Episode 8.08: Mummy on the Orient Express
Written by: Jamie Mathieson
Directed by: Paul Wilmshurst
Airdate: 11 October 2014
First of all, after such an intense scene in the previous episode, I was really surprised to start the episode with Clara and the Doctor already on the good terms (mostly). But I think it was a great change from all the shows that focus too much on the conflicts between the characters and end up actually hurting the story. Sure, their problems are not gone but I was glad we didn't have to see them arguing for an entire hour. Especially since it was a great episode! One of the best of the season, even. I absolutely loved the Doctor's confrontation with the mummy, and the detective / murder mystery aspect of the story. And the fact that the Doctor is starting to show how he really does care about people, more visibly each episode. I'm not a fan of Clara lying to Danny though, I think it only deepens the distance between the Doctor and Danny, not to mention it has a potentially destructive effect on her relationship. But now... let's talk about what happened in the episode.
The episode starts a few weeks after the events of Kill The Moon and Clara decides to go with Doctor on the last (goodbye) adventure in the TARDIS. They travel to the Orient Express, or rather the recreation of the famous train, which is located in space. Controlled by computerised operator named Gus and full of the passengers dressed in period costumes, the train makes quite an impression on the two. Clara uses the moment to confess that she could never truly hate the Doctor but she can’t keep travelling with him like before.
It doesn’t take long until the two learn that an elderly woman, Mrs. Pratt, one of the passengers of the train had recently died, claiming she was attacked by the mummy, which no else could see. Since it’s the evening the Doctor and Clara retire to their cabins, both wondering about the mysterious death. Clara calls Danny and they talk about the best way to end her relationship with the Time Lord. Then she meets Mrs. Pratt’s granddaughter, Maisie, distraught and determined to see her grandmother's body. She and Clara get trapped in the luggage car with a mummy's sarcophagus.
Meanwhile, the Doctor investigates the death, with the help of the train’s engineer, Perkins. He encounters Professor Moorhouse who’s an expert in the matter of the Foretold myth, about the supernatural being killing its victims in 66 seconds (which seems to match Mrs. Pratt’s story). Soon, the train's chef dies in the same way. And the Doctor finds out where’s Clara but when he attempts to help her the lights flicker and the sarcophagus starts to open. Before he can do anything he’s arrested by Captain Quell for using the fake credentials (pretending to be a mystery shopper). After 66 seconds one of the Captain’s men die and he decides to release the Doctor who was trying to warn him before it happened.
The Doctor is getting suspicious about the fact that many of the passengers are scientific experts, almost chosen to deal with the mysterious mummy and that’s when the train suddenly stops. It is revealed that the some of the passengers were only holograms who soon vanish and the rest is actually standing in the laboratory. Their arrival was arranged by Gus who wants everyone to discover the truth about all the deaths and use the knowledge to turn the mysterious force into a weapon. The mummy’s next target is Professor Moorhouse who, despite his fear, uses the last minute of his life to describe the creature to the Doctor.
Clara, still trapped in the luggage car, discovers that the sarcophagus is actually meant to be used as a containment unit for the mummy and that there are records of the previous attempts to discover its nature. And in all of them ships were lost and many people died, some even killed by Gus who wasn’t happy about the results of their studies. Now, Gus is demanding that the Doctor ends his call with Clara and when he doesn’t, Gus decompresses the kitchen car and kills the kitchen staff. The Doctor finishes his conversation, afraid that more deaths will follow if he chooses to ignore Gus.
The Doctor and Perkins find out that all the mummy’s victims had something in common, they were considered the weakest because of their various medical conditions. That’s when Captain Quell reveals he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and soon the Foretold targets him. The Doctor asks him for more details about the mummy that will allow him to save its future victims, even though it’s too late to save Quell. Before his death, he manages to provide the Doctor with enough information to make the hypothesis that the Foretold drains the victim's energy and that the entire process takes just over a minute.
