I was distracted a bit while watching this, so may not have been giving it its full due. Nice Henry VIII quip, too.
So the Doctor's 1200ish now? I wonder what the thinking behind this rapid relative ageing is. Is the show's 50th anniversary to be the Doctor's 1000th? Has he been slowly closing he gap between his stated and real ages? Has he been bringing up a new race of Time Lords with River?
So the Doctor's 1200ish now? I wonder what the thinking behind this rapid relative ageing is. Is the show's 50th anniversary to be the Doctor's 1000th? Has he been slowly closing he gap between his stated and real ages? Has he been bringing up a new race of Time Lords with River?
I actually really enjoyed it, the focus on the Doctor is a really nice change, and the way it scales down the Doctors bigger battles works very well.
That said I am left wondering something about the Doctor, exactly how up himself was his 10th self? for the whole "men who never would thing" it seems the Doctor is far from a stranger to doing something, ok I guess we knew this from the Time War, BUT 10 really over plays the other way around, the Doctor is clearly capable of loosing his best side when travelling alone.
This may have always been true, and its just that the 10th Doctor liked to deny it alot, pretend that wasnt the case. The show is also using it (and certainly talking about it) too much.
That said, with the focus on the Doctor, again it feels pointless keeping Amy and Rory around, when this could have worked with almost any companion.
The lack of female characters is hardly unsurprisingly in this, given its a Western.
As for the over all plan, it is basically giving Kahler a head start, but its not like the Doctor should not have suspect he may kill himself, but that was I guess his choice, as it was when he didn't step over the line the first time, after the Doctor stopped pointing the gun that is.
That said I am left wondering something about the Doctor, exactly how up himself was his 10th self? for the whole "men who never would thing" it seems the Doctor is far from a stranger to doing something, ok I guess we knew this from the Time War, BUT 10 really over plays the other way around, the Doctor is clearly capable of loosing his best side when travelling alone.
This may have always been true, and its just that the 10th Doctor liked to deny it alot, pretend that wasnt the case. The show is also using it (and certainly talking about it) too much.
That said, with the focus on the Doctor, again it feels pointless keeping Amy and Rory around, when this could have worked with almost any companion.
The lack of female characters is hardly unsurprisingly in this, given its a Western.
As for the over all plan, it is basically giving Kahler a head start, but its not like the Doctor should not have suspect he may kill himself, but that was I guess his choice, as it was when he didn't step over the line the first time, after the Doctor stopped pointing the gun that is.
...eh? The Unquiet Dead, School Reunion and Gridlock all have reasonable claim to being the best in their respective series.
Only if you don't count episodes like "Dalek", "The Girl In The Fireplace" and "Blink"
School Reunion was really good. TUD, though far from terrible, I didn't care for very much coming off the previous two episodes. Gridlock wasn't really to my taste and seemed a little pedestrian (no pun intended). VOTD was a near-total misfire and COTBS wasn't nearly as good as it should have been. It was the latter two I was mainly thinking of. In both cases, the season IMO had opened pretty strongly, so it's as much a relative drop in quality as a standalone quality thing. Could just be that the first couple of episodes have been receiving more care and attention from the writers etc.
Last edited:
Distinctly average.
Nothing particularly awful, nothing particularly brilliant. Lots of elements felt vaguely derivative enough to come across as tired, admittedly probably without being direct influences. Still, who wasn't reminded of either Westworld or TNG's The Hunted while watching?
Having said that, I thought it was a much better story than last week's Dinosaur claptrap, though far weaker than the opening Asylum episode. What it really needed to lift it out of the mire of mediocrity was a really killer psychologically-explosive exchange between the two Doctors about death, guilt, morality, justice & personal responsibility. After all, they both had quite a unique perspective on making choices that impacted on wars. I thought we were going to get it at one point but the conversation at night in the sheriff's office just drifted into nothingness. Shame, really.
On another note, I've never really warmed to Amy & Rory anyway, but I really thought they didn't need to be in this episode. The only thing they had to do was Amy's cringeworthy speech to the Doctor stopping him from surrendering the other doctor to the cyborg. The writers could have given the ethical essence of that speech to the Sheriff and it would have probably sounded less forced coming from a character so embedded in town's story rather than from a companion.
