Doctor Who needs to do the Rani justice by not forgetting her most important quality

She emerged from this bi-generation immediately subservient to an apparently more dominant version of herself, who announced that she is the definitive article, the Rani (played by Archie Panjabi).

Up until now, the Rani had appeared exclusively in classic Doctor Who. She made her debut in the 1985 Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) story, The Mark of the Rani and had only been portrayed on-screen by one actress, Dynasty legend, Kate O’Mara.

The return of this character has been long awaited. Ever since the revival of Doctor Who in 2005, every time a mysterious female character appeared there was the inevitable chorus from fans of: ‘It’s the Rani!’ But now, as has been widely remarked, the Rani is just like a bus, you wait forever for one and then two of them turn up at once.

So, we now have a brand-new pair of Ranis primed and ready to cause devastation in the big finale, announcing during last week’s tantalising mid-credits scene: “As for the Doctor... I will bring him absolute terror!”

This is where the show faces a dilemma - because the Rani is not just another villain set on taking over the world. It’s important to keep in mind that she was originally a unique, slightly subtler villain than she may have appeared at first glance.

When the Rani made her debut, we hadn’t seen many Time Lord contemporaries take on the Doctor who didn’t turn out to be the Master, and audiences had rarely seen such a strong female adversary to the Doctor. The classic era’s Missy is the simplest way to describe the Rani (despite lacking that intriguing redemption arc).

But more than just becoming a female version of the Master, the Rani was portrayed as a scientist first and foremost, carrying out experiments that the Time Lords deemed too barbaric. She cared little for the collateral damage that lay in her wake, and her callousness apparently earned her a spot just below the Master on the Time Lord’s most wanted list. This brings us to the crux of the matter: the Rani really shouldn’t be a villain motivated solely by a hatred of the Doctor.

In The Mark of the Rani, she was explicit in the fact that she considers the Master’s rivalry with the Doctor to be beneath her. In a conversation with Anthony Ainley’s incarnation of the Master, the Rani informed him that she had seen the Doctor and stated: “I am not interested in your pathetic vendetta one way or the other. Now clear off and let me get on with my work.”

In that story she formed an uneasy alliance with the Master, disguising herself as an old woman in order to continue with her scheme. It was a plan that involved harvesting chemicals from human brains to fix a problem she had caused with her own experiments on the planet she ruled, Miasimia Goria.

The character was created by husband and wife writing duo, Pip and Jane Baker. The producer of Doctor Who at the time, John Nathan-Turner, proposed bringing in a Time Lord adversary in addition to the Master. It was Pip and Jane who suggested that this should be a female character.

Perhaps the Rani was teamed up with the Master in her debut in order to clearly differentiate her particular brand of villainy. To the Rani, the Doctor was merely an irritant and that was made especially clear in her second appearance in classic Doctor Who, Sylvester McCoy’s debut as the Seventh Doctor, Time and the Rani.

In this serial she played him for a fool in his post regeneration haze by dressing as his companion, Mel Bush (Bonnie Langford). It was a farce of Shakespearean proportions. The Rani helped the Doctor pick out his new outfit before rolling her eyes as her patience grew increasingly thin with his antics. That she felt superior to everyone around her to the point of apathy was the Rani’s core personality trait.

The character made her final appearance in the classic era in the 1993 Children in Need special, Dimensions in Time, where she terrorised the residents of Albert Square. That’s right, Dimensions in Time was a Doctor Who/EastEnders cross-over. Perhaps the casting of Anita Dobson (who played iconic EastEnders landlady Angie Watts) really was the ultimate clue to Mrs Flood’s true identity.

Back in the '80s, the Rani may have looked like your classic femme fatale, all shoulder pads and high camp. However, beyond the light-heartedness of the Rani’s final appearances, the character actually represented a serious female adversary to the Doctor and like a great many elements of Doctor Who from 1985 onwards, the Rani perhaps wasn’t fully appreciated at the time for the groundbreaking character that she was.

That this maligned period in the show’s history is finally getting some much-needed mainstream celebration is a wonderful thing, but whatever the outcome for our two Ranis, in the midst of the upcoming character-filled, villain-heavy finale, we mustn’t lose the heart of the character.

In order to preserve the true personality of the 1980s Rani, she must remain a cold-blooded scientist with a thirst for knowledge who views the Doctor as completely beneath her contempt, rather than an arch-nemesis that must be destroyed at all costs.

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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