By Jamie Mathieson
“To
our last hurrah.”
When
I saw that Doctor Who was going to do a story called Mummy on the Orient
Express it had me worried. Being a fan
of Agatha Christie’s novel murder on the Orient Express I had reservations that
it would be stupid and be a cheap knock off of the Christie novel. When I saw the trailer and saw that it was in
space and the premise of whoever sees the mummy has 66 seconds to live well I
was a bit more interested than worried.
Mummy
on the Orient Express reminded me of a Tom Baker story written by Robert Holmes. Except that Robert Holmes would have given us
a better ending. I don’t mean the way he
defeated the enemy but the fact that we did not know who Gus was. Unless I missed something it would have been
good to see The Doctor confront Gus and bring him to justice. That really is my only fault that and
keeping Clara locked in a storage car for half the episode. But those are all minor tit for tats.
Back
to the Robert Holmes and Tom Baker style of story it did have that feel. In fact Peter Capaldi seemed to be channeling
Tom Baker in this story. Not the goofy Tom Baker from the Graham Williams era
but the serious and slightly aloof Tom Baker from the Philip Hinchcliffe
era. In fact this had more of a feel of
that era than last week’s story Kill the Moon.
Right down to the Jelly Babies in the cigarette tin. This made me a happy camper as I really love
that era of Doctor Who and I am glad they are going in that direction with the
stories.
I
did enjoy this story as it was different and had a pretty cool looking monster
in the mummy. I really enjoyed the
concept of the 66 seconds left to live when you see the mummy and thought it
was explained pretty well. I thought it was clever that the mummy turned out to
be a soldier who was trying to die but was continuing to fight the war he was
from. The way the Doctor figured it out
by using his brain was pretty good also and I’m glad that is back in Doctor Who
instead of zapping it with his screwdriver.
The way The Doctor theorized what it was and then figured out what to
say to make the mummy stop was really good and was the high point of the
story.
The
nature of The Doctor is becoming clear that he is a man that will make the
tough and hard decisions even if it is not a popular one. Like asking the poor victims what they see
with the time they have left while not having a care or sympathy for those who
died is pretty cold but you can see why he did it as he was trying to save more
than the few that he more or less sacrificed because he could not help
them. It is strange seeing The Doctor
helpless but at the same time you can see the frustration in him because he
cannot save them. Peter Capaldi’s Doctor
seems the most alien and Mummy on the Orient Express really brings that out in
a more prominent way than the other stories in series 8.
I
really enjoyed the character of Perkins.
I liked him so much that it was a shame that he is not a companion of
The Doctor. There was good chemistry
between Peter Capaldi and Frank Skinner that it was a shame not to have him
travel with The Doctor. Perkins even
questioned The Doctor’s tactics just like a companion and it also helped bring
out the alienist more in The Doctor.
While
Mummy on the Orient Express is not the greatest story this season it was very
entertaining and did resemble a Hinchcliffe and Holmes style of story and that
made this reviewer pretty happy. Hope
they have more stories this clever that brings about the scares and has a
really good solution to the problem.
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