The next most likely victim turns out to be Mrs. Pratt’s granddaughter, Maisie, struggling with the her grief. The Doctor convinces Clara to bring her to him (after Gus allows the two to join the rest), even if it means giving her false hope. On their way, Clara discovers that the TARDIS is surrounded by a force field (meaning Gus knows the truth about the Doctor) and the Time Lord is forced to admit that Gus tried to “recruit” him before. Angry Clara accuses him of purposely looking for a dangerous situation on their last adventure. That’s when Maisie sees the mummy and the Doctor uses some of her memories to convince the Foretold he’s the intended victim.
Having only 66 seconds to live, the Doctor manages to figure out that the mummy was in fact a soldier who fought in a war thousands of years ago and as an assassin he was modified with the ability to camouflage. The Time Lord realizes that what the soldier needs is for him to surrender and after that the mummy becomes visible to everyone, salutes to the Doctor and finally disappears, leaving the phase-shifting device behind. Gus, who no longer needs their services, deprives everyone of oxygen, but as they start to pass out, the Doctor uses the device and changes it into a short-range teleporter, saving all the passengers.
When Clara wakes up, she’s on the beach and the Doctor tells her he teleported everyone into the TARDIS and dropped them off on a nearby civilized planet but when he tried to discover who was responsible for Gus’ actions, the computer destroyed the train. The two discuss the Doctor’s previous lack of caring and he admits that he wasn’t sure he could save Maisie and if he didn’t, he would have to continue collecting the data from her death (just like all the others) to stop the mummy. And that the choices he makes are the hard ones. On the TARDIS the Doctor offers Perkins a place in the time machine but he declines. Clara, however, despite another talk to Danny, who thinks she's ending her travels with the Doctor, chooses to stay. Lying to both men about the other one.
Episode 8.09: Flatline
Written by: Jamie Mathieson
Directed by: Douglas Mackinnon
Airdate: 18 October 2014
It was such an impressive episode! I think it might be one of my favorites this season and the Doctor's speech is easily one of the best moments of The Twelfth Doctor, if you ask me. It feels very much like his defining scene, maybe even defining episode. And it made me think of many other great ones like The Christmas Invasion, The Eleventh Hour and The Shakespeare Code. After quite a few episodes of watching the Doctor's cold and calculative behavior it was a great idea to see the things from his perspective this week, when he was forced to stay behind and let Clara take over. I have to say, I really didn't expect to learn about the things that drive the Doctor and to see him truly
as the Doctor we know (or rather, more than in any of the previous episodes of the season) in an episode where Clara is the one that's supposed to act as him. Tricky but clever idea. Wonderfully written by Jamie Mathieson. Second episode in a row! I can't say I'm happy about Clara's change though. It seems like she's so impressed by what the Doctor does that she's losing herself along the way. I'm pretty worried about her after that last conversation with the Doctor. But we'll get to that. Let's start from the beginning.
After their latest adventure the Doctor plans on taking Clara home but instead they land in Bristol where they realize that something is draining the TARDIS' energy and making its exterior size shrunk. Clara leaves to investigate the cause of the problem while the Doctor stays behind to try to stop the damage. Clara encounters a small crew doing a community service by painting over graffiti in a pedestrian tunnel nearby. One of the crew members is Rigsy who tells Clara about the recent disappearances in the area, memorialized by a mural in the tunnel. When Clara returns to the Doctor to share the news about the missing people she finds out that the TARDIS has shrunk to the point where it's impossible for anyone to leave or enter the ship, including the Doctor, now trapped inside.
He asks her to take the TARDIS with her (now much smaller and lighter) and passes her his sonic screwdriver, psychic paper and a earpiece that allows them to communicate. Then Clara goes back to Rigsy and after introducing herself as Doctor Oswald, she visits with him the apartment of the latest missing person. They don't find anything suspicious there, only an unusual mural of a desert on the wall. Clara also shows the TARDIS with the Doctor inside to Rigsy to convince him to stay and help. Later they go to visit other places where people disappeared. In another apartment they meet PC Forrest who believes Clara to be an MI5 Agent and allows her to check the Doctor's theory about the missing people trapped in the walls.
