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Character in the Doctor Who TV series

The Rani is a fictional character in the British BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, portrayed by Kate O'Mara. She is a renegade Time Lord, and a nemesis of the series' title character, a Time Lord known as the Doctor. The Rani is an amoral biochemist who experiments on humans and other species, and considers everything secondary to her research. The character appeared in two classic serials, The Mark of the Rani (1985) and Time and the Rani (1987), before the original run of Doctor Who went off the air in 1989. The Rani later appeared as the principal villain in Dimensions in Time, a 1993 Doctor Who charity television special for BBC Children in Need. The character has since been featured in multiple Doctor Who audio dramas and novels.

The Rani is a renegade Time Lord and amoral scientist who engages in unscrupulous biological experimentation on humans and other species. She is a nemesis of the series' title character, the Doctor, another Time Lord who is technically a renegade as well. Time Lords are an ancient race of extraterrestrials from the planet Gallifrey who possess the ability to regenerate into a new form when mortally wounded or killed, and who utilize time travel technology in the form of spacecraft called TARDISes. In the Rani's backstory, she is banished from Gallifrey as a result of her radical experiments. She is a contemporary of both the Doctor and his longtime enemy, the Master, the three having attended the Time Lord Academy together in their youth. Radio Times described the Rani as "the renegade Time Lady who is as evil as the Doctor is good" and the Doctor's "archest of villains". Harry Beckett wrote for Doctor Who TV that "her Machiavellian personality and sheer doggedness in achieving scientific results made her a formidable foe and a person who you would not want to cross paths with." Caroline Frost of HuffPost UK called the Rani "one of the few characters to match the irrepressible [Doctor] for wit, power and supernatural abilities." The Rani's television portrayer, Kate O'Mara, described the character as "power crazed" and "ruthless", noting that "one assumes that a creature such as the Rani, who is a scientist, is totally amoral and prepared to sacrifice all in the cause of science." Nur Hussein of SCIFI. radio called the Rani "iconic", writing that "Unlike the power hungry villain archetype of the Master, the Rani was a ruthless evil scientist who wasn't interested in ruling the universe as much as she wanted to understand it, no matter the cost her amoral pursuit of science was an interesting foil for the Doctor." Doctor Who TV designated the character "an absolutely wonderful Doctor Who villain because her motivation is purely for scientific results." Mark Donaldson of Screen Rant noted, "The Rani didn't have the Master's obsession with the Doctor. She was never particularly interested in the Doctor and the Master's games." The character has also been described as glamorous, rapacious, cunning and evil, powerful and dynamic, dastardly and possessing fiendish cleverness. When cast as the Rani, O'Mara was known as a prolific theatre actress with extensive credits on film and television. She had previously co starred with Baker as business adversaries Jane Maxwell and Paul Merroney on the hit drama series The Brothers from 1975 to 1976. In 2013, O'Mara noted that the Rani had been specifically written for her. Mark Braxton of Radio Times praised the scenes between the Rani, the Doctor and the Master, and called O'Mara's performance "spirited". O'Mara called The Mark of the Rani her favorite of the episodes she performed in the series. The Rani is the only returning "arch enemy" of the Doctor in the serial, Time Lord regeneration is a device used by the series since 1966 to accommodate the recasting of prominent characters like the Doctor. The 1987 novelisation of Time and the Rani explains that after the events of The Mark of the Rani, the Rani and the Master escaped the Tyrannosaurus rex because it broke its spine on the ceiling of the Rani's TARDIS due to its rapid growth. The end of Time and the Rani required O'Mara to be hung upside down like a bat, but after some blood vessels in her eyes burst, the studio nurse forbade filming her in that manner to continue. Shooting continued by turning the camera upside down and employing a wind machine to make O'Mara's hair fly upwards. Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times wrote that O'Mara's "arch delivery was the saving grace of Time and the Rani."

The original run of Doctor Who went off the air in 1989. The Rani later appeared as the principal villain in Dimensions in Time, a 1993 Doctor Who charity television special written by John Nathan Turner and David Roden, and supporting BBC Children in Need. Needing a returning villain for the special, Nathan Turner chose the Rani because she was popular with fans.

In late 1984, Nathan Turner engaged Robert Holmes to write a three part story, later called Yellow Fever and How to Cure It, for season 23 of Doctor Who. The serial was to feature the Sixth Doctor, Peri and Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) facing off against the newly introduced Rani, the Master and the Autons, and would be shot in Singapore, where episodes of the BBC drama Tenko had been filmed. However on 27 February 1985, BBC One announced that production of Doctor Who would take an extended hiatus, citing a decline in ratings and audiences' growing concerns over violence on television. While season 22 had consisted of 13 episodes, each with a runtime of 45 minutes, in the intervening months a new season 23 was conceived that would consist of 14 episodes at 25 minutes each. He completed a story outline, but ultimately Yellow Fever and How to Cure It and other planned serials were set aside in favor of a season spanning arc called The Trial of a Time Lord. and the series was revived in 2005. Doctor Who fandom has frequently asked for the return of the Rani, considered a popular fan favorite thanks to O'Mara's standout performance. New casting announcements for female adversaries of the Doctor are typically met with fan speculation that a new incarnation of the Rani has been cast, as was the case with Sarah Lancashire in 2008, Keeley Hawes and Michelle Gomez in 2014, and Barbara Flynn in 2021. In 2012, then executive producer and showrunner Steven Moffat said, "People always ask me, 'Do you want to bring back the Rani?' No one knows who the Rani is. They all know who the Master is, they know Daleks, they probably know who Davros is, but they don't know who the Rani is, so there's no point in bringing her back." After being cast as the Fifteenth Doctor in 2022, Ncuti Gatwa voiced his desire to have his Sex Education co star, Gillian Anderson, play a villain opposite him on Doctor Who. The story takes place directly following the events of Time and the Rani, with the Rani as the prisoner of the Tetraps. Condemned to death, she plots her escape while being forced to use her scientific knowledge to help her captors replenish their dwindling food supply: blood. The title of the audio drama was originally announced as Resurrection of the Rani. Redmond's incarnation of the Rani returns in the 2015 audio drama Planet of the Rani, having been imprisoned for 90 years and escaping to seek her revenge against the Doctor. She arrives on the planet Miasimia Goria, a world she once ruled over, where the current leader, Raj Kahnu, regards her as his mother whilst also harbouring deep contempt for her. Kahnu, a genetically engineered humanoid who resides inside the body of a mechanical cockroach, later allows the Rani to leave the planet in a TARDIS survival pod that her previous incarnation had left there.

O'Mara's performance as the Rani has been widely praised, with her portrayal deemed both memorable and definitive. Nur Hussein of SCIFI. radio described the performance as "delightfully over the top", and Harry Beckett of Doctor Who TV noted, "She looked exactly how an evil Time Lady should appear O'Mara had a prepossessing sense of evil about her, a seductive look that could be both a sneer and a flirtatious smile." Dan Wilson of Metro wrote, "Kate O'Mara played the part to perfection. Powerful and dynamic, with more than a hint of dominatrix glam, she really made the part her own O'Mara soars above the bad writing If the Rani is to return, then the actor who takes the role would do well to take the best of what Kate O'Mara gave." The Rani has become a favorite among both fans and critics, who have clamored for her return to the series for decades.