THE PLOT
An attack forces the TARDIS into a crash-landing on the planet Lakertya, prompting the Doctor's newest regeneration. The attack was the work of the Rani (Kate O'Mara), whose latest experiment - involving a large group of geniuses and an asteroid composed of Strange Matter - is stalled. She needs the Doctor's help to repair her equipment.
The Rani induces amnesia, using the Doctor to restart her experiments. By the time the Doctor realizes that he has been used, the Rani's equipment is operational again. Now the Doctor and his companion, Mel, must unite with a rebel Lakertyan to stop the Rani - before she destroys not only Lakertya, but a large portion of the galaxy!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: I actually quite like Sylvester McCoy's Doctor, but his debut sees very mixed results. He's a very physical performer, and much of his nonverbal acting is rather good. His oddball presence is such that he instantly "feels right" as the Doctor. He also is quite good in small, quiet moments. When the Doctor pauses to reflect thoughtfully, or simply react to a moment, as when finding a Lakertyan victim of the Rani's experiments, he is effective.
Unfortunately, this serial isn't really well-crafted to show off these strengths. McCoy's first scene, the first impression viewers ever really get of him... sees him rattling off hastily-delivered dialogue and then taking two unconvincing pratfalls. By the time we do get some of the effective quiet moments, he has already played the spoons on Kate O'Mara's breasts and mangled several aphorisms in a running gag that has all the comedy value of being covered with honey over the top of an anthill. I do like McCoy. Nevertheless, on first viewing of this serial, when McCoy says, "Don't worry, I'll grow on you," I couldn't help but holler back at the screen: "Yeah, like a fungus!"
Mel: The most hated female companion in the series' history, and I've never really understood why. Perhaps it's an advantage of being a non-Brit, and thus not having been exposed to Bonnie Langford's previous children's role. In any case, while I can certainly see that Mel is a poorly-written character, even by classic Who's Companion standards, I cannot agree that she is a poorly-acted one. Langford does a perfectly decent job of making Mel both proactive and likable. It's a shame that her characterization too often devolves into walking into traps and screaming, and she gets some of the worst dialogue of a serial that has far too much risible dialogue. But these problems are with the characterization and the script, not with the actress.
The Rani: Her debut story, opposite Colin Baker, saw her as a cold, amoral scientist. She would do harm to people as a side effect of an experiment and not be bothered by it, but she was not interested in subjugating planets or in dominating anyone. She even mocked the Master relentlessly for his ridiculously convoluted schemes.
Well, that characterization has gone out the window. Her second appearance turns her into a female Master. She has enslaved the Lakyertians, when she could probably just as easily have gone about her experiments in secret. She has gone so far as to set up sparkly "bubble traps" and unleash "killer insects (that) kill!" She even dresses up as Mel for a fair portion of the first episode, presumably to make sure that any of the character's initial dignity would be gone for good. Kate O'Mara still seems to be having fun, which keeps it from being a complete loss. But a character who was promising on first appearance is completely destroyed in her second. Also, while O'Mara sparked opposite Colin Baker, she just doesn't have the same presence when playing opposite McCoy.
THOUGHTS
What can be said about Time and the Rani? It's a horrible, tacky story that makes The Twin Dilemma look like something from the pen of Shakespeare. The production is awash in so many gaudy colors, I would not recommend it be viewed by anyone susceptible to nausea. Even the Rani's TARDIS, a wonderful set in her first story, is transformed into a gaudy purple-and-pink pyramid. This is Doctor Who as pantomime (one of the very few times in the series in which that overused criticism is valid), and it's really not a good template for the series.
The whole thing is horribly mispaced, with a rushed and frenetic feel that can make it exhausting to watch for any length of time. It's a horrible introduction for a new Doctor, and I feel very lucky that my first exposure to McCoy was The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. As unfair as I think it is that McCoy's entire tenure is too often judged by his first season, first impressions do stick - and despite several good moments, this story does not make a good first impression for the new Doctor. The mismatched sayings are particularly groanworthy. By the time the Rani slapped him near the end of Part One, I was ready to cheer her on.
"The Rani never does anything without reason," the Doctor intones at one point. Yet there seems relatively little reason for the Rani to set up a convoluted "killer insect" trap for the Lakertyans. That's more the sort of thing you'd expect the Master to do. Surely her superior technology and the ruthless Tetraps would provide sufficient threat without killer insects that kill?
Also, there's the serial's most famous line: "Leave the girl. It's the man I want." Yes, it's hilarious for all the wrong reasons. But it's also incredibly stupid on the Rani's part. Leave the Doctor's companion unguarded and alive, so that she can sneak into the laboratory later on to free the Doctor? Why? Surely it would be smarter to take both of them, if only to keep Mel out of the way and potentially use her as a hostage. Given that the Rani eventually does capture Mel (after a great deal of effort that would have been saved by simply having the Tetraps take both of them in the first place), I can't help but suspect that this dazzlingly poor plotting has more to do with stretching the plot to four episodes than anything else.
And yet...
Time and the Rani is bad Doctor Who. But it's not unwatchable, or even unentertaining when viewed one episode at a time. Donald Pickering and Wanda Ventham manage to infuse their characters with a surprising amount of dignity, even underneath the Lakertyan make-up and even when garbed in what looks suspiciously like cloth banana peels. Andrew Morgan is a strong director in technical terms. While the sets look gaudy, they don't look bad. Computer generated anything was still very young when this was made, and the opening attack on the TARDIS looks like something out of a (bad) videogame. But the exterior of the Rani's laboratory and the bubble trap effects are quite good. The story's bad, but it's not badly made, and that does help keep things watchable.
There is also quite a bit of energy. There isn't much sense, there isn't much discipline. The story falls on its face more often than Sylvester McCoy does, and the handful of good moments can't overwhelm the sense of mess. But for all of that, there's something fundamentally likable about it. The show may be bad, but it's fresh again - no sense of staleness. Season 24 is the show's lowest ebb in most respects. But I suspect all the flailing around may have been necessary, for the show to find its feet again.
I still can't give it anything other than a very low rating, mind you. I'd say Colin Baker made the right choice in refusing to come back to make this as his farewell story. "Carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice" may not be the greatest thing to go out on, but it's still a better curtain than this would have been.
Rating: 3/10.
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