Doctor Who
Doctor Who: Mummy On The Orient Express (8X08)
Well forget what I said last week about Clara being MIA on this episode because clearly I thought she was going to take a break from traveling with the Doctor. So, it’s been a while but not clear how long since the events log last week’s episode Clara realises she doesn’t hate the Doctor, and allows him to take her on one “last hurrah”, taking her to a space-bound recreation of the Orient Express with passengers dressed in period pieces. Aboard the train, they find that an elderly woman, Mrs. Pitt, had previously died, claiming that she was attacked by a mummy that no one else could see. They retire to separate cabins for the evening, where Clara calls Danny in her present and gets advice how to deal with her relationship with the Doctor, and then later, encounters Maisie, Mrs. Pitt’s granddaughter, who is distraught over the death and frustrated with the inability to see her body. The two get trapped in the luggage car, where the mummy’s sarcophagus sits, and the two body while waiting for help.
Meanwhile, the Doctor starts to investigate the murder, meeting the train’s engineer Perkins who is also curious to the death. The Doctor speaks to Professor Moorhouse, who explains about the mummy that is being transported on the train, and the myth that once lights flicker nearby, the mummy will take its victim 66 seconds later, which they are able to confirm when the train’s chef dies in a similar manner as Mrs. Pitt. The Doctor discovers of Clara’s situation but when he tries to rescue her, the lights flicker and the sarcophagus opens; before he can save her, Captain Quell and his men take him as a prisoner for falsifying his credentials. When the 66 seconds are up, they find that one of the Captain’s men is dead instead.
The Doctor begins to question what is really happening on the train, recognizing that most of the passengers are scientific experts and demands to know why. The train suddenly stops in space, and the illusion of the original Orient Express and several of the passanges disperses, revealing they are in a laboratory. The train’s computer, Gus, tells them they are now to study the attacks of the force behind the attacks so that they can reverse engineer whatever power it has; Professor Moorhouse soon is the next victim, and he stammers out a few details of the mummy before he dies. The Doctor contacts Clara, who has discovered that the sarcophagus is meant as a containment unit for whatever the force is, and that this is not the first attempt by whomever is controlling events to discover the nature of the force, having gone through and lost ships and crews previously. Gus forces the Doctor to end the call and return to work when it expels the air from the kitchen car, killing the kitchen staff and threatening to kill more.
The Doctor and Perkins discover that the past victims were all suffering from various conditions, and that the mummy is targeting the weakest. Captain Quell reveals he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and soon sees the mummy; before he dies he is able to provide enough information to the others to identify that the mummy drains the victim’s energy through phase shifting. Perkins identifies the next likely victim, Maisie, due to her trauma, and the Doctor tells Clara to bring her to the lab, having Gus unlock the storage door. On the way there, Clara sees that the TARDIS is protected by a force field, and when she talks to the Doctor about this, she realises that Gus must know about the Doctor to create the field. The Doctor is forced to admit that Gus had been trying to bring him here to help for some time, and Clara accused the Doctor of taking her into a dangerous situation again. At this point, Maisie sees the mummy, and the Doctor absorbs some of her memories as to be able to trick the mummy into thinking he is the victim. Within the 66 seconds, the Doctor is able to realise the mummy is a former soldier from a war thousands of centuries ago, having been modified with phase-shifting camouflage to be an assassin; the Doctor offers their surrender to the mummy, which stops its attack. It manifests before everyone, salutes the Doctor and disintegrates into dust, leaving its phase-shifting device behind. Gus congratulates the passengers on the success and then begins to evacuate all the air aboard the train. The Doctor takes the device and rewires it as a short-range teleporter, rescuing all the remaining passengers on the train to his TARDIS before the train blows up.
On a nearby planet, Clara, who had passed out earlier from the lack of air, wakes up and the Doctor explains what has happened, and that the train had exploded only after he has failed to hack Gus to find out who was responsible for all of this. On the TARDIS, the Doctor offers Perkins a job to maintain the time machine, but he politely refuses. Clara takes a call from Danny, who is expecting that she will finally end her trips with the Doctor, but when she ends the call, is ready to continue her travels with the Doctor.
It’s beginning to look a lot like the holidays.
And that can only mean one thing — a special holiday episode of Doctor Who.
BBC America announced the episode “Revolution of the Daleks” will air at 8 p.m. ET on New Year’s Day.
The announcement was accompanied by a trailer that includes Chris Noth, John Barrowman, and Jodie Whittaker’s Time Lord coming to you from behind a high-security alien prison.
Oh, there’s also flying Daleks.
“We’ve crammed this year’s Doctor Who special with an explosion of extraordinary acting talent,” said showrunner Chris Chibnall in a statement. “Where else would you get British acting royalty, a globally renowned US screen star, an (inter)national treasure of stage and screen and one of Britain’s hottest young actors — just in the guest cast! Put those together with Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole (and Daleks! Did I mention Daleks!) — and you get a cast to be exterminated for. And things will explode. Promise.”
