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{{Infobox Individual
{{Infobox Individual
|image = Rani KO.jpg
|image = <gallery>
|alias = Cleopatra Selene, [[Melanie Bush]], Lania, Professor Baxton
Rani KO.jpg|1
|species = Time Lady
Rani Redmond.jpg|2
|origin = [[Gallifrey]]
</gallery>
|first = The Mark of the Rani (TV story)
|alias = Cleopatra Selene, [[Melanie Bush]], Lania, Professor Baxton, Principal C.B. Wainwright
|appearances = [[The Rani - list of appearances|'''''see list''''']]
|species = Time Lord{{!}}Time Lord
|main actor = Kate O'Mara
|job = Prison governor
|voice actor = Siobhan Redmond
|origin = [[Gallifrey]]
|clip = The Rani's plan - Doctor Who - Mark of the Rani - BBC
|first cs = The Mark of the Rani (TV story)
|clip2 = The Doctor wakes up in Rani's lab - Doctor Who Classic - Time & The Rani - BBC
|appearances = {{appears}}
|main actor = Kate O'Mara
|voice actor = Siobhan Redmond
|clip = The Rani's plan - Doctor Who - Mark of the Rani - BBC
|clip2 = The Doctor wakes up in Rani's lab - Doctor Who Classic - Time & The Rani - BBC
}}
}}
'''Ushas''', better known as '''the Rani''', was a [[renegade Time Lord]]. A brilliant but cold neurochemist, she knew [[the Doctor]] and [[the Master]] when all three were young and was a member of the Deca, and became an enemy of the former and an unwilling ally of the latter.
'''Ushas''', better known as '''the Rani''' and known more formally as '''Ushas of Miasimia Goria''', or, in other accounts, as simply '''Rani''', was a [[renegade Time Lord|renegade Time Lady]] and member of [[the Deca]]. A brilliant but cold [[neurochemist]], she knew [[the Doctor]] and [[the Master]] when all three were young, and became an enemy of the former and an unwilling ally of the latter.
== Biography ==
==Biography==
=== Youth and exile ===
{{Section stub|Information from ''[[The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind (novelisation)|The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind]]''}}
Ushas was the same age as the Doctor. ([[TV]]: ''[[Time and the Rani]]'') As a [[Time Tot]], she played [[hide and seek]] with the [[First Doctor]], with the [[Ninth Doctor]] claiming that his skill at finding her "drove [her] nuts". ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Weapons of Past Destruction (comic story)|Weapons of Past Destruction]]'')
Ushas belonged to [[the Deca]], the same [[Time Lord Academy|Academy]] clique as the [[First Doctor]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties]]'') being their most intelligent member. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Rani Elite (audio story)|The Rani Elite]]'') She was taught by [[Sendok]], [[Borusa]] and [[Franilla]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties]]'') At the Academy, she specialised in [[neurochemistry]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Time and the Rani (novelisation)|Time and the Rani]]'') Ushas conducted an experiment which resulted in some of her lab [[mouse|mice]] growing to an enormous size. The mice ate the [[Lord President]]'s pet [[Gallifreyan cat|cat]]. They also bit the President himself, triggering a [[regeneration]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Mark of the Rani (TV story)|The Mark of the Rani]]'')
===The Rani's incarnations===
The Rani was, regardless of incarnation, a brilliant scientific genius whose villainy came not from the usual variety of lust for power and suchlike, but from a mindset that treated everything (including morality) as secondary to her research. She was highly intelligent but extremely arrogant, narcissistic, ruthless, powerful and intensely cruel.
