Who is the Rani?

*Some spoilers for the latest season of Doctor Who, but no spoilers for the finale*

Long before the Master regenerated into Missy, the Rani was the epitome of a renegade Time Lady. I feel like TJ and I have been complaining a lot about the Master being overdone. Finally, we’ve been rewarded with a different rogue from Gallifrey. The Rani has returned! 

She only appeared in two television stories of classic Doctor Who, but she made her mark (literally and figuratively). While sometimes seen as a female version of the Master, she’s unique in her role in the mythos of Doctor Who, even in comparison to the other two major renegade Gallifreyan enemies (the Master and the Monk). The Master was the stereotypical evil James Bond version (becoming more and more bananas with each regeneration) and the Monk was more mischievous, messing with the timeline for his own fun. In contrast, the Rani was more calculating and indifferent to life forms she considered inferior (which basically included everyone else, including the Doctor and the Master).

As a scientist, it’s like the Rani’s schemes were an attempt to assert order into a disorderly universe. If the world is chaos, she wanted to turn it into order. Imagine if Sheldon Cooper were a time lady and wanted to impose his bathroom schedule over all of time and space. That’s the Rani. In one instance, she wanted to harvest human hormones to control the Miasimia Gorians. Another time she wanted to basically explode a supernova to remake the “errors” in the universe. Even her schemes in modern Doctor Who seems to be largely about control.

Like the Master, the Rani was an expert at deception and disguise. She flew under the radar in the 19th century on Earth by disguising herself as an old woman. Later, with the help of amnesia drugs and post-regeneration confusion, she later disguised herself as Mel Bush to manipulate the Doctor into helping her. And there’s no telling how long she hid on Earth as an average human before Sutekh’s attack on time and space. As Mrs. Flood demonstrated, the Rani knows how to blend in wherever she goes.

Now I just need to watch the season finale and maybe learn how the Rani survived the Master’s decimation of Gallifrey. If the Master has shown us anything, it’s that a renegade time lord can always survive… if the story calls for it.

Unpopular Opinions: Doctor Who

With Flux finally on HBO Max, I’ve taken the opportunity to begin rewatching the Thirteenth Doctor’s run in preparation for the Centenary Special and her regeneration. Like with the other Doctors, I’ll be writing a post about Thirteen’s adventures. In the meantime, I’ve pulled together some of my potentially unpopular opinions regarding the Doctor Who franchise, classic and modern. For simplicity, I’m going to use female pronouns for the Doctor (unless I'm talking about a specific regeneration), in keeping with her current regeneration. 

I don’t want to know the Doctor’s name

Over the years she has been known as the Doctor, Dr. Who, and John Smith. However, we’ve yet to learn her name. During the Eleventh Doctor era, we were led to believe we’d learn the Doctor’s name, only to find his darkest secret was a regeneration he’d buried deep down. As enticing as the Doctor’s name is, I think it’s better left a mystery. If we learned anything with the Timeless Child arc, it’s that the Whovian fandom will not agree on anything. Better to leave it a mystery.

Timeless Child is just fine

Speaking of the Timeless Child, let’s get into that. I took a long time to watch the Timeless Child arc, as I waited until it was on HBO Max. By then I’d seen rumors and spoilers about the Timeless Child and who they were. Also saw so many complaints about the writing team breaking Who canon… let’s be clear guys… there’s nothing in the Timeless Child that breaks canon. The Doctor Who canon and mythos is constantly evolving. Easy example: Regeneration wasn’t even thought of until William Hartnell got sick and needed to leave the show. So to add infinite regenerations before Hartnell and infinite regenerations afterwards, not really a problem for me. That being said, I didn’t like how it was revealed. It was a lot of exposition and the Master talking, instead of giving us pieces bit by bit until the Doctor puts it all together, which feels more Doctor Who.

Amy is overrated and lasted too long

For a long while, it seemed like all Doctor Who fans would know was the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond. So when she and Rory left, Clara was judged. In addition, these viewers who disregarded the previous Doctors (even the modern ones) created oodles of memes that made it seem like Matt Smith was the only Doctor. So while Amy Pond may be the favorite of many, she’s not my favorite. I didn’t like her throwing herself at the Doctor, while engaged and married to Rory. He deserved better. But you can read more about my opinions on Amy if you check out my Eleventh Doctor post.

