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| Sadly, not this. |
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| This. |
"Start the clock."
On the Orient Express (in Space), a mummy is stalking the passengers; a mummy that only its next victim can see, for the sixty-six seconds that they have left to live. Onto this doomed transport comes the Doctor and Clara, for one last hurrah. He's been invited before and he knows that it's a trap, but perhaps on this occasion, a little trap is just what the Doctor ordered.
The Good
The Ugly
The complexity of the Twelfth Doctor's character is strongly played in this episode; the juxtaposition of his almost callous pragmatism towards the doomed and his willingness to take his place in the line on the gamble that he has enough information. I like this; I like my Doctors at least two dimensional.
- Lounge-style Queen!
- The Doctor has a wonderful, melancholy moment watching a picturesque black hole and reminiscing on the planets that it has consumed.
- The difference in reactions of the doomed - the academic who struggles to bargain, the old soldier who gives all he can - are well-played, although see 'the Ugly' for how it interacts with previous episodes.
- I really like the resolution on this one; it works really well, and isn't just a screwdriver ex machina.
- I particularly liked the way the Doctor uses his lie to Clara to trigger Maisie and lure the mummy.
- "You're relieved soldier." The Doctor reminds us that he is an officer.
- The Orient Express... in space - that is, the train itself - is a slightly lazy, if gorgeous, piece of design in the mode of the Titanic of Voyage of the Damned.
- Any hope of the Eleventh Doctor tackling Osirans on the Orient Express in space in another medium are pretty much scotched.
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| Once again, this season proves a grave disappointment to the colossal nerd in me. |
- Given his lambasting of soldiers, the Doctor's attack on Captain Quell for 'having the fight knocked out of him' seems more than a little hypocritical, although the real ugliness only comes from the flaws of earlier episodes and the lazy way the series is creating conflict between the Doctor and Danny Pink.
- 'Gus' has been working on this for a long time. It is not unreasonable to propose a link with Missy, although that throws a bit of a curve ball into her goals. Previously she's been a collector of the dead, not a studier of weapons.
- Alternatively, given his attempt to kill the Doctor, he might be a rival interest. The Foretold still has that connection with death.
- Clara's increasing anger at the Doctor's lies to her and ease in lying to Danny... I don't know if this is a good or bad thing in the scheme of it, but at least it is clearly deliberate. As much as she dubs herself his conscience, Clara is becoming more like the Doctor; is becoming in particular like this interpretation of the Doctor. It doesn't make her a likable character, but it is at least a choice, not a mistake; I'm pretty sure that the makers no longer want us to like her.
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| The Radio Times poster for this episode. |
- The Doctor: "You're doing it again... The smile; the sad smile. It's confusing. Two emotions at once, it's like you're malfunctioning."
- Clara: "It's not like I'm never going to see you again."
The Doctor: "Isn't it?" - Moorhouse: "In all the myths, conventional weapons have no effect on the Foretold. It's immortal, unstoppable, unkillable."
Perkins: "Can we get a new expert?" - Quell: "It turns out it's three. The amount of people who have to die before I stop looking the other way."
- The Doctor: "People with guns to their heads, they can not mourn. We do not have time to mourn."
- The Doctor: "Are you my mummy."
- Clara: "You knew this was dangerous."
The Doctor: "I didn't know. I certainly hoped..."
The complexity of the Twelfth Doctor's character is strongly played in this episode; the juxtaposition of his almost callous pragmatism towards the doomed and his willingness to take his place in the line on the gamble that he has enough information. I like this; I like my Doctors at least two dimensional.
The Verdict
Some have accused this of being fluff, but I really enjoyed it. It was a rollicking adventure peppered with some genuine feels (oh, Captain Quell; that's the kind of soldierness the Doctor has always been okay with and why I hate this forced conflict bullshit.) The humour was spot on, the Doctor just the right combination of intellectual curiosity, care and darkness, and the clear deliberation of the shift in Clara's character makes me like the writers more, if not the character.
8/10
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