Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Samuel Anderson, Frank Skinner, David Bamber, John Sessions, Daisy Beaumont, Janet Henfrey, Christopher Villiers, Foxes, Jamie Hill.
Death stalks the Orient Express, an unseen killer picking of the passengers one by one and with the bodies starting to stack up, it can only be time for the stiff upper lip and slightly lunatic outlook of a madman in a blue box and the mysterious beautiful companion to address the situation and tie up the loose ends.
Therein lays the rub, The Doctor and Clara Oswald haven’t spoken for weeks, Clara also admitted she hated her friend so if you are going to say goodbye completely, what better way that to solve a riddle, have a proper heart felt chat and then take on a killer?
Mummy on the Orient Express asks a pertinent question of the use of guest stars within the long running serial. Does the use of an alleged big name actually add any weight to the episode or the storyline? The use of John Simm for example, a man who is rightly regarded as one of the finest actors his generation, was an out and out success as The Master, a real tour de force and perhaps the only actor at the time who could go up against David Tennant’s incarnation whereas, no matter how popular Kylie Minogue was in the role, could the part of Astrid in The Voyage of the Damned have been played by someone else, the star seemingly more important the star?
The same could be said of two of the names that made Mummy on the Orient Express a really creepy delight in which to savour. Arguably David Bamber is a character actor of immense talent, he has given credence to many a role within some very well written dramas over the years and made the role of Captain Quell a brow beaten, under fire; pompous ability that would have been missing in any other actor’s portrayal and yet Frank Skinner as Perkins gets more plaudits for what comes across as role for the more famous fan. Like Ms. Minogue previously, would the role of Perkins benefitted from an actor perhaps more suited to the role?
With Christopher Villiers adding a great aside to the action as Professor Moorhouse, Mummy on the Orient Express was one of those great storylines for which tension became something thrilling, something dangerous and life, a precious but precarious beast. The scenes involving The Doctor and Clara were perhaps the best they have been and when the young school teacher finds herself becoming complicit in the Doctor’s plan, it adds to thought that she is so important to the overall scheme of things and that something monumental, perhaps even disastrous is brewing.
The fact that she is able to smile and lie about her reasons for changing her mind after telling The Doctor she never wanted to see him again makes her seem as though that her addiction to the Doctor is going to spiral out of control.
Mummy on the Orient Express really grabs the viewer’s attention and dares the audience to go down darker roads in which the power of the imagination would be really woken. A gripping and stunning story, worthy of past highs!
Ian D. Hall