The Rani (The Mark of the Rani): Difference between revisions

Unlike the other members of The Deca, she did not choose to leave Gallifrey but was exiled from the planet after some of her lab [[mouse|mice]], as a result of an experiment, grew to enormous size and ate the [[Lord President|President]]'s pet [[cat]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[The Mark of the Rani]]'')

While the Rani certainly did not share the Doctor's fondness for [[Earth]] (she referred to it as a "miserable planet") it has been the focus of several of her research projects.

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, the Rani departing in her TARDIS to an unknown fate. ([[BBV]]: ''[[The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind]]'')

The whereabouts of The Rani in the revived series have never been confirmed onscreen or in-dialogue. However, given repeated references by The Doctor about the fate of the entire Time Lord race, it can be generally assumed that she died along with the rest of the Time Lords during the Time War, though whether or not she fought in the war (being an exile) is ambiguous. Since The Doctor and The Master both survived the War, with the latter returning to threaten The Doctor on several occasions, a return for the character is possible.

One account claims that she saved a young man named [[Cyrian]] from [[Cybermen]] on the planet [[DV Acrol 8]]. ([[DWA]]: ''[[Rescue]]'') With Cyrian, she later captured the Doctor's [[First Doctor|first]] and [[Second Doctor|second]] incarnations. Despite [[Fourth Doctor|his fourth incarnation]] attempting to warn them of danger, the Rani managed to lure the Doctor's other selves (as well as his companions) into a temporal trap in order to include them in her menagerie of creatures. She hoped to shortly complete her collection of genetic samples and [[brain print]]s of every creature in the [[universe]].

According to another account, with the help of the Doctor's [[time brain]], she hoped to gain access to and control of every individual mind in the cosmos. ([[DW]]: ''[[Dimensions in Time]]'')

An evil (''or, more likely, amoral'') scientific genius whose villainy comes not from the usual variety of lust for power and suchlike, but from a mindset that treats everything (including morality) as secondary to her research; she has been 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 is in tinkering with the biochemistry of other species. [[Fourth Doctor|The Doctor]] claimed that the Rani hates children and [[Christmas]]; it is not known if this was meant literally or if it was just a figure of speech. ([[DW]]: ''[[Dimensions in Time]]'')

While she did appear evil, she found the Master to be truly evil and therefore stupid. She simply does evil things because she feels it is necessary to her work. When [[Sixth Doctor|the 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 pork chops. This shows that the Rani may have a conscience of some kind, also shown when she was willing to destroy her test subjects because they would've killed the Doctor.([[DW]]: ''[[The Mark of the Rani]]'')

*[[Kate O'Mara]] has, to date, portrayed the Rani in all of her television appearances as well as her single (to date) audio appearance.

*Most fans do not consider the events of ''[[Dimensions in Time]]'' to have actually occurred in [[canon]].