Time and the Rani
Story 144, Episodes 654-655, Season 24 Episode 1-4
Doctor: Seventh Doctor
Companions: Mel Bush
Sylvester McCoy is thrown into the fire with another uninteresting script, as well as the BBC discovering CGI.
The Review
Time and the Rani is a confusing story that makes little sense, the Rani is trying to detonate a strange matter asteroid to get helium-2 to do things like reverse Earth to the Cretaceous. Most of this isn’t explained until the Rani gives us a helpful presentation in part four, for the first two parts she’s conning the Doctor into trying to solve a puzzle that the viewers can’t even see or understand, so fat lot of good that does us. The script is confusing, has a ‘been there done that’ feel as we’re back with aliens who reminded me of The Leisure Hive. The soundtrack has some great unexpected moments of brilliance, but when you see the Rani has created a giant brain it all feels like a 50s B-movie. What keeps it together is McCoy to some extent, but really Kate O’Mara who is much improved from her previous appearance and is a very credible fun villain. She puts on a crazy wig and impersonates Mel for over an episode to trick the Doctor and her frustration at him is hilarious. Few could’ve pulled that off.
After the firing of Colin Baker, this story was always going to struggle. There is no emotional closure to the Sixth Doctor era so it just feels like whiplash, the old Doctor is referenced a bit but this is the Sylvester McCoy show. He spends much of the story in the ‘post-regeneration insanity’ phase making it difficult to get a handle on his Doctor. Still, I can spot moments of brilliance over the jokes of him mixing metaphors which would be funnier if it wasn’t every other thing he said. Mel is the weakest link by far, Bonnie Langford screams to high Heaven like a parody of a companion and is unconvincing. The Lakertyans are pretty boring, but I have to praise the costumes of the weird multi-eyed wolf aliens called Tetraps. Still, this story is just not that interesting, and barely even feels like a new Doctor story other than the amnesia. Here’s hoping McCoy’s era starts to improve.
The ‘Rani’ part of Time and the Rani delivers, everything else doesn’t, from the badly aged Blender-esque CGI to the ‘what is even happening’ plot line.
7/10 Boosted up by Kate O’Mara’s brilliance really. Shame that we’d never get more of her
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 