The Foretold
The Foretold looks like an ancient, terrifying mummy - the kind of creature that has featured in scary stories and creaky horror movies for generations… But facts about the bandaged terror were scarce as the only ones who could see it were its victims, and a sighting of the creature meant only one thing for the witness: death!
| Fact title | Fact data |
|---|---|
| Home Planet: | Unknown |
| Specification: | Soldier |
| First Appearance: | |
| Most Recent Appearance: |
The Foretold was considered by many to be myth and according to the Doctor, tales about it first appeared over five thousand years ago. Some stories claimed that a secret riddle or a single word would stop it and he also mentioned that some victims tried to plead for their lives or attempted to buy their way out of trouble, but never with any success: Once someone had seen the Foretold, death would follow in exactly 66 seconds…
And all that tech inside you, it just won’t let you die!The Doctor
The Doctor deduced that the creature could detect the weakest individuals in a group and would pick them off, one-by-one. On board the Orient Express, for instance, its first victim was over 100 years old and other casualties included a cook with a rare blood disorder and a professor suffering from regular panic attacks.
When the Doctor found out that Maisie, one of the train’s younger passengers, would be the next victim, he took a tremendous risk and artificially implanted her mental issues in his own head, drawing the Foretold away from her and putting himself ‘firmly in its crosshairs’. This enabled the Time Lord to see the creature for himself, although he knew he only had 66 seconds to put this advantage to good use!
A glimpse at the Foretold’s markings led him to realise that a scroll aboard the train was actually a flag - one that the creature was killing for. He then grasped that the Foretold was a soldier, massively enhanced to the point that it was undying and locked in a forgotten war. As the countdown reached zero, the Doctor surrendered and at last, the soldier paused – its war over. No longer needing the ‘camouflage’ of invisibility it became visible to everyone around it. The Doctor declared, ‘You are relieved, soldier!’ and the Foretold was freed, crumbling to dust.
The mystery of the Foretold had been unravelled. As the Doctor phrased it, the creature had been an ‘ancient soldier driven by malfunctioning tech’. But one question lingered - who or what had been investigating the creature, orchestrating the whole trip on the Orient Express and luring the Doctor to the train? For the time being, the question remains unanswered…
