(632) The Mark of the Rani - Part 2

The cliffhanger works just as well as in this episode but something is slightly different and that is a shot of a man who is later identified as George Stevenson. It is a bit of a cheat really but it’s an interesting way of introducing a character like Stevenson. Sadly I think that Stevenson is rather under used in this episode. It does raise a question as to why he was even introduced into the story. You could easily have just mentioned his name and he would have been more involved in the story than he was. There was one fun scene when the Doctor gets very wrapped up in helping Stevenson with his design. Whilst Stevenson is pretty much underused, the same can’t be said for Luke. Gary Cady plays Stevenson’s assistant Luke. He gets put under the control of the Master but unfortunately it’s difficult to tell the difference because Cady doesn’t really show much emotion.

The whole idea about the Rani have a Turner painting hiding her TARDIS is quite a clever idea and it is something that featured in the previous episode but it seems to be more important in this one. The first thing that strikes me when we see inside the Rani’s TARDIS is that she has a better designed TARDIS than the Doctor. I just want the Doctor to travel in this TARDIS from now on

There is an interesting bit where Peri is point the Masters tissue thing and it’s clear that things are going to go wrong because its Peri. She is quickly outwitted by the Rani which isn’t too difficult but its worth it just to see Kate O’Mara act like an evil genius. The partnership of the Master and the Rani is rather interesting as they do seem to be almost on the same page. The Rani introduces some interesting bomb things which turn people into intriguing things. Luke gets turned into a tree although the performance is the same. The Rani’s reaction to Luke being a tree is funny because she reminds the Doctor that a tree has four times the life expectancy than a human so he is actually better off as he is now.

There doesn’t actually seem to be a moment which is where the Doctor is victorious. The closest that we get is when the Rani and the Master escape in her TARDIS and things go wrong. Things are worse than that actually as a dinosaur starts to grow and unfortunately its not the best model of a dinosaur that there has ever been. This story has been just as much fun as I had thought. The location filming has been one of the main reasons why this story seemed to work. The introduction of the Rani was well done and I liked the trio of Timelords battling it out on earth. I thought that Sarah Hellings, Pip and Jane Baker have done quite well with this adventure. The performances have been really very good and apart from the character of Luke, they all seemed to be relevant to the story. The next story is going to be interesting because some familiar faces make a return. I am starting to think that this season is one of the strongest seasons of Doctor Who for quite sometime.

(631) The Mark of the Rani - Part 1

If this story goes the way that I hope it does, then it will be the best start to a season for many years. After the rather violent previous story, it’s a bit of a relief that we have a less violent story. This was the first story to be written by the husband and wife team of Pip and Jane Baker. Jane becomes the third credited woman to write for Doctor Who. Sarah Hellings becomes only the fifth woman to have directed the show. So far women have accounted for 5.1% of writers and 9.4% of directors.

This is one of those stories where I am going to bang on about the location filming but its hard not to when it looks as good as it does. I don’t live too far away from the Black Country Living Museum which is very similar to where this story was filmed. I wish that this story had been longer because its beautiful to look at. Every scene that is filmed outside looks perfect and Sarah Hellings makes really good use of every single opportunity.

This story sees the first appearance of the recently lost Kate O’Mara who plays the Rani. We don’t see much of her at first but on her second appearance she features more on screen. She wants to do her dastardly plans for scientific research whereas the Master just wants to destroy the Doctor. That is why the Rani could make a claim as being better than the Master. She is removing a chemical from people’s brains which takes away their ability to sleep. A group of miners are knocked out by the Rani’s gas and then become very aggressive and sort of become the lackeys for the Rani and the Master. The Master makes his first appearance since Planet of Fire (1984). It’s clear that his demise was short lived but it would have been interesting to have a bit of information given as to how he survived. His ‘first’ appearance comes when it’s implied that a scarecrow may be him. He doesn’t waste much time in trying to cause trouble. The aggressive trio are easily brainwashed into believing the Doctor is the one causing trouble.

“Devious and over complicated” is how the Rani describes the Master and that is pretty much how I would describe the Master. I like how the Rani and the Master don’t get along at all. Kate O’Mara is very good as the Rani and brings a freshness to this timelord fairground ride that exists between the Doctor and the Master. It’s always nice to see Anthony Ainley back and for once it does seem to be for a good reason. Ainley also seems to be enjoying what he’s doing and is more involved in the action than he was in his previous story.

The first scene between the Doctor and the Rani leads to the Doctor figuring out what’s going on within minutes. This is perhaps the only thing that really doesn’t quite work for me but I suppose I can forgive it for how the rest of the episode works out. If I was being ultra-harsh then I could pick up on the moment when the TARDIS is thrown down a mineshaft which the viewers know won’t affect that the TARDIS and the Master should know this.

The cliffhanger sees the Doctor strapped to a gurney accidentally pushed down a hill by Peri and then by the aggressive luddites. This is quite a good cliffhanger because there is no clear way of how the Doctor is going to get out of this situation. This has been a curious episode because it seems that it took a long time before things started to find its feet. The latter part of the episode (or second part in old money) was the stronger part but I still thought that there were things that worked well in the first part that made the whole thing work.