Doctor Who-The Mark of the Rani (1985)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary Featurette-Making Of-Lords and Luddites Featurette-Now and Then Deleted Scenes Interviews-Crew-Playing with Time Informational Subtitles DVD-ROM Extras-Radio Times Listings DVD-ROM Extras-1985 "Dr Who Annual" Featurette-Saturday Superstore-Extract From March 1984 Gallery-Photo Short Film-Blue Peter Extract Alternate Music/Sound Score-Part One
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	90:18 (Case: 173)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (45:09)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Sarah Hellings
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Colin Baker Nicola Bryant Anthony Ainley Kate O'Mara
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Jonathan Gibbs

    The Doctor (Colin Baker in this incarnation) and Peri (Nicola Bryant) arrive at a mine in Killingworth in the 1820s, rather than Kew Gardens as they were aiming for. Some of the greatest minds of the industrial revolution are about to meet there and the Master (Anthony Ainley) plans on doing away with them. Coincidentally another rogue Time Lord, a mysterious anarchic scientist known as the Rani (Kate O'Mara), is also present and is stealing the chemical that enables humans to sleep directly from the bodies of the locals (and leaving the titular "Mark of the Rani"). The doctor tries to put a stop to the evil plans of these rogue Time Lords, who reluctantly team up against this common enemy and try to turn him into a tree. Yes, the Rani has a number or rather silly and ill-explained weapons, the most sinister of which turns people into trees.

    Though some fans may defend it, most would agree that The Mark of the Rani is about as bad as Dr. Who ever got. It is awkwardly directed and poorly shot in many scenes, the action scenes are poorly staged to the point of being laughable, the story is poor, the script is terrible save for a handful of great lines and the history in it is unusually inaccurate and misleading for what was typically a well-researched show. There are almost no interesting events that take place throughout the episodes, although a few are threatened but none actually take place. It is not helped by the fact that the story consists of two 45 minute episodes that have an awkwardly inserted cliff-hanger halfway through, specifically for countries that still wanted to show 20-something minute shows. To its credit, the sets and costumes show high production values, given the incredibly low budget at any rate.

    The main aim of the story seems to have been to introduce a new baddie, the Rani (Who would only appear in 2 more stories before the end of the original run of Dr. Who). Alas, this is not a particularly good introduction for a character that could have made an interesting nemesis for the Doctor.

Video

    The video is presented in its original full frame 1.29:1 aspect ratio.

    The image is fairly soft for the most part and many of the outdoor scenes are poorly focussed (though this is largely due to the original source rather than the DVD transfer). The image is rather grainy, particularly the outdoor scenes. The level of detail in darker areas is quite poor, particularly in the Master's black robe - at times he looks like a floating head with a collar! Save for the poor black levels, the colour is generally quite bold for television of this era.

    There are no noticeable MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There are a number of typical early video artefacts, such as comet trails, visible from time to time, but none are particularly distracting. A relatively small number of film artefacts are present, but none are terribly distracting.

    English subtitles for the hearing impaired are present and appear both accurate and well timed.

    This is an RSDL disc. The layer change occurs between episodes and is consequently not noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio is available in English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kbps).

    The dialogue is quite clear and in good sync.

    There is no noticeable surround channel or subwoofer usage, although the audio does have a good dynamic rage.

    The music is a rather lush synth piece, as you would probably expect from Dr. Who, and can be heard by itself on an isolated score track.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    A comprehensive range of extras is included, certainly more than this woeful story deserves, living up to the standard that has become expected from the excellent range of Dr. Who DVD releases.

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    A fairly standard menu and snippets of the feature with background music.

Audio Commentary - Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), and Kate O'Mara (The Rani)

    A reasonably interesting commentary track. The commentators are quite excited and talk about everything and anything, whether or not they really know about it. There are a few overlong pauses, however.

Featurette- Lords and Luddites (43:20)

    A lengthy documentary, shot for this DVD, in which the actors and crew recall the making Of The Mark Of The Rani and Dr. Who's place in the world at the time. As far as these sort of documentaries go, it is a pretty interesting look at a show that was finding itself in a downward spiral. The interview subjects are actors, writers and the story's composer. The featurette is narrated by a rather irritating female voice that almost sounds like a parody of a BBC newsreader.

Featurette- Now and Then (4:07)

    A brief look at the locations used in the episode today, compared with footage of the same places when shot 20 years earlier.

Deleted Scenes (8:40)

    Not really deleted scenes, but a series of extended versions of scenes featured in the story. There is pretty much nothing consequential in this lot and most appear to have only been trimmed for length.

Interview- Playing with Time (9:44)

    An interview with the story's composer Jonathan Gibbs. This moderately interesting interview covers the basics, such as what it was like working with the director and what sounds he chose to use, as well as discussing some more interesting bits such as how the composers would work out and execute their musical cues during post production.

Informational Subtitles

    One of the subtitle tracks consists of trivia, script excerpts and other assorted tid-bits of information about the episodes. This feature is fantastic and generally proves much more interesting than the audio commentary track.

Radio Times Listings

    Some interesting clippings, in PDF form, from the Radio Times containing features on the story and a number of letters condemning the direction that Dr. Who had taken under the production of John Nathan-Turner.

1985 "Dr Who Annual"

    A PDF version of the 1985 Dr. Who Annual, containing stories, pictures and so on.

Featurette- Saturday Superstore Extract From March 1984 (2:04)

    A brief phone-in interview with Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant on the children's variety show Saturday Superstore.

Gallery-Photo

    A stock standard photo gallery featuring production and promotional stills.

Short Film excerpt from Blue Peter (11:23)

    A short film about the historic Blist's Hill Victorian Town location that the location of the episode was loosely modelled upon. This is an interesting documentary about the early days of the modern steel age and subsequent industrial revolution, particularly around this town that grew from nothing into an industrial hub virtually overnight and became a ghost town as quickly again when the ore ran dry.

Isolated Music Track

    A very lush musical track.

Alternate Music/Sound Score for Part One

    A soundtrack with a partially complete different score.

    An identical package, albeit one with different cover art, is available in both Region 1 and Region 2, although Region 1 is NTSC formatted. Choose the local version for its original PAL format.

    Mark of the Rani is about as bad as Dr. Who ever got. This hasn't stopped the DVD producers from loading the disc full of a wealth of quality extras, however. This one is for collectors only.

    The video quality is fair, although most of the issues arise from out of focus camera work in the source material.

    The audio quality is fine.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall