‘Doctor Who: Time and the Rani’ (1987)


Being on call is great, at least as long the phone doesn’t ring… 😉 I’ve been on call this weekend and so far, the phone hasn’t rung once! This means I’ve had the best excuse not to leave the house which in turn means that I’ve had the ideal excuse to catch up on some reading and TV, ‘Doctor Who’ in particular.

I’ve got a few ‘Doctor Who’ DVDs that I need to watch and today seemed like a good time to watch ‘Time and the Rani’, where one Doctor bows out and another one takes up the mantle… 

Violently wrenched out of time, the TARDIS is brought crashing down onto the planet Lakertya by the villainous Rani. Caught within the maelstrom, the Doctor is forced to regenerate.

Imprisoning the Doctor in her stronghold, the Rani seizes upon his vulnerable state. By impersonating his friend Mel, the Rani deceives the unwitting Doctor into helping her achieve her audacious plan.

Just what is she up to? Why has she enslaved Albert Einstein and a host of geniuses? And as an asteroid composed of Strange Matter approaches Lakertya, can a weakened Doctor save the universe when he has little idea of who he really is?

‘Time and the Rani’ was the last story to feature Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor and I used that term lightly as he’s in the story for all of about a minute and a half of the first episode (if he was even in it that long, I wonder if McCoy was just wearing a wig)… I never really followed what happened behind the scenes but things must have been at an all time low if that was the way that Baker bowed out of the show. Prize for ‘The Most Uninspiring Regeneration’ goes to this one then but at the same time, when you put it into context, that regeneration is actually more powerful than it looks. Farewell then Colin Baker, definitely a better Doctor than I remember back in the day. Hello then to Sylvester McCoy and…?

If I’m being completely honest, I like McCoy in this episode. He doesn’t have to do an awful lot, other than be a new regeneration with all that entails, but he makes a bloody good show of it; taking little bits of Baker’s Doctor and adding his own slant to it. The end result is a Doctor who is bouncing with energy and surprising moments of tender humanity. I loved watching him and Mel discover each other as well, that was lovely.

It’s a shame then that the actual plot didn’t match up to the performances. For a start, hasn’t the Rani done this before? I’m not 100% sure but I’m sure I can remember her doing this in another tale, maybe with the Fifth Doctor…? Prove me wrong, or right… 😉 Aside from that, the plot itself feels like it’s just people running in and out of the Rani’s lair (either escaping or on some kind of mission) and that wouldn’t so bad except they do it for FOUR EPISODES… My patience only goes so far with that kind of thing.

And the Rani doesn’t have the presence to carry the whole story as the main villain, not for me anyway. She is diluted by having to pretend to be Mel and a little too dispassionate to really carry things the rest of the time. Again, your mileage may vary but that’s the impression I came away with.

So… A great introduction to Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor but not a great ‘Doctor Who’ story in itself. Oh well, I’m not expecting them all to be winners and next up to watch is ‘The Robots of Death’ which I’ve heard is a good one (I’ve never seen it myself)…

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