MY MERCY!

Preacher: [referring to his horse] He’s called Joshua. It’s from the Bible. It means the deliverer. 
The Doctor: [the horse grunts] No he isn’t. 
Preacher: What?! 
The Doctor: I speak horse. He’s called Susan. And he wants you to respect his life choices.

I sort of wish he'd followed "He's called Susan" with the comment "lovely name" as a little nod to his granddaughter. But alas, he didn't.

So A Town Called Mercy... I'm not sure how I feel about the episode as a whole, but, I'll definitely remember it for the edge-of-the-seat-moment when the Doctor was frightfully merciless. Taking justice into his own hands again but this time with his companions witnessing. I was wide-eyed seeing the Doctor push and shove Jex across town to his pending doom and threatening to shoot the man; and him, genuinely not knowing if he would. So what happened to the Doctor's "I never would" motto? I don't condone his actions, but, boy this scene was brilliant stuff and rather than scary it was thrilling. And Amy butting heads with the Doctor. She put him in his place but I don't feel he's learnt his lesson yet. The story sort of wrapped up rather quickly and I'm a little confused where the characters all stand now. But hey, still two more Pond stories to see where it leads.

On a trivial note, I always thought the Doctor was joking in the Impossible Astronaut when he said he was 1103 years old. So I was astound to hear that he's now 1200 years old and "matured". I'm assuming it's true then. He really did take a 200 year long farewell tour before the events of Lake Silencio. Boy, did he run! And for so long. Now add another 100 years on top of that. Wow. he really is spending too much travelling time alone.

...

28/09: Oh I just watched the First Doctor's trip to the Wild West in The Gunfighters story and I so had to add to this post! The two adventures intriguingly mirror each other in little ways. In both stories the Doctor is mistaken by the locals for another "doctor" in town. He gets called 'Doc' a few times and also 'Pop' with irritation. Ha!

Yet, it is so ironic when the First Doctor says, "...you can’t walk into the middle of a Western town and say you’ve come from outer space. Good gracious me! You’d be arrest on a vagrancy charge!", seeing how openly Eleven admitted to being an alien when in Mercy (though he probably meant the other definition). 

And I can do one better than Ten's "I never would" now, with One's response, immediately after being forcibly deputised, "Well. this is utterly absurd! Nothing will ever induce me to raise a gun in anger." Oh if One saw Eleven, he'd probably give himself a good scolding! But it was just hilarious seeing the First Doctor nervously waving a gun about. 

Great to hear even back then the Doctor didn't drink alcohol, opting for a glass of milk instead. Guess he hadn't quite gotten on to the tea drinking business yet. 

I guess this could have been a post on its own but it relates well with A Town Called Mercy so I'll just stick it here. =)