The Rani is a fictional character and a recurring villain in the British sci- fi series Doctor Who. She is a renegade Time Lord and a brilliant but amoral neurochemist who uses unscrupulous biological experiments on humans and other species to achieve her scientific goals. Unlike the Doctor, who is also a Time Lord but generally benevolent, the Rani is cold, ruthless, and driven purely by her scientific curiosity, often disregarding morality and ethics

Background and Characteristics

• The Rani is from the planet Gallifrey, like the Doctor and the Master, and attended the Time Lord Academy alongside them in their youth. She was eventually banished from Gallifrey due to her radical experiments

• She is described as cunning, glamorous, and highly intelligent, with a Machiavellian personality focused on scientific results rather than power or domination, which distinguishes her from the Master

• Her scientific experiments often involve manipulating evolution and neurochemistry, sometimes causing harm to entire populations or species

Appearances in Doctor Who

• The Rani first appeared in the classic series in The Mark of the Rani (1985), portrayed by Kate O'Mara. In this story, she experiments on a mining town's population during the Industrial Revolution, stealing a chemical from human brains to fuel her experiments on her home planet Miasimia Goria

• She returned in Time and the Rani (1987), where she kidnaps the newly regenerated Seventh Doctor and uses captured geniuses to try to convert a planet into a device to control evolution across the universe. The Doctor ultimately foils her plans

• The character also appeared in the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time and has featured in various audio dramas and novels

• In the modern revival of Doctor Who , the Rani was reintroduced under the alias Mrs. Flood (played by Anita Dobson), later revealed in the episode "The Interstellar Song Contest" to have biogenetically regenerated into a new incarnation portrayed by Archie Panjabi, marking the Rani's return as a significant antagonist

Summary

The Rani is a formidable and iconic adversary of the Doctor, notable for her scientific genius and moral ambiguity. She stands out among the Doctor's foes for her focus on science at any cost rather than personal power or revenge, making her a unique and enduring villain in the Doctor Who universe