tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post4308093903753010861..comments2024-01-10T00:07:48.304+00:00Comments on Cathode Ray Tube: DOCTOR WHO: Series 7 - A Town Called Mercy / Review (SPOILERS)Frank Collinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00680654042528560764noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post-29842832919410772552012-09-19T14:13:21.641+01:002012-09-19T14:13:21.641+01:00Hey lookit, the American accents are way better th...Hey lookit, the American accents are way better this time around! :)<br /><br />But seriously, thanks for such a thought-provoking episode. I didn't mind Dinosaurs at all (one silly runaround -- perhaps two -- per season is okay by me for variety's sake), but felt there was something more there with "Mercy," and you've put your finger on it nicely.<br /><br />As for Oswin/Clara I think perhaps there's a reason why she has a different name when we meet here -- she's likely to be a different character. But having said that, I think it's clear she'll be manic like Oswin was. Moffat has a set idea about women the way Terrance Dicks does, and if you don't like it you may have to wait for his era to end to get something different in that department! :)chas_mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10365057094888352212noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post-55929202649896619622012-09-18T16:57:26.384+01:002012-09-18T16:57:26.384+01:00Yes, I'd tend to agree with most of that diagn...Yes, I'd tend to agree with most of that diagnosis. I think it's certainly better than Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, which I found terribly irritating. And I think the format is... difficult. One thing I like about it - apart from season-spanning story arcs taking a back seat - is that each episode feels like an event. When the season focuses on an arc, then so many of the individual stories feel like filler.<br /><br />However I would note that it's not all format. Stories like The Long Game, The Girl In The Fireplace, Tooth And Claw, Gridlock and Midnight manage to do some world- and character-building in a 45-minute space, to varying effect. But it needs a lot of writer ability, and as I write that I realise that all the things I just listed were written by RTD and Moff.<br /><br />...which I think does firm up something else in my head. A Town Called Mercy feels like a first draft of a cracking story, but without it having been really worked over with the showrunner properly. I have no idea how much work Moffat puts in with his writers, but whereas RTD would almost certainly have worked and reworked that idea with Whithouse, you feel Moff just didn't hone it as he should.Mike Morrishttp://www.realreview.ienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post-81042945037602339682012-09-18T15:39:20.291+01:002012-09-18T15:39:20.291+01:00Mike,
I think if this had a running time of 90 m...Mike, <br /><br />I think if this had a running time of 90 minutes rather than 45 minutes you could spend time world-building and fill in the areas you mention. <br /><br />The problem with the 'epic movie' format they're trying to squeeze 'Doctor Who' into means that any sense of world building goes out of the window. There isn't time to do it and there isn't the money (they had one horse between them, for heaven's sake). I agree that the situation is very thinly developed and we don't get to know about the townspeople at all but you can accuse many of the recent episodes of that problem. <br /><br />Background and character are often sidelined and that becomes a real problem when the format is hammered into a Michael Bay movie. See 'Dinosaurs on a Spaceship' for how that turns out. All I would say is that at least we get some characters in 'A Town Called Mercy' and though they may not get enough room to manoeuvre and their moral articulation is rough around the edges - they are characters!<br /><br />So agreed, there are problems with it. Whithouse clearly had problems convincing us with the Jex-Doctor parallels and I think what he achieved almost got us there. Again, I agree, the Doctor's descent into chaos is not threaded into these episodes in a coherent manner. I place the blame squarely with Moffat. He is Head Writer and he needs to get his hands dirty actually formatting the show and ensuring this stuff doesn't come out of the blue. However, he seems reluctant to get that involved. <br /><br />You compare it to Eccleston's first year. Well, whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, RTD rewrote everybody's scripts apart from Moffat's, often 100% rewrites, to get the tone and continuity right. He was clearly a workaholic who spent much of the first three years hammering the format into shape. I don't see that happening at the moment. It's all a bit laissez-faire. <br /><br />That said, I'd watch 'Mercy' over 'Dinosaurs' any day of the week even if it struggles to convince us of its world view. Frank Collinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00680654042528560764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post-20792657229540974362012-09-18T14:54:05.798+01:002012-09-18T14:54:05.798+01:00Hmm. This was one of those episodes where I liked ...Hmm. This was one of those episodes where I liked what they were trying to do, but felt it never quite came alive. Mercy always felt like a stage set to me. There's no sense of place; there's no notion what the people in this town do (except for those who fill in the standard tropes of the Western, like Sheriff and Preacher), or where their food comes from (if it's from other towns, what do they sell back?), or how such religious people would react to an abomination coming from outer space. It never seemed real - and nor really did the Kahler (we don't even find out who they went to war with). So the moral discussions didn't have any weight.