SPOILERS: A Town Called Mercy

I’ve been holding off on this review for a bit, trying to sort out what exactly I think about it. I’m still not entirely sure, but maybe writing it out will help.

I certainly liked the episode, let’s make that clear. But something doesn’t feel right.

It’s entirely possible that it could just be me, I mean, September and I don’t get along, as a rule. Maybes it’s just the fact that A Town Called Mercy was a much more serious episode then even Asylum of the Daleks.

Here, we’re considering the very heart of the show. What kind of man is the Doctor?

I listen to podcasts and I read the occasional blog or facebook post. The general view of the Doctor seems to be that he will not kill. This is reinforced by moments such as in The End of Time, when Tenth Doctor is constantly refusing to take the gun that Wilf is pressing on him. There are definitely moments throughout the show where this crops up. But there are also moments when the Doctor has a choice to make, and that choice is not always the best one.

There is also the fact that the Doctor is somewhere around 1,200 years old. He has led a long, adventurous and sometimes violent life. He has destroyed the Dalek race (multiple times) not to mention his own race. He ensured the Pompeii eruption and sucked the Cybermen into the void. He’s watched the Master subjugate the earth and countless other enemies kill people that he cares about.

And he never responds well to travelling alone, something Donna notices the first she meets him in The Runaway Bride.

There are interesting parallels to Captain Jack Harkness in Children of earth, where it is revealed that half way through his century long wait for the Doctor, just didn’t care anymore and gave up 13 children on orders. Jack is another immortal. Perhaps it is simply the fact that by living so long, a person is always going to have moments where everything becomes too much.

I don’t know if I’m making any sense, so I’m going to stop.