I have noticed that in fan opinion polls of every Doctor Who story ever (except for the ones that hadn't been made yet), Season 24 always comes bottom of the seasons poll. Why do fans of Doctor Who dislike it so much? It is great!
While none of the stories in it are among the best ever individually (hardly surprising since they'd be competing with the likes of Doctor Who and the Silurians or Timelash, and sadly Paul Darrow can't be expected to guest-star in every story), there is a tonal consistency to the four stories of season 24 that was rarely equaled throughout Doctor Who's run - perhaps Season 18, if we ignore Meglos.
I have a theory that the fans miss Colin Baker and, as a manifestation of emotional displacement while in the Denial stage of bereavement, take it out on the early stories of his successor's era. That is my theory, and if Professor Cat tells you he thought of it first then don't believe him!
It is true that Sylvester McCoy had a hard time stepping out from under Colin Baker's shadow, not to mention his costume (lol). Aside from the triumph of Timelash, his last story was the epic 14 part Trial of a Time Lord, the longest single Doctor Who story evar, and it guest-starred BRIAN BLESSED too! How were they going to follow that?
Let's look again at Season 24 to remind ourselves how good it really is...
Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who: Time and the Rani Part One
The story begins with a pre-titles sequence, a rare phenomenon in the old series, in which we see the Doctor regenerate. We don't see the old Doctor even for a moment (spoilers: it's Sylvester McCoy in a wig), which is a clever but subtle way of making the statement that this is a new era, and Colin Baker is gone for good. This is then reinforced with a brand new title sequence using state-of-the-art (for 1987) SFX and music. I think a lot of fans would have missed the old way of doing the titles that had been in use, with a little variation, since 1980 when Tom Baker was still the Doctor and Ed Straker was in charge of SHADO.
After the titles we see the Rani is keeping Einstein in a fridge. Her henchmanny is Beyus, who is an alien Lakertyan. Beyus is played by Donald Pickering, who was the obvious baddy Eyesen all the way back in the Hartnell-era episode Sentence of Death.
The Rani looks camp but I can't fault Kate O'Mara's serious acting, she puts in lots of little touches such as feeling for both of the Doctor's hearts, or her contempt for the sycophancy of her other henchmanny Urak when she speaks to him over her chunky bracelet. I wonder if it is a teleport bracelet?
Sylvester McCoy also goes straight into character from the moment he recognises the Rani - he overplays the comic side, including needlessly falling over a couple of times, but underplays the serious, intelligent side of the character.
A monster comes in and is so scary that we don't get to see it. It fires a tiny net over the Doctor to capture him.
Meanwhile, the Doctor's Companion Mel (Bonnie Langford) is on location when she sees a Lakertyan run into a trap, get caught inside a bubble and spun round and round and round through the air before exploding. This reminds me of when I was stuck in the washing machine, except with an explosion at the end instead of me being a wet and clean cat (so just as bad). There is a scary skeleton left behind.
What with the Rani's evil technology resembling things like fridges and washing machines, I hope she does not have a Hoover! That would be too scary and I would have to call in Scary Cat to help me proceed with this review.
The Rani disguises herself as Mel and hypno-injects the Doctor into being fooled by her disguise, but with the side-effect that he also gets sayings wrong. This annoys the Rani, as does his playing the space-spoons for no readily apparent reason. O'Mara does a good job of changing her voice and mannerisms when doing Fake-Mel acting.
Real-Mel saves the Lakertyan who captured her from falling into another bubble trap and they become friends. They are unaware that they are being watched by one of the Rani's monsters. Again the camera is from the monster's point of view so they remain unseen by us, no doubt being kept for a reveal of maximum dramatic momentousness.
The Doctor is suffering from post-regenerative grumpiness. He says
"Perhaps this is my new persona - sulky, bad-tempered."So just like your last persona then?
The Doctor and the Rani (still Fake-Mel) go to the TARDIS for the Doctor to change his costume - up until this point he was still wearing The Coat. In a similar manner to when Tom Baker's Doctor first got his costume in Robot, the Doctor tries on some silly, obviously unsuitable outfits before putting on the real one.
At least The Coat is gone!
However, one way this is very different from in Robot is that the next three costumes are all clearly based on those of previous Doctors:
Finally the Doctor gets dressed properly and we can get on with the plot, although not before he gets some more sayings wrong. It is not just the Rani who is annoyed by this quirk!
Mel is chased by a (still) unseen monster into a bubble trap and bounces around inside it. It hasn't exploded yet when the episode ends, making this a very scary cliffhanger, one worthy of Hitchcock.
This is a good first part to the story. It is very camp and colourful in terms of costumes and sets - even the sky on location is a fabulous shade of pink. It is also properly dramatic, with the Doctor and his Companion separated throughout and experiencing different kinds of peril. It plays with audience expectations, such as by having the Rani's monster unseen so that your imagination helps makes them scary, and then it subverts those expectations by not even revealing them at the cliffhanger (it's what Terry Nation would have done).
If there is a flaw to this episode then it lies with the new Doctor - by having him hypnotised so early on we are not allowed to see much of his true character. I am surprised they had not learned from the lesson of The Twin Dilemma, Colin Baker's first story, in which the Doctor spent far too long acting out of character. Also he wore The Coat in that as well.
Doctor getting sayings wrong count: 5
"A bull in a barber shop."
"Fit as a trombone."
"A bad workman always blames his fools."
"I've drawn the short plank."
"Absence makes the nose grow longer."
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