While Clara and Rigsy check the walls in one of the rooms, PC Forrest is attacked and absorbed into the floor in the next one. They get there too late to see what happened to her but the Doctor notices a new mural on the wall, in the shape of a human nervous system, and deduces it has to be all that's left of PC Forrest. He also figures out that they're dealing with beings that live in two dimensions and are experimenting to try to understand the third dimension. The creatures go after Clara and Rigsy but the two manage to escape through a window. In the middle of the attack Clara answers the call from Danny and the Doctor hearing their conversation realizes she lied to them both.
Clara and Rigsy find the rest of the community service crew in the tunnel and stop them from painting over the mural that they discover is actually a disguise for the creatures, but not before someone is absorbed by them. Everyone else runs away and hides in a nearby train maintenance yard, with Clara acting as their leader. She follows the Doctor's advice and tries to communicate with the beings, hoping that their actions weren't intentional. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the case when they attack another person in the group, George.
After having their escape route blocked by the creatures who flatten the door to two dimensions, everyone is forced to look for a way out in a disused tunnel. Meanwhile, their attackers start to change their forms into 3D versions of their past victims and chase them. The Doctor gives Clara a device he quickly designed to unflatten the door but their enemies use the moment to absorb even more energy from the TARDIS and shrunk it further. Because of Fenton, the very uncooperative member of the community service crew, the TARDIS falls onto an active train track and even though the Doctor manages to save it from harm, he has to activate the TARDIS' siege mode and he's no longer able to communicate with Clara.
A few moments later, Clara finds the TARDIS (looking like a Gallifreyian cube) and figures out the plan to trick the creatures into giving some of the energy back to the TARDIS. Rigsy helps her by painting a realistic-looking door which the beings later try to unflatten but instead they end up sending the power back to the TARDIS hidden behind the fake door. The TARDIS is back to its regular size and the Doctor, no longer believing in the possibility of peace with the strangers sends them back to their dimension, naming them the Boneless and warning those who survive not to ever come back. Then he gets everyone safely out of the tunnel and Clara rejects the call from Danny. She wants the Doctor to admit she did a good job acting as him and is very proud when he says she was an exceptional Doctor. Sadly, she doesn't understand what he means when he also tells her there's nothing good about being a great Doctor.
In the very last scene of the episode we see Missy again, looking at Clara's adventure on a tablet. She says she "chosen well". The end.
Whovian notes and questions:
1. Missy again. Her words about Clara seem to indicate she could be the woman in the shop who gave the Doctor's number to Clara. I still like the theory about her being connected to the lost Gallifrey. What is your best guess?
2. About Clara. How do you feel about her change? I'm certainly worried. She didn't seem to realize what it truly means to be the Doctor, make all the hard (and bad) choices and accept the consequences. Also, what caught my attention is the fact that she seems to be addicted to the adventures with the Doctor, her motives to travel with him are not quite the same as the other Companions before. At least that's what it looks like at the moment. Where do you think/want Clara's story to come from here?
3. Doctor Oswald. This reference turn out to be surprisingly hurtful, to be honest. Made me miss Doctor Donna even more.
4. Any favorite scenes, quotes from the episode? Like I already mentioned, I loved both the Doctor's confrontations, first with the Foretold and then (even better) with the Boneless.
5. I would really like to see more of the interactions between the Doctor and Danny were the two try to work on their mutual dislike. How about you, do you want to see more of Danny or are you not really interested in the character?
6. How do you like The Twelfth Doctor's character development? After 9 episodes, what do you think of this version of the Doctor?
Thank you for all the comments and for reading. Go ahead and share your thoughts about the episodes below. Till the next time!