Ushas was on an Academy research project when the Doctor was expelled from the Academy. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties]]'') The Doctor was invited to her 94th birthday party. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Death of Art (novel)|The Death of Art]]'') At the Doctor's graduation, there was an incident involving Ushas and a giant [[rat]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Party Animals (comic story)|Party Animals]]'')
The [[First Rani]] was a cruel woman whose evil deeds and notoriety had made her the second most wanted criminal in the galaxy, after [[the Master]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Requiem for the Rocket Men (audio story)|Requiem for the Rocket Men]]'') Much like the Doctor, she had a considerable presence. This presence, however, rested not in a fondness for the planet but as a focal point for her research projects. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Mark of the Rani (TV story)|The Mark of the Rani]]'', ''[[Time and the Rani (TV story)|Time and the Rani]]'')
Ushas felt that she was never forgiven for the incident with the President's cat and opted out of Time Lord society, becoming a renegade. She took a TARDIS and settled on [[Miasimia Goria]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties]]'') under the name of "the Rani". ([[TV]]: ''[[The Mark of the Rani (TV story)|The Mark of the Rani]]'')
Just as amoral as her previous incarnation, the [[Second Rani]] always believed that the end always justified the means. Not above making jokes at the expense of others, she held a great disdain and disinterest in the Doctor's antics. Unlike her previous incarnation, she had a certain level of anxiety in breaking the [[Laws of Time]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Rani Elite (audio story)|The Rani Elite]]'')
=== Life as a renegade ===
Following [[Fall of Gallifrey|the end]] of the [[Last Great Time War]], the [[Ninth Doctor]] believed all the [[Time Lord]]s bar himself to be dead, ([[TV]]: ''[[Dalek (TV story)|Dalek]]'') and so did not expect to see the Rani again, ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Flatpack (audio story)|Flatpack]]'') though the [[Tenth Doctor]] would encounter the First Rani. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Untitled (10DY3 12 comic story)|Untitled]]'') Nevertheless, the [[Eleventh Doctor]] believed that the Rani was "dead", at least according to [[River Song]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Bekdel Test (audio story)|The Bekdel Test]]'')
The Rani's notoriety made her the second most wanted criminal in the galaxy, after the Master. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Requiem for the Rocket Men (audio story)|Requiem for the Rocket Men]]'')
==== Presence in Earth history ====
The [[Time Lord]]s' [[TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual]], which was aware of [[Missy]] and the [[Thirteenth Doctor]], refered to the Rani in the present tense. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|TARDIS Type 40 Instruction Manual (reference book)}})
While the Rani certainly did not share the Doctor's fondness for [[Earth]], which she considered a "miserable planet," it was the focus of several of her research projects. She was also disdainful of humans themselves, and called them carnivores because they ate animals. At some point, she had visited Earth in the [[distant past]] and acquired several [[tyrannosaur]] embryos.
When the test subjects on [[Miasimia Goria]], a planet she had enslaved, became violently restless and uncontrollable as a side effect of her experiments on them, the Rani visited Earth at various points in its history to extract chemicals from the brains of select [[human]] specimens. Because the chemicals in question enabled the human brain to sleep, and because the absence of these chemicals made her victims as violent and uncontrollable as those from her previous experiments, the Rani deliberately chose periods of social unrest to visit, using the violence to conceal her presence and its consequences. She visited the [[Trojan War]], the [[Dark Ages]], the [[American War of Independence|American Revolutionary War]], and finally the [[Luddite]] riots in the village of [[Killingworth]] during the early [[19th century]] where she used the local bath house as her base, posing as the old woman in charge of the premises. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Mark of the Rani (TV story)|The Mark of the Rani]]'') Around this time, the Rani travelled to [[Shildon]], where she encountered [[Panda]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[From Wildthyme with Love (novel)|From Wildthyme with Love]]'')
Following the [[Razing of Gallifrey|Time Lord genocide]], the [[Fifteenth Doctor]] used the Rani as an example when explaining [[Time Lord Name]]s to [[Ruby Sunday]]. ([[TV]]: {{cs|Space Babies (TV story)}})
{{Ainley|c}} and, shortly after, the [[Sixth Doctor]], interrupted her work. The Doctor sabotaged the navigational system of [[the Rani's TARDIS]], trapping the Master and the Rani inside as [[time spillage]] caused the tyrannosaur embryos to grow at a dangerous rate. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Mark of the Rani (TV story)|The Mark of the Rani]]'')
=== Undated events ===
