Doctor Who: Time And The Rani

For the first story for a new Doctor, this is truly terrible. Sylvester McCoy is awe-inspiringly awful in this. It's almost as if the producer phoned him up that morning saying "Sylv, come and be the new Doctor Who. There's no need for rehearsal. Just make it up as you go along. Bring your spoons with you!" The scene where Kate O'Mara pretends to be Bonnie Langfors is too hideous to think about. And the writers have come up wtith the lamest anagram of all time "Loyhargil" And then there's that horrendous theme, wink and logo.

This is a truly awful Doctor Who programme in almost every way. The story is quite boring, the characters are lifeless, and the standard of acting is mostly quite appalling. However, Kate O'Mara delivers an excellent performance as the evil 'Rani'.

As a fan i have to give an honest review, this is one of the worst Dr Who stories ever and I am not sure it even deserves 3 stars. Just because this is the old or classic series dose not mean every story should get five stars, there were some bad stories and this was one. This is no Genesis of the Daleks or Pyramids of mars, could you really give this story 5 stars making it the same as those, i do hope not. OK Sylvester McCoy had to take on a story originally written for Colin Baker's Dr, but no matter who the actor was not much could save this weak story.I never understood why Bonnie Langford was the companion, and i am sorry her performance still grates, but to be fair this was more due tot he script as opposed to her acting ability. The idea of the Rani played by Kate O'Mara collecting all the scientist to make a super brain was a workable idea, but this is just a awful part of Dr who's history, The McCoy Dr you see here is nothing like the Dr that was portrayed in the next season. I will still add this to my collection the extras are always good. On a plus it was goodbye to the awful sixth Dr costume, shame it was not goodbye to the question marks as well. This is for hard core fans only be careful.

After watching the extras I do feel sorry for Sylvester McCoy, you can see the dark doctor of series three during his audition, why oh why did they insist on his prat falls, etc, you can see the actor wasn't comfortable with this, the making of is excellent and worth the 3 stars alone, a series unloved by the BBC and not a lot of time to prepare decent scripts for the upcoming season, its a miracle it got two more, not sylvesters fault at all.
As an avid Dr Who fan I have this and it will get played more than once, but along with the Twin Dilema this has to be one of the weakest regeneration stories. Not sure why JNT got these stories so wrong, I have always liked Bonnie as a personnality and always felt she got unjustified bad press but she was so wrong for Dr Who, so in a nut shell, not the best starts but Sylvester was allowed to mature from the clown to the dark manipulator of his third and to a certain extent his second season.

I love McCoys Doctor and era. The most varied era of any Doctor. From bizarre to horror. Time and the Rani is just good fun. The effects and sets are very good for the time and by the end of the story McCoy has settled down into the role. Enjoy it for what it is. It isnt serious but it certainly isnt one of the worst stories ever!

I have to disagree with Rockfan 1973.Sylvester McCoy was a good choice to play the doctor he was much better than the awful Colin Baker who effectively killed the programme.Not even McCoy could rescue bad scripts and awful production standards set by JNT.

Simply dreadfull choice of Doctor and companion with terrible story, bad music and effects and the worst regeneration scene ever.

General perceived wisdom is that the Seventh Doctor debut tale TIME AND THE RANI is much derided but please do not dismiss it out of hand. There are worthy aspects to this four part story which I believe are worthy of praise. I love the spinning globe traps on Lakerta which I think are technically well realised especially in the first episode cliffhanger. If you take it for the joke that it is the sight of Kate OMara impersonating Mel so as to convince the recently regenerated Doctor then I feel it is a lot of fun. I like the costume change scene in the TARDIS where McCoy goes through a variety of former Doctor apparel and in so doing infuriates the Mel impersonating Rani. When we are talking costumes I would also like to praise the Lakertyans and the shiny fabric straight out of Dynasty outfit that Kate OMara wears. The basic plot premise seems satisfyingly engaging if rather scientifically bewildering and I like the occasional incidental music pieces throughout the story. Yes it is unpardonable the way that the sixth Doctor exits in the pre-credits scene and it is difficult to truly envisage the real danger that the multi-eyed bat wing Tetraps pose but generally I do not think TIME AND THE RANI is quite as bad as its reputation would lead you to believe. Admittedly it will never win any favourite story polls but in my opinion there are far worse classic series adventures that would rank below it. For its arrival on DVD I am delighted to hear that for the first time with this title one of the contributors on the commentary will be Bonnie Langford. Other extras of note that you will find on this disc include a 29 min THE LAST CHANCE SALOON making of item plus 11 min 7D FX titles sequence item plus pleasingly weighty 8 min photo gallery. For me TIME AND THE RANI is definitely my second favourite classic series DVD title of 2010 and one that I am very keen to add to my collection.

Time and the Rani. Not the best Doctor Who story ever,(But not the worse either! The Happiness Patrol is!) in fact! Season Twenty-Four, I hate to say, is the WORST year for Doctor Who! The 1987 season was poor on script, sloppy acting, (Except from Ken Dodd, Don Henderson & Tony Selby) and just plain silly story lines! But, if I had to choose the best from this season, Time and the Rani would come out tops! No disrepect to Sylvester! But I see Season Twenty-Four should have been Colin Baker's third (and maybe) final season as Doctor no 6. But, McCoy's stuff gets better in the later 2 seasons! So, That's my views on Time and the Rani! What do you think?

Ok normally I would defend such titles of doctor who, as I can look past most production issues etc. But Ii have to admit this is the worst episode of Doctor who that was ever produced. No wonder Colin Baker declined it.

I feel the entire style of it ruined the introduction of the brilliant sylvester McCoy as it just seemed silly, the Doctors regeneration never really made sense and the Rani became a terrible villain in this story, particularly her Mel imitation. It was cringe worthy.

I honestly believe this is what killed Doctor Who. It was on its way out, with Sylvester getting the worst story's.
Those buying this need to be die hard fans such as my self to bother. If you want some decent 7th Doctor Story's look up his final season. Which sees the return of some decent drama, tho im afraid it was episodes such as this that did irrepriable damage and killed Doctor who.

So buyers beware. It's only worth buying for the Regeneration, so if your going to watch it don't expect a master piece of TV