Stop shipping the Doctor

It started with the Eighth Doctor kissing Grace, but then in modern Doctor Who it got out of control. Rose and Martha fell in love with Ten, Amy tried to jump Eleven, and now we’ve got Thirteen and Yaz. Thankfully that’s not even half the modern companions, but it’s enough that it’s become a stereotype. Every once in a while was one thing, but it happened so often between Ten and Eleven that it’s almost expected in the modern era.

Five, Seven, and Eight are underrated

When you talk to someone about classic Doctor Who, they’ll likely think of William Hartnell or Tom Baker, the first Doctor and the longest Doctor respectively. But they aren’t my favorite classic Doctors. My favorite would be between Peter Davison, Sylverster McCoy, or (if you include him in the classic era) Paul McGann. “Earthshock,” “Arc of Infinity,” “The Happiness Patrol,” “Remembrance of the Daleks,” and the TV movie among my favorites. So if you’re checking out classic Who, don’t limit yourself to just the Fourth Doctor (as cool as he is) and give the others a shot too.

What are your unpopular opinions of the Doctor Who franchise? Any overrated companions and Doctors? An episode you love that no one else does? Drop it in the comments and wait for someone to argue. In the meantime, I’m going to continue my re-watch of the Thirteenth Doctor (next up, “The Tsuranga Conundrum”).

6 Doctor Who Stories No Longer Set in the Future

Time travel stories can get kind of messy. Especially if they last long enough that the supposed future becomes history. Back to the Future showed us that we expected too much out of the future, as 2015 arrived with no flying cars, hoverboards, or TV sunglasses. Doctor Who, on the other hand, has been able to avoid seeming outdated (other than the special effects), as the future became the past. 

The Tenth Planet - First Doctor - 1986

As the First Doctor’s tenure drew to a close and the team at BBC figured out how to prolong Doctor Who past Hartnell, the TARDIS team ended up in Antarctica. This secret science base in the frozen South Pole encountered the Cybermen and fought them off. In doing so, the Doctor’s aged body died from exhaustion and he regenerated. 

Battlefield - Seventh Doctor - 1997

The Doctor and Ace traveled to the far future of the 1990s as they uncovered the truth (at least partially) of an Arthurian legend. In the process they learned that Merlin was potentially a future incarnation of the Doctor. Though the Brigadier was involved, the little skirmish in rural Britain was not enough to garner any great attention, leaving the event relatively unknown.

TV Movie - Eighth Doctor - 1999

A Y2K story like many movies of the time I’m sure. This movie came out in 1996, three years before its setting. Taking place in the near future, there wasn’t a lot of crazy tech for us to expect. So while the Eighth Doctor, Grace, and Lee were facing off against the Master and his stolen body, the rest of the world celebrated the new millennium. But we didn’t stick around in 2000 long enough for the Doctor to make an imprint (except on Grace’s lips).

Dalek - Ninth Doctor - 2012

On one of his early adventures with Rose, they went to the near future where they met a Dalek in an underground bunker in Utah. Like the TV movie, we didn’t go far enough into the future for any outrageous guesses at future technology, but we did see a large collection of alien tech. While this episode aired while I was still in high school, the episode took place while I was at BYU. To think, I was mere hours away from the Ninth Doctor and the TARDIS. If I'd known he was closeby… Well, I guess what’s done is done. No TARDIS for me.

Fear Her - Tenth Doctor - 2012

Rose and the Doctor got caught in another scuffle in the near future. An innocent lonely little girl empowered by a child-like lonely alien nearly defeated them. But a mother’s love saved what could have been a disaster, including the end of the Olympic Torch. The Doctor ended up delivering the Torch in the end… though it seems some butterfly effect happened somewhere before real-world 2012, as David Tennant never got to deliver the Torch in real life. Wibbly wobbly. Side note: The 2012 Torch also appeared in mini-episode “Good as Gold” featuring Eleven and Amy against a Weeping Angel.