In the [[War in Heaven]], [[The War King|the Lord President]] reintegrated several barely-reformed [[renegade Time Lord|renegades]] into [[Gallifrey]]an society. One former renegade Time Lady, who was known for her engineered creatures, became a tutor to newly-[[loom]]ed soldiers. [[Holsred]] remembered a lecture in which she connected an [[artron energy]] generator to a white [[rat]]'s [[brain]] and then let the rat use the energy to kill a hungry [[Gallifreyan cat]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Taking of Planet 5 (novel)}})
==== On Terra Nova ====
[[Father Kreiner]] had the heads of the Rani and [[the Master]] as trophies; however, at least one of them was a [[clone]] created in the [[High Council]]'s [[hatchling project]]s. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Interference - Book One (novel)}})
The dinosaur grew to such a size that it broke its neck on the ceiling, but the Rani had been left adrift in her TARDIS when the Master escaped from her by detaching the console room from the rest of her TARDIS. Shortly afterwards, from the Doctor's subjective point of view, the Rani was also trapped along with the [[Sixth Doctor]] on [[Terra Nova]], which the entity known as [[Iam]] had created. She had in the meantime tried and failed to manipulate the political situation existing between the three children of that reality's version of [[Cleopatra VII (State of Change)|Cleopatra VII]]. However, she did manage to escape Terra Nova, by using the entity to create a new TARDIS console room to replace the one the Master escaped in. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[State of Change (novel)|State of Change]]'')
==== On Lakertya ====
==Behind the scenes==
On the planet [[Tetrapyriarbus]], the Rani made the acquaintance of, and decided to employ, the [[Tetrap]]s, led by [[Urak]]. With them, she invaded the peaceful planet [[Lakertya]] and put into motion a complex plan. The Rani abducted eleven scientific geniuses from across time and space, including [[Albert Einstein]] of Earth. Finally she decided to "collect" the Doctor and attacked [[The Doctor's TARDIS|his TARDIS]], ([[TV]]: ''[[Time and the Rani (TV story)|Time and the Rani]]'') with concentrated beams of a [[radiation]] lethal to Time Lords. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Brink of Death (audio story)|The Brink of Death]]'') The Doctor was wounded as a result, triggering the [[regeneration]] into his [[Seventh Doctor|seventh incarnation]]. The Rani channelled the intellects of the geniuses into a giant artificial brain which she believed could find the secret to manipulating [[strange matter]], the key to making the planet of Lakertya into a [[Time Manipulator]] in order to correct what she considered to be errors in the universal [[timeline]]. Her first target was to be Earth, where she would prevent the [[extinction]] of the [[dinosaur]]s, creatures whose full potential she felt had never been truly realised. She considered the death of the native [[Lakertyan]]s a small price to pay.
===Return to television===
Following her last live-action appearance in the controversial TV special, ''[[Dimensions in Time (TV story)|Dimensions in Time]]'', the possibility of the return of the Rani in the post-[[2005 (releases)|2005]] revival of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has become a subject of widespread fan speculation, as the preeminent [[renegade Time Lord]] antagonist in the "classic" series aside from [[the Master]], who made his return in [[Series 3 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 3]]. The matter was discussed or joked about on several occasions by the showrunner.
She used the artificial brain to find the answer as to how to create a lightweight substitute for strange matter. When it was devised she sent a missile containing the substance aimed at a strange matter asteroid. However, the Doctor destroyed the brain and redirected the missile. Urak betrayed her, leading the Tertraps against her, and they placed her under house arrest in her TARDIS on Tetrapyriarbus. The Rani was 953 years old when these events took place. ([[TV]]: ''[[Time and the Rani (TV story)|Time and the Rani]]'')
[[Russell T Davies|Russell T. Davies]] once stated that he would have cast actress {{w|Ruthie Henshall}} as the Rani had he brought the character back, which he disclosed whilst discussing Henshall's appearance as the villainess {{iw|wizardsvsaliens|Stephanie Gaunt}} in ''{{w|Wizards vs Aliens}}''.<ref>http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/10/28/russell-t-davies-talks-wizards-vs-aliens/2/</ref> In the commentary for ''[[Last of the Time Lords (TV story)|Last of the Time Lords]],'' Davies jokingly termed the hand seen removing [[the Master's ring]] from the ashes of his funeral pyre "the hand of the Rani". He would later write it being the hand of a human [[Disciples of Saxon|Disciple of Saxon]] in ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]''. In a email reprinted to [[Benjamin Cook]] reprinted in ''[[Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter]]'', Davies choosing to deliberately leave the identity of [[The Woman (The End of Time)|the Woman]] (in the same story, ''The End of Time'') ambiguous, anticipated that [[fan]]s might believe her to be, amongst other possibilities, "even the Rani", "but of course it's meant to be [[the Doctor's mother]]".
