Day 343 — December 9th 2021
Time and the Rani Parts Three and Four
Time and the Rani — Part Three
Something I think about when picturing the Sylvester McCoy era is some pretty decent work on the monsters, and that starts right here with the Tetraps. They’re introduced carefully in the first episode, shot from behind and low down to only ever reveal bits of fur, or a flash of wing. When they finally do get a proper reveal it’s done well — they actually make a point of saying ‘here’s the monster’, which regular readers will know I’ve had issues with them not doing over the last few months.
The design of the Tetraps is brilliant, and I think they’re some of the most unique looking creatures the show has ever done. They briefly had one out the back at the Doctor Who Experience around 2014 when I was doing some merchandise there and I was desperate to get it onto some postcards, but it never ended up happening, sadly. I love the way they jump around, surprising characters by jumping down from rocks and attacking from behind. It’s similar to the Vervoids, in that these feel far more agile than I’ve come to expect from a Doctor Who monster.
Sadly I think — as with the Tractators — they’re let down by making the leader a bit to chatty. They’s work so much better for me if they were mute, or at the very least only communicated through animal noises and bat-like squeaks. The face is suitably scary, but when the lead Tetrap has to move its mouth in time with the dialogue (and only ever to say bland things like ‘yes, Mistress Rani’), it rather spoils the effect.
The same is true of any time they have to share the screen with someone like Beyus, who’s the same height at them. They look impressively large next to the tiny Sylvester McCoy or Bonnie Langford, but they look far more like a bloke in a furry suit when they’ve not got the advantage of height on their side. I’ve one other complaint about the Tetraps, and that’s that I don’t think you ever get a real sense of just how many there are. Part Four shows us that they had six Tetrap costumes on the go (and there’s a single shot where they seem to use split screen to double up even those), but until then I’d spent the first three episodes convinced that there were only two or three costumes at most. It seems a strange idea to spend all that money on making a load of costumes, and then not making a point of showing them off on screen.
Especially when the rest of the episode looks so cheap. This one introduces us to the Lakertian Leisure Palace and it’s one of the cheapest-looking sets we’ve had in a long time. That’s a shame because it’s split across a few levels which would usually work for me, and they’ve filled it with loads of extras all made up as aliens. It should feel like a pretty impressive place, and I’m sure that’s what they were going for, but it falls incredibly flat.
It also doesn’t help that frankly I don’t give a toss about the Lakertians. There’s a lot of hand-wringing in this episode about what the Rani might do to them if they don’t stay in line, and there’s even a moment when some are killed off by her killer insects (in the form of little green pixels) but I can’t say I’m all that bothered by their plight. Showing them lazing around in a pleasure dome probably doesn’t help with that, either…! If they were out in the quarry being forced to mine elements for her scheme I might get a bit more involved, but as it is I just don’t know why I should care.
Sadly, I’m dropping to a 4/10.
Time and the Rani — Part Four
Something I’ve never appreciated before is that nine of Bonnie Langford’s first ten episodes were written by Pip and Jane Baker — that accounts for just under half of the total episodes she starred in across a season and a half on the show. I wonder if that’s the reason that so far she’s been incredibly consistent as a character? Mel probably screams more than any other companion, but she’s also the feistiest character we’ve had in absolutely ages. She’s content to dive in at any opportunity, and there’s something brilliant about watching her square up to a Tetrap in this one. I can’t imagine Peri trying to save the day here, but Mel’s well up for it.
I’ll say up front that I’ve not massively enjoyed this one, and I’m going even lower, down to a 3/10 for the episode. It’s the same issue I was having with Part One, where I just don’t particularly care about what’s going on. There’s a lengthy scene in this one in which the Rani explains her plan and I have to admit that a lot of it went right over my head. I understand the basics, but there’s moments like when she manages to create the Loyhargil which left me baffled. I think I’ve worked that one out now (it’s the substitute Strange Matter she plans to fire at the real Strange Matter) but I can’t say I’ve particularly enjoyed having to put the pieces together.
There’s also very little energy to this episode. The only time it comes close to being dramatic is when they start playing a countdown underneath the action, but given that it starts incredibly high — at 150 — and the action seems to bear no relation to the real time covered by the decreasing numbers it all falls a bit flat again.
The most enjoyable part of this episode for me has been Sylvester McCoy, and I love a lot of what they get him to do here. There’s something wonderful about him undermining the Rani’s experiment by feeding silly thoughts in alongside his knowledge (‘she’s reckoned without the Doctor’s character,’ says Mel aptly) and I love that after everything the Rani’s still got the sums wrong until Doctor Who can’t help jumping in to correct her. There’s something incredibly funny about that. We get a return to the mixed metaphors from the opening couple of episodes, too, including my favourite one from the entire story;
Ikona: ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a…’
Doctor Who: ‘Beneficiary.’
Given my name, people often quote the original at me, and I’m going to start cutting in with this from now on.
There’s one last thing I want to bring up for this story, and it’s all in the interests of being fair. I criticised the set of the Lakertian Leisure Palace for being cheap and tacky, but the sets of the Rani’s HQ are actually pretty impressive, especially given that they all inter-link and must take up a big space in the studio. There’s an uninterrupted run from the genius chambers and the hallways, right through her laboratory and up the stairs into the brain room, and this episode gives you a real sense of the space they’re working with. I think it’s clear where all the money went.
On the whole, it’s not the most auspicious of starts to the new era, but I think there’s enough of a feeling of fresh air to all this that I’m excited to move on into the future.
