A craft lands on a planet where it's met by some sort of a cyborg telling the occupant to "make peace with your gods." Before firing upon him as he reaches for his gun. Of course Terminator would come to mind with a blue eye substituted for red. The Doctor arrives in Mercy with Rory (Arthur Darvill) and Amy (Karen Gillan) already in tow. Apparently they were heading to Mexico to see the Day of the Dead festival, which is kind of appropriate under the circumstances. Especially when the gun toting cyborg will shoot anyone who crosses the line out of Mercy and threatens the entire town with this fate later on.
The Doctor notices something's not quite right in Mercy as there are electric lamps which are flickering and the Doctor puts right with he use of his trusty Sonic. Question being, where they always flickering or did they begin that only after the three arrived? The Doctor asks for a cup of tea in the saloon (no Custard Creams or Jammie Dodgers though.) This is music to the townspeople's ears, well sort of, and as he's a Doctor he's marched out of town and made to cross the line. The cyborg approaches in random flashes but he's not the Doctor he's after. A man holds a gun and brings the Doctor back in.
In the sheriff's office he introduces himself as Issac (Ben Browder). Amy reminds the Doctor he is still an alien. A man behind bars admits to being the Doctor the cyborg is after. His name is Kahler Jex (Adrian Scarborough). His ship was damaged when he crashed here and being the Doctor and helpful soul that he is, he offers to repair his ship for Jex.
The Doctor comes up with a plan, that being Issac dresses as Jex and takes Rory along with him as bait to lure the cyborg after them, whilst the Doctor looks for the ship. To do that, he needs a horse, who the Preacher (Byrd Wilkins) tells him is called Joshua. The Doctor corrects him, he speaks Horse and the horse is called Susan.
The Doctor comes across an electric wire and this leads him to the ship, which isn't danged at all. Meanwhile Rory and Issac are shot at by the cyborg and are pinned behind rocks for cover. The Doctor access the shop's personal files after overriding the self destruct. He realizes Jex is a scientist who experimented on people who lost their lives in the process. Kahler Mas, the cyborg (Dominic Kemp) is his creation, which went wrong. He is hunting down Jex for his crimes.
Here the story becomes a bit of Frankenstein's monster. As well as being a reflection of the Doctor's own past as far as killing is concerned. Jex even tells the Doctor that his own life mirrors that of the Doctor, in yet another dark moment. The Doctor accuses him of being a murderer but Jex responds he's "a scientist." Believing himself to be a war hero. Many have been killed in the hopes of making things better, which is familiar to both.
The Doctor takes Jex from the cell and forces him to cross the line, making himself out ot be as bad as Jex. Amy wants him to not do this and Rory is in agreement with the Doctor. The Doctor once again demonstrating his dark side, having no tolerance for murderers (a point he proved last episode.) That was the only bit of darkness we saw since in no time at all, he's back into comedic Doctor mode. The cyborg comes for Jex and Issac rushes to push him over the line, only to be shot in his place; making the Doctor sheriff before he dies.
The Doctor comes up with yet another plan but not before he's confronted by one of the men who wants to give Jex to the cyborg, as they no longer agree with Issac's decision. The Doctor talks him out of it as he's here to help them, adding, "give me a Dalek anyday" than people. Yeah he won't be seeing a Dalek anytime soon. Amy reminds him this is what happens when he's without a companion for long periods of time. So meeting at high noon, the Doctor tries to outsmart the cyborg by having as many people with painted faces similar to Jex running around the town as decoys, enabling Jex to reach his ship.
Jex however grows a semblance of a conscience and sets the ship to self destruct so Mas can't follow him anymore. Begging the question of what the whole purpose was in getting Issac killed if he just wanted to end it all anyway. Jex could have done that a long time ago and saved everyone the rouble. Many have asked the point of this episode.
Amy and Rory decide to head back home as they've been gone a long time and their friends will begin to notice they're ageing faster than them. They've never had that problem before (a hint for the next episode.)
Mas decides he's fulfilled his purpose and will set to self destruct also as he's only a killing machine. He can't go back to his world, as he's a "creature of war - no role to play during peace."
Doctor: "except maybe to protect it." The Doctor wanted to take Amy and Rory to see the dogs and monkeys that were first sent up in space.
"By the time the gunslinger arrived, the people of Mercy were used to the strange. Where he came from didn't matter as someone once said, 'America is a land of second chances.' Do I believe the story, I don't know, my great grandmother must have been a little girl when he arrived, but next time you're in Mercy, ask someone why they don't have a sheriff, a marshall or a police officer there. 'We got our own arrangement' they'll say. Then they'll smile like they've got a secret. Like they've got their own special angel watching out for 'em. Their very own angel who fell from the stars."
apparently they arrived in Mercy when Rory left crumbs whilst eating at the console which the Doctor disapproves of. Matt Smith excels once again as the Doctor's dark side takes over. The anger is always ready to implode or explode onto the scene. At least he gets to don a Stetson once more, even if it is bullet ridden as in 6.1 The Impossible Astronaut. Also got Issac (from Farscape and Stargate SG1) to mention his bowtie. Many were impressed with Ben Browder actually being in a Doctor Who episode. Which was a bit Westworld meets Terminator meets Doctor Who.
This episode was filmed in Almeria, Spain and was written by Toby Whithouse who also wrote season 6's The God Complex, one of my fave eps, School Reunion (2006) and The Vampires of Venice (season 5) (See my comments for that episode elsewhere in my blog.)
The Doctor mentioning he knows what happens when his mercy is on show: mercy towards the Daleks et al; it comes back to haunt him several times over. A lot of mentioning of the Daleks since they are meant to be gone forever from the show. It's also his other actions which come back to haunt him, like taking lives especially as he used to say "no one dies today" very frequently and he hasn't said it at all recently. He says, here, "today I honour the victims first." In much the same way he did in the previous episode.
The Wild West hasn't been seen in a Doctor Who episode since The Gunfighters (1966) so it was long overdue, even if it was cliched in places. Matt Smith said of Ben Browder that he made " a good cowboy...with...that great drawl." The Doctor carries a gun and he hates those as once again he battles his own morality with the situation he encounters. It would have been better if we saw more of Amy and Rory who were relegated to the sidelines, especially since they'll be gone soon!
By the way, was meant to mention this in my review of the previous episode but did you notice the flickering lightbulbs in each of the three eps. In Asylum of the Daleks the light bulb was flickering just before Amy got abducted by the Dalek in her dressing room. In the dinosaur ep, Rory and his father were replacing the lightbulbs in their home and also at the end when they returned. This ep, the town has flickering bulbs in the lanterns. Wonder if that's some sort of foreboding for the future, re the departure of the two, or whether it's just coincidental. Anyway, have to look out for that occurrence in the next episode.
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