Time and the Rani (TV story)

"This is idiotic!"

- The Rani

Time and the Rani was the first story of Season 24. It marked the debut of Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor (McCoy also, briefly, portrayed the Sixth Doctor for the regeneration sequence). An all-computer animated opening titles sequence was introduced with this story. Kate O'Mara makes her second and final televised appearance (to date) as the Rani.

Synopsis
The Doctor has regenerated for the sixth time and now the Rani has taken the newly regenerated Doctor prisoner. The Doctor must foil the Rani's evil schemes before all is lost.

Plot
The Rani intends to take advantage of an asteroid composed of strange matter which is passing the remote planet of Lakertya. If she can explode the asteroid by colliding it with another mass of strange matter, she can cause a chain reaction which will ultimately result in the creation of a time manipulator. With this device, she will be able to massively change history and rectify the "randomness" of evolution throughout the time-space continuum.

Unfortunately, strange matter is both rare and extremely heavy. In order for her plan to work, she must find a substance which has the same properties as strange matter, but is light enough to be propelled to escape velocity from the surface of the planet. Toward that end, she ties the universe's greatest minds into the single brain that will comprise the core of the time manipulator. Together, she reasons, they must be able to discover a lightweight substitute for strange matter.

One of the geniuses she collects is the Doctor. In his post-regenerative state, however, he's dazed and confused. As he struggles to emerge from his regeneration cycle, Mel encounters the locals who are divided about how best to end the oppressive rule of the Rani and her henchmen, the Tetraps.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Mel - Bonnie Langford
 * The Rani - Kate O'Mara
 * Ikona - Mark Greenstreet
 * Faroon - Wanda Ventham
 * Beyus - Donald Pickering
 * Sarn - Karen Clegg
 * Urak - Richard Gauntlett
 * Lanisha - John Segal
 * Voices - Peter Tuddenham, Jacki Webb

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Joanna Newbery, Christopher Sandeman
 * Costumes - Ken Trew
 * Designer - Geoff Powell
 * Incidental Music - Keff McCulloch
 * Make-Up - Lesley Rawstorne
 * OB Cameraman - Alastair Mitchell, John Hawes
 * Producer - John Nathan-Turner
 * Production Assistant - Joy Sinclair
 * Production Associate - Anne Faggetter
 * Script Editor - Andrew Cartmel
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Henry Barber
 * Studio Sound - Brian Clark
 * Theme Arrangement - Keff McCulloch
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Colin Mapson

Human scientists

 * Hypatia
 * Louis Pasteur
 * Albert Einstein

Humanoid species

 * Tetrap
 * Lakertyans are civilised reptilian humanoids.

Time Lords

 * The Rani and the Doctor studied together.
 * The Doctor states he is in his seventh incarnation.

Story Notes

 * Loyhargil is an anagram of 'holy grail'.
 * Working title for this story was Strange Matter.
 * This is the first story to feature computer generated images (CGI) for the titles and many of the effects (including the TARDIS's flight through space in the pre-title sequence).
 * The story's 'problems' can be partly explained as Pip and Jane Baker (the writers) in that they had no idea who would be playing the new Doctor or how he would be characterised - and, at least when they started work on the project, the series had no script editor for them to discuss things with.
 * Colin Baker refused to participate in the filming of the regeneration sequence. As a result, Sylvester McCoy donned a wig and the Sixth Doctor's costume and briefly appeared as the Sixth Doctor, making him the only Doctor actor to play two different incarnations. McCoy also spends much of the early part of the story clad in the Sixth Doctor's outfit.
 * io9.com ranked the Sixth Doctor's death as the second weakest death in science fiction history.
 * Sylvester McCoy protested wearing a jumper with questions marks on them.
 * During the regeneration, the exercise bike the Sixth Doctor rides in Terror of the Vervoids is visible in the TARDIS control room. In Issue 409 of Doctor Who Magazine, in an article on regeneration, the writer suggests that the Sixth Doctor's "mortal" injury may have been caused by him falling off the bike.

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 5.1 million viewers
 * Part 2 - 4.2 million viewers
 * Part 3 - 4.3 million viewers
 * Part 4 - 4.9 million viewers

Myths
to be added

Filming Locations

 * Cloford Quarry, Cloford, Frome, Somerset (Exterior of Rani's base)
 * Westdown Quarry, Chantry, Frome, Somerset (Location where the TARDIS lands)
 * Whatley Quarry, Whatley, Frome, Somerset
 * BBC Television Centre (TC1 & TC8), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * Sylvester McCoy pronounces "Princeton University" as "Prince Town". Since he has just regenerated the Doctor might be having difficualty pronoucing words.
 * The Doctor is wounded enough to regenerate during The Rani's TARDIS shoot-down, but Mel is barely stunned. They are on different sides of the console. Perhaps he was 'zapped' by a peice of equipment on his side that did not affect Mel. Alternatively, maybe the Rani's sabotage caused the TARDIS doors behind the Doctor to open a crack, exposing him to the lethal forces of the vortex (e.g. the time winds: see 'Warriors' Gate'). Again this may have missed Mel, who was on the other side of the console room. It has also been suggested that he simply hit his head on the console and Mel did not, suffering some sort of lethal internal injury.
 * How can the Doctor not realise that Mel's face is different from the real Mel's face? He is suffering from post regenerative trauma

Continuity

 * The Rani appeared last in DW: The Mark of the Rani.
 * The final portion of PDA: Spiral Scratch leads into this story as (paradoxically) does that of Craig Hinton's novel, Time's Champion
 * The Rani's fate is followed up in BBV: The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind.
 * In NA: Timewyrm: Revelation, Love and War and Head Games the reasons why the Doctor regenerated are further explored.
 * The Doctor states that he is 953 years old (although this number is later contradicted by the 2005 revival).

Timeline

 * Time and the Rani occurs after: PDA: Spiral Scratch
 * Time and the Rani occurs before: DWM: The Useful Pile

DVD, Video and Other Releases
Confirmed to be released March 1st 2010

Novelisation

 * Main article: Time and the Rani (novelisation)


 * Novelised by Pip and Jane Baker in 1987.