<br /><br />I'd also argue that there's no real resolution to any of the moral debates. Adrian Scarborough talks about his terrible guilt one minute, and the next he's castigating the Doctor for being weak and describing himself as a war hero. With a few more close ups and shouting it might have worked, but I didn't get a sense of who this guy was.<br /><br />And as for the Doc's descent - it didn't work for me either. Eccleston's similar descent in Dalek is crafted right the way through the episode and (arguably) feeds off the ones before. This felt like a temper-tantrum because Jex happened to hit a nerve, and because the writer wanted to make a "we must be better than them" point that's fairly facile.<br /><br />Ultimately, it felt very much like the Doctor wandering around in a Western as-seen-on-TV, with a few aphorisms thrown in. I didn't hate it; it's a diverting plot, it looks nice, and there's some good lines. Still, I did think it should have been so much better. It's such a strong concept that it could have been one of the best stories ever, and in the end it was merely OK.Mike Morrishttp://www.realreview.ienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post-22442119017947057642012-09-18T11:06:32.689+01:002012-09-18T11:06:32.689+01:00Well, I enjoyed this episode far more than 'Di...Well, I enjoyed this episode far more than 'Dinosaurs' because, as you say, there was more meat on its bones. My heart sinks with episodes like 'Dinosaurs' because like many episodes in 'Doctor Who' these days, it's just there and doesn't advance character or story arc in interesting enough ways. It looks good but it's an empty shell. <br /><br />I'll keep reviewing them, good or bad. And I always try and find the good in anything unless it ends up like 'Torchwood: Miracle Day'. :D<br /><br />I did bail on reviewing all of Series Six simply because of 'Let's Kill Hitler' and hung on in for 'Night Terrors' but sadly didn't review what I thought were two of the strongest episodes of the series we've had in ages - 'The Girl Who Waited' and 'The God Complex' both of which satisfyingly gave dimension to Moffat's standard issue woman and made his own scripts look like the repeat, recycle and repeat again exercises they've become. <br /><br />Oddly, Moffat's episodes are some of the weakest entries in the series considering he's been lauded so highly by fans. He spends an awful amount of time showing off and pays little attention to character and motivation. He can write excellent episodes but examples are getting thin on the ground these days. <br /><br />I am playing the 'wait and see'game with Clara/Oswin. Granted, 'Asylum' did not bode that well as she was coming over as Standard-Issue-Moffat-Woman-Mark-4. <br /><br />The humour was definitely forced in with a crowbar into 'Dinosaurs' but it was applied with a lighter touch in 'Mercy'. And 'Mercy' completely switched round about twenty minutes in to a darker tale about responsibility and morals. Frank Collinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00680654042528560764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3737235139994190228.post-29987962165541925152012-09-18T00:05:37.834+01:002012-09-18T00:05:37.834+01:00I was going to say after last week's episode r...I was going to say after last week's episode review, if you're not enjoying reviewing this series (which you clearly haven't in the past, given your well-understood bail on series six), you're more than welcome to stop. However, this review is much more a return to form - probably because there is more "there" there to review. I'm glad I read your reviews (and occasionally go back to watch older stuff you review, if I can get my hands on it), because you pick up on a lot more that I miss. Unlike you, however, I found a lot of the humor in this episode - and in this series so far - pretty forced, generating more groans than laughs.<br /><br />Perhaps the key to this season - as with last - is to look for the non-Moffat episodes. And despite my gradual warming to her over series five, I'll be glad for Amy, Standard-Issue-Moffat-Woman-Mark-3, to be gone, although I will miss Rory. Not convinced from Asylum of the Daleks that the new companion will be better, though, or even any different.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14005260344579507716noreply@blogger.com