Doctor Who - Time and the Rani [DVD] [1987]

If you love this story, then you may not want to read on as I consider it the weakest debut for a Doctor yet. It's a shame because undeniably there is greater energy in the production than in the previous year. There are good moments in the direction, mostly good effects particularly for the time (Death by bubble still looks great) but it's the script bizarrely mixing real science (google strange matter!) & pre-school hi-jinx that is the problem.
The Rani shoots the Doctor's tardis out of the sky (that's another good moment)which causes him to regenerate and tries to enlist his help in manipulating strange matter to rewrite time and history. The Rani has now been reduced by her own creators Pip 'n Jane Baker to being the Master in drag, losing the intriguing amoral quality of her last appearance. She also indulges in a Masteresque silly disguise by dressing up as Mel. Yep you got it, Kate O' Mara impersonates Bonnie Langford & she does quite well with it but like when Disney Store used to make middle-aged women dress in US High School Uniforms, it's a bit embarrassing. Kate makes what she can out of the good moments e.g rapture staring at her giant brain with geniuses (genii?) hooked up to it.
To prevent the Doc seeing through the disguise she injects him with an amnesia inducing drug which considering the dangerous project she wants his help in is just plain daft.
As regular readers of my reviews know, I don't think Mel worked until Big Finish audios but the character written for Bonie Langford to play here is so insipid that it's no wonder she does little with it. She gets the unintentionally funniest line though; "I've had enough of this drivel!"
The guest cast struggle with underwritten roles, only Mark Greenstreet as Ikona makes any real impression. He's given a daft moment at the end throwing away a solution to a lethal problem on the basis they should solve their own problems!There's Christmas Cracker wisdom for you!
The Lakertyans are a good design for an alien in costume and make up, sadly not so for the Tetraps though. Meant to be bat humanoids, they just look like fat lager lout Yetis. The award for something you can't convey onscreen goes to them having 360 degree vision.
Sylvester struggles as despite the post regenerative and drug induced instability, he does looks silly not suspecting the Rani in disguise a bit more. He gets a moment when he's unsure but a quick slap deals with that. There's too much clowning, some of which works e.g. playing the spoons is a charming eccentricity like the 2nd Doctor's recorder, much of it does not e.g. comedy runs etc. There are a few moments of the better portrayal to come like delivery of the line about a "temporal flicker."
His trying on costumes sequence is like very long but seeing him in a Pertwee jacket shows the difference a better costume could have made.

Some other nice touches; the geniuses including alien ones as well as human ones & the Rani's reaction in disguise as Mel to having her evil genius summed up "I'm overwhelmed."

The extras are top notch, enough to raise the overall package marking to a 3, even though the story's a 2 at best. The Last Chance Saloon" is a great documentary on the reasons why Who was given another chance and the making of the story. Contributors include; Sylvester McCoy, the late JNT via archive stuff. the writers (more personable than previously they also get a separate feature on their original concepts for the planet), script editor Andrew Cartmel, director Andrew Morgan and there is a look at Sylvester's filmed audition plus the people he beat for the role.
There's one of those off cuts from the documentary pretending to be a separate feature things "Hot Gossip" recalling the chatter of guest stars Donald Pickering & Wanda Ventham. Great features on the effects sequences and the title sequence.

Great commentary with Sylvester, the Bakers and a rare appearance from Bonnie Langford who is great fun as they all are. Bonnie advises us if you're asked to do something dangerous by the director, ask him to do it first!

A great support package propping up a weak story, completists only.

I remember watching it in 1987 when it was first shown, and really not liking it, and not having seen it since I have largely agreed with the general fan opinion that it is not up to much. However, as a completist I just had to purchase and watch it, and I am glad that I did.

OK, I am not saying it has suddenly turned into a classic masterpiece like `Talons' or `Androzani', but watching it again I was surprised at how much there is to enjoy.

For anyone looking here who does not already know (thought I cannot imagine that will be too many people!) this is the first outing for Sylvester McCoy as the seventh Doctor. Colin Baker declined to appear for the regeneration scene, hence the rather odd and rushed start to the serial. The first minus point is that it is never made clear just why the Doctor regenerated.

