He Who Moans: Doctor Who Review: Mummy on the Orient Express 

Anyone else wish Perkins (the Engineer in the story) had stayed on as a companion? Something I miss from Classic Who is when the Doctor has two companions that are not closely associated with one another.

Anyone else notice how downplayed the Sonic Screwdriver has been this season?

I think this is one of the episodes that feels the closest to being like Classic Who.

Loved it. It reminded me of some of the early 4th Doctor era in parts.

What I liked most about Donna was that she was the first New Doctor Who companion who wasn't in love with the Doctor or wanted to be his girlfriend. In fact she made that clear from the jump and it worked so well because of it. She was also opinionated and not just an accessory to the Doctor. Now there were times it was a bit annoying like in the Pompeii episode where he was trying to explain to her about fixed points in time and she kept on nagging him about saving the city. They finally reached a comprise and he saved that one family but even that was questionable. I do feel a good companion is their own character, they are not a lover, they have their on opinions and feelings I do however also feel that if there's one point where they should defer to the Doctor it's in matters of time and history and what can and can't be changed. Still, that was the one blemish on her time (that and the horrible ending where she is made to forget everything and go back to her old self). Of all the 'soft' endings other companions got when they probably should've just died she really got the shaft. Where is her TARDIS? Where are her adventures on her own?

I guess there aren't going to be any more companion retrospectives anymore since Clara actually has a character now. I was really hoping for more but it's nice that Clara has a personality and this was a prety good episode. Wow.

Love this ep. Next episode looks like the kind of surrealness Big Finish would come up with so I am kinda anticipating it.

The outfit which Capaldi wore in this episode should have been his outfit.

capaldi was terrific in this one i really liked it . same writer does this week's episode.

Definitely the most fun I've had with NuWho since The God Complex.

The only thing that bugged me about this episode was the captain saying "post traumatic stress" instead of "shellshock". I was expecting the word shellshock to come out of his mouth and I remembered it that way at first, until I remembered he said PTSD and I was like dammit that's so politically correct. The character would have said shellshock. I even kinda liked Clara in it.

What totally ruined this story was the fact that everything was shot in bright light. If they'd shot it in with dark foreboding atmospheric lighting it might have been the most genuinely frightening New Who episode.

I go between this and "Listen" as my two favourites of the season. I didn't really "get" this one on first watch but it's very, very rewatchable and great fun.

i had a feeling this would be you're favourite episode. it's my favourite out of season 8. however, tomorrows episode looks so bad

I agree with everything you said (I do for the most part) This has been my favorite story in a long time Stuart. My biggest complaint (and it has been for the longest time) is that current Who suffers from 45 min stories. Most stories that suck might have sucked less if they were two parts (which would give us a 90 minute story like the old days). I enjoyed this mummy story a lot!!

I enjoyed Kill the Moon despite seeing its flaws, but when I look back it irritates me somewhat. Mummy on the Orient Express had real scares, which is good. We're back behind the sofa! 45 minutes would be enough if it weren't for all the Clara bollocks.

Okay, did you enjoy the Jelly Babies in the cigarette case?

So, Stubagful. Since the change of showrunner is now pending I've decided to gnaw my way through the episodes from Kill The Moon (where Moffat fucking died to me) and now. Your reviews are to help me through this ordeal. So cheers mate. A tiny addition to the character of Clara: My first response at being dumped into the 'oh go on then just a trip more' reveal was just... okay, they let themselves off easy with that. We don't get to see the Doctor turn up and persuade Clara, because of course we wouldn't be allowed to see him in such a humiliating position. But that's what I've come to expect from Moffat-shows at this point since my biggest beef with him is just what an overgrown fratboy he seems to be in relation to both his blatant self-insertion in his male protagonists, and the utter ineptitude at giving female characters a personality - especially one that doesn't revolve around some guy, or end up doing so. This no matter how bland or 'feisty' their initial personalities come across at the start. The ruination of Amy Pond, Mary Watson and Irene Adler are prime examples here (And WHAT THE FUCK IS EURUS EVEN?!) I don't see it changing much, especially not with the secon hand knowledge that the Master is called the diminutive 'Missy' the moment he changes gender.I mean come the fuck ON Moffat! So my pessismistometer in that respect is still pretty high. I guess it's harder to ignore these things when you're a woman watching. But I'll soldier on, and for the record, liked the general plot and progression of this episode quite a bit too.

