From The Boss Dungeon Vaults: Doctor Who Series 8 First Impressions (Episode 8: Mummy On The Orient Express)

(As always, these are Series 8 impressions that were written as they aired for the website Boss Dungeon. They're being rehosted as I rewatch Series 8 in anticipation for Series 9. So here's a good one with a mummy in it.)

Mummy On The Orient Express. What a title. It's so succinct in summarizing the episode. There is indeed a mummy. It does indeed attack people on a train called the Orient Express. Of course, this being Doctor Who, this isn't the Orient Express. Just a Orient Express. Which also happens to be in space. Because it's Doctor Who, see. Regardless of playing with tropes, this one is a real winner. You've got one hell of a monster concept, some of the best Doctor moments Peter Capaldi's ever had, and a surprise or two.

The first big surprise being... Clara Oswald! I was wondering who the short-haired lady travelling around with the Doctor at the start was. Clearly it couldn't be Clara. Not after that explosive condemnation at the end of Kill The Moon. No, the Doctor must have picked up some other young lady to ease his mind after Clara left. That wasn't the case. Jenna Coleman got a haircut and Clara is still on the TARDIS. While this is quickly explained as "one last hurrah" and Clara's final trip on the TARDIS, I've got mixed feelings. Mainly because I loved last week's blowup so much. It was a companion depature the likes of which we hadn't seen since Tegan left, and that was 30 years ago. Sure, this is set weeks after Kill The Moon and all... but it feels like the consequences of Clara's anger were sort of glossed over in a few lines. It's not nearly enough to sink the episode, but with how through the roof I've been about Clara this season it leaves a funny taste in my mouth.

The Doctor, on the other hand, is in perfect form. Capaldi plays up the more "alien" aspects of the character, particularly early on when Clara is pouring her heart out about her anger from the last episode... and all he wants to do is tell her about old planets he was on. He talks to himself, and replies in the voices of previous incarnations. Despite all of that, Capaldi defines himself on getting the job done. The events of the episode leave a rather high body count, and with each death the Doctor remains detached and devoted to solving the mystery of the mummy. Whereas David Tennant would trot out the old "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry" (a line that Clara actually takes up near the end), Capaldi's Doctor just sort of shrugs about it and moves on. In his mind, there's nothing he could have done... and every death gives him more clues on stopping the thing threatening to kill them all.

That thing being the mummy, or as the episode calls it, the Foretold. Like so many other Doctor Who monsters (and so many monsters in general), the Foretold runs on a set of rules. Only those unlucky enough to be targeted by the Foretold can see it. Once they do see it, they have 66 seconds before it gets them and kills them. No weapons can stop it, and it can teleport in order to shamble towards you. Already there's a difference between the Foretold and other Doctor Who monsters; there's no way to stop it. Well, there's exactly one way to stop it, but the point of the entire episode is figuring it out. Before that, just about everyone who sees the Foretold ends up getting killed by it. The episode goes the extra mile by adding a timer onscreen every time the Foretold appears, frantically counting down the seconds until the unlucky sap gets it. Really builds the tension and adds some flair to the episode. I love it.

Then we have the whole twist with "Gus", as is customary for this season. We spend half the episode establishing things and then everything is turned around with some sort of twist. The twist in this case being that the entire train is some sort of lab, and the passengers are tasked to figure out how to stop the Foretold. We never find out who is in charge of the train experiment in the episode, but Gus is an amoral villain all his own. Not bad for a computer AI. When the Doctor won't listen to Gus's requests for him to stop talking on the phone with Clara and get back to puzzling out the Foretold, he decompresses the kitchen and vents the cooking staff into space. Despite the fact that Clara was on the phone telling the Doctor things about the Foretold, giving him clues that could help him solve the mystery. One could argue that Gus is the villain of the episode; the Foretold merely kills on instinct. Gus kills to prove points and tidy up loose ends after he gets what he wants. My money's on him being connected to Missy and the Nethersphere, but if this was just a one-off then that is that.