Nothing particularly awful, nothing particularly brilliant. Lots of elements felt vaguely derivative enough to come across as tired, admittedly probably without being direct influences. Still, who wasn't reminded of either Westworld or TNG's The Hunted while watching?
Having said that, I thought it was a much better story than last week's Dinosaur claptrap, though far weaker than the opening Asylum episode. What it really needed to lift it out of the mire of mediocrity was a really killer psychologically-explosive exchange between the two Doctors about death, guilt, morality, justice & personal responsibility. After all, they both had quite a unique perspective on making choices that impacted on wars. I thought we were going to get it at one point but the conversation at night in the sheriff's office just drifted into nothingness. Shame, really.
On another note, I've never really warmed to Amy & Rory anyway, but I really thought they didn't need to be in this episode. The only thing they had to do was Amy's cringeworthy speech to the Doctor stopping him from surrendering the other doctor to the cyborg. The writers could have given the ethical essence of that speech to the Sheriff and it would have probably sounded less forced coming from a character so embedded in town's story rather than from a companion.
Awful.
bak of my head the hole way through I'm thinking even Red Dwarf had a better Western than this... But shouldn't this have been a Davros story? Compared to Davros, this mad scientist was dissecting frogs.
bak of my head the hole way through I'm thinking even Red Dwarf had a better Western than this... But shouldn't this have been a Davros story? Compared to Davros, this mad scientist was dissecting frogs.
TBH I totally forgot he was in it, and didnt notice him either, which in some respect is good for an actor.
Weakest ep of the series so far (as in S7, not the entire series ever!).
There were some nice ideas at work here, specifically the idea of Jex, I like what he said to the Doctor. I'm neither evil nor good and you don't know how to deal with it. Just a shame how it was handled.
Maybe it was the direction? Just seemed to lack a certain something, and the script felt like it could have used some work.
The town looked nice, but for a place with a population of 81, one can only assume most of them were hiding...
Seemed like bits were missing, and there were inconsistencies. the gunslinger turned up as soon as anyone crossed the line (I can really see what they tried to do there) yet Rory and the marshall seemed to get some distance away. Then the gunslinger doesn't shoot at them because they're innocent, then a few seconds later he starts shooting at them?
Rory seemed out of character, isn't he the one who's usually the conscience of the group? Seemed odd he'd be all for shoving the doctor to his death?
Also it seemed a bit of a waste of Browder, might have been better if he'd been the gunslinger .
On the plus side it was nice to see the show do a western, there was some nice dialogue and it was nice to see a villain who wasn't really a villain but I think I'll be watching Asylum and Dinos more often than this.
Still average Who is still better than an awful lot of stuff on telly.
Ps. Holdfast, yeah I thought The Hunted as well
There were some nice ideas at work here, specifically the idea of Jex, I like what he said to the Doctor. I'm neither evil nor good and you don't know how to deal with it. Just a shame how it was handled.
Maybe it was the direction? Just seemed to lack a certain something, and the script felt like it could have used some work.
The town looked nice, but for a place with a population of 81, one can only assume most of them were hiding...
Seemed like bits were missing, and there were inconsistencies. the gunslinger turned up as soon as anyone crossed the line (I can really see what they tried to do there) yet Rory and the marshall seemed to get some distance away. Then the gunslinger doesn't shoot at them because they're innocent, then a few seconds later he starts shooting at them?
Rory seemed out of character, isn't he the one who's usually the conscience of the group? Seemed odd he'd be all for shoving the doctor to his death?
Also it seemed a bit of a waste of Browder, might have been better if he'd been the gunslinger .
On the plus side it was nice to see the show do a western, there was some nice dialogue and it was nice to see a villain who wasn't really a villain but I think I'll be watching Asylum and Dinos more often than this.
Still average Who is still better than an awful lot of stuff on telly.
Ps. Holdfast, yeah I thought The Hunted as well
Same here.
"I have a Rory's dad now. Rory's dads are cool."
That's another thing. Clearly the Doctor is making this sh!t up, at least to some extent. I wonder if the choice of name is some kind of foreshadowing.His name is Susan and he wants you to respect his life choices.
Same here.
"I have a Rory's dad now. Rory's dads are cool."
That's another thing. Clearly the Doctor is making this sh!t up, at least to some extent. I wonder if the choice of name is some kind of foreshadowing.His name is Susan and he wants you to respect his life choices.
Or maybe Susan regenerated into a horse?
