It's been a good few months since I last reviewed an episode of Doctor Who and even longer since I last reviewed an episode of classic Doctor Who. As such I thought that i'd put and end to that by reviewing what is perhaps the most infamous either regeneration or post regeneration episode and so then join me as I review the episode that saw a brand new Doctor debut and a classic villain make her final appearance in the TV show proper with the episode in question being called simply just "Time And The Rani" enjoy.
The plot of the episode is The Rani is the middle of her latest evil scheme and only one person can stop her and that's The Doctor if only he hadn't just finished regenerating. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual pot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty pretty bad as the plot is really all over the place at best in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is The Hobbit star the great Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor and the great Bonnie Langford as Mel Bush. Also starring in this episode is the stunning Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond star Kate O'Mara as The Rani , Mark Greenstreet as Ikona , Yes, Prime Minister star Donald Pickering as Beyus , Wanda Ventham as Faroon , Karen Clegg as Sarn , Richard Gauntlett as Urak and John Segal as Lanisha.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With all of this episodes cast turning in some really good performances with special shout out going to Kate O'Mara who not only has play The Rani but also has to play The Rani being disguised as Mel as well.
For those of you that don't know this is this is the first time that CGI was used in the show with it being used mostly in the shows new intro sequence. I will admit that I didn't like the CGI just because it's very early CGI and so it does look dated and when you add in the fact that this is the era of the show where they had next to no money to actually make the show happen it means that the CGI is also very cheap looking as well granted none of this of the fault of the makers of the show but it is something that's very noticeable.
This episode is of course infamous for it's opening regeneration scene which even tho it does feature the sixth doctor it doesn't feature Colin Baker reprising his role as the sixth doctor. This is because when the show was brought back one of the mandates was that the lead actor in this case Colin Baker be replaced with the BBC offering the regeneration scene to Colin which Colin did accept on the condition that he be able to do a full series in order to fully satisfy his fans with the regeneration scene being in the final episode of the series this was something that the BBC declined to do and so what we ended up with was Sylvester McCoy being dressed in the sixth doctors wardrobe and blond wig which just makes the scene laughable and the regeneration itself confusing as it's not made clear what's caused this new regeneration in the first place which is something that really should have been shown to us the audience.
To me this whole episode just screams horribly put together as we there are things that we dont get to see or even find out. Chief among which is the fact that it's not really made clear what The Rani's scheme is in this episode and so it just comes across as her just doing evil stuff just for the sake of it with no end goal mind and the other thing that we don't really get to see is The Rani being defeated with that happening basically off screen at the best of times and being super confusing as at the worst of times and both of these hings are things that should have been addressed at the script writing stage and really shouldn't have been in the final cut of the story at all.
I'm just going to be real here I found Mel to be the most annoying character in this episode just because half of her screen time is spent screaming at the top of her lungs. Which is fine for the ending cliffhanger of episode one as there it makes sense for her to be screaming like that but when alot of her screen time is spent with her just screaming and not really adding to the overall plot of the episode it just makes her come across as being a rather annoying character that we sadly forced to spend alot of time with in this episode.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes grand total running time even was I do know that for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly one hour and forty minuets. With this story being four episodes long which was a huge issue for me just because you very easily could have gotten this story up to six episodes long just by expanding on the story and actually telling us what The Rani's scheme is and actually showing us The Rani being defeated and I will admit that this episode does indeed have some really good pacing to it with no episode really lasting longer then what they really need to.
So now then since this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With this episodes action just being as cheap and as corny as you'd expect from this show but at the same time that's also the charm of this episodes action as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall I have no idea what to make of this episode because it's not a good goodbye to The Sixth Doctor but at the same time it's a serviceable introductory episode to The Seventh Doctor and if you really wanted to sell that The Rani really is disguised as Mel then they should have had Bonnie Langford dub over The Rani's lines as that really would have sold that aspect of the episode really well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this very episode earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website that I personally preferred to use to get the images that I personally used in this very review being the wonderful the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page since all of the images that are currently up and and featured / presented to us on the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page are all fairly high in quality and as well as being fairly freaking high in definition.