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Chris Van Hellsöng @vanhellsong.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Top top show! Mummy on the Orient Express is my go-to. Pithy dialogue, black humour, the train in space, cribbing from 70s tv, Frank Skinner! Foxes! makes this an utter joy. Capaldi finding his character in this speech is endlessly rewatchable. If they could do this every week it’d still be on telly

CLARA
So you saved everyone?
THE DOCTOR looks at her levelly.
THE DOCTOR
No. I just saved you and left the rest
to suffocate. This is all just my
cover story.
CLARA looks at him witheringly. He grins and looks into the
fire.
CLARA
When you made me lie... to Maisie - *
THE DOCTOR *
I couldn’t risk Gus figuring out my *
plan and stopping me. *
CLARA *
So you pretended. To be heartless. *
THE DOCTOR considers her for a beat. *
THE DOCTOR *
Would you like to think that about me? *
Would that make it easier? Because I *
didn’t know for sure I could save her. *
I couldn’t save Quell. Or Moorhouse. *
There was a good chance she’d die too. *
At which point I would have just moved *
onto the next one. And the next one. *
Until I beat it. (beat) Sometimes, all *
the choices you have are bad. And you *
have to choose anyway.

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