Doctor Who has long been my favorite show, and for the last number of years I’ve been making irregular progress on revisiting all of the old episodes. Most recently I was watching my way through the so-called “Black Guardian trilogy”–Mawdryn Undead and Terminus. It was my plan to finish that off with Enlightenment, but then all the Rani stuff suddenly happened over in the new episodes of the show, so I jumped forward to this story instead.

The Mark of the Rani

Starring Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor
Companion:  Nicole Bryant as Peri Brown.

Written by Pip & Jane Baker.  Directed by Sarah Hellings. Script edited by Eric Saward. Produced by John Nathan-Turner.

Format:  2 episodes, each about 45 minutes long
Originally Aired:  February 1985 (Episodes 5-6 of Season 22)

At the time, the Rani was sort of a big deal. A new Time Lord villain (a relative rarity at the time) who uniquely amongst her predecessors was a sassy and feminine–she made an impression and a lot of fans have been eagerly waiting for her return to the franchise. Once I got over the initial impact of the character, though, I was not a particular fan. In my memory, anyway, she was never as interesting as she was supposed to be, and it was hard to not see her as a second-rate Master (himself a character that I think is overrated). And ever since the Master was able to become a woman as well (a development from the 2010s), it really felt to me like there wasn’t much point to the character. So all that to say I wasn’t excited about her recent return to the modern series, and I didn’t go into The Mark of the Rani with a lot of enthusiasm.

Spoilers Ahead!

Pleasantly, I was mostly wrong about that impression–The Mark of the Rani holds up surprisingly well, especially for its era.

A big point in the story’s favor is the sizeable amount of location filming that the serial boasts. Thanks to the Blists Hill Open Air Museum, where much of the story was shot, the historical atmosphere is very strong. I have no idea how accurate it all is, both in terms of the location and the characterization of the locales, but compared to many such settings in Doctor Who, The Mark of the Rani is far more immersive and natural-feeling.

The Rani herself is also an interesting character, and Kate O’Mara’s performance is certainly memorable and worth revisiting. The idea of course is that she’s an amoral scientist who simply doesn’t care about the devastation she leaves behind her in pursuit of knowledge and scientific advancement. Her motivations are pretty well-developed–she’s harvesting a brain fluid from humans that leaves them unable to sleep and therefore extra aggressive. She does this during times of unrest in order to mask her activities, and she needs the fluid to help her deal with the aliens she is hyper-evolving on the planet where she has established herself as queen. That’s all pretty epic, and the story gives her some effective moments of real cold-bloodedness that O’Mara uses to sell how evil the character is.

Unfortunately for the Rani, and in some ways unfortunately for the audience, the Master shows up. His motivations are not nearly as clear. He wants to hurt the Doctor of course, but it’s just a lucky coincidence for him that the Doctor is there at all. He also wants to take control of a bunch of 19th century geniuses to…well, do something. Somehow create a power that could devastate the universe. It’s never clear.

What it does mean though, is that the story diverts off of really being about the Rani and getting into her personality and schemes, and becomes more about the Master trying to kill the Doctor. It’s not necessarily that the Master is badly written, and Anthony Ainley does a lot to give the character some nuance, but it just feels like the story falls into familiar rhythms rather than dealing with anything particular interesting. One feels like the Master is included largely as an easy way to give the Rani someone to talk to, but he’s such an over-the-top and colorful personality that the other story elements are overshadowed. It’s a shame–the Rani is potentially interesting but she gets overshadowed by a whole lot of nonsense. And then most of the back half of the serial is just the Doctor getting his two enemies to return to the Rani’s TARDIS so they can fall victim to his sabotage; hardly his most innovative victory.

Colin Baker is not my favorite Doctor, not by a long shot, but he does a good job in The Mark of the Rani.

His overt bickering with Peri (a real problem for this season) is kept to a minimum after the opening sequences, and he has quite a few fun “Doctor-ish” moments, highlighting the character’s intelligence of courage or whimsey. I especially enjoyed the moment of fear that we see on the face of the Master at the Doctor’s fury over the death of Luke.

And the business with the Rani turning people into trees is more ridiculous than words, but it allows for a fun moment of peril where the Doctor finds himself tied up between two men-become-trees slowly slipping toward a deadly land-mine. The drama is also pretty well-paced, and unlike some others from this era doesn’t fall into the trap of taking too long to get the Doctor and Peri into the action–they are in the thick of things pretty quickly, which is important for keeping the show interesting.

Peri herself is a mixed bag in this story. She is still in her “whinier” stage here (this improves in the next season) but she does gets to be a botanist, and also to resist the Master’s hypnosis, both of which are welcome inclusions. On the other hand, she just absolutely fumbles the Doctor’s escape at one point by accidentally pushing him (tied up to a bed as he is) the wrong way and almost sends plummeting to his death down a mineshaft. And she is at the heart of the serial’s most absolutely ludicrous scene, where Luke Evans has been turned into a tree, but still moves his branches to save her from suffering a similar fate.

It’s not really Peri’s fault, but the bit is just so goofy (the nice but doomed young man saving the beautiful girl, except he’s a tree) that it just pulls the rest of the serial down by its inclusion.

So The Mark of the Rani had a lot going for it–a unique new villain and an interesting setting and a breezy pace, but all sadly buried in a plot that is more pedestrian than it needs to be.

Still, I’d say this is easily the best Rani story that we’ve had in televised Doctor Who. Kate O’Mara reappears in Time and the Rani, for which she is probably the most interesting part, but it’s not enough to prevent it from being one of the worst classic era stories. And then she’s in the charity special Dimensions in Time, which barely counts as a story, but if you do count it surely it has to be considered to be even worse. And then there’s all the modern stuff that we’ve just had with Mrs. Flood and the bi-generated Rani being played by Archie Panjabi. Panjabi’s take on the character is a little reminiscent of the classic version of the character, but only a little, and is amongst the things that the most recent season of the show squandered.

So for all its weaknesses, The Mark of the Rani is worth a watch.