The Mark of the Rani (TV story)

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Not to be confused with the titular mark.

The Mark of the Rani was the third story of Season 22 of Doctor Who. A new Time Lord villain, the Rani, was introduced in this serial.

Synopsis

In 19th century England, the Doctor finds himself facing two competing enemies: his old adversary, the Master, and the Rani, another Time Lord with a sinister plan. The local population is turning violent and unpredictable and with a major meeting of the brains of the Industrial Revolution due to happen in the village soon, the Doctor must work out what exactly is causing all the problems. Only the Doctor can stop both the Master and the Rani's evil plans.

Plot

Part 1

Something is amiss in the mining village of Killingworth, in the early part of 19th century England. Miners are being gassed in the bathhouse and transformed into thugs and vandals, attacking men and machinery. They are seen as Luddites by other locals. The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown witness this when they arrive in Killingworth looking for the cause of some sort of time distortion. He also notices one of the rampaging miners has a strange red mark on his neck. With his usual audacity, The Doctor foists himself upon the local landowner, Lord Ravensworth, who is concerned by the ferocity of the local Luddite attacks, with the most passive of men suddenly turning violent and unpredictable.

The answer lies in the local bathhouse. The Master has turned up at this key point in human history and forces his way into the presence of the old woman who runs the bathhouse: in reality another Time Lord, the Rani. She is a gifted chemist and is using the set-up of the bathhouse to anaesthetise the miners and distill from them the neuro-chemicals that enable sleep. This is what accounts for the red mark on the victims. These chemicals are then synthesised for use back on Miasimia Goria, a planet she rules and which the Master has visited, where her other experiments have left the inhabitants without the ability to rest. He persuades her they need to deal with the Doctor together. He also steals some of the precious brain fluid she has collected to ensure her collaboration. It is a rocky partnership, full of half-truths and deceptions. The Master goes to deal with the Doctor, egging on local miners to attack his enemy and persuading some to throw the Doctor's TARDIS down a mine shaft.

The Doctor has meanwhile dressed as a miner and entered the bathhouse. He soon deduces the Rani's schemes. She traps him but he challenges her ethics. She reveal she has been coming to Earth for centuries to harvest her precious chemicals. The Master convinces the Rani to let him deal with the Doctor. He has the TARDIS pushed down a mine shaft, and the angry Luddites put the Doctor in a cart to ensure that he follows it.

Part 2

The Doctor is saved by inventor George Stephenson. Peri and he return to Lord Ravensworth's, where Stephenson has planned a meeting of scientific and engineering geniuses in the village. The Doctor is worried about the wisdom of such a meeting in the current circumstances, but elsewhere the Master is so desperate to see the event take place he uses mind-control over Stephenson's young aide, Luke Ward, telling him to kill anyone who tries to prevent it. The Master wants to use the finest brains of the Industrial Revolution to help speed up Earth's development and then use the planet as a powerbase. He strikes a deal with the Rani; she may return to Earth at any time to harvest more brain fluid if she helps him achieve this.

While the villains are away, the Doctor returns to the bathhouse and dodges booby traps to enter the Rani's TARDIS. Her control room contains jars of preserved dinosaur embryos. She summons her ship to the old mine workings with a remote control device, with the Doctor still inside. He hides while his adversaries talk. The Rani has also laid landmines in nearby Redfern Dell. When the coast is clear the Doctor slips away to report back to Ravensworth, Stephenson and Luke, who is behaving strangely.

Peri is making herself useful by using her botanical knowledge to make a sleeping draught for the afflicted miners, but her quest for herbs leads her to Redfern Dell. The Doctor gets there in time to save her, but not before Luke steps on a mine and turns into a tree. The Doctor surprises the Master and the Rani, who are lurking at the edge of the Dell, and takes them prisoner with the Master's own Tissue Compression Eliminator. Peri takes charge of them but the Rani's deviousness outstrips the Master's and she is the one who enables them to escape. The Rani and the Master flee in her TARDIS, but the Doctor also has a trick or two: he has sabotaged the navigational system. The ship is out of control. In the destabilised condition, one of the jars holding an tyrannosaurus rex embryo falls on the floor and the creature, affected by the time spillage, starts to grow.

