Things I've Learnt from Watching My Favourite Doctor Who Stories: Part 17 - Mummy on the Orient Express

 17. Mummy on the Orient Express

If you see a mummy on a train - Run!

66 seconds - that's all you get. Jamie Matherson's first (and best!) Doctor Who script is a doozy! The concept of the episode is a mythical mummy figure that appears 66 seconds to the person it is set to kill. And it's first victim that we see is Janet Henfrey, last seen as Miss Hardaker, being killed off by vampire evacuees in the Curse of Fenric. The clock is ticking, the costuming indicates we're in the 1920s and there's a distinct Agatha Christie vibe. Then the camera pans out to show this train is in space...

Mummy was a return to form after the pretentious Listen, the dull Caretaker and tyr woefully misguided Kill the Moon (although Time Heist was great fun!) At the start there's still the fallout between the Doctor and Clara initially and this trip is the last trip to end it on, the last hurrah! Jenna Coleman is suitably glam in her flapper-style dress, looking like she's stepped out of an episode of Jeeves and Wooster. Peter Capaldi's Doctor also looks dapper with his suit and cigarette case full of jelly babies. 

After hearing about the mysterious death, he muses to himself, delightfully in the voice of his fourth Incarnation about investigating. Capaldi never gives a bad performance, I'm just not keen on his characterisation. After the unforgivable and cowardly act of leaving Clara in the previous episode, here he doesn't exactly atone for his mistake, but he's definitely trying to be the "good man" he asked Clara about before. Well mostly.

One of the strengths of this episode is the guest cast. Frank Skinner is not an obvious choice for guest star other than he's one of us, a fan, but he's really great as the inquisitive Perkins. This episode was double banked - filmed simaltaneously - with Matheson's episode Flatline (in which Jenna Coleman takes the more prominent role) so Clara is in the background for this episode, with Perkins as the surrogate companion. Skinner has a good rapport with Capaldi, and I liked that bit where Perkins doesn't bauk from criticising the Doctor for being flippant when Quell (David Bamber) is killed. Bamber gives a fine performance in a role that could have been insufferable, as does Christopher Villiers (Hugo in the King's Demons!) as the ill-fated Professor Moorhouse. John Sessions uses his voice yo great effect and is deliciously evil as the clinically psychotic Gus. 

This episode is one of those that's built on great ideas and moments. After being disheartened by the previous couple of episodes and, to be honest, not really warming to the twelfth Doctor as I thought I would, this convinced me he was the Doctor, or at least had the capability of being the Doctor. 

I do realise that in the past, the Doctor had the capacity to being a bit of an arse: Hartnell certainly at the start, I find Pertwee insufferable in The Daemons, Colin Baker in the first episode of the Twin Dilemma, even Tennant wasn't always the nice Doctor casual viewers think he is. But Capaldi had a harshness, a gittishness that I really struggled with. In this episode, he's not exactly a Doctor with the right bedside manner. "Oh dear, hard cheese!" he tells Professor Moorhouse when he's seen the Foretold coming for him. As for Maisie, a character who seems to trust him and thinks he is a good man, he lies to her, but then takes her place when the Foretold comes for her. It's a tense moment, shocking and shockingly funny ("she poisoned your pony... And your father!") But he's finally acting truly like the Doctor, working it all out, protecting someone at the risk of his own life and saving the day. 

We have the charming coda on the beach, with Clara and Capaldi is delightful as he skips around the fire explaining how he rescued the passengers, or not haha! Their friendship is restored somewhat and I finally felt he was the Doctor. 

The Twelfth Doctor's era was a bit of bumpy ride after that for me. Flatline was terrific but then it all came off the rails for me, with In the Forest of the Night Garden, Don't Cremate Me, Cyber Brig, the appalling Magician's Apprentice and Ashildr... Yes, there were high points such as Under the Lake, but it wasn't until the Pilot (see part 28) that the series came back on track for me. 

So I've chosen Mummy as one of my favourites because it is so good, probably the best of Series Eight and it has a good supporting cast, strong plot and dialogue. Plus it gets the Doctor's character spot on. Yes, he's a genius and incredibly arrogant, as Perkins describes, but he comes good in the end. It shows Capaldi at his very best and why wouldn't I want that in my list of 60 favourite stories? 

Next Time: Uncle Terrance wasn't always right!