Doctor Who - 8x08 Mummy on the Orient Express - Review

Classic

That is the best way to describe this episode of Doctor Who. The Doctor and... Clara... embark on their final adventure together. But while The Doctor and Clara hoped that this final rendezvous would just be a quiet one to end their run on a whimper, it instead winds up being a lot more than they bargained for. A mysterious force is killing passengers on board space train, and another even more mysterious force wants to control it.

The best way to describe this episode's opening minutes with the Doctor is "shocking." Mainly because once he stepped out of the T.A.R.D.I.S. he was immediately followed by someone fans were not expecting: Clara. Given the way things ended in the previous episode, it was believed by many fans that Clara was going to be gone for a while. No one actually believed her to be gone for good for this series, but no one expected her to be back this soon. So, in short, this is suppose to be the "break up" adventure. It was brilliant marketing to keep Clara out of the promos in order to make fans believe that she's gone. However it does seem weird that her return is so abrupt given how things ended last time. And this episode does not help her case of wanting to leave him.

This time around, instead of deciding whether to kill a gigantic baby to save the world, it is how many people you have to kill in order to discover the truth? That is because on board the train, people are seeing a creature called The Foretold, which is essentially the Mummy from classic horror cinema. The creature has a specific method of killing in which it appears in the vicinity of its next victim then takes 66 seconds to kill the victim. It is all very methodical and very specific. And by chance, on this train ride there just happens to be several individuals who seem perfectly fit for studying the creature. And that is when the real game begins, as it is revealed that the A.I. that supports the train has been taken over by someone called, Gus. This Gus has gathered these individuals onto the train specifically for the purpose of studying the creature and figuring out a way to capture it. Even if it means every single one of them has to die.

This puts The Doctor in an impossible choice once again. The only way to study the creature is from the individuals who see it and only have 66 seconds to explain everything they can. And since it has a pattern of targeting the weak first then working its way up to the strong, The Doctor is literally the last on The Foretold's hit list as he knows if he were to see the creature within that 66 second time limit he would know how to handle it. What this situation does is that it reenforces the concept of The Dark Doctor that many were introduced to in Capaldi's run. He shows no concern for individuals who are literally about to die because to him they are dead already and can't be saved. Instead of comforting these individuals he prods them for information, with the only thing close to comfort coming from the Doctor is him saying that whatever information is given can possibly save the next victim. Because as I stated before, he has already declared the victims dead before their time is up. It is a ruthless methodology that Clara is once again angry with because of how callous the Doctor has been acting.

This episode is ultimately a companion piece to the previous episode, Kill the Moon. Both episodes are about making hard decisions when there doesn't seem to be any good choices. Kill the Moon was more or less The Doctor giving the hard choice to Clara so that she can see what type of hard choices he has to make on a near daily basis. In here, Clara is once again exposed to his hard choice, but this time she sees how The Doctor deals with it. And in the end, it is this revelation of how they both view the problem and the best way to solve are not so different from one another after all. In a sense it is really meant as a way to get Clara to understand that The Doctor is a dick, but it's not because he wants to be, it's because the situation requires him to be one.

While it is abrupt to have Clara return after the events of the previous episode, this was a good way of resolving what happened. And it was done in Classic Doctor Who fashion. Having seen some of Tom Baker's seasons on Netflix as the Fourth Doctor, this episode pretty much was a big love letter to Baker's Doctor. From dealing with a monstrous mummy and all the way down to the sour candy reference. It is an incredible episode as it compliments what came before. However I don't know if as a standalone that level would be the same. Still, this is definitely showing that Capaldi is The Dark Doctor, but not by choice because the universe forces him to be. And Clara hopefully understands that now.

SCORE: 9.5/10 - This gets bonus points for being a love letter to the Fourth Doctor
STATUS: Continue to Watch - Things just seem to keep getting better and better

Review of Previous Episode - CLICK HERE