August 10th, 2010 32 comments

We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.

Doctor Who: Time and The Rani

Doctor Who: Time and The Rani DVD

The Rani has taken control of the planet Lakertya and forced the peaceful Lakertyans to build a rocket silo-cum laboratory base into a cliff face. She is aided by the Tetraps, a race of bat-like creatures, and plans to fire a rocket loaded with loyhargil, a substance with the same properties as strange matter, at an asteroid completely composed of the latter.

As a preliminary to this she has created a huge artificial brain and kidnapped a number of geniuses – Including Pasteur and Einstein from Earth – to imbue it with the ability first to identify and then to calculate the correct way to create loyhargil for her in the laboratory. The newly-regenerated Doctor and Mel must stop her and save the planet…

Special Features Include : Commentaries, Behind the Scenes, Makings of, Photo Gallery, Storyboards and Subtitles

Release date: 13/09/2010

Original VHS cover and wording

After an attack by the evil Rani, the TARDIS crash-lands on the desolate planet of Lakertya. On the floor of the console room, the Doctor begins his sixth regeneration…

In his post-regenerative confusion, the Doctor is separated from his young companion Mel and tricked into assisting the Rani in her megalomanic scheme to construct a giant time manipulator.

Lost on the barren surface of the planet, Mel has to avoid the Rani’s ingenious traps and her monstrous, bat-like servants, the Tetraps. She joins forces with a rebel faction among the Lakertyans, desperate to end the Rani’s control of their planet.

The Doctor must recover his wits in time to avoid becoming a permanent part of the Rani’s insane plan to drain the genius of the greatest scientific minds in the Universe.

Originally transmitted 7 September 1987 to 28 September 1987.

STARRING
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Me/), Kate O’Mara (The Rani), Mark Greenstreet (Ikona), Wanda Ventham (Faroon), Donald Pickering (Beyus), Richard
Gauntlett (Urak), Karen Clegg (Sam), John Segal (Lanisha), Peter Tuddenham, Jack! Webb (Voices)

PRODUCTION
Pip and Jane Baker (writers),
Geoff Powell (designer),
Keff McCulloch (incidental music),
Andrew Cartmel (script editor),
John Nathan-Turner (producer)
Andrew Morgan (director).

Interesting facts for the original VHS release…

Time and the Ran/ features the first appearance of Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. The previous incumbent, Colin Baker, was unavailable to record a regeneration sequence, so McCoy wore a curly blond wig and the Sixth Doctor’s costume in the pre-credits sequence, his face distorted by a video effect.

Among the costumes seen in the TARDIS wardrobe were items of clothing worn by the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors.

Some scenes were recorded with Sylvester McCoy wearing his glasses but after some debate it was decided this was inappropriate and the sequences were replaced in the final version. The actor’s short-sightedness occasionally caused problems during recording.

The working title for the story was Strange Matter, named after the material the Rani is attempting to duplicate. The substitute material is called loyhargil – an anagram of ‘Holy Grail’

The “regeneration” from the 6th to 7th Doctor..

Categorised under: Doctor Who DVDs, DVD