The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood - Eleventh Doctor - 2020

As if we didn’t have enough going on with COVID and killer hornets last year (whatever happened to the hornets anyway?), we didn’t even get news coverage of the unruly ground in Wales. Thanks to the Doctor, Amy, and Rory (but also note Rory?) we didn’t have a Silurian incursion. Instead, the Doctor was able to manage to delay the conflict until mankind was ready to share. Good, because 2020 didn’t need anything crazier.

As always, I can’t wait to see what Doctor Who comes up with next. My goal is to catch up on the Thirteenth Doctor so I can bid her goodbye around the same time as the rest of you. And then next up: Russell T Davies and the Fourteenth Doctor.

“I hate good wizards in fairy tales; they always turn out to be him.”

During “The Pandorica Opens”, upon hearing the story of the Pandorica, River Song makes one of her off-handed snarky comments about the Doctor. “I hate good wizards in fairy tales; they always turn out to be him.” We never got a clear answer as to whether the Doctor was ever a “wizard” who locked a “feared being” in the Pandorica. Maybe River’s assumption was right and the Doctor locked an enemy in there? But so far, we don’t know. However, it did make me wonder if there are any other wizards we’ve heard of who could secretly be the Doctor. Here are a few I thought of.

Seventh Doctor - Radagast the Brown

Indulge me in some headcanon for a second. After the Seventh Doctor said goodbye to Ace (sometime after “Survival”), the Doctor went to another world. Future? Past? Who’s to say? But let’s call this world “Middle Earth”. Here he learned about “magic” and became known as Radagast and enjoyed isolating with forest animals. This is what Sylvester McCoy plays both the Seventh Doctor and Radagast in The Hobbit. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s a fun thought.

Post-Seventh Doctor - Merlin

This theory isn’t unique to me. If you’ve watched the Seventh Doctor era of Classic Doctor Who, you may recall the Doctor being called Merlin in “Battlefield”. The Doctor didn’t remember being Merlin, so we can safely assume “Merlin” was an incarnation of the Doctor after the Seventh. Based on different versions of the wizard Merlin, you can see aspects of the Doctor. For example, in Disney’s Sword in the Stone, Merlin appears to time travel and he has a bag that’s bigger on the inside. And in BBC’s Merlin, the young wizard appears to live unaged for thousands of years, much like the Doctor. Maybe someday we’ll get a Merlin story?

Future Doctor - Newt Scamander

This idea will be even more amazing if BBC decides at a future date to cast Eddie Redmayne as the Doctor. My first time watching Fantastic Beasts I got definite Doctor vibes from him. Maybe it was the bigger-on-the-inside suitcase. Maybe it was the running down the hall with Tina in hand (just like a companion). Either way, a British guy with a fantastically out-there outfit… he could be the Doctor. He even licked the ground in Crimes of Grindewald. Although if we’re talking Harry Potter world, maybe the War Doctor as Ollivander would work.

Any Doctor - Wizard of Oz

It doesn’t necessarily fit into the 1930s Wizard of Oz, but let’s think for a second. His clothes are super flamboyant (worse than the Sixth Doctor’s clothes) and his hot air balloon could definitely be the TARDIS (chameleon circuit fixed in the future, of course--it’s been done before). Oz could be an alien world that people visit in their dreams. Maybe the Wicked Witch was Missy in face paint? 

The Seventh Doctor

All done Classic Doctor Who! This is a project I started over two years ago on grave shifts, back when Classic Doctor Who was on Hulu. So for two and a half years I’ve used a combination of Hulu, Netflix DVDs, and Britbox to watch all available Doctor Who. So minus the missing and incomplete stories from the First Doctor and Second Doctor eras, I’ve watched all the Doctor Who stories. So without further ado, here’s the Seventh Doctor.

The new Seventh Doctor with the diguised Rani

Season 24

Top Story: Time and the Rani

This story gave a soft reset to the Sixth Doctor era. It also gave the Rani a second run. Wonderful use of her character. I liked it a lot more than her previous story in the Sixth Doctor era. Better use of her character. Better use of the Doctor. Just a good starting point. On a side note, I would love to see the Rani back, with or without a regeneration sequence. Since Gallifrey is back, it’d be so easy to give an already-regenerated Rani.