The Doctor and Peri make an swap with Ravensworth, who has retrieved the TARDIS. He gets the phial of brain fluid, which he is told to give to the affected miners. Before the eyes of an astonished scientist and his financier, the TARDIS departs...

Cast

Crew

References

Story notes

  • This story had working titles of; Too Clever By Far and Enter The Rani.
  • The music score for this story was provided by composer Jonathan Gibbs. John Lewis was originally hired to compose the score, but a sudden onset of illness — which ultimately resulted in his death — prevented him being able to finish the work and forced the production team to give the assignment to Gibbs just after Lewis had completed scoring the first episode. Lewis' score for the first episode was included on the DVD release.
  • The following was credited in both episodes: "The BBC wish to acknowledge the cooperation of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum."
  • This was the last story of the original series of Doctor Who to be directed by a woman. The next such occasion was the 2007 Tenth Doctor episode Blink (directed by Hettie MacDonald).
  • The Mark of the Rani was shown in 4-25 minute episodes in the USA, Australia and New Zealand.
  • The Rani was conceived as a new, ongoing villain, however the character only appeared once more in the series, two years later in Time and the Rani. Kate O'Mara later reprised the role for the charity special, Dimensions in Time (which is considered non-canonical) and the spin-off audio production The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind for BBV. The possibility of the Rani returning to the revival series has been a source of fan speculation since 2005, with virtually every female character from Rose Tyler to Donna Noble to Lucy Saxon being considered possible Ranis-in-disguise.

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 6.3 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 7.3 million viewers

Myths

  • John Nathan-Turner cast Kate O'Mara as the Rani because of her starring role in the popular American soap opera Dynasty. (O'Mara had yet to begin work on Dynasty when she was cast as the Rani. She was however well known for her appearances in a number of UK soap operas, including for the BBC The Brothers - opposite Colin Baker - and Triangle. Her appearances on Dynasty were filmed between production of this story and her later return in Time and the Rani)

Filming locations

  • Most of the location filming, including the village scenes, was done as Blists Hill Open Air Museum in Shropshire.
  • Granville Colliery Spoil Heaps (now known as Granville Park), Lodge Road, Donnington Wood, Telford, Shropshire (Scene of the TARDIS landing)
  • Coalport China Museum, Coalport, Telford, Shropshire (Lord Raven's offices)
  • Blists Hill Victorian Town, Madeley, Shropshire
  • Park Wood, Bury Street, Ruislip, Middlesex (The tree scenes)
  • BBC Television Centre (TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • The influence of the production team upon the trolley to which the Doctor has been secured at the end of the first episode is a bit too obvious. It unaccountably manages to steer itself when careering down the hill.
  • When Peri enters the Bathhouse, she locks the door with the wooden bar. when the Rani and the MAster return, the wooden bar is unlocked.
  • When they discover Peri, she stands at the foot end of the doctor. Next shot, they come from the other room.
  • When the Doctor for the first time dangles above the pit, he nearly fits. When the Tardis is thrown down, it also fits, but the Tardis is far more bigger than the Doctor.

Continuity

Timeline

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Mark of the Rani.

Released:

Contents:

  • Commentary by Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Kate O'Mara
  • Lords and Luddites - Actors and crew recall the making of The Mark of the Rani in this specially-shot documentary, featuring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Kate O'Mara and Gary Cady, writers Pip & Jane Baker, script editor Eric Saward and composer Jonathan Gibbs
  • Deleted Scenes - Nearly ten minutes of additional material from an early edit of Part 1.
  • Now and Then - A short film featuring the Blists Hill Victorian Town location.
  • Playing With Time - An interview with the story's composer, Jonathan Gibbs.
  • Blue Peter - A short film from 1978 exploring the history of Ironbridge Gorge and Blists Hill
  • Saturday Superstore - An extract from March 1984 featuring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Anthony Ainley.
  • Alternative Soundtrack - The option to view Part 1 with the partially-completed original music score by John Lewis
  • Isolated Music Score - Clean synchronous music is available for both episodes.
  • Radio Times Listings (DVD-ROM)
  • Photo Gallery
  • Production Subtitles

Notes:

VHS Releases

  • This story was released on VHS in July of 1995.

Novelisation and its audiobook

Mark of the Rani novel.jpg
Main article: The Mark of the Rani (novelisation)

External links