Rani Chandra
Rani Chandra was a teenage girl who lived on Bannerman Road. She assisted Sarah Jane Smith and her friends in combating alien menaces and protecting the Earth from natural threats originating from space.
Biography
Meeting Sarah Jane Smith
Rani and her parents, Haresh and Gita Chandra, moved from Danemouth into 36 Bannerman Road in Ealing, London, the house formerly occupied by Alan and Maria Jackson. Rani quickly became mixed up in alien adventures after meeting Sarah Jane. Rani was stalked by the evil entity that manifested itself as Odd Bob the clown. She and the others collectively managed to stop the entity from rising to full power. (SJA: The Day of the Clown)
Although Sarah Jane was initially hesitant, Rani quickly ingratiated herself and became a vital member of Sarah Jane's group, along the way learning about many of Sarah Jane's adventures and even becoming familiar with the Doctor and the TARDIS. (SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
After this Rani helped Sarah Jane stop the Ancient Lights take over the world through Martin Trueman. She was temporarily taken over by the lights due to her star sign. (SJA: Secrets of the Stars)
Adventures with Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde
Weeks after this incident Rani picked up an alien pendant from a boy in school. She realised that the pendant allowed the user to control others. Scared by its power, Rani left it in Sarah Jane's attic while Sarah Jane was away for the weekend. However when Paul Langer found it, she and Luke, unable to contact Sarah Jane, had to contact Maria Jackson and her father for assistance in order to stop him from being taken over by the Berserker pendant's alien power. (SJA: Mark of the Berserker)
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In later weeks, Sarah Jane was trapped in the past in the village where her parents had died. The Trickster was at work. Clyde and Rani found the puzzle-box given to Sarah Jane and it protected them from the changes that the Trickter's interference caused to modern Earth. They used this as an advantage to eventually stop him and free his Graske slave Krislok. (SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
In Autumn 2009 Rani's mother was kidnapped by Bane fugitive Mrs Wormwood. She and Sarah Jane rescued the two of them from an attack from the enemy Bane agents. Rani and Sarah Jane then accompanied the Brigadier to the Black Archive to find the Tunguska Scroll which would lead them to the mind of the evil entity that the Bane were looking for, Horath. However, Mrs Wormwood double crossed them and teamed up with rogue Sontaran Commander Kaagh to take over the universe, with Luke in tow. Rani confronted Wormwood and Kaagh at the entrance to Horath's domain. Sarah Jane rescued Luke and Kaagh threw Mrs Wormwood and himself into the alternate reality just before it sealed itself forever. (SJA: Enemy of the Bane)
Later in the year Rani and the gang also had to deal with a minor Slitheen incursion, when a lone member of the Slitheen family, disguised as galactic ambassador Ranius, attempted to steal K-9. However, they managed to send him back to where he came from. (SJA: From Raxacoricofallapatorius With Love)
In later 2009 she helped Captain Tybo catch Androvax, a Veil who was the Judoon's most wanted criminal. At the same time her parents had gone to a Genetic Systems lab in order to expand her mother's business. They were searched by Judoon and survived. They later told Rani about the experience but she pretended to not believe them. (SJA: Prisoner of the Judoon)
After this she received an email from her old friend Samuel Lloyd. He tricked her into going back to her old home town and investigating a Fun Fair park, where she found an alien called Eve. Eve was a time sensitive alien, and the last of her kind. Using her abilities, she showed Rani her future. The vision showed showed her as an old lonely woman living in 13 Bannerman in the year 2059. After it was revealed Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde had followed Rani, she took Eve out of the ride she hid in, but Eve only wanted to play and forced Rani and four homeless people to have fun. With Eve's power growing out of control, Sarah Jane learned that doing this would kill Eve, so she and Clyde got Eve to her mother ship where Rani was freed from Eve's power. Thankful and granting wishes by manipulating timelines, the mothership recalled a wish that Rani had made earlier, that Sarah Jane, Luke, and Clyde would just leave her alone, taking them out of existence from that point onward. This lead to the vision of the future Rani had seen earlier. In 2059, when telling her story to a young boy, it was revealed he is the son of Eve and Sam Lloyd. He restored Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde to the timeline and the future was changed again. (SJA: The Mad Woman in the Attic)
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Rani, Luke and Clyde found out that Sarah Jane was dating a man named Peter Dalton, who Sarah Jane met in a shoe shop. Mr Smith and K-9 revealed that the trio secretly put a tracking device on Sarah Jane's car. A few days later, Rani and Clyde broke into Peter's house, suspecting that he wasn't quite Human. They found out that he did not live there. They told Sarah Jane this, but Sarah Jane told them that he had a flat in London nearer his firm. When Sarah Jane announced she was to be married, Rani was asked to be the bridesmaid for Sarah Jane, despite previously spying on Sarah Jane, along with Luke and Clyde. The Doctor appeared at the wedding, and demanded that the wedding was to be stopped. Rani was teleported along with Clyde, Luke and the Doctor to nowhere in a time trap. Thanks to the TARDIS' power and Clyde manipulating it, as well as Peter withdrawing the Trickster's agreement, they were able to escape and the Trickster exploded into nothing. Rani was allowed to look inside the TARDIS when the Doctor visited Bannerman Road. (SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)
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Rani then helped to defeat Erasmus Darkening (SJA: The Eternity Trap), the Mona Lisa. (SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge), the Slitheen and Blathereen (SJA: The Gift).
