Doctor Who (TV Series) Time and the Rani: Part Four (1987) User Reviews

Monty python and the loyhargil?

[Sleepin_Dragon · 5/10 · 31 December 2018]

Time and the Rani does not deserve its place as one of the worst, far from it, it's decent overall, it is just a little patchy in places.

This fourth episode concludes the hit and miss story with a mix of good and bad. It's generally too silly for its own good, McCoy hasn't exactly found his feet, and is too much the Clown, nowhere near the Doctor he would become, but he's energetic and hugely charismatic. Lots of jargon, liked that, liked Kate, again loved Wanda Ventham.

I didn't like the Tetraps at all, The Lakertyans looked great, but just needed more character. I think it's the script that's the major downside, it's trying too hard to be funny, the pitch is all wrong.

Overall my feelings for this story are fairly positive. 5/10

silly but enjoyable

[ctdlondon · 5/10 · 23 September 2014]

I watched this, expecting it to be rubbish. The plot is lightweight and Mel does not compare to other assistants. But Sylvester and Kate o'Mara add some substance to the acting. The visual effects are good and the monsters good. I agree with the other reviewer that this has been unreasonably panned. The amoral and callous Rani has kidnapped the cream of the world's brains in order to gain the power to manipulate time and re-order the universe. She has subjugated the decent inhabitants to effect her wicked master plan. The doctor has just regenerated and is susceptible to her tricks. Of course her plans are thwarted. Yes it's not the plot that makes this story but the catty remarks of the Rani and the malapropisms of Mr McCoy that make you laugh at this enjoyable yarn.

Time and the Rani: Part Four

[Prismark10 · 2/10 · 31 December 2019]

The greatest minds of the universe and the Doctor will somehow cause the giant brain to be turned into a time manipulator. It will require a ship to impact into the strange matter asteroid around the planet Lakertya.

This will then allow the Rani to control time and alter the course of history anywhere in the universe.

It is not that the plot is nonsense, it is just boring. McCoy's silly puns in this episode gets tiring. He was cast as the Doctor according to script editor Andrew Cartmel because of his manic cartoon like energy with a voice of a proper stage 'Actor.' I just see a buffoon like performance from an actor unsure how to tackle the role and script.

The productions values were good. There was good use of early CGI in this story, I liked the garish looks of the Lakertyans. In episode four I noticed how the Doctor Who theme was incorporated with the incidental music which composers never did enough of in the series. It was evident when Jodie Whittaker's Doctor crash lands in her first story, she too emerges with a snatch of the Who theme.

However Time of the Rani has all the signs of a show that is struggling. Unloved by the BBC bosses, it has an Executive Producer who has no idea of a quick fix.

"Really, this is not the place for double entendres." Enjoyable first story for McCoy.

[poolandrews · 6/10 · 11 March 2007]

Doctor Who: Time and the Rani: Part 4 starts the Doctor's (Sylvester McCoy) personality is disrupting the Rani's (Kate O'Mara) experiment so she frees him from the cabinet for the sake of her plan, the Doctor & Mel (Bonnie Langford) finally realise the horror of her plan. The Rani has created a huge artificial brain which she was filling with the thoughts & consciousnesses of some of the greatest scientific minds in the universe & she needed the Doctor to complete it but not to be defeated the Rani manages to get the information she needs out of him to give her the final piece of the puzzle to start her plan to turn Lakertya into a gigantic time manipulator for her own evil use...

This Doctor Who adventure was episode 4 from season 24 that aired here during late 1987 & was Sylvester McCoy's first story as the Doctor, directed by Andrew Morgan I actually really liked Time and the Rani although many seem not to. The script by Pip and Jane Baker has been good fun & provided a fair amount of silly entertainment that this episode rounds off nicely, the new Doctor has settled in very well, I thought the Rani was great as a villain, it had some decent monsters in it although the story was a bit shallow without any real message behind it & some of the character's were very one dimensional. As with previous episodes from Time and the Rani I liked the ending although I think it would have been great if sometime in the future the Rani had reappeared in the series.

The special effects have generally been pretty good & the giant pulsating brain is quite effective. I loved the new purplish title sequence & rearranged theme music which sounds modern (at the time in '87 but even now to an extent) yet is still distinctly Doctor Who. The acting during this story has been OK with Kate O'Mara as the pantomime villain the Rani stealing the show, to only say the pint sized Bonnie Langford was yet again annoying is being kind.

Time and the Rani is a great Doctor Who story, I'm sorry but I can't really see why so many people seem to dislike it. Overall even though I've given each of the four episodes an individual score of 6 out of 10 as a collective I'm going to give Time and the Rani 7 stars out of 10 as it provided good fun & plenty of childish entertainment.

What did I just watch?

[ianweech · 5/10 · 24 January 2021]

Not good, not good at all. My ratings for each part: Part 1: 5/10 Part 2: 5/10 Part 3: 3/10 Part 4: 4/10 Overall rating for the episode: 4.25/10 Not good, not good at all.

"Two Wrongs don't make a Left Turn"

[Robinson2511 · 8/10 · 18 May 2016]

Time and the Rani has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Yeah it's silly, a little daft in places, but at the same time it's exciting, highly amusing and loads of fun to watch. I can understand why people have a disliking for this episode, but being placed almost 3 from the very bottom on the Doctor Who episode poll is a bit of an insult to Time and the Rani.

After Colin Baker's brutal firing by the BBC (a decision that was unfair to Colin Baker and sad because he was in reality a really awesome Doctor), Sylvester McCoy took over the role. McCoy is having an absolute blast playing the Doctor whose new incarnation has taken on a clown-like persona, which I find really entertaining.

The plot is nice and simple, there's a comet composed of 'Strange Matter' (couldn't think of a better heading towards Lakertya and the Rani plans to launch a missile towards it which will destroy it and turn Lakertya into a time manipulator. That's pretty much it!

Kate O'Mara who also played the Rani in The Mark of the Rani, is once again brilliant displaying the psychopath as well as the scheming sides of the Rani perfectly. The Lakertyians are also brilliant characters, and the acting from everyone is convincing enough, despite everyone being caked in endless make-up.

The Tetraps are interesting creatures although their design could've been a little more effective, instead they come across as just another sharp-toothed lumbering creature that doesn't play much of a role in the story, except to be a "oh no, it's them again" presence to get in everyone's way.

The Rani putting on a ginger wig and donning Mel's clothes pretending to be her is a bizarre concept that may come across as silly, but I find it quite a charming little idea, it adds a lot of comedic value to the first two episodes and is something that Doctor Who hadn't really done before.

As for the giant brain, well it might be the worst thing about the episode. The brain looks awful and the concept is ridiculous, although I do enjoy how the Doctor joins the other geniuses and does nothing but cause trouble for them. Classic Doctor.

The Doctor's new costume is much easier to look at then the 6th Doctor's technicolour monstrosity, with a nice mix of the classic Troughton costume and a more 80s style of design.

Overall, Time and the Rani is fun, silly, humorous, entertaining, daft, and exciting. The result: a episode that is highly underrated due to its silly concepts because that's all most people see. Many fans fail to see the excitement that this episode contains, and the fun that can be had when you're just looking for a good time.

Sometimes it's best not to look too deep.