Flop Story: Delta and the Bannerman

So overall, just…. What was going on? The action of the episode seemed to be an action movie/mystery feel, but then the music reminded me of a comedy. To top it off, I don’t even really remember what was going on. The Doctor and Mel found a vacation spot, which turned into a mystery (not surprising) but it was just weird. Just weird.

The "Dragonfire" TARDIS team

Honorable Mention: Dragonfire

The episode itself was a little odd, but there were several reasons I enjoyed it. Firstly, with Mel leaving, we had a smooth transition to Ace. I wish we had more of that in Doctor Who. I’d imagine more feeling of continuity in the show, if we didn’t just abruptly leave the Doctor without any companion all the time. So just for the double companion nature of the story, I liked it. In addition, we had the return of Glitz. Also take note that the “cliffhanger” of the Doctor hanging from his umbrella reappeared in “The Name of the Doctor” with the Clara Oswald splinter seeing the Doctor.

Do you think we also punish people for being sad?

Season 25

Top Story: The Happiness Patrol

A bit of a convoluted story, but I really liked it for the message. Similarly to “Smile” in the Twelfth Doctor era, this story had the premise of any emotion besides joy being bad. I liked the emphasis of happiness being just one part of the spectrum of human emotions. As demonstrated by even the big bad of the story, grief and sadness have their place in life. It’s normal and healthy to mourn and be sad at times.

Flop Story: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

I really liked the premise of the story, but the execution was off. That was kind of how I felt about several stories at this point in Doctor Who. If one of the four episodes had been chopped off and the pace of the episode increased, this story would have probably worked. But as it was, it had some slow, dull moments that turned me off.

Epic Ace. Who else could kill a Dalek with a bat?

Honorable Mention: Remembrance of the Daleks

Honorable mention because of how much it hearkened back to the first story of Doctor Who. I wanted to make note of the return to Coal Hill and the return of Susan’s book about the French Revolution. We even got some answer about why the Doctor was in 1963 when the series began. We also had the return of the Daleks and the return of Davros (last time until the Tenth Doctor era). We also had the Doctor pretending to apply to be the school’s caretaker (like he eventually does in the Twelfth Doctor era). Also, just how awesome is Ace, taking out a Dalek with an amped up baseball bat.

The Doctor and the Master face off.

Season 26

Top Story: Survival

So despite Season 26 being dull, I enjoyed Survival. It was the last appearance of the Master, as played by Ainley. It also gave some backstory to Ace. I know Season 26 tried to give some history to Ace, but I found it hard to follow. This story, however, was a perfect example of why the three-episode stories worked well. This story was well paced, but any longer would have been exhausting.

Flop Story: Ghost Light

And to contrast “Survival”, this story was another four-part story that was too long. It was slow and convoluted and I felt like there was too much going on. There was a ghost story, references to Darwinism as an underlying theme, aliens, and then a weird personification of light and control. Other than some backstory on Ace, I didn’t really see what the point of this story was.

For possibly the last time, the Doctor reunites with the Brig.

Honorable Mention: Battlefield

This story had all the stuff I like of Doctor Who: an alien mystery, a tie-in of literature, and a popular recurring character. We had the reference to Arthurian legend, as visitors from a parallel world, and then we had the return of the Brigadier. Oh and we also had a future incarnation of the Doctor revealed to be Merlin. It reminds me of River Song’s line: “I hate good wizards in fairy tales; they always turn out to be him.” Now imagine if we saw a modern Doctor being Merlin in the story that would have chronologically happened before this for Camelot. (There’s another idea for a post: good wizards the Doctor could be and which Doctor would be which)

COMPANIONS:

Mel        (6th Doctor) - Dragonfire

Ace        Dragonfire - UNKNOWN

Ace: Obsessed with explosives

Favorite Companion: Ace was a wonderfully complex character. Her backstory and character arc were a bit too convoluted and not well developed. That being said, I didn’t need to see her backstory to enjoy her character. She was a confident, kick-butt companion, who didn’t need to hide behind the Doctor. It kind of reminds me of how Ian Chesterton and Harry Sullivan were used to be the action heroes for the First and Fourth Doctors, but in this case we didn’t need a male action hero because the female companion already kicked butt.

