Doctor Who: The Mark of the Rani

Written by the husband and wife team of Pip and Jane Baker, The Mark of the Rani brings the Doctor (Colin Baker) face-to-face with two of his fellow Time Lords. The late Anthony Ainley returns as the Master, the best arch enemy on the classic Doctor Who series, and Kate O'Mara plays a Time Lady known as the Rani, a former classmate of the Doctor and the Master at the Time Lords' Academy on Gallifrey.

The Doctor and Peri (Nicola Bryant) arrive in 19th century England at Killingworth, where the Master is planning to alter human history by killing some key figures in the Industrial Revolution. Also present in Killingworth is the Rani, a brilliant biochemist who has been exiled from Gallifrey. The Rani has been removing fluids from the brains of coal miners which allow the body to sleep, making them more aggressive.

Performance-wise, Kate O'Mara shines as the Rani and basically steals the show. She gets some of the best dialogue in the story as she mocks the ongoing rivalry between the Doctor and the Master. Her best line: "He'd (The Master) get dizzy if he tried to walk in a straight line" Another great line from this story is the Master's description of the Doctor: "He wears yellow trousers and a vulgarly colored coat. But tread carefully, he's dangerous. TMOTR is not one of Ainley's better outings as the Master, as he comes off like a bumbling fool playing second banana to O'Mara's Rani. When the character was first introduced during the 1970's with Roger Delgado in the role, the Master was the perfect foil for the Doctor, creating a Holmes and Moriarty-like relationship between the two. Now, the Master has been reduced to this?

Apart from the incredibly STUPID tree sequence in the dell, the story is actually very good. O'Mara joins Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant on the commentary track. Some other special features of note include deleted scenes, subtitled production notes, an alternate soundtrack for Epsiode One and the featurettes Now and Then and Lords and Luddites. Altogether, The Mark of the Rani is a very good story, and possibly one of the two or three best stories of Season Twenty-Two. And without that inane scene in the dell, this could possilby have been the best story of the Sixth Doctor era. The Mark of the Rani arrives in stores on November 7, 2006.