PRODUCTION INFO
Name
A Town Called Mercy
Series 7
Episode 3
First Transmitted
15 September 2012
Final Ratings
8.40m
CREW
Written by |
Toby Whithouse |
Directed by |
Saul Metzstein |
Produced by |
Marcus Wilson |
SYPNOSIS
Missing Mexico by 200 miles, the Eleventh Doctor ends up in Mercy, Nevada, where something’s not quite right… The locals are hostile to strangers, and a border of stone and wood surrounds the town. As The Doctor soon finds out, a gunslinger is behind this, and not just an ordinary one.
NOTES
Filmed in Spain
Working titles for this story included The Gunslinger and Mercy.
Adrian Scarborough (Kahler Jex) previously played Rupert Van Thal in The Boy That Time Forgot.
Garrick Hagon (Abraham) previously played Ky in The Mutants and the Jester in The Axis of Insanity.
This was the first televised Western episode since The Gunfighters in 1966. Across all media, however, it was merely one of many Westerns, and wasn’t even Matt Smith’s first foray into the genre, since he had read 2010’s original audio, The Runaway Train. That story even featured Amy, though not Karen Gillan, so it was at least Amy’s second trip to this era.
This is the first episode not to feature the TARDIS interior since A Good Man Goes To War.
For this episode, The Doctor Who logo’s texture had a wooden look with gunshots, representing the story’s Western setting.
The Doctor mentions The Master and the Daleks when telling Amy why he is willing to let the Gunslinger take revenge on Kahler-Jex.
The Doctor mentions Henry VIII when he describes an incident where Rory left his mobile phone charger in Henry’s suites on a previous adventure.
The Doctor rides a horse named Susan.
This was the first televised Western episode since The Gunfighters in 1966.
Kahler-Jex can tell that Amy is a mother.