A Town Called Mercy

Luckily, the Doctor's new face
tattoo was temporary

One episode (A Town Called Mercy)
First broadcast Sep 15 2012
Average audience for story: 8.42m + 1.35m iPlayer = 9.77m

REGULAR CAST

Matt Smith (The Doctor) Born Oct 28 1982 Click here for Matt Smith's entry on The End of Time

Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) Born Nov 28 1987 Click here for Karen Gillan's entry on The Fires of Pompeii

Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams) Born Jun 17 1982 Click here for Arthur Darvill's entry on The Eleventh Hour

GUEST CAST

Sean Benedict (Dockery)
Career highlights
American Sean's other work includes Dead or Alive (2013), Final Callback (2014) and Breakfast (2021).
Facts
Here's Sean's Twitter.

Andrew Brooke (The Gunslinger)
Doctor Who credits
Played: Kahler-Tek/ The Gunslinger in The Making of the Gunslinger (uncredited), A Town Called Mercy (both 2012)
Career highlights
Andrew made his debut in an episode of EastEnders in 2003, followed by roles in Murder City (2004), According to Bex (2005), Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (2006), Children of Men (2006), The Bank Job (2008), He Kills Coppers (2008), No Signal (2009), Pulling (2006/09), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), The Bible (2013), Babylon (2014), Cuffs (2015), Ripper Street (2016), Emerald City (2017), Prime Suspect 1973 (2017), Strike (2018), Agatha Raisin (2018), Harlots (2019), Britannia (2019), The Salisbury Poisonings (2020) and After Life (2020-22). He also regularly played Ashley in PhoneShop (2009-13) and Grunwald in Da Vinci's Demons (2013-14).
Facts
In March 2012, Andrew was photographed by journalists kissing co-star Karen Gillan while filming A Town Called Mercy in Spain.

Ben Browder (Isaac) Born Dec 11 1962
Career highlights
Ben's earliest screen credit was at the age of 16 in Duncan's World (1978), after which he found roles in Memphis Belle (1990), A Kiss Before Dying (1991), Grace Under Fire (1993), Melrose Place (1994), Murder, She Wrote (1994), Nevada (1997), CSI: Miami (2003), Chuck (2012), Arrow (2013/14), Outlaws and Angels (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (2017), Bigfoot (2019), All Rise (2020), SWAT (2020) and Ike Boys (2022). Recurring roles include Sam Brody in Party of Five (1996-97), John Crichton in Farscape (1999-2004) and Cameron Mitchell in Stargate SG-1 (2005-07). He also wrote two episodes of Farscape and one of Stargate SG-1, and in 2017 directed Bad Kids of Crestview Academy.
Facts
Ben's wife is the actress Francesca Buller, best known to sci-fi fans for playing various characters in Farscape (they did not meet on Farscape, however, but at drama school in 1989).

Rob Cavazos (Walter) Born Aug 18 1982
Career highlights
Mexican Rob debuted in Munich: Mossad's Revenge (2006, as Robert Carragher), then Rush (2013), El Beso (2014), Luis Miguel: The Series (2018), La Piloto (2018), Yankee (2019), La Guzman (2019), Narcos: Mexico (2020) and Identidad Tomada (2020).
Facts
Rob can also be seen in the 2006 music videos for Get Cape Wear Cape Fly's Call Me Ishmael and The Midnight Orchestra's Our Passage Home, as well as Miles Kane's 2010 video for Come Closer. He is a professional translator (English and Spanish) and carries out an awful lot of radio, voiceover and narration work.

Garrick Hagon (Abraham) Born Sep 27 1939
Doctor Who credits
Played: Ky in The Mutants (1972)
Played: Abraham in A Town Called Mercy (2012)
Career highlights
Garrick's earliest showbiz work was as a host of the series Junior Magazine (1959-60), followed by acting work in Encounter (1959), The Hired Gun (1961), The Forest Rangers (1964), The Gingham Dog (1970), Antony and Cleopatra (1972), The Adventurer (1972-73, as Gavin Jones), Moonbase 3 (1973, as Bruno Ponti), Colditz (1974), Couples (1975-76), The Message (1976), Star Wars (1977), A Bridge Too Far (1977), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), The XYY Man (1977), Lillie (1978), Oppenheimer (1980), Stookie (1985), Cry Freedom (1987), Batman (1989), Moomin (1990), Love Hurts (1992), Fatherland (1994), Balto (1995), Mission Impossible (1996), Spy Game (2001), The Magnificent Ambersons (2002), The Jacket (2005), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), The Line of Beauty (2006), The Walker (2007), Is Anybody There? (2008), Me and Orson Welles (2008), Ninja (2009), RED 2 (2013), Wallander (2015), Undercover (2016), The Crown (2016), The Current War (2017) and The Haunting of Margam Castle (2020).
Facts
His scenes as Luke Skywalker's friend Biggs Darklighter in Star Wars were largely deleted, but they can be seen in later DVD editions. He has his own audio production business, The Story Circle. Garrick is married to actor Liza Ross, while his brother is Australian actor and TV host Rex Hagon.

