Thoughts on Mummy on the Orient Express

capaldissexy:

 Be ye warned..this is long and gushing. I was a little puddle on the floor after I watched it last night and I’ve been writing ever since.

Whouffaldi Moments

• The entire episode was a Whouffaldi extravaganza.  They have nuclear sexual tension. Basically, we were worried for nothing. Phew!
• Basically, this is Clara and the Doctor on a weekend getaway together. The Doctor is in a tux, she’s in a dress.
• Your train awaits, my lady….
• They are drinking together in a nightclub atmosphere. Eleven doesn’t drink but apparently Twelve does.
• We have lots of touching. He offers her an arm, she snuggles up against him. And no arguing on his part. J
• Did you catch the song performed by Foxes?  Clearly, this is a sexy song. This is the part they walked into the train on:

I am a satellite I’m out of control

I am a sex machine ready to reload

Like an atom bomb about to

Oh oh oh oh oh explode

• We have references to them being a couple: Clara herself (break up with him…interesting….this is how she frames it), Mazie also frames them as a couple
• Um…in the hallway when they are talking last hurrah…I thought we’d get a kiss. We definitely had some serious eyefuck moments. Has anyone ever seen Scandal? When Fitz/Olivia have ”one minute” together? They just stare at one another…its full of longing.  Check out an example (starts at 45 seconds) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uarEBvp68_I   It is incredibly intimate and they are lovers. That is essentially what Twelve/Clara did.
• Did you catch Clara knocking on the Doctor’s door in her pajamas? That seems a little intimate.
• If I read the scene right, he brought her there “hoping it would be trouble” and then asks her “do you want it to be trouble?” in the hallway.  She says no….he is about to knock on her door but stops. I read this as an enticement. I’m betting he wanted to lure her back in with this mummy murder mystery.
• Twelve’s panic when he discovers that she is trapped! Just trapped, not being stalked by a mummy.
• Stick Insect on her phone to represent the Doctor (with a formal wear top hat). I kinda love it.
• At the end of the episode, Clara is sleeping wrapped up in blankets while Twelve is watching her? Wow. So, that means he carried her out of the TARDIS in his arms, wrapped in blankets and now is watching her. Yeah, and that is very, very , very intimate.  
• Gah. The sadness in his expression when he hears Clara say I love you to Danny. And the camera cuts to him…again…when she says I love you. However, Clara is looking at the Doctor, but the Doctor doesn’t see. He’s too busy fiddling with switches and eavesdropping. J
• His utter joy when she agrees to travel with him again. I can’t remember ever seeing him this happy?! 
• The way they pull the levers on the TARDIS in tandem.
• Now shut up and give me some planets! J

It isn’t Just Us

• The Guardian’s Take on the episode:
  • It was the Doctor and Clara’s last hurrah, him tuxed up, her in a cocktail dress, both completely impervious to what was appropriate. Clara has decided she’s had enough, and god, are they dragging it out, all loaded moments and unsaid truths.
  • Those forlorn stares and stolen glances are not those of a man with paternal intentions. This was Romancing the Stone. It was Moonlighting. It may have just been a nod to the genre, but nobody even try to deny it – this was hot.
  • Maybe it was being confronted by the drab reality of life with the increasingly tedious (after a strong start, I can’t lie) Danny Pink, but Clara’s back on the Tardis team with renewed gusto and glee.But then she has just lied to them both, so she is effectively having an affair.
  • Read it here: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2014/oct/11/doctor-who-recap-series-34-episode-eight-mummy-on-the-orient-express

Twelve Being Cute Moments

• The Doctor. Nosy Parker. Lol
• More hand porn. Gah. I am convinced they are teasing us now.
• The Doctor having an argument with himself.
• Jelly babies in the cigarette case
• Being uncomfortable with sad smiles…because they make him sad?!
• This is the second time Clara referenced hating him. He wishes she’d kept it to herself. He seems perturbed by it. And makes a joke to get out of it, starts babbling about planets. I like that he’s uncomfortable with emotions.
• Are you my mummy?
• The Doctor has a Sherlockian vibe that I adore. More, please!
• I love Twelve absorbing Mazie’s emotional trauma and then letting her know things her Gran did…she poisoned your pony and your dad, too.  These are all done offhand, too. Priceless.

Twelve’s Moral Ambiguity and Clara’s Addiction.

• Is it just me or were you worried that he hadn’t bothered to save everyone on the train…? If you’ll notice “train goes boom!” right away. Like…right away. We see Perkins, we see Clara. Both are safe. They are the only two people on the train he cares about. Would the Doctor have time to save them all? Then he makes a joke about it, with an uncomfortable little laugh. Yeah, I’m not sure anyone else made it off.
• Twelve stated he would have let the mummy pick off more people so he could observe. He aptly says that people with a gun to their head, can’t stop to mourn. He’s right. He’s able to detach. I think about Eleven turning a deaf ear to his friend’s death at the door of his tomb. I think the cold hearted streak runs deep in the Doctor. Maybe due to age? Life experience?
• He did put Clara in a terrible predicament. She was forced to lie to Mazie. She did become an accomplice….and she went along with it. She didn’t rail against it or warn the girl.  Only a token protest. This troubles me. I almost feel like Twelve/Clara have a Bonnie and Clyde vibe. I mean  sure…they are trying to save people, but watch out for the cannon fodder.  
• Clara mentions addiction in relation to traveling with him.  Yeah, I don’t think it is the travel. Just like when she said to Danny…I see wonders. Um….no, that is why she didn’t give Danny a straight answer as to who the Doctor was.  I think she was talking about being with the Doctor (wonders). He is her addiction. When she is speaking with the Doctor in the hallway she is babbling about him stopping by for dinner. Yeah, she is trying to still get a fix from being with him. I repeat…this is not about traveling.
• Think of all those shots in The Caretaker? Where she is breathlessly running from the Doctor to Danny? That speaks of addiction…specifically an affair. She lied to Danny about shutting down the Doctor and lied to the Doctor about Danny wanting her to stop. This puts her relationship with the Doctor as clandestine again.  And maybe it’s more exciting that way?
• Moffat says “Quite a strong emotional story to this. It’s about Clara and the Doctor and the fact that the way they interact might not be healthy for everyone around them.” You can see it here: http://www.cultbox.co.uk/features/guides/doctor-who-series-8-news-summary/11