What follows is a reasonable tale as evil Time Lady the Rani kidnaps the Doctor, and attempts to trick him, while he is in his post regenerative confusion, into helping her with some weird scheme involving strange matter (a real scientific concept by the way) and several geniuses kidnapped from Earth.

The plot is a bit of a mess, and having Kate O'Mara as the Rani imitating Bonnie Langford's Mel was a mistake. The Doctor's malapropisms get on your wick after a while, and Mel is irritating. But there are good points as well. The moral dilemma of Beyus, blackmailed into helping the Rani, is nicely portrayed, and a little thought provoking. Sylvester McCoy grabs to opportunity with both hands and puts a lot of energy into his characterisation, already evoking memories of the 2nd Doctor's habit of appearing to be an idiot, but really being one step ahead of the opposition. Playing the spoons was a bit of a misstep, but I quite like the tumbling, especially in the early scenes where it is used to good effect to show his disorientation.

In general it comes across as being an average story. Not worthy of great praise, but not worthy of the contempt that it has been shown over the years either. And one other plus point, which was not a factor when I first saw it, is that I am a bit of a fan of the later characterisation of the seventh Doctor, in his last TV series and later in the Big Finish audios. It was a shakey start, but it led to some great things, so finds a little forgiveness on that score.

As usual 2Entertain have done a remarkable job on the presentation. The picture is clear and sharp, as is the sound. There is a host of extras, including the usual informative info text, which gives an interesting insight into the machinations behind the scenes.

Not a total flop, some glimmer of better things to come, an entertaining enough 90 minutes, a decent DVD presentation and extras. After much umming and aahing, three stars.

Colin Baker's end to his time of the Doctor was far from dignified. Publicly dumped by the BBC after what was the shortest run of episodes as the Doctor at the time, he wasn't even allowed the grace of a final season. As the scripts had already been comissioned with him in mind, this also makes Sylvester McCoy's debut the worst. No big story finish, a faked regeneration scene (with Sylv in a wig) and no real strong opening for the character, you really have to persevere through this one.

To be fair to the show, this is one of the better looking shows interms of location and effects; the pre-title sequence of the TARDIS being attacked is impressive for the day, one of the better video effects that started to appear in the show at this time, and the paintboxed quarry along with the very well realised bubble traps make, along with the exterior of the Rani's base, impressive viewing. The only effects letting the side down being the killer insects. The interiors are suffering from a hangover from the Baker era, very garsish and 80's looking.

Sylvester's first performance is confused, and absolutely nothing like the performance that was to come. In fact, the whole story seems to see him going through post regeneration trauma due to the fact that there is nothing for Sylvester to really hang his particular performance on. Pip and Jane Baker try to inject something new to the character for him at what really was the last minute by having him misquoting all the time (as opposed to Colin's frequent literary asides) but this very quickly becomes annoying and was wisely dropped afterwards. The other trouble with his Doctor, is that it becomes very clear from the outset, that Mel was much more suitable to Baker's loud, garish 6th Doctor. From here on in the character really doesn't work, and it shows straight away. Kate O'Mara's performance as The Rani is markedly different to the first time out, more sulky and stroppy than detatched, but her Bonnie Langford impression merits a star alone. She seems less the pure scientist she was and more a kind of tyrant here, right down to using Nazi terminology.

Also deserving a star for solid work in the supporting roles are Mark Greenstreet, Donald Pickering and Wanda Ventham as the Lakertyans, each giving their character the weight and sympathy that they truly deserved.

The plot involving the Rani stealing geniuses to destroy an asteroid of strange matter for her to be able to re-write time accross the universe sounds grand, but is less than impressive on screen. Really, this would have ben better edited down to a three parter mid season. This would have been a middling story on it's own, but the fact that this is 'debut' story makes this just tat bit more of a disappointment. However, the show would come back from this and show signs of true promise, before the axe fell.