24x1. Time and the Rani
Writers: Pip and Jane Baker
Script Editor: Andrew Cartmel
Director: Andrew Morgan
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Synopsis: The
Rani diverts the TARDIS to Lakertya, where she has kidnapped prominent
scientists to force them to collaborate in creating a time manipulator
that would give her universal power. The Doctor, who has regenerated
during the attack on the TARDIS, and Mel collaborate with members of
the local population to end her control over the planet.
Review: The Sylvester McCoy era gets off
to a disappointingly mediocre start with "Time and the Rani." This
isn't as bad as, say, "Timelash," nor is it as frustrating as "The
Ultimate Foe" or "The Two Doctors," and the return of the Rani as an
enemy who can hold her own with the Doctor intellectually is a plus,
but otherwise it just seems to be going through the motions. There's
some mild interest in the character of Beyus, a prominent Lakertyan who
seems to have concluded that collaborating with the Rani is the best
option for his people, but it's undercut by the fact that we never
learn how the Rani arrived on Lakertya or gained the upper hand over
its native population in the first place. I also have to take issue
with the scene at the end when, after the Doctor has devised an
antidote to the venom of some killer insects that have plagued the
Lakertyans, another Lakertyan named Ikona promptly pours it on the
ground in the name of self-reliance - the implied message here seems
bizarrely short-sighted and at odds with almost every other serial in
which the Doctor somehow aids a beleaguered population. As for the new
Doctor, we see some typical post-regenerative confusion for the first
couple of episodes, and McCoy's performance is competent enough, but
his habit of misquoting famous aphorisms quickly grows tiresome, and I
certainly hope that we'll see less of it in the coming serials.
Rating: ** (out of four)
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