Out of all the Doctors, the Seventh is the one I am least familiar. I’ve only ever seen two of his serials, Remembrance of the Daleks and the completely bizarre Ghost Light. Oh, and his cameo in The Enemy Within. Can’t forget that! So I thought I’d check out some more of his adventures.
This brings us to his first adventure, Time and the Rani. In a pre-title sequence the Doctor and Mel are shot down by the Rani. During the resulting crash the Doctor is fatally injured and regenerates to his seventh persona. Apparently he hits his head on the TARDIS console. I guess this is why the Tenth Doctor was so worried about hitting his head on a brick and regenerating. The Rani it appears is collecting various geniuses from previous eras of time. The last one she needs is the Doctor. She has also subjugated a whole civilization in order to do her bidding in some unknown experiment. When the Doctor awakens he has no memory of who he is or where he is. The Rani though has disguised herself as the Doctor’s companion, Mel. And I must say she does a dead on impersonation. The real Mel however has come to and is taken prisoner by one of the locals. However he soon realizes she is not like the Rani. The disguised Rani convinces the Doctor they were iin the middle of an experiment that they must finish. The Doctor goes along with it though he has some hesitation. Mel in the meantime has infiltrated the Rani’s base and after a bit of initial confusion, the Doctor regains his memory. With the help of the local people the Doctor and Mel must stop the Rani from completing her experiment which could allow her to alter the course of evolution itself.
Not a great way to start off the new Doctor. Though I did find the special effects rather effective. This episode also debuted the first CGI TARDIS. And this was with 1987 technology. And of course most of the episode was filmed in a rock quarry. Though right off the bat you can tell that Sylvester McCoy is having a blast. And no matter how many pipes and hills Mel has to climb though or over, her pants stay amazingly clean. My mom would KILL to be able to do that. But most of these are just technical squabbles. I try not to let that interfere with my enjoyment of the story which I did enjoy for the most part. I thought the overall plot was just a bit weak. It felt like they were stretching a two-parter into a four-parter. I really do seem to be of two minds on this don’t I? I liked it, but it wasn’t all that great. I guess knowing that Ghost Light is in the Doctor’s future helps me a bit.
Time and the Rani is slated to be released on DVD on March 10th. So check it out and tell me what you guys think.

Add to your favorite social site: