YMMV / Doctor Who S34 E8 "Mummy on the Orient Express"

• Adorkable:
  • The Doctor on the beach at the end, drawing in the sand with a stick.
  • Clara cosplaying as a flapper, complete with later donning period-accurate silk pajamas.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: When it got out that this episode was titled "Mummy on the Orient Express", many people immediately concluded that it was directly connected to a Noodle Incident the Eleventh Doctor learned about at the end of "The Big Bang". When the Twelfth Doctor clarified the nature of the phone call and ignoring the summons, it was to be expected.
• Catharsis Factor: This story itself! It started off as a meager Noodle Incident spoken about off-hand in the closing moments of "The Big Bang", but it was one of those really juicy ideas that fans wanted to see, and it stuck in Jamie Matheson's head especially. When Matheson was brought onto the series proper, he knew it was too good to pass up. With a few alterations, he took special care to make his first story a beauty and rendered Steven Moffat's throwaway dialogue joke for an adventure into a genuine adventure, and fans were very happy with the results.
• Growing the Beard: In the Peter Capaldi farewell special immediately following his final episode, this story is looked at, along with "Flatline", where Capaldi really comes into his own as the Doctor and we begin to see him as no longer this morally ambiguous new person, but the Doctor through and through, starting with the scene where Clara wakes up by the shore and the Doctor fills her in that he saved everybody. This moment serves to reaffirm the audience, that yes, he is indeed the Doctor.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The episode's antagonist curses their victims. When the countdown hits zero, that person will die. To save someone else, the Doctor takes the curse from them, dooming himself. "Face the Raven" involves a similar premise, only Clara takes Rigsy's place. But while the Doctor is able to solve the curse, Clara does not and she dies for good. What hits harder is that she faced the raven because she wanted to emulate the Doctor.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: After Clara decides to stop traveling with the Doctor, she decides to go on one last adventure, the events of this episode, where he instead inspires her to stay on and keep traveling with him. After she decided to leave Doctor Who after Series 8, Jenna Coleman was convinced by Peter Capaldi to come back for a proper farewell story, “Last Christmas”, which she enjoyed so much she decided to come back for one more series.
• I Knew It!: In an episode all about a monster mummy, many fans knew instinctively the Doctor had to say "Are you my mummy?" at some point, especially with Moffat at the helm as the showrunner.
• Magnificent Bastard: Gus is a mysterious AI being who wants to capture an ancient creature known as the Foretold. Gus figures out an effective method of summoning it onto trains, and he forces the passengers to solve its origins and weaknesses before wiping out all of them to destroy witnesses. Gus disguises a laboratory as a train modeled after the Orient Express and lures several passengers onto it, including the Doctor and his companion Clara, once again with the intention of forcing them to help him assess and capture the Foretold. When the Doctor stops to call Clara, Gus forces him to get back to work by wiping out the entire kitchen staff. Once the Doctor finally figures out the Foretold's origins, Gus thanks the passengers for their efforts before attempting to drain oxygen from them. To prevent the Doctor from hacking into his system, Gus blows up the entire train, effectively getting away with his crimes. Cunning, resourceful, amiable, and ruthless at the same time, Gus is clearly one of the more competent villains in the series.
• Win Back the Crowd: Following "Kill the Moon"'s incredibly polarising reception in the fanbase, this episode received near-universal admiration. In the Doctor Who Magazine readers' poll in 2015, it ranked as the 2nd best story of Series 8, right behind "Flatline". The episode also served to win back fans who sided with Clara in "Kill the Moon" and saw the Doctor's actions as violating how the character has come to be understood by allowing the Doctor to explain himself to both Clara (who forgives him) and the audience.

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