#26 (7.3): A Town Called Mercy.

The Doctor prepares for a showdown at high noon.

1 episode. Approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Toby Whithouse. Directed by: Saul Metzstein. Produced by: Marcus Wilson.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor picks up Amy and Rory again, this time to take them to Mexico for the Day of the Dead festival. The TARDIS being what it is, they instead find themselves outside the town of Mercy in the American West, not long after the Civil War. The Doctor's attention is immediately drawn to the "Keep Out" sign at the town border, to the anachronistic electric lighting, and to the suspicious stares he and his companions draw as they walk through the town. "Did someone have a peek at my Christmas list?" the Doctor exults.

Isaac (Ben Browder), the town's marshall, informs them that the residents have been prisoners for the past three weeks. A mysterious Gunslinger (Andrew Brooke), a cyborg armed with a laser cannon, has threatened to kill anyone attempting to leave until Mercy turns over "the doctor" - an alien named Kahler-Jex (Adrian Scarborough). Jex's spaceship crashed some years earlier, and he was taken in by the townspeople. Ever since, he has worked as their physician.

The Doctor agrees to help. But when he stumbles across Jex's crashed ship and activates its computer systems, he learns that there's far more to the story than had been revealed. Jex is a war criminal, who experimented on subjects to create an army of cyborgs. The Gunslinger is not just a villain - He is also Jex's sole surviving victim, out for revenge at any cost!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: OK, perhaps the Doctor's ruthlessness at the end of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship wasn't just an uncomfortably out-of-character moment. We see another moment of violence here, when he prepares to angrily send Jex to his death. Amy is there to call him on it this time, wondering what has happened to the good man she knew and commenting that he's been traveling alone for too long. This season's Doctor seems perpetually on the brink of crossing a terrible line, much like the line he throws Jex across in sentencing him to die. Amy and Isaac pull him back from the brink this time, and Jex eventually shows genuine honor at the end, but there's no sense that the Doctor's anger issues have been resolved.

Amy: In the previous story, she got to act as sort of a Doctor figure herself. Here, she is very much in the companion role - but also very much in the companions' original role, acting as the Doctor's conscience. When the Doctor is ready to simply give Jex over to the Gunslinger, Amy is the one who stops him, reminding him that he is better than this.

Rory: Gets the least to do of the three regulars. He is, not for the first time, the voice of pragmatism. When the Doctor is ready to eject Jex, Rory supports that choice. When Amy asks if they're really going to let the Doctor do this, his response is coldly pragmatic: "Save us all? Yeah, I really am." However, once the decision is made to save Jex and stop the Gunslinger, Rory doesn't question it and is fully on board with assisting.


THOUGHTS:

"You're both good men. You just forget it sometimes."
-Isaac, Marshall of the Town of Mercy, of the Doctor and Jex.

A Town Called Mercy is another script by Toby Whithouse, who wrote my second-favorite non-Moffat story of last season, The God Complex. That story was notable for its examination of the Doctor and his view of himself versus his companions' view of him. This story isn't quite as strong, but it does see Whithouse once again tackling the Doctor as he relates to those around him.

This is most clear in the parallels drawn between the Doctor and Jex. Jex taunts the Doctor by observing how similar they are in many ways: Both scientists, both men who have tried to help others but have also witnessed true darkness. That runs right down to them both having done terrible things in order to end wars. Seeing himself in Jex makes it hard for the Doctor to be objective as he considers the implications of what the other man has done.

The Gunslinger is also a parallel to the Doctor: A man who wanted to help secure peace, and instead was turned into a weapon at great personal cost. Like Jex, he does his own penance for his misdeeds, and the bookend narration starts by apparently describing the Doctor and ends by describing the Gunslinger. In all three men, we see the worst and best they have to offer.

The western setting allows Whithouse to have some fun playing with genre conventions. Several stereotypical western moments are recreated. The main plot, with a town cut off by an external threat, is reminiscent of Rio Bravo. The deadline the Gunslinger gives before he will come to town to take Jex over the Doctor's dead body is more than a little like the one in High Noon. There's even a scene in which the Doctor faces down a lynch mob while protecting the prisoner. The pastische goes just far enough to be amusing, but not so far as to descend into self-parody. The show is self-aware in structuring itself as a western, but never stops being a proper Doctor Who story as well.

