Doctor Who: 8 Big Questions From Mummy On The Orient Express

8. Is This The Same Mummy On The Orient Express Referred To In The Big Bang?

As the Doctor tells Clara at the beginning of the episode, there have been many trains that bore the name of The Orient Express, but only one travelled through space. Keen viewers will note that this is not the first time we've heard about this train in Doctor Who. At the end of series five's The Big Bang, the Eleventh Doctor received a phone call on the TARDIS warning him of "an escaped Egyptian goddess on the Orient Express, in space". We are naturally made to assume that this is the one and same Orient Express that was referred to four years ago. But that raises some questions too. The Mummy, or Foretold, is not actually an Egyptian goddess but a zombie soldier kept alive by alien technology for thousands of years. Is it a different creature or was the person on the other line just assuming the Egyptian connection? Furthermore you have to wonder why it took the Doctor so long to deal with the call. Did the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory get distracted by something else? Did they turn up on the space-bound Orient Express at a different time and assume the whole thing was a hoax? Is it the same Orient Express? Given the Doctor's note that only one of these trains ever travelled through space, we have to assume it is the same. Perhaps it is a mystery that always weighed on the Doctor and now, with Clara about to leave, he felt it was the perfect final adventure for them to share together.