User Reviews

Doctor Who: Time and the Rani: Part 3 starts as the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) manages to escape from the pit containing the Tetraps with the help of a Lakertyan named Beyus (Donald Pickering) who is working for the Rani (Kate O'Mara) because she is holding his people hostage, he tells the Doctor about the Rani's interest in a meteorite made of 'special matter' & that she has kidnapped some of the greatest minds the universe has ever see including Einstein from Earth. Beyus shows the Doctor that she has put these people in cabinets & that there's one with the Doctor's name on it which the Rani intends to fill. Having captured Mel (Bonnie Lagford) the Rani uses her as a bargaining tool to lure the Doctor back to her base where he is captured himself by the Tetraps, the Rani sticks the Doctor in one of the cabinets as her evil plan starts to come to fruition...

This Doctor Who adventure was episode 3 from season 24 that aired here in the UK during late 1987 & was Sylvester McCoy's first story as the Doctor, directed by Andrew Morgan I'm rather enjoying this story despite it getting bashed by a lot of fans. The script by Pip and Jane Baker isn't revolutionary & a bit simplistic but it's still managed to retain my interest over the three episodes I've seen so far, the story is coming along nicely & some of it has been kept back to keep the interest in it alive which I think it's done quite well & as with the previous two episodes of Time and the Rani there's a great cliffhanger ending which sets the final part up very nicely. The new Doctor is shaping up nicely & I liked the rather underused Rani as a villain for whom Time and the Rani would be a last appearance in the series proper. There's good fun to had here still if you can forgive some of it's problems, like the way the Rani casually leaves Mel totally unguarded for long periods in her lab when she knows Mel wants to stop her plans & could do literally anything. Sometimes beggars can't be choosers if you know what I'm saying...

Thankfully the Rani changes her outfit from when she impersonated Mel back to her more dominant one although I'd have preferred to see her dressed in black rather than bright red. Everything considered, being Doctor Who & being made by the BBC, the special effects are actually perfectly reasonable & there's not really anything I can complain about, so I won't.

Time and the Rani isn't a classic that's for sure but seemingly against popular opinion I'm rather liking it.

The solstice nears, making it time for the Rani to bring her plans into fruition. The Doctor's sympathies for Beyus, ruler of the Lykertyans, are rather qualified. Beyus' heart is for his people yet something prompts him to collaborate fully in helping the Rani reach all her objectives. The answer, he's told, lies within the Center of Leisure.

God dang, this story really sucks. It's just all comedy, stare.