A generally well-received-at-the-time story that has revealed flaws and accumulated critics with the benefit of hindsight, Mark Of The Rani not only introduces a new foe for the Doctor (one who was intended to recur in future stories), but gives us the closest thing the Colin Baker era has to a coherent Master story. It's actually one of the better shows of the 22nd season.

Taking us along for the ride as they reminisce in the audio commentary are Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Kate O'Mara, who guest starred as the Rani (and had previously sparred with Baker in a '70s soap called The Brothers). Between that commentary and the customary trivia subtitles, one gets a picture of both the backstage politics and the on-set antics involved, covering everything from drama (the late Anthony "The Master" Ainley complaining that he shouldn't have to share screen time with another enemy of the Doctor's) to the comedy (Colin Baker surviving numerous instances of performing his own stunts, only to fall victim to a passing dog). Curiously, Baker professes an intense admiration for the work of writers Pip & Jane Baker, but he and his co-stars seem to poke a lot of holes in the scripts afterward. There's also some old series/new series fun (during a scene in which the Doctor tries to bluff his way into a gathering of great industrial-era minds, Baker exclaims that David Tennant has just the thing for that, referring to the newer Doctors' psychic paper), fond remembrances (one guest star won his role because he missed a call from his agent asking about doing a Doctor Who guest shot, only to find that his son, a fan, had answered the call instead and said that his father would be more than happy to take the job), and a few double entendrès.

The main featurette for Mark Of The Rani is "Lords and Luddites," featuring all three of the commentators plus other guest stars and crew members from Rani. The story's music gets an unusual amount of attention due to a special feature: the complete abandoned score for part one, composed by the late John Lewis (also known as "M" of Pop Muzik fame). Lewis was terminally ill at the time he took the assignment and never completed it, leaving the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's Jonathan Gibbs to create an airy, pastoral score (or at least as airy and pastoral as one can get on synths). You can watch part one of Rani with Gibbs' score or with Lewis' music, and it's an interesting study in contrast. Maybe because it's the music that's been part of this story for 21 years, I think Gibbs' score works better; both are firmly rooted in the '80s, but the Lewis music is almost too '80s at times for a story that's set in the 19th century.

This fascinating (if morbid) footnote of the musical score also earns its own short featurette, with other brief features focusing on the location where the story was shot (a working ironworks museum). Overall, it's quite a nifty package for a story that fandom has, by and large, declared average in retrospect. If there's one great pity, it's that Anthony Ainley died before the commentary or the featurettes were recorded; he is known to have recorded at least one commentary (for Logopolis, Tom Baker's final story, due to be released in early '07 as part of the "Return Of The Master" box set) prior to his death. Given some of what's said about him here, and I don't think any of it is unduly uncharitable, one wonders what his side of the story was.

Surprisingly, only one minor footnote is made about this being the story during whose transmission the first cancellation of Doctor Who as a series was announced (though the then-controller of BBC1 - and now the BBC's Director General - Michael Grade backpedalled quickly in the face of a furious public outcry and turned it into an 18-month "hiatus"). Now, of course, the almost-inevitable box set release of Trial Of A Time Lord will probably be a more natural place to discuss that topic in the bonus features, but I was surprised to see only a single mention of it here. Still, perhaps it's for the best - we don't want to go and give Grade any ideas about unfinished business.

Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com webmaster / editor-in-chief