Holy 80s! Look at those shoulder pads!

Least Favorite Companion: So if you remember from my Sixth Doctor post, I like Mel. And I really liked her in “Time and the Rani” but she didn’t hold a candle to Ace. She also didn’t seem to mesh as well with the Seventh Doctor as she did with the Sixth Doctor (never thought I’d say that about anyone). So she wasn’t a bad companion, just the screamer companion I guess.

So what do you think of the Seventh Doctor? What other “good wizards” do you think the Doctor has been? You can expect one Doctor Who post each month now. Next month will be about the Christmas special with the First and Twelfth Doctors and then in the new year I’ll address the Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors. 

Because the series was cancelled abruptly, we never see what happened to Ace. When meeting Sylvester McCoy at SLC Comic Con, he said he hoped Ace had gotten into politics. Alternatively, in the Sarah Jane Adventures, it's noted that a "Dorothy" (Ace's legal first name) who knew the Doctor, was raising millions for her charity organization.

Check out our other Doctor Who features:

• First Doctor
• Second Doctor
• Third Doctor
• Fourth Doctor Part 1 and Part 2
• Fifth Doctor
• Sixth Doctor
• Eighth Doctor
• Ninth Doctor
• Tenth Doctor
• Eleventh Doctor
• Twelfth Doctor

Fezzes Are Cool

One of the many iconic things and running jokes of the 11th Doctor era was his love of headwear. None did he love more than the fez.  I mean, come on, fezzes are cool! However, the 11th Doctor was not the first Doctor to wear a fez. Take a look at this.

In the 2nd Doctor chapter of the multi-Doctor comic story “Prisoners of Time”, the Doctor is shown admiring a fez at a hat shop at the Frenko Bazaar. He didn’t buy it or wear it, but he is definitely looking at it.

Some wonderful timing passing by the fez

In the 7th Doctor story "Silver Nemesis" he and Ace end up in a storage rea, where the Doctor finds a little red hat: his first fez (as far as we know). First thing he does, of course, is try it on. He may have looked older back then, but the 7th Doctor still had a childish side.

The Seventh Doctor with a fez and a mop. Foreshadowing?

The 8th Doctor also wore a fez in a comic story called “Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game”. He’d intended to land in Egypt, but instead landed in 1977 at a soccer match. I haven't read it, so I can't really tell you much about it, but here's the 8th Doctor wearing a fez.

Nope. Not Egypt.

Chronologically the next time the Doctor handles a fez, even if he didn't remember it, as the War Doctor finding the fez that his future incarnation had thrown through a time fissure into the lonely barn on Gallifrey, before traveling to his future incarnations (in the past) to return the fez.

The Doctor returning the fez to himself... and himself.

Not too long before that, the 10th Doctor found that same fez (wibbly wobbly timey wimey) in 16th century England, while wooing Queen Elizabeth (or her Zygon counterpart... It gets confusing), moments before his next incarnation dives through a time fissure to find his beloved fez. Even if it's just momentary, it was a beautiful moment to see the 10th Doctor wearing the fez.

"Anything could happen! ... For instance a fez."

Of course the 11th Doctor has a more extensive history with the fez. He found his first shortly before Big Bang 2, only for it to get destroyed by his future/already wife, River Song. However that works..... Anyway, he wears another fez along with Kazrin on Christmas Day in the 44th Centuary. Later he found another fez in his wardrobe, as he was de-monking himself for Clara Oswald. My favorite one though was when he took the fez from the under-gallery resulting in his War and 10th incarnations finding it shortly thereafter. (“One day, you could just walk past a fez.” “Never gonna happen.”)

"What in the name of sanity do you have on your head?"
"It's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool."

Now the question will be for Peter Capaldi: can he just walk past a fez? If he ever does, that might be heartbreaking. In the meantime, however, I'm just planning on having Matt Smith wear my fez for our photo op (hopefully he gives it back.......). Anyway, looking forward to seeing you this weekend at Comic Con FanX. Feel free to stop me to say hi if you see me.

SLC Comic Con last fall
See you at FanX this weekend!