The Mark Of The Rani
Now of all the actors who have played Doctor Who on the telly, the one who is my least favourite is Colin Baker. Generally, Colin and Sylvester McCoy are the ones named when people name their least favourite actor for Doctor Who, which is possibly a little unfair on them, because this is the time at which the series was starting to head downhill somewhat, whether in terms of budgets, or in terms of being increasingly ignored and sidelined, so it’s not a surprise that this era is not generally well thought of.
And I actually happened to like Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor: I thought he played the character well, and it’s a shame he didn’t get the chance to explore more of the Cartmel Masterplan as the series was cancelled.
However, I never did take to Colin Baker. Or Peri. Which is why for me this is my least favourite Doctor Who era (everyone has to have a least favourite after all). But despite that, there were still some very good serials and creations in this time. The Two Doctors, featuring the Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton Doctors, as well as Peri and Jamie as companions, and of course the Sontarans, is one such.
The Rani, another renegade timelord to add to The Doctor, The Master, and the lesser known Meddling Monk, Morbius and the War Chief who have appeared in the series. So that made me interested in picking up this particular 2-part serial (from the one season prior to Dr. Who’s rebirth where each episode was 45 minutes) to see what the character was like, particularly as I had missed this one first time around…
The Mark Of The Rani is set at the time of the Industrial Revolution in England — specifically in Killingworth, near Newcastle, where the Rani, working more or less in cohorts with the Master, are, in what probably won’t come as a great surprise, are up to no good.
The action starts really with a bunch of Northerners being violent and incoherent, battling with each other and smashing up machinery seemingly for no good reason. Other than the machinery bit, those of you wanting to express your prejudices about Northerners could suggest that it’s a bit like the Bigg Market on a Saturday night…
The tension is well structured: in the first ten minutes of the episode you get a few suspicions that one or more of the villagers aren’t quite right somehow, although the hints of the Master in the first ten minutes (Anthony Ainley’s overheard laugh, for example) are unveiled possibly a little early when The Master appears less than fifteen minutes into the first episode.
There’s also a lovely moment where Peri is concerned:
…and that dog looks more than ready to bitePeri
…only for the camera to cut to a big black dog lying on the floor, panting slightly, seeming perfectly happy, content, and above all, placid. Oh well, you can’t have everything. And there’s the fact that the Master’s tissue compression weapon looks remarkably phallic. But to counter, you’ve got a bit of authenticity as the Doctor meets Lord Ravensworth (a land-owning family very involved in mining in the North East — indeed, in the first house I owned, I had to pay an annual £2 rent to Ravensworth Estates).
What is quite remarkable, watching Dr Who from the 1980s, is that the plot, the effects and the acting are all far better than you’d probably expect, given that the series was dropped only a couple of years later.
The dialogue, particularly that given to the Rani, can be delightful. At one point she is monitoring the Master and comments to herself…
What’s he up to? Probably something devious and over-complicated. He’d get dizzy if he tried to walk in a straight line…The Rani
The story isn’t perfect (there’s a moment with the Doctor on an out of control trolley which would more have suited Laurel and Hardy), but it’s not bad at all, and the historical setting is simply excellent — although this may have been helped somewhat by the filming at Blists Hill, an open air Victorian museum.
While not a great Doctor Who, this was certainly a good one, and probably — after the Two Doctors — the best in the sixth Doctor’s reign. To my mind at least, these two stand out from the rest of Colin Baker’s as examples of what could have been for the Sixth Doctor.
Sadly, the trials and tribulations of Doctor Who — and the Trial of a Time Lord — were not to come close to matching up to this level…
John H says:
July 29th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
An interesting critique, although I can’t quite agree with you. I think by this time the dialogue and the overall production values were slipping badly. The dog could be one example, but I think the bit of the Rani’s dialogue that you quote is more revealing because it shows that the programme was falling into a camp style. Producer John Nathan Turner seemed to be more and more obsessed with light entertainment and in my opinion this is the only explanation for the ultimate horror to come: the casting of Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford. The problem with both of these was that they weren’t actors at all but “entertainers” of a kind who would only ever work in Doctor Who as very minor supporting players.
JackP says:
July 29th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
I don’t disagree with Bonnie Langford. That was definitely a sign of problems. She just didn’t really fit at all (not her fault, bless her, it’s whoever decided she’d make a good companion).
I do however think that McCoy was better than you suggest – just because he wasn’t well known for serious acting shouldn’t I think be taken to read he couldn’t do it: I thought he portrayed a slightly darker side of the Doctor quite well. His problem was that by then he was expected to carry pretty much the whole series…
Although you might be right about the high camp thing, particularly with Colin B…
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