page_title: Mummy on the Orient Express
section_title: Plot
hierarchical_section_title: Mummy on the Orient Express / Plot
caption_attribution_description: DWE Cardiff Bay, Port Teigr November 2016 Doctor Who Experience
context_page_description: "Mummy on the Orient Express" is the eighth episode of the eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 11 October 2014. The episode was written by Jamie Mathieson, and directed by Paul Wilmshurst.
  In the episode, the alien time traveller the Doctor investigates the deaths of passengers on board a space-bound train, who claim to have seen a mummy that is not visible to others prior to their deaths.
  The episode received positive reviews from television critics.
context_section_description: Clara is ready to go on one "last hurrah". She allows the Twelfth Doctor to take her aboard a space-bound train modelled after the Orient Express. Unknown to Clara, the train's computer Gus has enticed the Doctor along with many other scientists there. They learn of the death of the elderly Mrs. Pitt after witnessing a mummy that no other passenger could see attack her, which makes the Doctor curious. The Doctor discovers the death of Mrs. Pitt and similar deaths on the train occurred exactly 66 seconds after lights flickered nearby; this follows the legend of a supernatural being called the Foretold.
  When the Doctor expresses suspicion at the number of scientists gathered, the facade of the Orient Express disappears, revealing a laboratory; Gus informs the passengers they are now to study the Foretold to reverse engineer whatever technology it uses. The Doctor also realises the sarcophagus Clara and Mrs. Pitt's granddaughter Maisie had found in the storage car is for capturing the Foretold.
  Professor Moorhouse and Captain Quell are the next targets killed by the Foretold. The Doctor and chief engineer Perkins identify that the Foretold is draining energy from its victims using phase-shifting technology. Perkins also identifies that the victims were the medically weakest on the train. When Perkins identifies that Maisie is likely next due to her trauma, Clara lies to Maisie to bring her to the laboratory. Maisie sees the Foretold; the Doctor quickly draws on her memories to trick the Foretold into targeting him instead. In the 66 seconds, the Doctor successfully identifies the Foretold as a modified stealth soldier of a long-ago war and offers surrender to tell the Foretold that the war is over. The Foretold, finally released from its duty, offers the Doctor a salute before it disappears into a pile of dust, leaving behind its phase-shifting device.
  The Doctor evacuates Clara and the passengers to the TARDIS using the Foretold's device, and drops off the passengers to a nearby planet. He tells Clara that he tried hacking Gus to find who brought everyone to the train but Gus activated a self-destruct to keep the truth hidden. The Doctor explains that sometimes the only choices are bad choices and that he would move on to the next of the Foretold's victims until he beat it. Danny phones Clara to ask if she has said her final goodbyes to the Doctor. As she hangs up, she lies to the Doctor that Danny accepts her continuing to travel with the Doctor.
caption: The Foretold, as shown at the Doctor Who Experience.
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