The Mark Of The Rani: Part One (02/02/25)
That was a much more traditional adventure than more recent outings and all the better for it! We're in Northumbria in the early 1800s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, and in Killingworth where George Stephenson is working, and is about to hold a meeting of some of the great intellects of the day (although we haven't actually met any of these historical figures). The Doctor was about to take Peri to Kew Gardens at around the same period but the TARDIS was mysteriously pulled off course, landing them just north of Newcastle (as nearly everyone's accent testifies).
This, it turns out, was instigated by the Master, who somehow survived being burned alive on Sarn. He subsequently paid a visit to Miasimia Goria, a planet ruled over my another renegade Time Lord known as the Rani. She's a brilliant Chemist, apparently, and has been visiting Earth during periods of conflict (currently monopolising on Luddite activity in the UK) in order to extract the chemical which promotes sleep in Humans so she can counteract the sleep deprivation of her own Miasimian subjects that result from her experiments to make them more productive. For reasons known only to himself, the Master has decided to lure the Doctor and Peri to Killingworth to exact revenge on them for foiling his last venture, and somehow involve the Rani and her work. She seems decidedly unimpressed.
The episode features some lovely and extensive location filming around Ironbridge Gorge Museum (standing in for Killingworth) and the opening scenes made me suspect the influence of the early episodes of the recent BBC series The Tripods which also feature picturesque location sequences of life in a somewhat pre-Industrial community. The Doctor and Peri arrived and I can't say their costumes are an improvement on previous stories. In the TARDIS, Peri's outfit looked okay, but then she donned a gaudy yellow and pink jacket for the rest of the episode. Like the Doctor's garb, it's quite at odds with what everybody else is wearing, even local landowner (and historically accurate employer of George Stephenson from 1804) Lord Ravensworth.
At least the Rani is dressed for the occasion, wearing the disguise of an old washerwoman to extract the chemical she needs from miners who visit the bathhouse. These include the incredibly fit Josh (whose wife and baby were briefly met when the Doctor was investigating the disappearance and odd behaviour of local miners) who the Rani has as a henchman, and Jack Ward, a miner whose son, Luke (dresses to the left), is the protégé of Lord Ravensworth.
I rather like the Rani. She seems very pissed off that the Master has turned up to hijack her enterprise, and equally peeved he's brought the Doctor along, too. Unsurprising, really, since she's been doing this for centuries (though whether that's a reference to the ages that she's visited or the amount of time she's dedicated to doing it is unclear). I actually think it's a bit of a shame the Master is even involved! We first see him dressed as a scarecrow for some unfathomable reason, watching the Doctor and Peri arrive. I guess having brought them here he wanted to make sure they were on the right track to Killingworth, but even so. He also, for whatever reason, talks like he's swallowed a dictionary - clearly an affectation of the writing skills of new names Pip and Jane Baker (another woman! We're finally getting a bit more diversity with three now in three years. Steady on, BBC!). His plan, to chuck the TARDIS down a mine shaft and kill the Doctor and Peri, seems a bit... daft? I mean, he's obviously followed the Rani to Earth for some reason and felt it appropriate to carry out his revenge on the Doctor and Peri at the same time, but it does feel rather convoluted. As the Rani observes, he does appear somewhat 'unhinged'. I think a simpler plot which just focussed on the Rani would have been much better. But we're only half way through, so maybe the Master's presence will amount to more than a requirement to have Anthony Ainley star in at least one story per season!
All said, though, this has thus far been a very entertaining and enjoyable story, if only down to Kate O'Mara's wonderful performance as the Rani and some great location work. Hopefully, next week will be of as good quality as this week's!
The Mark Of The Rani: Part Two (09/02/25)
Not wanting to belittle the previous two stories this season as both had a lot to merit them and were a vast improvement on Colin's debut, but I think this has been the first truly enjoyable story of the new era. Whilst the Doctor and Peri's relationship continues to be somewhat acerbic, the writing of the Doctor felt much more true to character and Six came across as much more likeable as a result. Pip and Jane Baker persist in writing the Master's dialogue as though he were a Vaudevillian caricature penned by a particularly poor playwright who's swallowed a Thesaurus but, in contrast, the Rani was both wonderfully written and performed. I do hope we see her again, despite her being trapped with the Master in her TARDIS at the end, hurtling across the universe with a rapidly growing T Rex at her feet!
Ah, the Rani's TARDIS! What a great design! The interior, especially the console, was a stunning re-imagining of the traditional interior, and was both better than the usual trick of redressing the Doctor's console room, and showed that not all TARDISes are the same. It does make you wonder how the Doctor accessed it with his own key, though. Either there was a botch between script and screen or the Rani is into interior design!
