The Mark of the Rani
by Pip and Jane Baker
Starring Colin Baker as the Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri
The Doctor and Peri are diverted to the early 19th century where not one, but two renegade Time Lords are out to do the Doctor mischief.
Summary
In a peaceful iron mining town in the 19th century, miners are being changed into violent luddites by a mysterious old woman running a bath house. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Peri arrive on scene after the TARDIS is dragged off course by a mysterious interference from another time machine. Unbeknownst to them, they are stalked by the Master, who has drawn them here to kill them.
The Master reveals the woman running the bath house to be the Rani, an exiled Time Lord scientist. She is uninterested in his feud with the Doctor and wants to proceed with her own business: Extracting the brain chemicals that allow humans to sleep. The process isn’t fatal, but has the side effect of making the victims violent and unable to rest.
The Master forces the Rani to help him destroy the Doctor.
The Doctor investigates the outbreak of violence and meets the famous inventor George Stephenson. Stephenson has called a meeting of some of the worlds greatest geniuses, and he Master wants to harness them to rule the Earth.
Analysis
Perhaps it is the fact that I just watched the appalling Ghost Light, but I enjoyed this episode a lot more than I recall doing when it first aired in 1985. I intensely disliked Pip and Jane Baker’s work back then, but this story really wasn’t that bad. Despite that, I’m not particularly looking forward to the release of Time and the Rani.
Some have said that the location footage is the star of this story, and while I wouldn’t go that far, it certainly adds a lot to the production value of the episodes. Colin Baker, at this point, had settled into the Doctor fairly well and struck a good balance between obnoxious and brilliant do-gooder.
Kate O’Mara plays the Rani just slightly over-the-top, but you might not notice it because of the completely over-the-top, pantomime Master as played by Anthony Ainley. Ainley’s portrayal of the Master is one of the most disappointing things in this story. Perhaps it was an intentional descent into madness for the character, but each successive appearance was more camp than the last. In this episode, he cannot even walk normally and is constantly sort of tip-toeing with his shoulders hunched over and wild eyes. At any moment I expect him to turn to the camera, put his fingers to his lips and say to the audience, “Be very quiet, I’m hunting the Doctor.†(Followed, perhaps by the sound of someone slapping their leg and shouting, “OH NO YOU’RE NOT!â€)
The Master’s character really has no business in this story, and I’m sure he was added in as an afterthought. It’s a complete waste of his character and he is completely eclipsed by the Rani. No more is he a formidable adversary of the Doctor, but an insane caricature – a shadow of the Master past.
While the location scenes are nice and well put together, too often the studio scenes come across like a stage play, with lots of stilted dialog, particularly between the Master and the Rani. If I don’t know better, I would say it was two different directors.
There’s a tragic tale of the musician hired to score the story dying after only producing 20 minutes of music. His score was scrapped and a new one commissioned. The new one is not good, it drones and grates and sounds grotesquely, electronically anachronistic. Well, Doctor Who has never had great incidental music – and yet I keep buying the CDs.
Despite the fact that I enjoyed this one, I’m not letting Pip and Jane off the hook that easily, I do have a number of bones to pick with their script.
For example, who’s going to buy that the Master wants to “harness the genius†of early 19th century humans to take over the world. Surely the 19th century’s greatest brain is nothing but a drooling idiot by comparison to even the lowliest of Time Lords. What could they possibly come up with that wouldn’t be child’s play to the Master? (I’m sensing a theme there, because, as I recall, in Time and the Rani, the Rani is capturing earth geniuses for some equally idiotic plan.)
Why would the Master try to drop the Doctor’s TARDIS into the mine shaft to destroy it? Surely he, of all people, should know that something that simple could never harm the TARDIS?
The Rani, a brilliant Time Lord chemist, can’t synthesize a simple human brain substance? And she supposed to so brilliant and amoral, yet she wastes time to invent land mines which turn people into trees? (And don’t get me started about the scene where the tree reaches out to cop a feel from Peri… er… save her from becoming a tree, too.)
Still, despite all that, I enjoyed it. (Alright, I bristled a bit every time the Master was made look idiotic.) As I recall, I didn’t originally like the 45 minute episode format, but it plays well here. I’m more convinced than ever that the new Doctor Whos should adopt two-part episodes as the norm in the future.
Colin Baker is one of my favorite Doctors and yet, he didn’t get very good stories. It’s disconcerting to say that this is his best of those currently available on DVD.
Hand of Fear is waiting on my DVD shelf for viewing next.