The Mark of the Rani

It is unfortunate that Colin Baker made so few Doctor Who stories for television, but his short era is fascinating, as in many ways it is a microcosm of the series. In Season 22 there is a multi-Doctor story, a Dalek story, a Cybermen story, and this, a pseudo historical adventure set during the Luddite riots in England. While on the whole it is probably one of the better Sixth Doctor adventures, lacking as it is many of the obvious faults that befell his two and a bit seasons, it is still a somewhat misjudged.

The title refers to a Time Lady, the Rani, who has been stealing brain chemicals from pit workers in 19th century Newcastle. The Doctor and Peri arrive, forced there by The Master, who plans to kill his nemesis. But they both become involved in the strange events, the former trying to prevent the alteration of history, the latter planning to use George Stevenson to aid him in his dreams of world domination.

The script, by Pip and Jane Baker, is intriguing, but they come up with some of the most preposterous dialogue heard in series history. They should probably be praised for trying to enlarge our vocabularies, but then again does anyone know what "Apposite epithet" means, or even care? They also seem to get the characterisation of The Doctor and Peri wrong, and insert a set piece in which The Rani and Peri must traverse a field of mines...that turn unfortunate victims into trees. It's so out of place you have to suspect that substances were involved during the writing...mind you, some of the blame must be pointed at poor Eric Saward. He might've been apathetic to The Master, but that's no reason not to provide an explanation as to his escape from death in Planet of Fire. Sometimes, I think he's undeserving of most of the critical flack he receives. But for laziness like that, most of the time I have to agree with it.

The performances are mixed. Colin Baker is as good as ever, but Nicola Bryant is growing increasingly annoying. Granted, she gets some of the worst dialogue ("You suspect another motive?"), but she still doesn't have the skill to deliver it in a way to make it sound half-decent, and her American accent is growing even more wobbly. She also wears too much, although that's perhaps a more trivial complaint. Anthony Ainley returns with an oddly restrained performance, acting as nothing more than The Rani's lackey throughout the story. And The Rani herself? Well, Kate O' Mara's not bad, but essentially her character is nothing more than a female Master, and when she's in a scene with former co-star Colin, or Ainley, things really do get cheesy.

It's left to director Sarah Hellings to make up for these deficincies. Helped by an atmospheric location, she works wonders, which are magnified when you look at who directed the two stories surrounding this one. There are some delightful visual touches, like the volcano, The Rani's TARDIS (which, I'm afraid to say, is a lot better than the Doctor's) and the odd shot at the end in which one of the dinosaur embroyos inside her TARDIS begins to grow at an accelerated speed, which is a surprisingly effective, er, effect.

Unfortunately though, The Mark of the Rani also has bad dialogue and some duff performances, so they negate these good points to a certain extent. But I'm prepared to be generous to this one as Colin made so few, and was such an enjoyable and under-rated Doctor, even when the odds were stacked against him.