Luke's departure
Rani became trapped in a nightmare by the Nightmare Man, but helped to defeat him along with Luke and Clyde. She later said her goodbyes to Luke as he parted for Oxford University, one year earlier than expected. (SJA: The Nightmare Man)
After Luke
Shortly after Luke left, Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani once again met Androvax. With help from Mister Dread, they saved his species and saved the world from complete hyperdimensional cataclysm. During the adventure, she told her mother about the Bannerman Road gang's battles against aliens but Gita's mind was subsequently wiped by Dread. (SJA: The Vault of Secrets) She attended the Doctor's funeral at UNIT Base 5. There she helped prevent the Shansheeth from stealing the Doctor's TARDIS. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
Rani and Clyde were the only two people left on Earth after a pair of robots came searching for their king's heir, Gavin. Rani helped convince him that he was needed on another planet and he agreed. Gavin proclaimed them Lady Rani and Lord Clyde; he then left with the robots who returned all the humans. (SJA: The Empty Planet)
Rani, along with the rest of the Bannerman Road gang, were sent to different points in history by the Shopkeeper in order to retrieve Chronosteel and save the Earth. Rani ended up in 1553, where she met Queen Jane Grey and became her lady-in-waiting. She became the Queen's friend and saved her life after Lady Matilda tried to kill Jane so that she would not be executed by Mary I of England. Rani comforted Jane and told her that she would be remembered and respected for hundreds of years to come. Rani took Matilda's dagger, which was Chronosteel, and used it to return to 2010 after bidding farewell to Jane and Mistress Ellen. Her Chronosteel, along with Clyde and Sarah Jane's, saved the planet. Rani later did research on Jane Grey, discovering that she was happy in her final moments, as she was certain of her remembrance. (SJA: Lost in Time)
Reuniting the Team
Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani went to a meteor that had crashed on Earth and was about release alien germs, however before they could use a bio-coolant spray on it, a woman called Ruby White beat them to it. They investigated Ruby who had moved in on Bannerman Road. She was rude to them and told them to leave. Sarah Jane began losing her touch on things even whilst fighting hostile aliens The Dark Horde. Ruby saved the gang with her AI, Mr White and apologised to the gang and they became friends. Sarah Jane continued losing her touch even forgetting the Doctor's name momentarily. She decided she is too old and tired to defend Earth any more and gives everything to Ruby, including voice recognition to Mr Smith. Ruby revealed herself to be a Katesh, aliens who feed off excitement, Sarah Jane's life contains an enormous amount of that so Ruby's stomach (separate from her body) in her seller has been feeding of it and her life force. Mr White using his special effects maker made a video of Sarah Jane saying goodbye seemingly leaving without even telling Luke. Initially Clyde was furious thinking it was Rani's fault and told her to leave him be and she ran home crying. Clyde contacted Luke but was captured by Ruby and teleported to her spaceship prison, where he was quickly losing air. Luke returned to Bannerman Road and with K9 and Rani's help, was able to hack into Mr White and reactivate Mr Smith to normal. Clyde was teleported back to the attic where he quickly reconciled with Rani and joined her and and Luke and found Sarah Jane whilst Ruby was held in a containment vortex but released by Mr White. The meteor and Dark Horde were just special effects made by Mr White. Mr White now under control of Luke, made a meteor projection to every human on the planet and projected their feelings to Ruby, overpowering her causing her stomach to explode and Sarah Jane to return to normal. Sarah Jane used her sonic lipstick to teleport Ruby to her prison and disable her teleport device even after Ruby asked for help. Ruby was furious as she was returned to her prison. Sarah Jane dumped Mr White into her safe and had Mr Smith send out a cover story that the meteors were a special 3D game. Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde and Rani then went out to have a night off, with Sarah Jane talking in her head to aliens that Earth is under their protection. (SJA: Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith)
Future
In 2059, Rani had a happy life with her large family. She lived in 13 Bannerman Road. She was a journalist and frequently kept in touch with Clyde, Maria and Luke. She had at least one son, Shuresh, and three grandchildren, two grandsons and one granddaughter. She kept a picture of Sarah Jane Smith, Clyde, Luke, K9 and herself from 50 years prior. (SJA: The Mad Woman in the Attic)
Alternate realities
In an alternate reality, Ship removed Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde from time due to Rani wishing they'd leave her alone. By 2059, Rani was a mad old woman who lived in 13 Bannerman Road. Adam Lloyd visited her and, being one of Eve's species, altered her timeline so that Ship never got rid of her friends. (SJA: The Mad Woman in the Attic)
Personality
Rani wanted to be a journalist when she grew up, this tendency to explore resulted in her stumbling upon Sarah Jane's life. (SJA: The Day of the Clown) She admired Luke for his cleverness and Clyde for his aversion to authority. (SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith) Rani confided in Sam Lloyd her knowledge of aliens and was pleased for him when he chose to leave Earth for travels in space. She befriended Eve realising she meant no harm. Rani apologised to Sarah Jane for betraying her trust when she told of her adventures to Sam. (SJA: The Mad Woman in the Attic) She helped Gavin, gaining his trust and convincing him that he was important. (SJA: The Empty Planet)
It is implied that she has developed romantic feelings for Clyde. (SJA: The Gift, The Vault of Secrets, The Empty Planet, Lost in Time)
Behind the scenes
- The character's name is similar to that of 1980s Doctor Who villain the Rani, though the producers have stated that there is no connection between the characters. "Rani" is an Indian word for queen, hence the villain's usage of it as a title. Given Rani's ethnicity, the name makes sense in her case as well.
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