I agree with this one so much. Great review as always.

YES I cannot WAIT to see this one now!

I think one can assume that Gus's motivation was to get the hell rid of the Foretold, at the expense of the experts if necessary.

my first time following DW I've been wowed... This is why i stayed on.

I actually really liked this episode *a sudden intake of air*

great episode

Murray Gold was probably told to do x, y and z with the soundtrack, I doubt it's really his fault.

Maybe my favourite episode of series 8

I think that Gus's motivation will be explained later,maybe something to do with Missy. I hate connecting everything to Missy but I feel that without an explanation about Gus,this episode has no meaning. Great review as always.

All of my problems with this episode can be sum up with one word: Clara

did it ever explain who Gus was?

MOTOE is owned by max Capricorn and so is ok that it is like voyage of the damed

Yeah, the one thing I didn't like about this episode was 'it's a train. Which somehow works in space. Which has smoke billowing out the back, which wouldn't happen in space either, but hey, we'll go with it'. Other than that, it was a very well rounded, well crafted episode.

not sure why you were inferring that Clara was solely responsible for that "right choice" crap in the Kill the Moon clip you were showing around 11:10. as you stated in the review (and I kind of agree with this point by the way and it was an additional revelation on how ethically messed up that episode was) the episode itself was stating that she was making the right choice and in fact the Doctor agreed that not killing the creature was the right move so he is just as thickheaded as her in that regard. similar logic can be applied to the "Into the Dalek morality thing" as it's not just her that viewed things that way but also the episode itself for the most part. the problem is not with the character but with the questionable logic that the writers are making her spout. they are trying to make her the voice of reason...except they apparently didn't have much to begin with. so here's more Kill the Moon crap (and again your review again was really eye-opening and made and episode that I disliked for bad science and questionable Doctor behaviour all the more despicable). not only does the episode make the situation more black and white than it needed to but the Doctor's judging of the astronaut lady (damn that name is infectious) is silly. I mean if he didn't feel like helping out today why did he decide to condemn her for wanting to make the killing choice. by his own logic he shouldn't get involved and yet he's letting his opinion be stated in his black and white manner. If we're supposed to believe that he doesn't know the outcome of the future than why is he automatically assuming that killing the thing is a bad idea. if he does know things are gonna turn out fine than why's he messing around like this. Also as Diamanda Hagan stated leaving Clara (+ Courtney) to make the choice is stupid too since she's from 2014 and need not be involved in that choice either based on his logic since she is not involved in this time.

ok, this is getting wierd, for a while i thought it was kind of funny and cool that u tended to have the same if not, very similar opinions to me on episodes but now its getting wierd lol, i loved it too, still hated Claras scenes as much as ever, well not as much as "vote earth, turn ur lights on or off! thats my brilliant idea". on the whole recreating a well known earth vehicle that drives this story, i feel that voyage of the damned just tried to do the Mccoy story with the space bus (i cant remember if it was Bannerman or greatest show in the galaxy, or another one, too tired to remember) then cocked it up by not bothering to settle on doing titanic or peosidon adventure but this time, i loved it, the train looked awesome in space. just everything in this story was awesome, well pretty much all of it what with Clara not being dead yet and all, one day, one day she'll leave and i will be dancing, surely she wont be hear for more than another series or 2 (i hope). but i think i love this story the most for reasserting my feelings on the show; basically no matter how mind numbingly retarded and awfull DW can be, every single series still has at least one or 2 fantastic stories.

this guy

2:54, not about 66 seconds in, literally 66 seconds in, that's like the whole shtick of the monster.

what baffles me about this one is that the Doctor was apparently trying to get Clara back into his good graces but decided to basically lie to her again in order to do so. I get that this incarnation was somewhat alien and antisocial but this kind of crap makes him just seem really stupid which wasn't a good thing to have after Kill the Moon showed him as a prick.

TBH I relay don't like the current doctor or Clara. They fucked up a bunch of things to be more hip in a fucking scfi show. IMO one of the things about scfi is that it's not suppose to be hip it's suppose to be cheesy. If you make it hip you get the recent star treck movies

since you were a little unclear on your view on listen do you mind giving a more detailed statement on your feelings. also lets hope that is jamie does become the new show runner you don't get tired of HIS tropes lol

Capaldi's costume was so, so stupid though. The worst of his tenure.

8:30 10:42

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Oh shit, this video has 66 likes (sorry).

This episode was mediocre and blah