Now this was a great episode! Dare I say I rather enjoyed this one better than the first two of this season? Yes! I do dare. Not that the first two episodes had their good points. They did and I do enjoy watching Doctor Who but like I said earlier, the Moff sometimes lacks in emotion and storytelling which I'm surprised I'm saying this because I loved the episodes he did under Davies. Especially Blink and The Girl in the Chimney but I don't know what happened from then to taking up the reins. This year though seems to be getting better and better with each episode. Well, sort of. Hmmm. Maybe it's because the Doctor gets angry in this one. I like the Doctor when he's mad and losing control. This is the most interesting part about the Doctor and shows some insight into what is really going on inside him. Shall we begin?
The show starts with cyborg man shooting one of the last aliens in a dessert town. He mentions a doctor and then we the audience believe he is talking about who else? Our Doctor of course. The Doctor, Amy, and Roy were heading for Mexico and somehow find themselves in the 1800s western town of Mercy. They notice a strange border of logs and rocks all around the town and the Doctor takes their KEEP OUT sign as "just guidelines" or something. It's late while I'm writing this. Can't really remember. Correct me if you will. Funny little moment to start the show with. While strolling through town and getting the looks the Doctor notices these people have electricity way before it should have been invented. The Doctor's interest is getting very high with this town. In they go into a bar and someone asks if he's an alien doctor. So as he says yes the crowd pick him up and throw him over their "borderline". Before Madonna can break into song, here comes cyborg man! Will he kill his doctor?! No, because Marshall Farscape makes his first appearance here and makes the people let Doc back over the line. Turns out the Doctor isn't "it" after all. There's another alien doctor in town and HE"S the one the cyborg wants. Marshall Farscape has him in jail to protect him because he cured the town of a disease and gave them all electricity from his ship. Oh, so that is where the town got those sparky street lamps!
To learn more about the cyborg the Doctor gets Roy and a few others to act as decoys so he can hijack a horse and travel to the other alien doctor Jax or something's spaceship. The ship is rigged to kill any intruders but the Doc is able to move around that and instead of finding out about the cyborg he receives loads of info on Jax's history and it doesn't look good to say the least. The cyborg was out for justice because Jax killed many people during a war and tortured some to make cyborgs. One went rouge and this is the cyborg who is looking for him now. The cyborg tells the Doc that he will not have mercy for anyone else. The next person who walks over the borderline will be killed and to make sure it was Jax. One of my favorite scenes of the episode is next where an angry Doctor tells everyone that Jax is lying and that he tortured many people while turning them into cyborgs. He screams and carries on about how evil Jax is to the point when Jax taunts him back saying that he is just like him the Doc grabs Jax and pushes him over the border with a gun to his face. If it were not for Amy reminding him he doesn't do things this way who knows what might have happened. I know we've seen episodes where the Doc loses control and it feels a little like a repeat but I like the fact they gave Matt this emotional scene. It shows that this is the same Doctor we've been with all along and he's still struggling with the very same things he was struggling with when Tennant played him. The Doctor continues to juggle so many problems in that head of his and his balance of these problems is what makes him who he is and what he will eventually become. Which one day may not be what we expect. How long can the Doctor continue like he is? Will we see some of this come back in later episodes? We will have to wait and see. As for Karen Gillan's performance here..well only the line "this is what happens when you stay alone in the TARDIS for too long" was good. Other than that she doesn't appear to have enough emotion. She just sounds annoyed. She always sounds annoyed. Ugh. Cyborg man is about to kill Jax when Marshall Farscape pushes him away and takes the hit. Marshall is down and cyborg missed. A few dying words from Farscape and now the Doc is marshall and Amy is deputy.
The middle of the episode is basically keeping Jax away from Cyborg man with more decoys and tricks and a scene where cyborg man finds the town hiding in a church. Cyborg and a little girl lock eyes for a sec. Cyborg won't kill innocents unless he absolutely has to. In the end Jax makes it back to his spaceship but talks to cyborg man. Earlier he had talked to the Doctor about his belief in the afterlife and that he will have to carry all the people he wronged when he dies. I think it was implied that the Doctor was thinking about his own victims and how many he would have to carry. Wow! That would be a lot of people for the Doctor. He'd be a pancake. Anyway, Jax doesn't want the cyborg to continue to follow him and cause more suffering of innocent people because of it. So he triggers his own self-destruct button and explodes inside his own ship. Ooookay. All that trouble trying to protect him so he can blow up in his own ship. What a waste of time for the Doctor. Maybe for us too in a way. Ugh. The cyborg wants to terminated himself too but the Doctor has a better idea. In the end the cyborg is the new marshall of the town and the same little girl looks on as he stands on some rocks. Well, I said I liked this episode but I didn't say it was perfect.
Next time we are spending more time with The Ponds at THEIR home this time. I've just about had enough of the Ponds. When will Amy bite the big one? If my companion knowledge is correct only one companion has been killed in the whole of the series! That was Adric or something. Amazing! 1963 to now and only one companion has ever kicked the bucket! Well, I think we're overdue for another one and I vote Amelia Pond! Please.
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