Doctor Who:
The Mark of the Rani
By Pip and Jane Baker
“You disappoint me. A
scientist and you're not thinking objectively. Davy, Faraday, Telford and
others. Over twenty men of genius. Have you no conception of what we could
achieve if we control them? Harness their genius, and this planet could become
the platform for the most devastating power in the universe.”
Promising to take Peri to
Kew Gardens the seem to have landed anywhere but. It appears they have landed in Killingworth
in the 19th Century at the beginning of the industrial
revolution. The problem there is that
some of the miners have become extremely violent and those that are have a
strange mark behind their ear. This
string of violence has George Stevenson worried about his industrial meeting
with a bunch of that era’s genius’s.
That is the least of The
Doctor’s problem as it appears that The Master is also in Killingworth
also. It appears he survived the events
from “Planet of Fire” and is up to his menacing deeds trying to change the
course of Earth’s history yet again. The Master is not the only
Time Lord around Killingworth either. The evil female Time Lady The Rani is
around also taking the chemical in the brain that induces sleep. She is stealing that from humans to give to
her slaves on Miasimia Goria. That’s double
the trouble for The Doctor and Peri as they must contend with both renegade
Time Lords and rid them from causing havoc on Earth.
When we think of season 22
of Doctor Who what do we think of? Colin
Bakers first full season as The Doctor, yes we do. The Sixth Doctor’s stories
with Daleks and Cybermen and a meet up with the Second Doctor absolutely. The controversy over how violent it became
and the new episode format to 45 minutes why yes those come to mind but
forgotten in that season that also has a real clunker in Timelash is the story
penned by Pip and Jane Baker The Mark of the Rani.
Here you have a story that
takes place in the past during the Luddite Rights during the hay day of the
industrial revolution. Plus you have The
Master played by masterfully by Anthony Ainley and it also introduces us to
another renegade the Time Lord The Rani.
While in there The Rani is gassing workers and taking a chemical from
the brain that controls sleep functions.
Her aliens on the planet Miasimia Goria that she occupies need the
chemical because she took it away from them and things have gotten out of hand.
Now I might be in the
minority here but I do enjoy The Mark of the Rani. No, it is not one of the greatest stories
ever but it does have its charm. For
example I enjoy watching the three Time Lords trying to get the upper hand on
each other. What’s funny is that they
don’t trust each other as far as the can throw them. But at times are forced to trust each other.
This can be annoying at times especially for The Rani who just happens to get
caught up in this feud of the two Time Lords.
The Mark of the Rani does
introduce viewers to The Rani played by Kate O’Mara. I think she was a good character who never
had the time to be developed properly.
Especially since her next appearance was in that piss poor debut story
for Sylvester McCoy “Time of the Rani”. Kate O’ Mara was very good in this story and
at times you actually believed that she was annoyed with the two boys. It would have been good to see her and Colin
have a go at each other.
There is at least one
really bad sore spot in this story. You
all know the scene the tree. That’s
right when Peri is about to wander into the minefield the tree grabs Peri and
saves her by a limb. Yeah that’s just
really bad even for Doctor Who back in the day.
To be fair I enjoyed this
story and it is quite overlooked when you think about Colin Bakers era on
Doctor Who. It is a fun romp as the
Doctor has a battle of wits against two Time Lords and has to save the George
Stevenson and his meeting of genius’s to keep the industrial age on track. Plus Colin and Nicola give great performances
as they both seem really comfortable in their roles as The Doctor and Peri and
you can see how great their chemistry was.
Grade B
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