PREVIOUSLY ON DOCTOR WHO: THE MOON WAS A GIANT EGG COVERED IN SPIDER CREATURES THAT HATCHES AND LAID ANOTHER EGG THAT SHALL SERVE AS A NEW MOON!!! Oh, and Clara exploded in rage and anger at the Doctor, then stormed out promising to never travel with him again. And now…
“MUMMY ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS”
Written By: Jamie Mathieson
Directed By: Paul Wilmshurst
With the way the previous episode ended, things can’t be too good for our favorite Doctor. His companion, Clara, basically dumped him in a completely stunning way, and pretty much told him to bugger off. How will he handle this situation? Lets dive right in and find out!
Our story begins on a new version of the classic Orient Express making its trip around the Universe. An elderly woman Mrs. Pitt began screaming that a horrible man in tattered rags was coming towards her, and she feared for her life. Problem is that she is apparently the ONLY one who sees him. The rest of the train car watch on in complete bewilderment over her actions. As all of this is going on, a countdown clock can be seen on the screen, and when it finally reaches zero, the monster makes it to the woman, and she dies. Mrs. Pitt’s granddaughter, Maisie, becomes greatly distraught over losing her Grandmother. Talk about an auspicious start to an episode! Already we got a creepy monster, a hysterically scared old lady, and a death.
The Doctor arrives onboard and in tow is, incredibly surprising, Clara! Apparently, it has been weeks since their blowup, and in that time Clara has calmed down enough to go on one last trip in the Tardis as sort of a final call situation. The Doctor has brought her to this celestial train in hopes that the two can just relax and remember the good times. Both dressed in period pieces, they soon figure out that things are not exactly what they seem. I’ll have to admit, Clara’s appearance did shock me. I figured they would have done at least one episode without her and show just how much the Doctor values her presence. Once they hear of the death, and of the mysterious Mummy, neither can resist and the investigation is on!
While slinking around the train car, Clara meets Maisie, who is upset over not being allowed to see her Grandmother’s body. The two are able to find a way into the luggage car where the body is, and also the mummy’s sarcophagus, but end up getting trapped with no way out. The Doctor, on the other hand, meets the train’s engineer, Perkins, and begins the investigation by trying to pass himself off as a “mystery shopper”. Soon, the Doctor meets Professor Moorhouse, who explains the myth of a being known only as The Foretold, a being who claims its victim 66 seconds after the lights flicker. Ok, I accept this. Seems to be an interesting difference for a monster. Another death occurs. This time, one of the train’s chefs meets an unfortunate demise. The Doctor is finally alerted to Clara’s situation, but he is unable to retrieve her and Maisie due to Captain Quell’s interference, arresting the Doctor for falsifying his credentials. Suddenly, after 66 seconds, one of the Captain’s men dies, and he reluctantly releases the Doctor.
This is where things begin to start clicking. The Doctor realizes that everyone on the train appears to be scientific experts, and when he questions why, the train changes. The Orient Express as they knew it fades away, along with several of the other passengers, and they find themselves in a laboratory. The ship’s computer, affectionately known as GUS, explains that they must study whatever it is that is causing the killings so whatever power it has can be reverse engineered. The one thing I will say about their new surroundings is it really gives you a sense of claustrophobia in such tight quarters. The added effect that no matter where the mummy comes at you from, there’s really no where you can run is definitely a scary one. The Doctor soon goes into full detective mode, deducing everything in an incredibly arrogant way. All the while, the killings continue, until the Doctor points out that the mummy must be going after people who are suffering from various medical conditions. The Captain, who has PTSD, is the next one to go. The Doctor finds a way to get Clara and Maisie out of their current predicament, and wants them to quickly join him, knowing from research that Maisie is the next victim.
Of course, this is all part of a plan in which the Doctor uses a device to remove the guilt from Maisie’s brain and place it in his own, so that he can see the mummy. Once he gets eyes on the monster, he is finally able to determine that the Mummy is nothing more than a soldier who fought in a war thousands of centuries ago, and had been modified with phase-shifting camouflage so that he could be the perfect assassin. Offering surrender finally stops the Foretold, and all goes back to normal. Boy, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on soldiers this season. First Journey Blue is denied entry onto the Tardis because she’s a soldier. Then Danny Pink’s backstory revealed he’s a former soldier. Danny sees the Doctor fashioning Clara into a soldier. Now this Mummy is a soldier. It all has to be leading to something. GUS, the lab’s computer, proclaims that survivors are not needed since they solved the problem, and begins sucking the oxygen out of the room. Everyone passes out except the Doctor, who uses the Foretold’s transmission device to get everybody out of the lab and to safety. Waking up on a beach, Clara and the Doctor have a tender moment in which he explains that he didn’t know if he truly could save Maisie at first, and that doing the right thing sometimes means making the wrong choices. Clara makes the decision to continue traveling with the Doctor.
Even though I first went into this episode thinking it was going to be Clara-less, I was happy with her role. She wasn’t too bossy here as she has been at times in previous episodes. The setting of the Orient Express reminded me a lot of the shuttle from the David Tennant episode “Midnight”. In fact, this whole episode had that claustrophobic feeling, which added a lot to the story. The Mummy looked amazing, and the added time clock with 66 seconds counting down brought out the sense of dread perfectly. I do think the best thing, however, is the way the situation brought out the Doctor’s detective skills. Capaldi was eccentric with his work here, and bring back the “Are You My Mummy” line was just awesome! I did catch Moffat tying up another loose end from the Matt Smith era here. At one point, the Doctor remarks that GUS has tried to get him to come to the Express many times before by “phoning the Tardis”. Remember when Matt Smith’s Doctor received a call about an “Egyptian Goddess loose on the Orient Express in space?” at the end of the Series 5 finale “The Big Bang” and nothing ever came of it? TA-DA! Oh yeah, and JELLY BABIES ARE BACK!!! I hope you all enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Until next time…