So, mark your calendar’s and check out the trailer below:
This episode takes place after the events of Last Christmas. Plus if you need a refresher on who the players are involved then I suggest you re-watch Death In Heaven (8X12) and The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End (4X12 & 13).
The episode begins on an extra-terrestrial battle ground where a boy is trapped by “hand mines”, creatures which are hands with eyes, and kill by dragging the victim underground. The Doctor arrives and tries to save the boy, but after the boy says that his name is Davros, the Doctor, shocked, abandons him.
On present day Earth, Clara was in the middle of teaching class when she notices a plane frozen in the sky. She is then summoned to the Tower of London by UNIT to help them contact the Doctor. UNIT reveal that every plane that is currently airborne has frozen and no-one knows why. While trying to work out who it is freezing the planes and what their motive is, UNIT receive a message on a channel specifically created by UNIT for the Doctor should he ever need to contact. The sender of this message is revealed to be Missy, who confirms that she was the one that froze the planes and she needs Clara’s help in finding the Doctor. Missy also reveals that the Doctor’s confession dial, or ‘Last Will and Testament’, has been presented to her, meaning that the Doctor believes he only has one more day to live.
Also looking for the Doctor is Colony Sarff, who has been appointed by an elderly, dying Davros. Clara and Missy track the Doctor down to Essex in the year 1138, where the Doctor has spent three weeks “partying” introducing a number of anachronistic items. The three’s reunion is quickly cut short as Sarff takes them to what appears to be a space station. The Doctor is taken to Davros, who tells the Doctor that he remembers what he did when he was a little boy and reveals that he intends to destroy everything the Doctor loves before finally killing him. In the meantime, Missy notices that the space station’s gravity does not feel artificial, as would be expected on a space station. She opens the air lock and steps out into what looks like space, before realising that they are actually standing on a planet. The planet becomes visible and, much to Missy’s horror, is revealed to be Skaro, the homeworld of the Daleks. The two are then captured by the Daleks who, while the Doctor watches, exterminate both Clara and Missy and destroy the TARDIS, which they had procured from Essex earlier, leaving the Doctor alone and powerless.
The Doctor returns to the hand mine field. Davros asks if the Doctor’s come to save him, but the Doctor, pointing a Dalek gun at Davros, says he’s going to save his friends, and shouts ‘exterminate!’.
Cut to black…TO BE CONTINUED!!!!
This episode marks the return of Davros, the creator of the Dalek’s. His last appearance was with the 10th Doctor in Season 4. This episode also marks the return of Kate Stewart head of UNIT after a short stint in last season’s finale. Also Missy returns after her demise in the season finale but this time helping the Doctor instead of harming him. What will become of the Doctor with everything now taken away from him? What has become of Missy and Clara?
It’s been 10 years to the day since the return of the Time Lord with the blue box time machine the TARDIS. So many fantastic memories that make us want to jump in and say Alons’y or Geronimo! I have my top 10 favorite episode of the last 10 years.
10. The Wedding of River Song: Starting off the list is the finale from season 6 where the time dimensions hold at a specific time. April 22, 2011 at 5:02 PM is the time of death of the Doctor…or is it?
Video Credit: BBC/Doctor Who
9. Rose: This is the episode that brought the show back. As a newly regenerated Doctor emerges from the Time War to help a new companion Rose Tyler stop the Auton’s from invading London.
Video Credit: BBC/Doctor Who
8. The Shakespeare Code: In season 3 following the events of a stolen hospital, the Doctor and a new companion Martha Jones take to the time of Shakespeare and uncover dark magic.
Video Credit: BBC Worldwide
7. The Eleventh Hour: Following the 2009 Christmas/New Year special a new face takes on the role of the Time Lord as Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor joins Amy Pond in a race to stop Prisoner Zero from invading Earth.
Video Credit: BBC Worldwide
6. The Power of Three: In season 7 the Doctor gets a first hand account of life on Earth for a long period of time when an invasion of cube like creatures make an impact on daily life.
Video Credit: Doctor Who/BBC
5. Journey’s End: The Season 4 finale brings all the Doctors’s companions since the 2005 return as the Dalek’s take 27 planets from around the universe including Earth.
Video Credit: BBC Worldwide
4. The Big Bang: The Season 5 finale takes us to a time where the stars go out and the Pandorica opens with the ultimate enemy of of the universe.
Video Credit: BBC Worldwide
3. The End of Time: The 2009 Christmas/New Years brought the end of David Tennant’s 10th Doctor as the Time Lord’s return and an enemy grows more insane taking over every human on Earth.
Video Credit: BBC Worldwide
2. The Day of the Doctor: The 50th Anniversary Special brings the Doctor’s together as the Zygons take offer the planet. But it comes during a time when even Gallifrey can’t hold on in the final days of the Time War.
1. World War Three: This was the first episode I got exposed to. In Season 1 the Slitheen have taken over London and plan to take over the Earth, but not without igniting World War Three.
You can grab your copies of the last 8 seasons or watch on Hulu and Netflix. Catch the return this fall on BBC America.
Video Credit: VG934
Featured Photo Credit: BBC/Doctor Who
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