Doctor Who: The Mark of the Rani

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #107

by Pip Baker, Jane Baker

En route to Kew Gardens, the Doctor and Peri are more than a little surprised when they land in the middle of a slag heap in England at the time of the Luddite uprisings.

Unknown to the Doctor, his TARDIS has been dragged off course by the Master who plans to destroy his arch enemy once and for all, and pervert the course of history.

But also present is the Rani, another exile from Gallifrey, who is conducting her own evil experiments on the humans of the nineteenth century. Soon the Doctor discovers that the female of the species is far, far deadlier than the male...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Historical, Time Travel

135 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

"Pip" (Philip) and Jane Baker are British television writers best known for their contributions to the long running science fiction series Doctor Who. A husband-and-wife writing team, they wrote four serials for the programme: The Mark of the Rani, Parts 9–12 and 14 of The Trial of a Time Lord (aka Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe) and Time and the Rani. They have also written a number of novelisations of the series.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a novelization of the third serial of the twenty-second season of Doctor Who. It was broadcast in February of 1985, and Pip and Jane Baker adapted their own teleplay for this book. Jane Baker was only the second woman to be credited as a Doctor Who writer, following Barbara Clegg. The episode featured the sixth regeneration of The Doctor, who was assisted by Perpugilliam Brown, known as Peri, and opposed by his old nemesis The Master, who had formed an alliance with yet another renegade Time Lord, the Rani. The story is set in a nineteenth century mining village, where the evil duo are taking advantage of the workers by stealing the neurochemicals that allow them to sleep for nefarious purposes. It's not a bad story, but the Bakers seemed to aim their writing at a younger audience than any of the other Doctor Who adaptations I've read. On the other hand... dinosaurs on a spaceship are always cool.

[Joe Tobin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, look, the story isn't that great. I'm honestly still not exactly sure what happened here. The Rani was a great idea that they never really made the most of. But as a novelization, it was totally fine. The writing was good; I enjoyed the occasional 4th wall semi-breaks, and it did a thing I liked where it folded the the dialogue into the prose.

She wondered when they were leaving.
"We're leaving now," he said.

(That kind of thing. That was not an actual quote. 🙂)

I always enjoy reading these books, and at least with this one you can engage with the story on your own terms.

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Between a 2 and a 3 again, not the worst Doctor Who story I've read, but the writing style of Pip and Jane Baker does get to me. So many exclamation marks! Also, a lot of foreshadowing in the likes of 'little did they know', which after a certain point really gets in the way of a proper flow to the story.
The story does introduce the Rani, who is an interesting new renegade Time Lord - not the megalomaniac type of the Master, but very much a cold scientist, not caring about the impacts of her experiments on anyone else, and quite ruthless in trying to achieve her goals.
The Master is perhaps at is worst here really, getting in the way of the Rani at times, and almost every decision he makes seems to be the wrong one for him, making him not really present as much of a threat to the Doctor or Peri, despite being quite ruthless to anyone else around.
The Doctor in reasonable form here - while quite mercurial, doesn't seem quite as arrogant here, and shows more of his compassionate side. Peri a bit more up and down, but gets to be a bit more proactive at times.
Overall, an interesting tale, but the writing style lets it down, and not a great story for the Master.

[Julian White · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uninspired retelling of an uninspired story - though the filmed version has the benefit of the location shooting. The Master seems to have some scheme to divert the course of the industrial revolution by eliminating several of the key figures; he somehow manages to divert the Doctor's TARDIS - but unknown to him the Rani is also present, following a scheme of her own. Too much in the mix - and as usual the Master is determined to deal with the Doctor but fails and at the same time interferes with the Rani...

Several unanswered questions - where is the Master's TARDIS? How do the villains escape Certain Death? (That last is essentially rhetorical - the Master always survives, it seems... ) At least we are spared the sight of the 'Luke tree'.

Ok - but I wonder sometimes, without really wishing to pursue the thought, if the writers are actually any good. They seem to have a reasonable spread of stories under their belt but I'm not familiar with any of them.

[Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure I understood the Rani's motive. The Master's, in this incarnation, is pretty much the same in nearly every story: defeat the Doctor, preferably in a humiliating way. The Rani needed the hormone the human brain secretes to induce sleep. (The Bakers never called it melatonin.) And she had a T-Rex embryo in her TARDIS. I think the reader is supposed to assume the dinosaur is just another experiment. I can buy that, given her callous attitude. I'm sure there was justification for the sleep hormone but I either don't remember it or it was lost in the odd dialect of the setting or there wasn't one. The dialect. I wish the Bakers hadn't carried that all the way through the book. It made for laborious reading. Now, the dialogue among the Doctor, Peri, the Rani, and the Master, though OTT campy, was fun. That seemed to balance out the regional dialect. Not a bad adventure. Not great but not bad.

[David Layton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Judging by what they wrote and how they wrote for Doctor Who, Pip and Jane Baker viewed the program as a children's show. Everything is pitched to the 10-year-old. The original brief for The Mark of the Rani was to give The Master a companion, like The Doctor has a companion. Instead, the Bakers opted to create their own rogue Time Lord and then spend the rest of the story never missing an opportunity to say how great she is while belittling the other two Time Lords in the story. In their novelization, there is far too much obvious foreshadowing of the "little did he know that" variety, and quite a bit of ham-fisted exposition, even if it all comes in small doses. Even at only 135 pages, this was tough to read.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who : The Mark of the Rani (1986) by Pip and Jane Baker is the novelisation of the third serial of the twenty second season of Doctor Who.

The Doctor and Peri try to travel to Kew Gardens when it’s just being started but instead travel to a coal mining era in the vicinity of George Stephenson and Luddite uprisings. There men leaving the coal mines are being abducted and becoming strangely violent. Soon the Doctor encounters another renegade Time Lord, the Rani. Another renegade Time Lord also soon appears.

It’s not a particularly strong story, but a female Master type Time Lord is quite amusing.

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in an old-fashioned style that was dated even when it was a written, this is a florid, repetitive (“Little did he know…” is a phrase used at least four times in a book about 140 pages long) and occasionally patronising to the reader. However, this feels like a book that the authors at least had some fun with. And some of that leaks across to the audience, thankfully. A chore but not a terribly onerous one.

[Andrew Foxley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pip & Jane Baker's novelisation of their own 1985 TV story for Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor is an entertaining enough runaround involving inventor George Stephenson, plus rival Time Lords the Rani and the Master. In common with a lot of the dialogue in their scripts though, the writing feels unnecessarily verbose and clunky, which gets distracting after a while.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few Sixth Doctor stories that I thoroughly enjoy. I love the Rani.

[Bart Lammey · Rating 3 out of 5]

After extensive research, I’ve gone quite mad and have asked a guest to submit their review on my behalf.

“Silly, 3 stars” - Og the Ogron

[Joe Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learnt lots of new words. Also how to make Doctor Who sound filthy without even trying.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1077520.html#cutid1[return][return]The Sixth Doctor gets a bit more of a send-off at the start of this book than he did on TV, but that is not hard. However, the writing is still naff and there are way, way too many exclamation marks. After my third consecutive novel by the Bakers, my brain was in danger of exploding. It also fails the Bechdel test - on the rare occasions that female characters actually talk to each other, it is about the Doctor or another male character.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first and strongest of Pip & Jane Baker's "Doctor Who" scripts translates into a solid if florid, first novelization. But be warned: their loquacious, flowery, grandiloquent language will assault you like an unleashed herd of thesaurus-fed wildebeest, stampeding majestically off the page. The authors also love (love!) their exclamation points! The prologue...if that's what it can actually be called...is so over-the-top ridiculous it verges on the sublime. Whatever your ultimate opinion on their lexicography, this opening salvo of Pip-and-Jane is quite the experience.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1068930.html?style=mine#cutid2[return][return]This is the first of the Bakers' novels, and sets a standard for what is to come - too many exclamation marks, not quite enough extra background to make sense, and a less than coherent plot (though better here than on screen).

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice novelization of a pretty weak story. Shame really as it has great bad guys, decent historical setting and some good Doctor/Peri bits, but the whole thing feels very flat.

The Rani was an interesting character. Too bad they didn't do more with her.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting read. I love the Rani.