Toby Whithouse is not one of my favorite writers to be honest. I may even enjoy his episodes less than the ones written by Mark Gatiss (blasphemous, I know, but true). Whatever their writing credentials outside of Doctor Who (from what I hear, Mark Gatiss is quite good with Sherlock) they seem to be in a competition to see who can write the most forgettable episode of Doctor Who.
Now that that rant is over with let's get on to the specific of this episode. It's not terrible, to be fair, but it's not great either. It really feels like they just plucked RoboCop from his own series, gave him an alien backstory and sicced him onto a western town. Oh, and the Doctor, Rory, and Amy are there too.
The moral dilemma was set up interestingly enough (revenge vs being given the opportunity for redemption) but most of the emotional impact falls flat and the ending (Jex's sacrifice) kinda renders almost the entire plot of the episode moot.
The best character by far was the sheriff, Isaac, who was basically killed off halfway through so the Doctor could play sheriff or marshall or whatever. The Doctor also feels out of character here almost shooting Jex in cold blood and while his reasoning makes sense, what happened to the "man who never would?" The journey to that mental state is just not well developed, though it definitely makes for some tense moments.
The episode still manages to have some humor and genuinely entertaining moments and the final showdown was pretty neat, but if I had to choose one word to describe this episode, it would be "contrived." 7.5/10
Now that that rant is over with let's get on to the specific of this episode. It's not terrible, to be fair, but it's not great either. It really feels like they just plucked RoboCop from his own series, gave him an alien backstory and sicced him onto a western town. Oh, and the Doctor, Rory, and Amy are there too.
The moral dilemma was set up interestingly enough (revenge vs being given the opportunity for redemption) but most of the emotional impact falls flat and the ending (Jex's sacrifice) kinda renders almost the entire plot of the episode moot.
The best character by far was the sheriff, Isaac, who was basically killed off halfway through so the Doctor could play sheriff or marshall or whatever. The Doctor also feels out of character here almost shooting Jex in cold blood and while his reasoning makes sense, what happened to the "man who never would?" The journey to that mental state is just not well developed, though it definitely makes for some tense moments.
The episode still manages to have some humor and genuinely entertaining moments and the final showdown was pretty neat, but if I had to choose one word to describe this episode, it would be "contrived." 7.5/10