After these events occurred, the Tetraps faced a food shortage crisis, while Urak managed to have the Rani put on trial, with the death sentence. She would have to solve the food shortage, otherwise her sentence would commence. Two human and two alien prisoners were to be test subjects for the Rani's experiments in an attempt at solving the crisis. The Rani, however, teamed up with the four "guinea pigs" and managed to escape the planet. Each then went their separate ways, with the Rani swearing to teach Urak a lesson and retrieve her TARDIS from him. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind (audio story)|The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind]]'')
In August 2012, Davies' successor [[Steven Moffat]] stated that "he had no reason to bring back the Rani",<ref>http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/doctor-who/news/a401680/doctor-who-steven-moffat-rules-out-return-for-villain-the-rani.html</ref> thus putting an end to the rumours of her return to the television series.<ref>http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/19959/dr-who-gillian-anderson-is-the-rani</ref>
==== On Koturia ====
===Other matters===
On the planet of [[Koturia]], the Rani went by the name of Lania. She was genetically modifying [[Pterodactyl|pterodactyls]] in order to take blood and tissue samples of Koturians for the purpose of learning about [[Phasing]]. She believed that she could learn of a way to control the outcome of a [[regeneration]] by learning how Koturians control their appearance when they Phase. She immersed herself in Koturian culture and became engaged to [[Jonos]], an upper class Koturian. However, their marriage ceremony was crashed by the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown, the former of whom was invited as an old friend of Jonos's father, [[Evris Makshi]]. Although they were too late to stop the physical ceremony, it failed to result in Jonos completing his Phase because both bride and groom have to be in love with one another for the [[Imori stone]] to work and the Rani was only pretending to be in love with Jonos. Although the Rani claimed to be immune to emotion, the Doctor believed she felt some kind of emotional attachment to her work, as she did beg him to not destroy her research by saying "please." ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Something Borrowed (short story)|Something Borrowed]]'')
''[[Me & My Ghost (audio story)|Me & My Ghost]]'', a [[2021 (releases)|2021]] ''[[Dionus's War (audio series)|Dionus's War]]'' audio play written and produced by [[Bill Baggs]], featured a character called "[[Nari]]", who was an alternative personality crafted for herself by an infamous [[Renegade Time Lord|renegade]] of the [[Great House]]s to evade the authorities of her people. She was noted as a talented chemist, and it was suggested that the name "Nari" was somehow a play on her usual appellation. The clear implication was thus that Nari's true self was "the Rani". However, this was not made explicit due to [[BBV Productions]] no longer having the rights to the character of the Rani by that point, aside from further exploitation of their original licensed ''[[The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind (audio story)|The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind]]'' spin-off story.
=== A new incarnation ===
In an episode of the [[The Big Finish Podcast|Big Finish Podcast]] on [[19 December]] [[2021 (releases)|2021]], a listener asked [[Nicholas Briggs]] and [[Benji Clifford|Benji]] when would the Rani return in a [[Last Great Time War|Time War]] [[Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories|series]]. Nicholas Briggs responded that it would be difficult since both [[Pip and Jane Baker]] had passed away, and a possible complication with getting in touch with the estate.
The Rani later regenerated. In her new incarnation she once again encountered the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Peri Brown]], although she had expected his seventh incarnation. She masqueraded as Professor Baxton at the [[College of Advanced Galactic Education]] a foremost authority of Moral Philosophy. The Doctor questioned her about her theories in one of her [[lecture]]s. She tested the students and used the tests to find suitability for her experiments, some of the students she experimented on were [[Lizzo]] and [[Reev]] and tried to experiment on [[Miklev]]. The students were experts in their fields. She was making a biodigital interface controller. She was using a Sidelian Brain Scanner in her techniques, which was moving memories from one brain to another. The Rani then used Peri in her experiments, due to Miklev was concussed. She also killed her accomplice, the [[Vice Chancellor]]. The real Professor Baxton was used as the overseer of the network of the students' brains. She was using the students' minds in order to calculate the minor events she would need, in order to create the massive events she wanted, in effect reverse engineering chaos theory. She hated the Doctor calling her Ushas and reminiscing about [[The Deca]]. When the Doctor tricked her she fell down through the floor on the way to her TARDIS, she gloated in her part in the Doctor's next regeneration. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Rani Elite (audio story)|The Rani Elite]]'')
