The Doctor finally responds to the phone call he received at the end of The Big Bang.

New writers are always hard to judge on Doctor Who, as it’s hard to guess in advance as to whether you’ll find the episode enjoyable or not. So, was Jamie Mathieson’s first ever Doctor Who episode a success? It most certainly was! In fact, he’s written the best episode of the series so far.

Mummy on the Orient Express has the Doctor and Clara taking a ‘last hurrah’ trip on an interplanetary version of the famed Orient Express. Intending for the journey to be nice and relaxing, they soon find themselves solving the mystery of the Foretold, an apparition that kills its victims exactly 66 seconds after they see it.

I’m just going to say it right now, but the Mummy is the best monster we’ve had in ages. Incredibly effective, it actually comes across as very menacing, helped in no small part by the fact that it actually does something throughout the episode. The mystery about its identity and how it worked was also very well realised, and the overall result was an extremely engaging monster of the week. The ’66 seconds to live’ gimmick was a nice touch as well, but I did get annoyed at the onscreen timer counting down to zero. I understand what the production team was trying to do, but it wasn’t necessary at all, especially considering that the chief engineer, Perkins (Frank Skinner), was counting down out loud anyway. The onscreen clock could have been dropped, and the episode wouldn’t have been any worse for it.

That, however, is one of only a few minor gripes I have with the episode, the other being the fact that the unseen ‘villain’ of the episode, Gus, was left frustratingly unresolved. Who was he? Why did he want to use the Mummy’s technology? How many similar space trains had he used to examine the Mummy? How did he contact the Doctor? What happened to him? Alas, we are never told.

Apart from that, however, Mummy on the Orient Express shines in all other respects, with particular note to the Doctor/Clara interactions. While initially fearful that the events of Kill the Moon had been swept aside with no real consequence, I was glad to see that the Doctor’s actions still had repercussion, albeit not in the way I had expected. While I think the episode could have worked just as well had Clara been absent, having her there did allow the chance for the episode to explore the Doctor’s workings – particularly the fact of how he lies to people to gain their trust. The scene at the end where the Doctor explains his reasoning to Clara was also good, and finally cleared up some of the moral ambiguity surrounding Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor. It’s certainly reassuring to know that he does have his hearts in the right place, even if his actions don’t appear to demonstrate this. After all, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

But while the audience gained a much clearer appreciation of the 12’s conscience, the same cannot be said for Clara. As I said in my review of The Caretaker, Clara’s treatment of Danny has been nothing short of terrible, and it doesn’t get better here either. At the very end of the episode, she announces that Danny is suddenly alright with her travelling with the Doctor – however, it’s extremely obvious that she’s lying. Hopefully this will get addressed in future episodes, but for now I can do nothing but denounce her behaviour. Continue travelling with the Doctor, fine, but at least tell Danny about it first. He deserves to know, not to be shunted aside and left in the dark once again. Going behind his back shows that Clara has a complete lack of respect and willingness to trust the person she’s in a relationship with. Rather alarmingly, this is getting close to the Rose Tyler/Mickey Smith dynamic, something we do not need a repeat of.

Mummy on the Orient Express also had a fairly large amount of supporting characters, and unusually, all serve a purpose in the episode. Yes, two get killed off, but Masie is vital to the resolution and Perkins helps drive the plot forward. All four characters are surprisingly complex given their relatively brief screen time, with the Captain having a traumatic past, the Professor hinting at a lifelong obsession with the Foretold, Masie resenting her grandmother, and Perkins having begun his own investigation into the Foretold. It seems as though they’re all ripped straight out of an Agatha Christie novel – no surprise considering the title. It’s obvious that the episode draws inspiration from the crime novels.

All in all, Mummy on the Orient Express is a fantastic episode. With only two minor nitpicks, it has a great monster, great characters and some interesting interactions between the Doctor and Clara. Definitely the best episode of the series.

9/10