Dominic Kemp (Kahler-Mas)
Career highlights
Debuted in The Gentleman Thief (2001), then Waking the Dead (2005), Miss Potter (2006), Moses Jones (2009), The Londoners (2009), Downton Abbey (2011), White Heat (2012) and Derek (2014).
Facts
As well as being an actor, Dominic is also an art dealer specialising in post-1945 British prints, after also working as a gallery manager in York. He is also chief adviser for prints at the Chambers Collection and the Curwen Archive, and an off-camera valuation expert for the BBC series Flog It!

Joanne McQuinn (Sadie)
Career highlights
Joanne's other work includes The Bill (1999), Little Miss Jocelyn (2006), This Life +10 (2007) and Mistresses (2008).

Adrian Scarborough (Kahler-Jex) Born May 10 1968
Doctor Who credits
Played: Kahler-Jex in The Making of the Gunslinger (uncredited), A Town Called Mercy (both 2012)
Career highlights
Adrian debuted in The Madness of King George (1994), followed by The Governor (1995), Coogan's Run (1995), Let Them Eat Cake (1999), Gosford Park (2001), Bright Young Things (2003), The History Boys (2006), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Psychoville (2009), Gavin and Stacey (2007-09), Cranford (2007-09), Watson and Oliver (2012), Upstairs, Downstairs (2010-12), Mrs Biggs (2012), The Paradise (2013), Plebs (2013-14), Up the Women (2013-15), Blunt Talk (2015-16), Call the Midwife (2015), Crashing (2016), On Chesil Beach (2017), Little Women (2017), Christopher Robin (2018), Killing Eve (2019), 1917 (2019), The Windsors (2020), Artemis Fowl (2020), The Chelsea Detective (2020) and Sanditon (2019-22). He also regularly played Dreamboat Charlie in the sitcom Miranda (2009-15).

Awards

2011: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (After the Dance)

2020: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Leopoldstadt)

Byrd Wilkins (Preacher) Jan 19 1965 to Oct 31 2015 (pancreatic cancer)
Career highlights
American William Byrd Wilkins's other work includes Overnight Delivery (1998), Running Scared (2006) and The U (2011).
Facts
He also taught acting at Louisburg College, North Carolina. When he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in early 2015, he declined chemotherapy, saying he wished to live out his days without doctors and toxic treatments. A fund was set up to allow him to enjoy his final few months.

CREW

Toby Whithouse (writer) Born Jul 5 1970 Click here for Toby Whithouse's entry on School Reunion

Saul Metzstein (director) Born Dec 30 1970
Doctor Who credits
Directed: Good as Gold (2012), Pond Life (2012), Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (2012), A Town Called Mercy (2012), The Snowmen (2012), The Crimson Horror (2013), The Name of the Doctor (2013)
Career highlights
Saul's earliest work behind the camera was as a production runner on the film Shallow Grave (1994, which starred future Doctor Christopher Eccleston). Other roles include location assistant on Trainspotting (1996) and second unit director on the films Dredd (2012), Black Sea (2014) and Suffragette (2015). As an outright director he debuted on the short Santa/ Claws (1997, which he also wrote), followed by Late Night Shopping (2001), Guy X (2005), Micro Men (2009), Upstairs, Downstairs (2010), The Musketeers (2014), Ripper Street (2014), You, Me and the Apocalypse (2015), Living the Dream (2017) and Brassic (2020).

Awards

2002: BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Feature Film Director (Late Night Shopping)
Facts
Saul's father was architect Isi Metzstein, who helped design a number of notable churches in and around Glasgow, as well as Robinson College, Cambridge. Here he is on Twitter.
In 2013 Toby Hadoke released his Who's Round interview with Saul here.

Marcus Wilson (producer) Born Jul 4 1973 Click here for Marcus Wilson's entry on The Impossible Astronaut

Lindsay Grant (script supervisor)
Doctor Who credits
Script supervisor: A Good Man Goes to War (2011), Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (2012), A Town Called Mercy (2012), The Woman Who Fell to Earth (2018)
Career highlights
Lindsay started out as a production assistant on Casualty in 1990, and also worked in this capacity on EastEnders (1993) and Between the Lines (1993-94), before overseeing continuity on Silent Witness (1996), The Ebb-Tide (1998) and Hustle (2005-06). She has been a script supervisor on shows such as Ballykissangel (1996), North Square (2000), The Last Detective (2005), Five Days (2007), Paradox (2009), Lewis (2008-10), Whitechapel (2009-12), Silk (2011-12), Sherlock (2014), You, Me and the Apocalypse (2015), Lucky Man (2016), Love, Nina (2016), Silent Witness (2017), Dark Heart (2018), The Durrells (2017-19), Dracula (2020) and Killing Eve (2019-22).