Mummy on the Orient Express

Hello, I will be your victim this evening. Are you my mummy?

In Series 8 of the New Series, nearly everyone picked one of three episodes as their favorite of the series: Listen, Flatline or Mummy on the Orient Express. Mummy was my personal favorite and I'm sorry to say that I think the majority of that was because it was the companion-lite episode.

I like Clara a great deal and I enjoyed the tension between her and the Doctor this series. However, the tension often took front and center while the depths of Clara and the Doctor's characters faded into the background. In Mummy, with Clara sidelined into taking care of Maisie, it finally gave the Twelfth Doctor a chance to breathe on his own. The step-in companion, Perkins, was excellent as he was witty, but stepped into the background to allow the Doctor to have the full stage at the height of the tension.

A lot of the background elements worked exceptionally as well. The train in space gave it a luxurious Agatha Christie feel but also helped to bring in the claustrophobia and up the tension when they actually studied the mummy (very much like Midnight). All the other actors were enjoyable as well. There was seriousness as befitting the situation, but there were also slight moments of comedy as well, such as when Captain Quell acknowledges the Doctor's earlier question of how many people must die before he believes him (three).

The sly call backs are a nice touch as well. The Doctor carrying a cigarette case of jelly babies is highly amusing, as is his use of the line, "Are you my Mummy?" (calling back to both Series 1 and Series 4). What actually amazed me was that there was no reference (that I could tell) to Pyramids of Mars, which actually had robotic mummies walking around.

As I mentioned earlier, this episode is my favorite of Series 8, which was a very good series overall. I'd have no problem sitting down watching this one a second time around.

Overall personal score: 5 out of 5