Analysis

Redemption in Mercy

In the BBC television show, “Doctor Who”, the episode, “A Town Called Mercy,” paints a clear picture of redemption. Screenwriter Toby Whithouse uses three characters to reveal the impact we can have by reminding each other of our power for good. The two “doctors” in this episode are reminded of their purpose of healing, and the monstrous cyborg “Gunslinger” is reminded that strength can be used for protection as well as destruction.

The Doctor for whom the show is named is an alien called a Time Lord. He lives in a time-travelling spaceship called the TARDIS, which is permanently disguised as a blue police box. He and his human friends help protect Earth from various alien invasions, and travel around exploring the history and future of the universe. In this episode, the Doctor and his friends Amy and Rory end up in the Southwest United States during the late 1800s. They land outside a small country town called Mercy that has been closed off by a boundary line, and is plagued by an outside threat.

Waiting on the other side of Mercy’s boundary line is a cyborg called the Gunslinger. This half-human half-machine has been hunting an alien named Kahler-Jex, who has become the town’s doctor. Both of these characters are survivors of a horrible war on their home planet. Jex and other scientists created the cyborgs and programmed them to kill; they were made into a devastating weapon with a goal of ending the fighting. After the close of the war, one of them begins chasing the ones who have chained them to a life of destruction. Eventually, only Kahler-Jex is left. The chase brings them to the town, Mercy, where the cyborg acquires the title, "the Gunslinger". 

Kahler-Jex had run to Earth in his attempt escape his hunter, as well as the prison which is his past. There, he makes an effort to create a new beginning for himself by giving to the town in which he has landed. However, as he says, “we carry our prisons with us”.

When he landed his ship in the United States during the late 1800’s, he tried to redeem himself by doing good. He saved the town, Mercy, from cholera, and he gave them electric heating and lighting, powered by his ship. He relates this to the Doctor by articulating that he is now two people, and a much more difficult person to condemn. Author Whithouse uses him as the most obvious example that people have both the capacity for good and for evil. Jex is both a “war criminal" and “the guy who saved the town from cholera”. It takes the condemnation and subsequent mercy of the Doctor to allow him the courage to face his past actions, and to come out of hiding from his own monstrous creation. By the time the Doctor and his companions devise a risky plan to save him, he recognizes his power to protect people, remembering the immense impact of serving others. He destroys himself, agreeing to face in the afterlife the people he wronged rather than risking that the town he loved would be hurt by the Gunslinger’s attempt to hunt him down.

The other character to illustrate Whithouse’s theme of redemption is the main character, the Doctor. Fans of the show will note immediately that the Doctor is acting out of character in his insistence that Jex be given up to the Gunslinger and mercilessly condemned.

When the Doctor uncovers the past of Kahler-Jex, he wants, at first, to kill him. However, as Kahler-Jex points out, Doctor’s past is not much different from his own. He says to the Doctor, “looking into your eyes is like looking into a mirror”. The Doctor had also killed many while ending a war. And he too was also a protector of Earth and many other civilizations. And yet he was ready to kill someone just like himself. This was very unusual for him. In any other situation, Doctor would have tried to bring peace, and would have made every effort to give everyone a second chance.

The Doctor has recently been travelling by himself for many years, and perhaps therefore has had too much time to think and dwell. Sometimes when we are alone for too long, we are more vulnerable to our own past and the darker places in our minds. With no company, we are allowed to dwell within ourselves, and let our fears get in the way of our purpose. We forget who we are.

The Doctor, perhaps, is afraid of his own past. When he sees Jex, someone like himself, it scares him and he doesn't want to face himself and his own past. Amy notices he is acting out of character, and manages to talk sense into him: “we can’t be like them. We have to be better than them.” Doctor redeems himself by showing mercy to Jex, and by extension, to himself.

This display of mercy and redemption is payed forward to a third character: the Gunslinger. Sometimes the cruelty of the world can distract us from what we were originally made to do. Toby Whithouse demonstrates this through the emptiness the Gunslinger feels after his hunt is ended, when Kahler-Jex self-destructs. The cyborg’s first impulse is to destroy himself also. He says that he is a creature of war and that he has no role to play during peacetime. The Doctor suggests otherwise by reminding him of his ability to protect peace. With this suggestion he gives the Gunslinger his own chance at redemption. The “Marshall" badge is then passed on to the Gunslinger, Mercy’s new protector and peace-keeper. The story of this new Marshall of Mercy demonstrates the beautiful concept that monsters can actually be angels.

These three characters perform heroically in the end, triumphing in their own battles, as well as assisting each other in finding and reaching redemption. Through the mercy they show each other, they set themselves free. By remembering their purposes and acting on the belief in their power to redeem themselves, they bring freedom to Mercy.

We each have our purpose, though the lies of this world are often so cruel as to distract us from why we're here. Yet mercy and redemption can heal and give hope. We can help to direct each other to a second chance, as Toby Whithouse demonstrates. He shows this idea of guiding another toward redemption through the Doctor's suggestion to the Gunslinger, before the latter accepted the role of Marshall. Sometimes it takes another set of eyes, apart from our own, to see the wonders that could be waiting along the road ahead of us. When we take a look from another's point of view, quite often, we might see an angel emerging from beneath the monstrous mask which has been presenting itself to our own eyes.

Works Cited

“A Town Called Mercy.” Doctor Who. Writ. Toby Whithouse. Dir. Saul Metzstein. BBC. 15 Sep 2012. Television.