DVD EXTRAS

• Audio commentary by Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Kate O'Mara
• LORDS AND LUDDITES - a 40-minute documentary, featuring comments from Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Kate O'Mara, writers Pip and Jane Baker, actor Gary Cady, script editor Eric Saward and composer Jonathan Gibbs
• NOW AND THEN - a look at the Blists Hill Victorian Museum used as the main filming location for this adventure
• BLUE PETER - an 11-minute feature on the history of Ironbridge Gorge
• Saturday Superstore: Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant appear on the BBC children's show, and receive a phone call from an old friend
• Deleted and extended scenes
• Photo gallery: PDFs of the 1985 DOCTOR WHO ANNUAL and RADIO TIMES listings for this story
• Isolated music score for the whole story by Jonathan Gibbs, and an alternative music score for episode one by composer John Lewis

COMMENT

THE MARK OF THE RANI is, unfortunately, the Sixth Doctor's only foray into Earth's history. It demonstrated promise where the Doctor's exuberant personality (and extraordinary out-standing clothing) is tempered by the familiar, and supported by the, at the time, an unprecedented amount of the location film work fortuitously undertaken

Whilst the story itself is overpoweringly full of ideas and character ambition - why the Rani and the Master are pitting themselves against the Doctor and themselves indicates that either the writers lacked structure or the series producers had been given a bigger, more voluminous basket for more eggs.

The direction by Sarah Hellings is solid enough but it is the blunted editing that appears to let the story telling down. There are instances were edits are non-sequential (i) during the attack on the Doctor, one his pursuers falls down the mineshaft only to reappear in a future shot showing him pummelling the Time Lord with a shovel (ii) As the Doctor and Peri arrive in the village, the Rani is seen in the background looking at the cart passing, the next shot/edit shows the cart heading toward the Rani (iii) And when did the Rani's TARDIS design acquire "roundels" on its exterior? However, there are clever touches that show true diligence (i) As the Doctor arrives in the Dell, a close-up of a dew-hung spider's web reconciles his poetic sentence.

The DVD Extras are, once again, accomplished and engaging even for the most jaded DOCTOR WHO fan of the eighties. However, and regrettably, many of the observations made in LORDS AND LUDDITES and the cast studio commentary are duplicated, offering more deja vu than interest. Most telling and "eyebrow raising" are the comments from fallen-from-grace (by well regarded) DOCTOR WHO Script Editor, Eric Saward.

Only true fans of the series will endure DELETED SCENES , NOW AND THEN and ALTERNATIVE SOUNDTRACK .

The studio commentary from Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Kate O'Mara is engaging but without a crew perspective the insights are more anecdotally theatrical rather than production-based.

Colin Baker: You can see the cats embroider inside my coat. That was one of my more stupid ideas. A cat for each episode but looking back at it was naff. And after about four or five we took them out again.

On the appearance of the scarecrow, Colin Baker: Why doe he (The Master) disguise himself as a scarecrow? Let's not ask these questions.

Nicola Bryant: There are some we mustn't ask.

Kate O'Mara: Quite effective theough. Very sinister.

On the hoof tapping horse, Nicola Bryant: And that's horse is overacting in the background.

On Kate O'Mara's accent for the Rani, Colin Baker: And what part of Jamaica is the Rani supposed to be from?

On the Ninth Doctor's ability to walk passed difficult situations with his Psychic Paper, Colin Baker: Fantastic idea.

On Anthony Ainley, Colin Baker: He did have a good voice. A nice tool.

Additionally, Baker and O'Mara discuss Ainley's resentment that the his mantel of "the evil Time Lord" had been dusted off with the appearance of the Rani. And he wasn't there to represent his view. Literally, dancing on his grave?

On other stories that she would have liked the Rani to be involved with, Kate O'Mara: I fancied the Dark Ages. Like Boadicea .

On being proud to have not had a stunt double during his time on DOCTOR WHO, Colin Baker: Three years without a stuntman. I'm glad of that.

Colin Baker stated that the original concept was to have the Rani as the Master's "side-kick" as opposed to his equal.

Overall, THE MARK OF THE RANI DVD presentation re-affirms that Colin Baker's performance was full of promise for the future, only to be snuffed out by the "postponement" fiasco (that lead to the 18 month pause in production). He never peaked, as had Davison before him, as a definitive Doctor but with this 1985 story he came close.