A final note that seems to apply to this whole half-season: The Doctor, Amy, and Rory are not traveling together full-time and have not been since The God Complex. Every story this season has been an isolated adventure, with them reunited for one adventure with the Doctor dropping them back at their home at the end. The last story revealed that it had been months between visits, and this story ends with Amy asking the Doctor to give them some time before visiting again. As Amy observed in the last story, it's almost as if the Doctor is weaning the Ponds off him (or vice-versa?). This gradual distancing of the Doctor and his companions is an interesting departure from the usual exit, and I'll be very interested to see its final endpoint.

In, I suppose, two more episodes.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Story: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
Next Story: The Power of Three

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#20 (6.11): The God Complex.

The Doctor has a lapse of confidence.

1 episode. Approx. 48 minutes. Written by: Toby Whithouse. Directed by: Nick Hurran. Produced by: Marcus Wilson.


THE PLOT

In the corridors of a hotel, as muzak blares over the speaker system, a monster stalks the halls. The people trapped inside are not guests. They are people from all across time and space, taken from their ordinary lives to this structure - a place that is not on Earth, in which the walls and corridors move. Every person has a room. Inside that room, their worst nightmare waits. And once they have found their nightmare, they are ready: First to "praise him," then to become food for the beast.

Into this fluorescent labyrinth come the Doctor, Amy, and Rory. They quickly meet the "hotel's" current group of victims, who have been wandering the corridors for two days. They are confused, tired, and terrified.  But the Doctor is here now, so there's no need for any of them to be afraid. He will unravel the mystery and defeat the monster, and everyone will be able to go home safely. There's nothing to worry about. After all, he's the Doctor.

"Praise him."


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: So what was in his room? Whatever it was, it and Rita (Amara Karan)'s words to him clearly are leading him to reassess his nature. We've already seen a tendency toward self-loathing in this Doctor. That tendency is built on here, as he seems to renounce any claim toward goodness. "I'm not a hero," he tells Amy. "I really am just a madman in a box... It's time to see each other as we really are."

Amy: Has absolute faith in the Doctor to save them. She has a compassionate scene early on with Gibbis (David Walliams), a cowardly alien from the most invaded planet in the galaxy. It's a nice scene on its own, well-played by Karen Gillan.  The scene takes on added meaning in retrospect, though, when you can recognize it as foreshadowing. Amy's nightmare is of herself as a child, waiting for the Doctor to come back for her. It was the first time the Doctor failed her - and also the first time they met.

Rory: Still the most grounded of the time travelers, and still the most decent. His reaction to one death is to look at that person's picture on the wall and reflect about how much it must have taken for that person to overcome a stutter in his past. "Not all victories are about saving the universe," he says quietly, a statement that has to set the Doctor to thinking.


THOUGHTS

The God Complex is another visually superb episode. It probably wasn't a particularly expensive one. The hotel sets are fairly standard, and much of the running time occurs in a single corridor and staircase, both of which are reused throughout. But these sets are wonderfully shot.  Director Nick Hurran employs an array of camera techniques, from tilted angles to speeded-up motion, to lend the proceedings a vaguely surreal atmosphere.

The production is matched by an excellent script, the best that Toby Whithouse has yet written for the series. This script sees him combining plot and character elements just about perfectly. The character material and the story don't compete for attention.  They feed each other, the characterization of both regulars and guest cast an inherent component of the story itself.

The regulars are superbly characterized, in a way that builds on elements that have run through the entire season (and in Amy's case, since her introduction). The guest characters are also engaging.  Amara Karan's Rita is the only completely 3-dimensional one among them, but all of the "monster fodder" manage to make an impression during their time on-screen. Each character also provides some new hint, giving the Doctor a trail of crumbs to lead him to the truth - even if he gets there a bit later than he might have liked.

