This week’s Doctor Who had perhaps one of the oddest starts in the rebooted series history before it become one of the best episodes of series 8.
So let’s recap the final parts of last week’s episode: Clara and the Doctor had their biggest fight ever and it ended in a way that made you think that we wouldn’t see her in this week’s episode. But what happens instead? They decide to jump ahead a few weeks and reveal that Clara did in fact not hate him and decided to go with the Doctor one last time. This is one of the things that I hate about television which is when a show has a big thing happen between the core characters in one episode and then the next week, they resolve it partly off-screen.
You don’t have a big fight like that take place in one episode and then just write it off like the way they did in this episode. I understand that this took place several weeks after that incident, but it felt too easy. But the good thing about this is that they continued to deal with it throughout this episode with Clara pointing out that this was her last time with the Doctor. Of course, that changed drastically by the end, but we will get there in just a bit.
The monster of the week was a mysterious mummy attacking certain people on the orient express (that was riding up in space) and only those who were attacked could see it. It’s also revealed that once the mummy shows up while lights start to flicker nearby, the victim will be killed 66 seconds later. I like the time limit they had each time because that would put pressure on the Doctor and he would have to be faster with his investigation. The way that this mystery was handled and how the Doctor tried to figure it out was how I prefer to see Doctor Who as.
We learn later that the whole train ride was just an illusion and it turns into a laboratory as “Gus”, the train’s computer had orchestrated the whole thing with all its passengers being doctors or scientists. He wants them to figure out what is causing the mummy to attack and pretty much holds the passengers as hostages until they can figure it out. There is a prominent figure named Perkins who works together with the Doctor in this episode and I liked him quite a lot.
As we get to the last victim of the episode, Maisie, whose grandmother died first in the episode of the mummy, the Doctor absorbs some of her memories or energy (I’m not really sure what he did absorb) so that the mummy would go after him. That was one of my favorite moments and he then learns that the mummy is a soldier for a very long time ago and had been modified into being an assassin via a phase-shifting camouflage device. As he says the key word “surrender”, the mummy stops, salutes and turns into dust.
Even though the threat is stopped, Gus doesn’t care about getting the passengers out of the train and starts sucking the air. Before it’s too late, the Doctor uses the device that the mummy had and somehow rewires it into a teleporter that took them all to the TARDIS and to safety before the train blew up. The scene that takes place next is where the episode completely won me over as Clara and the Doctor have a heart-to-heart with each other.
This scene really shows us the Doctor’s kind side again which I feel was the first time in a very long time that we had seen any of it. He admits that he had to be heartless or at least pretended to be just so that Gus wouldn’t find out about his plan. Seeing him confess his doubts and his fears made me feel for Capaldi’s Doctor again because remember, this Doctor is still struggling after his last regeneration. Even though this Doctor has been a very grumpy and difficult Doctor to follow, those last minutes of the episode made me enjoy him again.
Later in the TARDIS, Clara gets a phone call again from Danny who asks her if she is now done with the Doctor and for some reason, Clara decides to lie to him and says that she is done with the Doctor. But when she hangs up, she tells the Doctor that she is back in and ready for more adventures and they take off. What was up with that lie? I thought that Danny wouldn’t mind her being with the Doctor, at least that’s how I understood a few episodes ago.
I guess we will find out sooner or later, but the hints that Coleman is possibly leaving the show after this season, were stronger than ever in this episode. Even though Clara’s interest for the Doctor and traveling in the TARDIS were renewed by the end, I feel that it’s a way to hide the chance that she is perhaps leaving. I hope she doesn’t because I would love to see how she and Capaldi’s Doctor would do for one more season so hopefully, I’m dead wrong with my speculation.
So there you have it folks: “Mummy on the Orient Express” began by frustrating me only to make me love it by the end of it. Four episodes remain of Series 8 and I’m dying to see what else Doctor Who has in store for the Whovians.
Doctor Who airs on Saturday nights, 9/8c on BBC America.
[Photo via BBC]
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