She was sent to [[Teccaurora Penitentiary]], a prison for her misdemeanours. 97 years after her imprisonment, she became the governor of the prison. Using the prison as her base of operations, she used the prisoners to power a time corridor to [[Miasimia Goria]]. She took [[Constance Clarke]] with her and was appalled at the state the planet was in, but was delighted that [[Raj Kahnu]] became a success, the only one of her experiments to work correctly. She showed some emotion when she thought that Kahnu was dead, but was put on trial by her subjects on [[Miasimia Goria]], where the Doctor said he would take her back to [[Gallifrey]]. She pleaded with Kahnu to show some compassion in sentencing her, but instead tried to kill him. She escaped in a TARDIS survival pod that her previous incarnation had left there. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Planet of the Rani (audio story)|Planet of the Rani]]'')
==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
<references />
{{Rani stories}}
{{The Master's assistants}}
{{TitleSort}}
[[Father Kreiner]] had the heads of the Rani and [[the Master]] as trophies; however, one of these may have been a [[clone]] created by the [[High Council]]'s [[hatchling]] project during [[the War]]. ([[PROSE]]:'' [[Interference - Book One (novel)|Interference - Book One]]'')
[[ro:The Rani]]
[[ru:Рани]]
== Other realities ==
[[Category:The Rani]]
[[File:The Doctor as Charlie Brown.jpg|thumb|right|A psychiatrist Rani. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Glorious Dead (comic story)|The Glorious Dead]]'')]]
[[Category:Aliases]]
In a [[alternative timeline]], the Rani cooperated alongside [[the Master]], [[the Monk]] and [[Drax]] to try to destroy the world using a DNA recombinator, turning the human race into a gestalt consciousness that could be used as a weapon to conquer the universe. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Quantum Archangel (novel)|The Quantum Archangel]]'')
In [[Theta Stigma]]'s universe, the Rani was a psychiatrist who gave him advice for 5 cents. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Glorious Dead (comic story)|The Glorious Dead]]'')
== Appearance ==
The Rani's first body was slim with tanned skin and big hair that was sometimes curled. She dressed lavishly, wearing boots, tights, and voluminous shirts. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Mark of the Rani]]'', ''[[Time and the Rani]]'')
The second incarnation of the Rani to encounter the Sixth Doctor wore her hair in shoulder-length red curls, and spoke with a [[Scotland|Scottish]] accent. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Rani Elite (audio story)|The Rani Elite]]'', ''[[Planet of the Rani (audio story)|Planet of The Rani]]'')
== Personality ==
The Rani was an evil (or, arguably, simply [[amoral]]) but a brilliant scientific genius whose villainy came not from the usual variety of lust for power and suchlike, but from a mindset that treated everything (including morality) as secondary to her research. She was highly intelligent, but extremely arrogant, narcissistic, ruthless, powerful and intensely cruel. She was known to enslave entire worlds in order to have a ready supply of experimental subjects and a place to carry out her experiments uninterrupted. Her major interest was in altering the biochemistry of other species. She was also capable of linking a remote control to a TARDIS, something that other Time Lords had not been able to manage themselves.
While she did appear evil, she found the Master to be truly evil and therefore stupid. She also said that his plans were so overcomplicated that if he walked in a straight line he would get dizzy. What evil she did she felt was necessary to her work. When the [[Sixth Doctor]] tried to convince her not to experiment on [[human]]s, she called them carnivores and asked if they ever thought of the lesser species when they sunk their teeth into a lamb chop; she had a [[conscience]] of some kind, as she was later willing to destroy her test subjects intending to kill the Doctor. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Mark of the Rani (TV story)|The Mark of the Rani]]'')
The Rani reacted negatively when addressed as "Ushas" by the Doctor, demanding he refrain from calling her by her former name, and dismissed his mentions of [[Drax]], [[Mortimus]], and [[the Deca]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Rani Elite (audio story)|The Rani Elite]]'')
== Behind the scenes ==
* [[Kate O'Mara]] portrayed the Rani in all of her television appearances including the 1993 special ''[[Dimensions in Time]]''. In this story, the Rani traps all seven of the Doctor's incarnations and fellow companions in the East End of London.
