The following article contains spoilers for the latest episode of Doctor Who, “The Interstellar Song Contest.”
Summary
The latest episode ofDoctor Who, “The Interstellar Song Contest,” finally revealed the identity of the mysterious Mrs. Flood. Much to the vindication of many Classic Who fans, the episode’s mid-credits scene confirmed that she isthe Rani, an exiled Time Lady and former foe of the Doctor.
While several fans of the classic show had speculated that Mrs. Flood might be the Rani, the name is likely unfamiliar to those who have not watched any pre-revivalDoctor Who. Even in the classic series, she only appeared in two stories: one with the Sixth Doctor, and one with the Seventh. Who is the Rani, and what is her relationship to the Doctor? What has she gotten up to before — and what might she be scheming this time?
Who Is The Rani In The Classic Series?
The Rani first appeared in theSixth Doctor (Colin Baker)story “The Mark of the Rani,” in Season 22 in 1985. The Sixth Doctor and his companion Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant) arrive in a 19th-century mining town, where they learn that some of the townsfolk have been acting strangely aggressive. This turns out to be the result of biochemical experiments performed by the Rani (Kate O’Mara). Her experiments on the residents of the planet she rules, Miasimia Goria, have caused them to become rebellious, so on Earth she’s extracting sleep-inducing brain fluid from the mining town’s residence in the hope that she can replicate it to calm her unruly subjects. To protect her work, she infects some of her victims with mind-controlling parasites to enslave them to her will.
This is all revealed whenthe Master (Anthony Ainley) enters the picture, strong-arming the Rani into helping him in his plot. The Master wants to use the greatest minds of the Industrial Revolution to speed up Earth’s development to his own advantage, and is intrigued by the potential the parasites hold. He makes her aware of the Doctor’s presence, and they form a reluctant partnership to defeat him. But, of course, the Doctor has other plans, managing to outsmart them both over the course of the story.
The episode establishes that the Doctor, the Master, and the Rani are all well acquainted with each other, implying that they grew up together on Gallifrey. The three of them are all renegade Time Lords, and yet all have antagonistic relationships with each other to some degree. Yet, the Rani only cooperates with the Master in an attempt to preserve her own work, and she only cares about defeating the Doctor because he’s trying to stop her. She’s no friend to either of them, but she doesn’t see the Doctor as her sworn enemy in the same way the Master does.
The Rani next appeared in “Time and the Rani,” the premier story of the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and the beginning of the much-maligned Season 24. This time, she takes the Doctor hostage, induces amnesia, and disguises herself ashis companion Mel (Bonnie Langford)in an attempt to enlist his help in repairing her machines. Her ultimate goal is to detonate a “strange matter” asteroid, releasing particles that will give her control over time and allow her to reset and reshape evolution according to her will. Of course, the Doctor outthinks her in the end, with some help from Mel and the locals that the Rani had been exploiting.
The Rani has often been described as the “female Master.” Her dynamic with the Doctor is somewhat similar, but she’s a very different character. The Master tends to be grandiose, obsessive, and even maniacal. The Rani, on the other hand, is more cold and calculating. Despite having only appeared in two stories, she’s quite a well-developed character. The Rani is, first and foremost, a scientist — but a frighteningly unethical one. In “Time and the Rani,” the Doctor describes her as"a sterile mind.“She has no scruples when it comes to her experiments. She never acts without purpose, and she’s never without a backup plan to her backup plan.
The Mysterious Mrs. Flood
Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson) has had fans buzzing with speculation ever since the first episode of Series 14, “The Church On Ruby Road.” As Ruby (Millie Gibson) departs with the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), Mrs. Flood heavily implies that she knows exactly who the Doctor is and what the TARDIS is capable of. She pops up occasionally throughout the season, until the season finale shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that there’s more to her than meets the eye. At the end of “Empire of Death,” viewers know that Mrs. Flood is powerful and likely antagonistic, judging by the way she welcomed Sutekh’s destruction. But her identity remained a mystery. In Series 15, though, she has been a much stronger presence, makingcameo appearances in almost every episode.
Among the theories posed by the fan base, the Rani was a popular one. Russel T. Davies is no stranger to bringing back enemies from the classic series, and the Rani is the Doctor’s most famous female foe. (She was a popular theory forMissy’s true identityback in Series 8 for similar reasons.) Now that her return has been confirmed, though, the question still remains: what does she want this time?
Throughout Series 15, Mrs. Flood has appeared all across time and space:400,000 years in the future in “The Well,“modern-day Earth in “Lucky Day,” a massive space station in “The Interstellar Song Contest.” With this in mind, it’s not impossible that she has a TARDIS of her own. She has shown a great deal of interest in the Doctor’s vindicator, the instrument he’s using to attempt to get Belinda back to Earth in 2025. But her motives remain shrouded in mystery.
In past stories, the Rani has always been laser-focused on her scientific pursuits. Everything else, including innocent lives and personal grudges, comes second. Her goals have always involved control: the power to influence others' minds and wills; the power to bring order to the chaos of evolution. If her motives this time are related to the mysterious death of Earth, perhaps she hopes to destroy it and rebuild it in her image. Alternatively, perhaps she has plans for the people of Earth, and wants the Doctor to restore the planet so that she can carry them out. In the latter case, herchoice to release Conrad in “Lucky Day"may be part of that plan as well.
No matter what she’s planning, it’s clear that the Doctor and the vindicator are central to it. Hopefully, with only two episodes left, audiences will get some answers as the season rapidly approaches its conclusion.