Speaking of botches, I'd have to look at last week's episode again, but I'm fairly sure the Doctor left his awful coat in Lord Ravensworth's office when he went off in disguise to infiltrate the Rani's bathhouse, yet after he'd been hijacked by hyperactive miners intent on pushing him down the pit, been rescued by George Stephenson, and escaped to Stephenson's workshop (where he and George seemed to briefly be tinkering with Stephenson's Rocket), suddenly Peri was stood with them (she'd been with them the whole way, incidentally) holding the technicolour nightmare in her arms! It's feasible she'd collected it between scenes while the men tinkered but it seemed very incongruous by its sudden reappearance. I was actually thinking at the time that the Doctor's outfit wasn't all that bad without it.
Whilst this story felt much more traditional than the previous couple, it still had its share of - not necessarily violence, but more cruelty. It may have fitted with the Rani's character to kill Josh and her other mind-controlled henchman, but it did feel rather brutal (especially after seeing his wife and baby last week). Likewise, the fate of poor Luke. Placed under control of the Master and made to lie to his friends and lead them into danger, it seemed a bit harsh to transform him into a tree courtesy of the Rani's mines right in front of the Doctor and the Doctor to not at least attempt to do something to help reverse the process, especially (in this story's only truly cringey moment) when Tree Luke not only showed he was still fully self-aware but also able to move his branches in order to grab Peri! He may well have a longer life expectancy now, as the Rani pointed out, but that's no excuse to just leave him like that! And it also seems a bit irresponsible of the Doctor not to try and remove the remaining transforming mines from Redfern Dell before he left!
Is this the first time since the Hartnell era that we've encountered a famous historical figure? In the 60s we met Marco Polo, Robespierre and Napoleon, Richard I, Saladin and Saphadin, Catherine de Medici and King Charles IX to name just a few, but I don't think we have since the OK Corral. We nearly had Da Vinci in City Of Death, but he'd nipped out. It was quite fun to have George Stephenson in the story, helping the Doctor and adding an element of history and place to the episode. It would be nice if they started involving historical figures in the series again!
Also nice was to see at least a little reference to Peri's training in botany as she established she'd need Valerian in order to create a sedative to counteract the effects of the Rani's experiments. It made a change for her to be proactive after a string of stories where she seemed little more than a damsel in distress. Also of note is her ability to keep her dress clean despite frequently lying on the ground in coal mines, woodland, and on muddy riverbanks!
So, altogether a decent story on the whole. Not exceptionally exciting but with some good characters (the Master notwithstanding - I still maintain he needn't have been there), very nice location work and an atmosphere which feels more like Doctor Who than the series has had in a while. I hope this series continues in this vein. It feels much more settled after something of a rocky transition.
"(dresses to the left)" :D
ReplyDeleteWas Anthony Ainley really on a one-story-a-season-minimum agreement at this point? That would explain him being shoehorned into this story, which as you say doesn't need him at all, if for no other reason than it distracts (and detracts) from the introduction of the Rani and Kate O'Mara. The quasi-historical makes for a nice change, and there are some decent ideas here, but as with all of the stories in Season Twenty-Two, it doesn't entirely work. Still, the location shooting is lovely, and it's nice to have a female [co-]writer and director on board.
I can't be *entirely* sure but I don't think any contracts actually obliged the Production team to include Ainley in every season at that point, but it's noteworthy that, of all nine seasons produced by JNT, he's in all but Sylvester's first two. Fans comment on the sarcastic wit directed by the Rani at the Doctor and the Master's fractious relationship and, whilst that's a nice element to the story, I can't say it actually stood out to me. Of all Anthony's appearances so far, I think this is his weakest as it really underlines what a Panto Villain he's become. In Logopolis and Castrovalva he had more of an edge. Even in Planet Of Fire he at least had a motive of sorts for instigating events. Here, it's simply revenge, and a revenge which seems completely devoid of planning. Why has he dragged the Doctor and Peri to the location of the Rani's experiments? Does he plan on using her to off them both? Does he want to hijack her work (he certainly doesn't know what it is until he first confronts her) or put an end to it, or try and get the Doctor killed trying to stop her? Why dress up as a scarecrow? What are his motivations leading up to and throughout all of this? All he really does is multiply the level of camp in the story, which is ultimately a distraction and detrimental to the character. Somewhere out there is a Master-free Mark Of The Rani (he says the title on screen once each episode, incidentally, which feels incredibly eggy) which is a lot sharper, grittier and dramatic in the vein of The Stones Of Blood or The Witchfinders - a rural tale with a cunning female adversary.
DeleteAnd Kate is brilliant as the Rani. She brings out the best in Colin and emphasises his Doctorishness. It's probably his best performance of the season (so far) and I wish they'd had chance to work together again. She's every bit the 'glamorous woman' referred to in that Paul McGann audio I can't remember the title of, with a wonderful aire of scorn and authority about her. As for 'dresses to the left', I couldn't let that go without comment. Luke is stood there in his first onscreen scene and I'm sat thinking to myself 'This is a *family* show!' - Something for the mums, maybe?
Something for JNT, I dare say :P
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