* In August 2012, [[Steven Moffat]] stated that "he had no reason to bring back the Rani",<ref>http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/doctor-who/news/a401680/doctor-who-steven-moffat-rules-out-return-for-villain-the-rani.html</ref> thus putting an end to the rumours of her return to the television series.<ref>http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/19959/dr-who-gillian-anderson-is-the-rani</ref>
* [[Russell T Davies]] has said that if he had brought back the Rani, he would have cast actress {{w|Ruthie Henshall}} in the role.<ref>http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/10/28/russell-t-davies-talks-wizards-vs-aliens/2/</ref>
* Plans were underway to bring back Kate O'Mara as the Rani for new [[Big Finish Productions]] audios, but O'Mara passed away a few weeks before recording. Upon being assured by O'Mara's agent that she'd wished them to continue the project without her, Big Finish cast [[Siobhan Redmond]] as a new incarnation of the Rani.<ref>http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/the-new-rani</ref>
* Redmond had never seen ''Doctor Who'' prior to being cast as the Rani, though she familiarised herself with O'Mara's work in the role. Before her in-character photoshoot as the new Rani, she curled her hair as a small homage to O'Mara.<ref name="vortex70">[[VOR 70]]</ref>
* Redmond's portrayal of the Rani with her own Scottish accent, closely following as it did the premieres of the first Scottish-accented {{Gomez|n=Master}} and the [[Twelfth Doctor]] on televised ''[[Doctor Who]]'', led ''[[Vortex (magazine)|Vortex]]'' to comment "Scottish Time Lords are like buses. You wait ages for one to appear, and then suddenly you get three at once!" <ref name="vortex70" />
== Footnotes ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Time Lords}}
{{TitleSort}}
[[Category:Articles that were originally Wikipedia forks]]
[[Category:Articles that were originally Wikipedia forks]]
[[Category:College of Advanced Galactic Education]]
[[Category:The Deca]]
[[Category:Homeworlders in the War in Heaven]]
[[Category:Imposters]]
[[Category:Murderers]]
[[Category:Patrexes]]
[[Category:Prydonians]]
[[Category:Renegade Time Lords]]
[[Category:Residents of Gallifrey]]
[[Category:Residents of Gallifrey]]
[[Category:Individual Time Lords]]
[[Category:Students at the Time Lord Academy]]
[[Category:Renegade Time Lords]]
[[Category:Time Lord scientists]]
[[Category:Prydonians]]
[[Category:Scientists]]
[[Category:Murderers]]
[[Category:Tyrants]]
[[Category:Imposters]]
[[Category:Individual time travellers]]
[[Category:Aliases]]
[[Category:The Deca]]
[[Category:Individuals who have witnessed regeneration]]
[[Category:Time Lords who have been inside the Doctor's TARDIS]]
[[Category:Time Lords who have been inside the Doctor's TARDIS]]
[[Category:Students at the Time Lord Academy]]
[[Category:Time Lords who have witnessed regeneration]]
Ushas, better known as the Rani and known more formally as Ushas of Miasimia Goria, or, in other accounts, as simply Rani, was a renegade Time Lady and member of the Deca. A brilliant but cold neurochemist, she knew the Doctor and the Master when all three were young, and became an enemy of the former and an unwilling ally of the latter.
The Rani was, regardless of incarnation, a brilliant scientific genius whose villainy came not from the usual variety of lust for power and suchlike, but from a mindset that treated everything (including morality) as secondary to her research. She was highly intelligent but extremely arrogant, narcissistic, ruthless, powerful and intensely cruel.
The First Rani was a cruel woman whose evil deeds and notoriety had made her the second most wanted criminal in the galaxy, after the Master. (AUDIO: Requiem for the Rocket Men) Much like the Doctor, she had a considerable presence. This presence, however, rested not in a fondness for the planet but as a focal point for her research projects. (TV: The Mark of the Rani, Time and the Rani)
Just as amoral as her previous incarnation, the Second Rani always believed that the end always justified the means. Not above making jokes at the expense of others, she held a great disdain and disinterest in the Doctor's antics. Unlike her previous incarnation, she had a certain level of anxiety in breaking the Laws of Time. (AUDIO: The Rani Elite)
Following her last live-action appearance in the controversial TV special, Dimensions in Time, the possibility of the return of the Rani in the post-2005 revival of Doctor Who has become a subject of widespread fan speculation, as the preeminent renegade Time Lord antagonist in the "classic" series aside from the Master, who made his return in Series 3. The matter was discussed or joked about on several occasions by the showrunner.
In August 2012, Davies' successor Steven Moffat stated that "he had no reason to bring back the Rani",[2] thus putting an end to the rumours of her return to the television series.[3]
Me & My Ghost, a 2021Dionus's War audio play written and produced by Bill Baggs, featured a character called "Nari", who was an alternative personality crafted for herself by an infamous renegade of the Great Houses to evade the authorities of her people. She was noted as a talented chemist, and it was suggested that the name "Nari" was somehow a play on her usual appellation. The clear implication was thus that Nari's true self was "the Rani". However, this was not made explicit due to BBV Productions no longer having the rights to the character of the Rani by that point, aside from further exploitation of their original licensed The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind spin-off story.
