May 19, 2025
She’s back... Discover more about this classic Doctor Who villain!
After months of speculation, we can finally confirm: Mrs Flood is the Rani – or a Rani, to be precise! Bi-generating at the climax of The Interstellar Song Contest, Anita Dobson and new Doctor Who star Archie Panjabi share the role of the renegade Time Lady, previously portrayed by the late Kate O'Mara.
Known for her devious amorality, strange experiments and weird traps, the Rani returns once again to battle the Fifteenth Doctor in the epic two-part Season 2 finale. But just who is this legend of the Whoniverse?
We’re taking you through her remarkable story…
Gallifreyan Beginnings
The Rani studied at the Time Lord Academy, at the same time as future foe the Doctor and extremely reluctant ally the Master. A brilliant but morally suspect neurochemist, she was expelled after an experiment on mice created monsters that ate the Lord President’s cat. Forced to leave Gallifrey, she soon took on the role of a renegade.
However, unlike the Master, the Rani did not seek universal domination at first, but instead to further her experiments on what she viewed as lesser beings – justified for the pursuit of science, of course!
The Mark of the Rani
When the Sixth Doctor and Peri arrive in the village of Killingworth, they discover a group of oddly marauding miners – who seem to have been changed having visited a new bathhouse.
The bathhouse’s proprietor is the Rani, who has been extracting a sleep-promoting chemical from local miners and using it on the inhabitants of the planet Miasimia Goria. As the planet's imposed ruler, the Rani's experiments have left the population without rest. The Master persuades the Rani that they should work together – while stealing some of her carefully harvested brain fluid to ensure her cooperation.
When the Doctor interferes in her plan, the Rani reveals she has been coming to Earth for centuries to extract chemicals. She has accomplished this via her own TARDIS, which the Doctor manages to break into – discovering her trove of dinosaur embryos!
The Doctor manages to defeat the Rani once he has avoided her special landmines, which turn people into trees. Although she and the Master manage to escape, the Doctor has set a trap of his own – as one of her dinosaur embryos falls to the floor, and comes alive in her TARDIS…
Time and the Rani
The Rani returned in the Seventh Doctor’s first adventure, breaking into his TARDIS and witnessing his regeneration before kidnapping him. She needs the Doctor for a scheme involving some of the most brilliant minds of all time, who she has trapped in her lab with the aid of the Tetraps.
Although the Doctor quickly recovers from his regeneration trauma and recognises the Rani, she blasts him with a gun, drugs him to give him amnesia, and then disguises herself as his companion, Mel.
The real Mel manages to find the Doctor and convince him of her identity, and the two discover the Rani’s ultimate plan – to convert the planet into a ‘Time Manipulator’ using an asteroid made of strange matter, and a giant brain made up of her collection of genius’ intellects (including the Doctor’s!). Consequently, the Rani could change the course of history and control the randomness of evolution throughout the universe.
The Rani later escapes, but is surrounded by the resentful Tetraps she previously double-crossed, who then force her to come to their world.
Other appearances
The Rani also made a non-canonical appearance in the 30th Anniversary special Dimensions in Time, broadcast as part of Children in Need 1993. Here, the Rani and her assistant Cyrian attempted to destroy the Doctor by trapping his seven incarnations in a time-tunnel, circling them through the East End of London – and onto EastEnders’ Albert Square!
A second incarnation of the Rani has made several audio appearances for Big Finish Productions, facing her foe the Sixth Doctor yet another time. Once again conducting illegal experiments on youthful brains, she was sent to prison for her misdemeanours; but was able to construct a time tunnel to Miasimia Goria, where she was pleased to see that one of her experiments – the planet itself – worked! Although put on trial by her subjects, the Rani was able to escape in a survival pod placed there by her previous incarnation – and was then presumed by the Doctor to have passed in the Time War.
A Long Shadow
The Rani has continued to cast a shadow over the Doctor’s memories. When in the Remembered TARDIS with his companion Ace in Tales of the TARDIS, the Seventh Doctor suggested she had been part of the reason why he and Ace originally parted ways. The Fifteenth Doctor also referenced her as choosing a somewhat pompous name - similar to himself - whilst explaining his Time Lord identity to Ruby Sunday during their first adventure.
Bi-Generation
The mysterious Mrs Flood has appeared throughout the Fifteenth Doctor’s time in the TARDIS, particularly interested in the results of the Doctor’s Vindicator readings as he tries to get Belinda Chandra home. After being cast into space during the Interstellar Song Contest, Mrs Flood’s revival triggers a bi-generation, revealing that she has been concealing the Rani all along!
This new incarnation of the Time Lady soon takes control, ordering Mrs Flood around and starting to fulfil her prophecy – that the Doctor’s story will end in “absolute terror”.
What do the Rani and Mrs Flood have in store for the Doctor? And how does it relate to 24th May 2025? You’ll have to tune in to Wish World, streaming next Saturday on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney Plus+ where available.
