Dr Who: Mummy on the Orient Express

[Albino Boo]

Another good story this week. Elements of two Agatha Christie stories, Murder on the orient express and And Then There Were None, plus bits of the Lady Vanishes. Good ambiguity in plot with plenty of red herrings and misdirections. It nicely plays with expectations of the Dr's character and I loved the cigarette case with jelly babies. A good cameo from Frank Skinner. I'm going to issue some fashion advice now, Jenna Coleman's figure is to full for a flapper dress and she should avoided that look.

Overall I'm enjoying the back to the 70s Dr of the last couple of episodes.

 

[Gizmo1990]

I liked it, much to me surprise. I was a bit disapointed that it would not be a Clara free episode as the teaser from last week made it look like it could have been but she actually did very little. And I loved the apperance of Frank Skinner. I really wish he had said yes and stayed on the Tardis even tho a small part of me expected him to turn out to be Gus.

Next week looks like we are going to be back to the Clara Oswold show tho. The Doctor traped in the Tardis with Clara outside doing all the important stuff.

Not that it matters if I like it or not. My GF will watch it no matter how bad it gets and my sister has a crush on Clara so as they are both staying with me at the moment I have no control of the TV remote.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I really liked this one, and I enjoyed how it continued on from last week's theme. The Doctor is not omnipotent, as Clara led herself to believe. And I like how they resolved the tension between them, with the Doctor asking her to be honest about how she sees him. He makes the hard decisions every day, and sometimes, you just don't get a right or wrong answer, but two bad choices. I liked that, because it tied back into the awful choice he set on Clara the last episode, and it gave her insight into how hard his own life is every single day.

I'm not sure how I feel about Clara lying to Danny over this, though. Yeah, he said that he understood if she decided to keep traveling with the Doctor, but after being so resolute to leave that life, she immediately drops it and lies to him on the phone. Traveling with the Doctor IS her addiction, and it's going to drive a convenient TV Drama wedge into her relationship with Danny.

 

[Tanis]

I enjoyed it, though all this 'death by brain stuff' makes me wonder if Clara is going to get all Donna'd before she goes.

 

[SerBrittanicus]

This has probably been my favourite episode so far this season and the lack of Clara probably helped tremendously on that part - I was hoping Frank Skinner was going to stick around and replace her. I also like Capaldi more and more every time I see him as the doctor.

 

[Hawki]

That was actually quite a good episode. I stopped watching after the first episode of series 8, but seeing this, I'm left to wonder what I missed. Good writing, good characterization, and in a single episode (in my realm of experience) the Twelfth Doctor has established himself as his own Doctor.

And it reminds me of what I love about the show at the first place - any many other sci-fi shows out there have homicidal mummies stalking recreations of 20th century trains where GlaDOS's deranged sibling (a.k.a. Gus) politely tells people they're about to die?

All in all, solid episode.

 

[Albino Boo]

And it reminds me of what I love about the show at the first place - any many other sci-fi shows out there have homicidal mummies stalking recreations of 20th century trains where GlaDOS's deranged sibling (a.k.a. Gus) politely tells people they're about to die?

Its a reference to the Robots of Death

 

[Thaluikhain]

Big step up from last week's one. Not great, but not bad.

 

[Kingjackl]

I reckon this was the best one so far. It had a cool setting, an interesting mystery, a varied supporting cast and a pretty damn frightening monster. Also, hearing "Don't Stop Me Know" as a 30s lounge song and Clara sporting the bob haircut and art-deco cocktail dress (which was beautiful by the way) made me feel like I was watching a crossover with Bioshock Infinite.

I almost cheered when the Doctor saved that woman in the end though. I've been a big fan of Peter Capaldi's Doctor Dickhead character, but mainly because of the potential for character development it held. This episode was a perfect culmination of all that's happened in the last few where his increasingly callous behaviour drove a wedge between him and Clara. To see him finally step up to the plate and be (forgive the cliche here) the hero she wanted him to be was awesome. I also like that it did without sacrificing the pragmatism that made him so intriguing to begin with.

 

[Terminal Blue]

My thoughts:

"What the fuck is this.. is that actual tension. Oh my God, that guy was characterized a bit and he still died in a not-very-nice way! I think I might feel an actual feel.. something is very wrong!"

No really. I think it's the best episode there has been for a long time. I think they overplayed the Renegade Shepard card a bit too much, but it ties into the whole conceit of the doctor-as-military-officer quite well and I kind of liked that his explanation left open the possibility that his "performance" was kind of genuine. It had a lot of the "you do what you can, but sometimes people die" quality of the early reboot episodes, which wasn't for everyone but in my opinion beats the kind of whimsical "everything will be solved with space magic" quality of the "everybody lives" era.

 

[Biran53]

Fantastic episode. Great monster, nice balance of ongoing character drama with the episode's "case," and a fun mid point twist in pacing.

"Are you my mummy?"

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I liked it. It seemed like a return of the Doctor that helps people and is awesome. I mean he still was kind of gruff and somewhat cold when it came to the people who did die, but ultimately he was trying to stop this thing. Also it was a less Clara-centered episode so that's a bonus.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

It was pretty good, I was hoping that Clara wouldn't be in it but she didn't play too strong a role so that's alright.
What I will say though, is that the ending felt a little rushed.

 

[cyrad]

I actually didn't like it. It's not much of a mystery if you dump all the clues in the last 15 minutes of the story in hastily spoken exposition dump.