A lot of this one is spent dealing with Clara's emotional state after Kill The Moon. She's calmed down and doesn't outright hate the Doctor, but she's adamant that this be their last trip. There are some great scenes with her and Capaldi, like the one where she realizes that parting ways with the Doctor means he won't pop in for dinner once in a while, and that this really is the last hurrah. Then we've got the ending. Clara, after lying to get a potential Foretold victim into the same car as the Doctor, and hearing his rationalizations and detached nature... decides to not give it up. In a way that makes it seem like she will be lying to Danny about it. Having Clara back is one thing. Having her lie to her boyfriend about it is something else entirely. There's talk about the Doctor's travelling through time and space as an addiction, and maybe Clara's addicted to it now too. Addiction is a terrible thing, and as great as Jenna Coleman is on the show now... I've got a bad feeling about what's to come. Regardless, what a standout episode. It was a bit too grim with its high body count to properly call it a "romp", but it's taking the characters to interesting places and it's been universally praised.

Let's just hope the cost of their choices isn't a heartbreaking one.


Next time: Fear in two dimensions? Graffiti coming to life? I have no idea what's coming next week, but I look forward to it as always.

AND NOW WHAT I THINK... NOW

(Spoiler warning: there are probably spoilers below.)

This is still fantastic. It's even more fantastic knowing that there's a second fantastic episode coming up from the same writer. Holy shit. I kept an eye out, though, and I totally didn't see any mirror/reflection symbolism this time so boo. Feel free to correct me again, though. I just wanted it to run through every episode... but then again, this is what we were leading up to, wasn't it? Six episodes teasing the reflection angle, then we had Kill The Moon with Clara's impassioned rejection of the Doctor... and now she's back, with a new haircut. Lying her face off. Clara is slowly becoming a flawed reflection of the Doctor, and this is definitely something that gets followed up on in the next episode. And the finale, come to think of it. It doesn't feel like it, but we are only two episodes away from the beginning of the end. Here, then, is what Clara Oswald has become. Her secret was always a subversion; she was no Impossible Girl, but an Ordinary Girl who delved into the Extraordinary, shattering the mirror and fragmenting herself into oh so many shards. Now she has reassembled, and is becoming a mirror of the Doctor. She has adopted Rule One, and the consequences will be dire. So it has been Foretold.

Gee, it's been a while since I went all proto-mythological in one of these things, huh? Feels good. Look, this episode sings. And I don't mean the cool cover of Don't Stop Me Now, either! This is a great episode of the show, and lots of people love it! Which is interesting. I think it's a great episode, yes, but I also love all of the other episodes that have come so far. Even Kill The Moon got a passing grade because it did one or two amazing things. This one, though, is second only to Listen at this point in the series for my favorite. Why's that? This is where Peter Capaldi finally, without question, became The Doctor for me. We had a rocky road over September 2014. Deep Breath didn't sell me, and I spent the rest of the time sort of on the fence. Listen really helped, and the other episodes contributed in their own little way, but this is where the 12th Doctor finally arrived for me. As if to cement this, next episode he will get his own Matt Smith style speech full of bluster to threaten the monsters... but here he is in his default mode. The man who gets the job done. I said it in the writeup, but it's all in how this Doctor plays it. Tennant or Smith would be fiercely apologetic to the victims, and probably enraged at Gus. Capaldi just wants to get the job done, save the people, stop the killing, and do it with efficiency. He hasn't got the time to care, because his carer is locked in a supply room with a sarcophagus. He just works it out, is grouchy and grumpy about it, but gets the job done and saves as many as he can because that's what he does now. All he wants to do is get things done so he can go back to talking about planets. Perhaps he's even extra grumpy because this is supposed to be Clara's last hurrah. I could see that, but he's not really "extra grumpy" in this one.

As for Gus? Good villain. Notably, I was totally wrong about him being connected to Missy and the Nethersphere... but hey, a shambling undead soldier? I wasn't that far off the mark. This is a plot thread that people want a little tugging on for Series 9, and unlike "they should show what was underneath the bedsheet in Listen" which, as I said, completely misses the point of that episode, this is a thread I theoretically don't mind being expanded upon. Popular theory says that Gus is probably an agent of the Rani, an amoral scientist Time Lady from the classic era. Well, I mean, the show did make the other big Time Lord antagonist a Time Lady, so... it could be. I don't know, though. One, it's too obvious and I would rather it be something original and fresh that's a surprise, rather than this speculation game where the answer is the easiest choice. Two, the Rani is fucking rubbish. She hasn't been in a good television story at all. Poor Kate O'Mara, rip in peace. Well, we'll see with Series 9, now won't we? Just know that Mummy On The Orient Express is very good, and many people's pick for Best Episode Of Series 8. It cracks my top three for sure, but Listen and Flatline are awfully competitive for Top Spot.

Next time: It's Flatline and it's very very good.