December 5: Time and the Rani Parts One & Two

So Colin Baker has been sacked, despite the best efforts of John Nathan-Turner to convince Michael Grade to let him stay.  (This was after Nathan-Turner thought he was leaving the show as well, and was therefore somewhat irked to find that no, he was back in as producer for the new season.)  But no; the best Grade will do is to let Colin Baker do one final story to bow out on.  Baker, not unreasonably, refuses to do this.  (As Baker has since said, "[I]t's like your girlfriend giving you the push and saying, 'But you can come back and spend a night with me next year!'"¹⁴⁹)  And so the opening story of season 24 becomes the debut story for seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy.  Meanwhile, Nathan-Turner's also hired a new script editor named Andrew Cartmel to help oversee the next three seasons, and he knows he needs a script pronto, so he turns to his old standbys Pip and Jane Baker, who willingly set about first writing Colin Baker's swansong, and then, with a few minor tweaks, McCoy's debut.  Time and the Rani is the result.

The sixth Doctor regenerates into the seventh. (Time and the
Rani Part One) ©BBC

It opens with a pre-titles sequence as the TARDIS (in a cutting-edge-for-1987-but-rather-crude-by-today's-standards CGI sequence) is forced down by the Rani, who then strolls into the TARDIS and tells her alien helper, "Leave the girl; it's the man I want."  But this forced landing, which seems to have only knocked Mel unconscious, is enough to trigger the Doctor's regeneration, because apparently Nathan-Turner has decided that of course you have to show the regeneration.  (Fandom occasionally tries to justify this by saying that the sixth Doctor was dying from whatever adventure happened just before the events seen here (or that this was a deliberate sacrifice to get to the proactive seventh Doctor -- read the New Adventures for more on this idea, if you're so inclined), and that the Rani's device simply triggered what was an impending regeneration anyway; a nice idea, even if there's nothing on screen to substantiate this.)  But if Baker's not coming back for four episodes, he's certainly not coming back for thirty seconds, and so it's painfully obvious that it's McCoy in a blonde wig as the "change-over" happens.  And then it's straight into the new title sequence, complete with new theme arrangement.

I have to confess, I quite like both the new titles and the theme.  It's probably nostalgia in some regards (as the McCoy stories were really, for me, the first set of brand-new Doctor Who that I'd experienced), but there's still quite a bit to enjoy.  The theme's back to a more upbeat, heroic sound -- and we get to hear the middle eight again in the opening credits -- and the title sequence is very swish, with the galaxy swirling about as the TARDIS moves through it; it's a hell of a lot better than that pre-titles CG sequence.  I don't even mind the wink that much; the silver face is a neat touch and the result is a lot better than the abandoned attempt at making the sixth Doctor wink.  It's all rather thrilling.

Sadly, the same can't be said for the actual episode. McCoy's actually not too bad here, even if they keep giving him pratfalls and malapropisms; you can see where his performance will be going in some of the quieter moments here, with a sense of gravity and a touch of world-weariness.  Meanwhile, Kate O'Mara seems to be deliberately playing this with a welcome bit of theatricality, and her impersonation of Mel is really rather entertaining indeed.  But everyone else is largely useless -- the real Mel spends most of her time screaming (well, it feels like it, at least) and the native Lakertyans are a weak-willed bunch, with only the rebel Ikona standing out in any way.  The Doctor's costume change sequence (after swimming in Colin Baker's coat for most of the episode -- and note that he's wearing the Mindwarp/actual trial sequences costume, rather than the "future" Terror of the Vervoids one) feels like it's going through the motions, as if it's a requirement to see McCoy in old Doctors' outfits before showing us the real one -- which itself isn't bad, although the question mark sweater is ludicrous, but doesn't really seem of the same mind as the previous outfits tried on (so, a bit like Tom Baker's costume scene in Robot, then).  It's an oddly joyless scene.

Things sadly don't improve much in part two.  There's more farting about with trying to make the Doctor think he's the one performing this experiment, not the Rani, and Donald Pickering and Wanda Ventham have to try and look dignified beneath some rather ugly alien makeup.  And Mel still seems off here -- which is especially strange when you note that there's only been one Mel episode so far that hasn't been written by Pip & Jane.  But no, she's generally unlikeable here until Ikona finally believes her and they start working together.  Her first encounter with the newly-regenerated Doctor is also rather wonderful (unconvincing judo throw at the start aside) -- if the story had been more like this scene things might have gone better.

Still, it is generally nice to look at; it's another quarry, but the effects shots are rather impressive, and care has clearly gone into the exterior of the Rani's lair.  The smoking skeleton of the recently deceased Sarn is also well done, even if surprisingly graphic for what feels like a lightweight story.  And the Tetraps (the hairy creatures with the bat wings) are also designed well, even if they're not as effective when they actually have to do things.  But the visuals alone aren't enough to save this story; let's hope there's a dramatic increase in quality for the last two episodes.







¹⁴⁹ Howe-Stammers-Walker, The Handbook: The Sixth Doctor, p70.