November 20: The Mark of the Rani Part Two

Oh look, it's one of those cliffhanger resolutions where they insert scenes, so that the last-minute rescue of the Doctor doesn't look completely implausible...

The first half of part two is a bit more interesting because it's less about the Master and the Rani (though they do show up from time to time to cause havoc) and more about the Doctor's interactions with George Stephenson (who, in case you didn't know, was a pioneer of locomotive design and thus can be considered one of the architects of the Industrial Revolution).  These are on the whole quite entertaining, lending a charm to the story and also making it seem less Time Lord-centric.  (Although George's son Robert is nowhere in sight.)

The Rani and the Master in the Rani's TARDIS. (The Mark of the
Rani Part Two) ©BBC

But, somewhat inevitably, we return to the machinations of the Master and the Rani (who's now fully on board with the Master's plan of taking over all the Industrial Revolution geniuses (all conveniently coming to a meeting in Killingworth) and thus ruling the world, somehow), which means it's time to talk about That Tree, the one that used to be Stephenson's assistant Luke Ward until he stepped on one of the Rani's landmines.

To be completely honest, I don't mind the design of it that much.  When it's just standing there being a tree, it actually looks reasonably convincing.  No, the problem is when it tries to protect Peri by bending a huge branch down in a weird hug, at which point it becomes very clear that it's just a guy in a weird suit -- no effort is made to think about how a tree might plausibly react (look, just go with this for a minute) if it were trying to save someone from danger.  It doesn't fall over or shed any branches or quickly grow some branches to enclose Peri (it's an alien tree, it could maybe happen); no, it just bends a rubber arm down to awkwardly embrace Nicola Bryant.  Still, that's probably the most objectionable moment on display here (well, that and the awful baby T. rex in the Rani's TARDIS at the end), so I guess that's something -- certainly the two villagers-turned-into-trees holding up Colin Baker look decent enough.

But the tree minefield section takes up a decent chunk of the running time for part two, and it's endemic of the larger problem with The Mark of the Rani -- they're using history as a backdrop for Time Lord shenanigans, rather than as an interesting place in its own right (so, rather like The King's Demons then).  It's fortunate that those shenanigans are reasonably entertaining -- the Rani in particular shines as someone who only barely tolerates the feud between the Master and the Doctor, and only then because the Master has the neurochemical she's been harvesting.  And, pleasingly, the Doctor snaps into focus in the presence of these other two Time Lords, becoming the moral center of the show in a way that hasn't really happened for the sixth Doctor yet.  There's little beyond this, which does make The Mark of the Rani a bit unsatisfying, but at least it's fun enough while it lasts.

(This story's Nicola Bryant in-joke: "All these mines look the same to me."  Not bad for only spending something like two minutes in those mines.)