Like the last couple of episodes, The God Complex indulges in emotion at the end. However, while I felt those episodes overegged the sentiment, here it's all balanced just right. The Doctor's scene with Amy/Amelia in "her room" works for me in a way that Old Amy's self-sacrifice didn't. For one thing, the Doctor's speech is much shorter, saying only as much as is necessary to achieve the goal. Also, instead of being used to wrap things up neatly and spare the regulars mess, as was the case in The Girl Who Waited, here the emotional moments make things messier. The Doctor resolves the situation, but at severe cost to himself.

The monster's final words hit home, for both Doctor and viewer. As does the episode's final shot, with the Doctor in his TARDIS - increasingly isolated, increasingly disillusioned with himself. It's an interesting place to leave a man who has usually been defined by his confidence, and I'm eager to see where the story goes from here.

Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: The Girl Who Waited
Next Episode: Closing Time

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#5 (5.6): Vampires of Venice.

A victim of Rosanna Calvieri's girls' school

1 episode. Approx. 47 minutes. Written by: Toby Whithouse. Directed by: Jonny Campbell. Produced by: Tracie Simpson, Patrick Schweitzer.


THE PLOT

Disturbed by Amy's advances, the Doctor decides it's time to find Rory, her fiancee, and send them off on a proper date - a romantic getaway. And what better place for romance than Venice, 1580?

There is something dark lurking in the city, though. A prestigious girls' school, run by the aristocratic Rosanna Calvieri (Helen McCrory), is not what it appears to be. Girls go into the school, and are transformed into something inhuman. When the Doctor investigates, he discovers what appears to be vampires. But he suspects that the real truth is even worse...


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: He does feel for Rosanna, when he learns exactly why she has hatched her plans.  There's something almost friendly, and more than a little sensual, about their confrontation at the 30 minute mark. But he still determines to stop her, for the simple reason that one's right to survive and expand ends when it tramples on someone else's right to life. She also shows herself to be lacking in any compassion for her victims. After executing a girl who helped the Doctor, she cannot even remember her name - something which sets off this Doctor's cold anger, though it doesn't stop him from trying to save Rosanna herself.

Amy: Her reaction to vampires in Venice is pretty much the same as Rose's reaction to a werewolf in Victorian-era Scotland: "Cool!" Somehow - maybe because I just like Amy better than I liked Rose, though just as likely because there are no obnoxious running gags along the lines of "We are not amused" - it comes across as charming rather than annoying. Amy is willing to put herself in danger to help the Doctor. Perhaps too willing, which certainly seems to be Rory's reaction. Her loyalty to the Doctor doesn't seem to conflict with her fondness for Rory, though, and she is very happy at the prospect of continuing her travels with both of "her boys" in tow.

Rory: Though he's clearly the submissive one in the relationship with Amy, he does have a spine. He sees the Doctor's flaws and isn't at all shy about calling him on them. The scene in which he lays out exactly how dangerous the Doctor makes people to themselves is the perfect counterpoint to "the Doctor makes people better" statement of the Eccleston season. Sure, he makes them do things they'd never otherwise do - but that comes at the price of putting them in danger they would otherwise never be in. The good first impression Arthur Darvill made in The Eleventh Hour is delivered on here. He's able to be quite funny, such as in the amusingly inept swordfight with Francesco (Alex Price), while still maintaining his dignity. He does very much fill the same role as Mickey - but thankfully, without the cartoonish moments that marred Mickey's early appearances.


THOUGHTS

Another entertaining episode, one which expands the ominous nature of the crack in the universe while at the same time telling a fun, fast-paced adventure story. Adding Rory to the mix had the potential to interfere with the Doctor/Amy dynamic. Instead, it creates a whole new dynamic, one that's even more interesting to watch.

The episode is very atmospheric, with some excellent production design. The period architecture and the low lighting of several sets really heightens the tension - and, oddly, the humor. This season has been more atmospheric than past seasons, with each episode seeming to do better at maintaining a consistent tone than has previously been the case. Even the Dalek story, horrible though it was, maintaned a consistent comic book tone. I don't know whether to credit that to Steven Moffat or to the new producers, but that ability to make even the more frenetic episodes feel like unified pieces is something that's distinguished Series Five thus far, and I hope it continues.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Story: The Time of Angels
Next Story: Amy's Choice

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