Mummy on the Orient Express (TV Story)

Hilary Salmon

***Mummy on the Orient Express*** was the sixth serial of Season 50 of *Doctor Who*. It was written by Jamie Mathieson, directed by Paul Wilmshurst and starred Damien Molony as the Fourteenth Doctor & Kate Bracken as Heather McKenzie.

## Synopsis

There have been many trains that took the name *Orient Express*, but there's only ever been one that traverses space!

However, the Doctor & Heather find their luxury trip may take an unexpected turn when they discover there's a supernatural passenger...

## Cast

* The Doctor - Damien Molony
* Heather McKenzie - Kate Bracken
* Perkins - Frank Skinner
* Captain Quell - David Bamber
* Gus - John Sessions
* Maisie - Daisy Beaumont
* Mrs Pitt - Janet Henfrey
* Prof Moorhouse - Christopher Villiers
* Singer - Foxes
* Foretold - Jamie Hill

## References

### Music

* Queen's song "Don't Stop Me Now" is performed on the train, in a jazz theme.

### The Doctor

* The Doctor keeps jelly babies in a cigarette case about his person.

### Technology

* Half of the guests aboard the Orient Express are revealed by the Doctor to be hard-light holograms.
* Mrs Pitt's chair is fitted with the Excelsior Life Extender to help keep her alive.

### Planets

* The Doctor mentioned three planets when looking out at the Magellan black hole, which according to him used to be "planets as far as the eye could see". One of these was the planet Obsidian which was in perpetual darkness.
* Another of these planets was one made completely of shrubs, to which the Doctor later offered to take Heather.
* The third was the planet Thedion Four, which had constant acid rain. The Doctor said that he "had a lovely picnic there once, wearing a gas mask." It was destroyed a thousand years earlier.

### Mythology

* The countdown for the Foretold to kill is 66 seconds long. This is a shortened version of the Devil’s number, 666.

## Story Notes

* Prior to this story, the televised stories *The Robots of Death*, *Terror of the Vervoids*, and *The Unicorn and the Wasp* used elements from the works of Agatha Christie, with the latter also featuring the author as a character.
* Starting its broadcast at 20:35, this episode has the latest transmission time of a *Doctor Who* television story.
* The *Radio Times* programme listing was accompanied by a small colour head-and-shoulders shot of Frank Skinner as Perkins, with the accompanying caption "Doctor Who / 8.35 p.m. / Frank Skinner plays the chief engineer on an intergalactic luxury train".
* Two scenes were deleted from the final episode due to timing reasons. The first scene featured the Doctor protesting against superstition after seeing that people had lit a candle near the scroll and were leaving trinkets and money near it as if it was a shrine. The second scene revealed that Maisie was present near the campfire on the beach at the end, explaining that when the Doctor implanted Maisie's pain and trauma into himself, he took them away from her for good. In the former scene, the Doctor refers to having encountered alien technology masquerading as magic which is exactly what the Foretold turns out to be.
* Following the episode's first broadcast on BBC One, the BBC released an official music video of Foxes' complete performance of "Don't Stop Me Now," including clips from this episode, plus footage of Foxes performing the song not included in the episode, but also past and future Season 50 episodes. This is the first time the BBC has issued a formal music video for a song featured in *Doctor Who*, notwithstanding videos based upon the Doctor Who Theme created for a DVD release. Foxes herself uploaded a second video consisting solely of footage of her performing the song on the set, without any cutaways and featuring the mix heard on screen as opposed to the more robust mix used for the main music video.
* The Doctor's description of how he dealt with the situation on the *Orient Express* bears very strong resemblance to the pragmatic medical technique known as triage, appropriately fitting a character who refers to himself as "the Doctor"
* This story is one of few examples in Doctor Who of a non-diegetic visual appearing throughout the story. The timer shown during the Foretold's attack can't be seen by any of the characters, and is shown purely for the audience's benefit.

## Continuity

* The Eighth Doctor previously encountered trains that travel through space. (TV: *Transit*)
* The Doctor asks the Foretold "Are you my mummy?" (TV: *The Empty Child*, *The Army of the Dead*)
* The Doctor's respiratory bypass system allows him to handle lack of oxygen considerably better than humans. (TV: *The Ark in Space*, *Four to Doomsday*)
* The Doctor has previously encountered mummies, or mummy-like beings. (TV: *Pyramids of Mars*, *The Rings of Akhaten*)

## Home video releases

### DVD

* This story along with the other stories in Season 50 were released as *Doctor Who: The Complete Fiftieth Season* in 2014.

### Blu-ray

* This story along with the other stories in Season 50 were released as *Doctor Who: The Complete Fiftieth Season* on Blu-ray in 2014.