Mummy on the Orient Express (TV story)

Mummy on the Orient Express was the eighth episode of the eighth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales.

Writer Jamie Mathieson was approached to write the story while crafting another script for Steven Moffat. He was given the the title, chosen by Moffat, which immediately led Mathieson to images of "Agatha Christie, Victoriana, lots of luxury". Frank Skinner's character was based on a friend of his, Perkins, a "train buff" from whom he acquired information about the Orient Express.

The original idea for the script had far more content, with the Express visiting the "Seven Wonders of the Universe", but, in recognition of the time constraints, this was removed.

Brian Minchin expressed early on to Mathieson that the Mummy might force the episode to be broadcast at a later time as the BBC judged it to be too scary. Minchin had repeatedly tried to have it shown in the series trailer, but the corporation would not allow it. (DWM 478)

Synopsis
As the Doctor takes Clara for a final trip aboard the Orient Express, they find it has a supernatural passenger...

Plot
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Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * Clara - Jenna Coleman
 * Danny Pink - Samuel Anderson
 * Perkins - Frank Skinner
 * Captain Quell - David Bamber
 * Gus - John Sessions
 * Maisie - Daisy Beaumont
 * Prof Moorhouse - Christopher Villiers
 * Mrs. Pitt - Janet Henfrey
 * Singer - Foxes
 * Foretold - Jamie Hill

The Doctor

 * The Doctor wears a bow tie, but in a fashion identical to the ones he used during his first incarnation.
 * The Doctor keeps jelly babies in a case about his person.
 * The Doctor uses psychic paper.
 * The Doctor mentions receiving free tickets for the Orient Express a long time ago.

Story notes

 * This episode marks the fifth story of Series 8 not to feature Missy after Robot of Sherwood, Listen, Time Heist and Kill the Moon.
 * This isn't the first story inspired by a tale from Agatha Christie. (TV: The Robots of Death). The Doctor met Agatha Christie herself in TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp.
 * Half of the guests aboard the Orient Express are revealed by the Doctor to be holograms, specifically 'hard-light' holograms. This a reference to the sci-fi comedy, Red Dwarf, where the holographic character Arnold Rimmer advanced to a hard-light mode, allowing him to interact with solid matter.

Ratings
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Filming locations
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Production errors
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Continuity

 * Following the wedding of Amy Pond and Rory Williams, the Eleventh Doctor received a call informing him that an Egyptian goddess was loose on the Orient Express in space. He indicates that this was just another trap by Gus. (TV: The Big Bang)
 * The Seventh Doctor previously encountered trains that travel through space. (PROSE: Transit)
 * The Doctor previously visited space-travelling reproductions of 20th century Earth means of transportation, most recently the Titanic. (TV: Delta and the Bannermen, TV: Voyage of the Damned)
 * The Doctor asks the Foretold "Are you my mummy?" in remembrance of The Empty Child ' s Jamie, an allusion that he previously made in The Poison Sky.
 * Once again, the Doctor's respiratory bypass system allows him to handle lack of Oxygen, considerably better than humans. (TV: The Ark in Space, TV Smith and Jones, TV: The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe)
 * The Doctor previously encountered mummies, most recently in the Pyramid of the Rings of Akhaten. (TV: Pyramids of Mars, PROSE: The Sands of Time, COMIC: The Curse of the Scarab, TV: The Rings of Akhaten)
 * This is the second time a monster favours victims who possess ailments, just as the Siren did in The Curse of the Black Spot (TV: The Curse of the Black Spot)
 * It has been three weeks since Clara stormed out of the TARDIS after the incident on the Moon in 2049. (TV: Kill the Moon)
 * The Doctor mentions how hard it is for someone to acquire the TARDIS telephone number. (TV: Time Heist)
 * When the Doctor was talking to himself about what the Foretold death reminds him of, he puts on an accent of the Fourth Doctor. He also offers Perkins a jelly baby, just like the Fourth Doctor. (TV: Robot et. al.)

DVD releases
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Blu-ray releases
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