Doctor Who reveals Mrs Flood's identity – major twist explained as classic villain returns

Flood was first introduced in 2023 Christmas special The Church on Ruby Road as the neighbour of Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) – though at first she appeared to be an ordinary human, she later revealed knowledge of the TARDIS, and in subsequent appearances seemed familiar with the malevolent Sutekh.

The latest season of Doctor Who has seen Flood appear in every new episode in a different guise, popping up across all of time and space and seemingly pursuing the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) on his travels.

Dobson had previously confirmed that the 2025 season of the BBC sci-fi series would reveal "who [Flood] is and what she's about".

"You will know exactly who she is by the end of this series," she elaborated. "By the end of it, as it rolls towards the conclusion of the last few episodes, she really flies her colours, so you know exactly what's going on."

Sure enough, the dramatic denouement to new episode The Interstellar Song Contest revealed Mrs Flood's true identity... she is an old foe of the Doctor and a fellow Time Lord – the Rani.

In a mid-credits sequence, we see Flood – injured after her "double brainstem froze" due to the machinations of Kid (Freddie Fox) – begin to regenerate... or in fact, bi-generate.

She splits into two figures – the second played by Archie Panjabi.

"Our name is the Rani," Panjabi's incarnation reveals, with Dobson's version being subservient to the newcomer. "She’s become a Rani, while I’m the Rani – the definite article, so to speak," says the latest model.

“I have a date to arrange," she says. "As for the Doctor… I will bring him absolute terror!"

Who is the Rani in Doctor Who?

The Rani – like the Doctor and the Master – is a renegade Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.

In previous appearances, she was portrayed as a ruthless biochemist who pushes ethical boundaries, using humans and other species as test subjects in her relentless pursuit of scientific discovery – driven by obsession, not conscience, it was her radical experiments that saw the Rani banished from her home planet.

Notably, in her first appearance in 1985, the Rani was hiding out in a 19th-century English mining town during the Industrial Revolution, disguised as an old woman who ran the local baths, while she would also later pose as Melanie Bush in an effort to deceive a confused, post-regeneration Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), so she's long displayed a penchant for hiding in plain sight...

The character was originally portrayed by Kate O'Mara in two stories – The Mark of the Rani (1985) and Time and the Rani (1987), both written by Pip and Jane Baker.

Her debut outing charts an encounter with the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker), who arrives in the mining town of Killingworth, where he discovers a series of violent attacks on local workers – events sparked by the Master (Anthony Ainley), who is attempting to disrupt Earth's history, and the Rani, who is harvesting human brain fluid for her experiments.

Though that story ended with both miscreant Time Lords trapped in the Rani's TARDIS alongside a Tyrannosaurus(!), she reemerged two years later in Time and the Rani – the Rani now plans to harness the intellects of history’s greatest geniuses to control time itself and the Doctor must stop her before she reshapes the universe.

Captured by the bat-like alien Tetraps, the Rani would not be seen again in Doctor Who's original run before the series ended in 1989 – though O'Mara did play the role on-screen one last time, serving as the antagonist of 1993's Children in Need special Dimensions in Time, something of an oddity which saw the TARDIS land in Albert Square for a crossover between Doctor Who and EastEnders.

In 2013, O'Mara voiced her desire to reprise the character in the revived Doctor Who. "I have white hair now, but a lot of it, and I'm still very glamorous and so I won't disappoint, I hope!" she told Digital Spy.

"I'll still be wearing the tight leather trousers and high-heel boots, regardless of what age! That's what the fans are expecting, so that's what you've got to give them."

Sadly, O'Mara passed away less than a year later, aged 74.

The character of the Rani has also appeared in a number of spin-off novels and audio dramas, including in a pair of stories – 2014's The Rani Elite and 2015's Planet of the Rani – in which she was played by Siobhan Redmond.

The Rani has also been mentioned in recent Doctor Who: in the episode Space Babies (2024), the Fifteenth Doctor – in conversation with Ruby – included her in a list of names/titles used by Time Lords. (Funnily enough, from Ruby's perspective, this occurred just minutes after she'd shared an exchange on the street with her neighbour, Mrs Flood.)

Now, finally, the Rani is back in force, with the big reveal in The Interstellar Song Contest officially confirming her return to Doctor Who after 32 years... but what exactly is her objective? And will we learn why she now has the hitherto-unseen ability to break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience?

Next week's episode Wish World is bound to deliver at least some of the answers – and should we be worried that it's airing on 24th May 2025, aka the day the Earth is destroyed...?

Who plays the new Rani?

Archie Panjabi is a British actress best known for her Emmy-winning role as Kalinda Sharma in US TV drama The Good Wife (2009–2015).

Panjabi made early impressions in British films such as East Is East and Bend It Like Beckham, and later gained international recognition for her powerful performances in both television and film. She became the first Asian actor to win a Primetime Emmy Award for acting, earning widespread acclaim for her portrayal of the enigmatic Kalinda.

Beyond The Good Wife, Panjabi has appeared in shows including The Fall, Blindspot, Departure, and Hijack, as well as films like A Mighty Heart (2007).

In 2024, she was announced as a guest star in Doctor Who season 15, playing a villainous role – which we now know to be the bi-generated Rani.

Doctor Who continues on Saturday 24th May, with new episodes available from 8am on Saturdays on BBC iPlayer in the UK and later the same day on BBC One. The series is available on Disney+ outside of the UK.

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