History Recap / DoctorWhoS22E3TheMarkOfTheRani

* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Master expresses a rare bit of remorse when Luke gets transformed into a tree. The Rani, on the other hand, seems to find it quite amusing.

The mysterious woman who runs the bathhouse hijacks a local kid to do her bidding (and unfortunately, her [[OohMeAccentsSlipping accent]] leads to Colin Baker on the DVD commentary asking "what part of Jamaica" she's from), and a close-up reveals that the makeup people totally forgot about half of the prosthetic Kate O'Mara wears in the rest of her scenes. The Doctor and Peri ride by on their way to see Lord Ravensworth (the local landowner), and his [[AppliedPhlebotinum timey-wimey detector]] goes haywire when it's pointed at the bathhouse and the rapidly-becoming-obvious woman who runs it. Detects a Time Lord, you say? And there's a mysterious woman lurking about, experimenting on people and generally being very suspicious? No, couldn't be a certain fellow renegade classmate of yours who's got this Thing for experimentation and a serious lack of morals. Six is ''not'' one of the more observant of Doctors.

* HamToHamCombat: A ''three way'' example, between Colin Baker, Anthony Ainley, and Kate O'Mara.

* CompleteMonster: The Rani in spades.

They corner the Doctor by what appears to be a simple mineshaft, but when one of the Luddites falls in, suddenly transforms into something resembling the Bottomless Pit of the Underworld. Peri [[ScreamingWoman screams and throws rocks]] at the Luddites, but the Doctor is saved by a timely gunshot from Lord Ravensworth, who's actually kind of BadAss, and really not at all pleased with gatecrashers to his meeting. He and the Doctor establish that the personality changes in the Luddites are only among the men, and [[strike: the Rani]] the mysterious woman in the bathhouse obliges by showing us her experimentation on two new subjects, with a close-up on a device attached to the neck area - the source of those marks popping up in the dead Luddites.

* BreatherEpisode: After the unrelenting nastiness of the past few stories, the show busts out a (relatively) LighterAndSofter episode poking fun at how overcomplicated and full of themselves Time Lords, especially evil Time Lords, are, and especially [[LampshadeHanging hanging many lampshades on the Master's propensity for getting out of trouble and his general nutiness]].

-> '''The Master:''' ''Ah, but you've not been informed of my purpose here.''
-> '''The Rani:''' ''Oh, I know why you're here. To destroy the Doctor. You've never had any other. It obsesses you, to the exclusion of all else.''
-> '''The Master:''' ''You underestimate me. Certainly I want to destroy him, see him suffer, but that is just an exquisite first step. I have a greater concept, one that will encompass the whole human race!''
-> '''The Rani:''' ''You're unbalanced. No wonder the Doctor always outwits you.''

-> '''The Master:''' ''You underestimate me. Certainly I want to destroy him, see him suffer, but that is just an exquisite first step. [[BlatantLies I have a greater concept]], one that will encompass the whole human race!''
-> '''The Rani:''' ''[[{{Understatement}} You're unbalanced]]. No wonder the Doctor always outwits you.''

'''WARNING! THERE MAY BE UNMARKED SPOILERS!'''

-> ''What's he up to now? It'll be something [[ComplexityAddiction devious and overcomplicated]]. He'd get dizzy if he tried to walk in a straight line.''
--> '''The Rani''', about the Master

* UnexplainedRecovery: The Master, conspicuously failing to explain how he managed to escape certain death [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E5PlanetOfFire the last time we saw him]]. This came about from the script editor's desire to avoid a VoodooShark explanation of the Master's survival.
--->'''Master:''' Come, come, the whole universe knows I'm indestructible!\\
'''Rani''': Is that so?

* HellBentForLeather: Check out the Rani's trousers.

We open with a bunch of grubby miners from OopNorth, going to the bathhouse after a long day's work. The old woman who runs the place herds them into a room - where poison gas suddenly comes up from the floor and knocks them all unconscious. Meanwhile, the Sixth Doctor and Peri are in the TARDIS, which is being pulled off course by a "time distortion". Both ColinBaker and Nicola Bryant [[OohMeAccentsSlipping massacre]] American accents as the Doctor establishes that the only person who could pull the TARDIS off course like that is a Time Lord (or a Dalek, but we're pretty sure it's a Time Lord). Back in the bathhouse, two gas-masked [[{{Mook}} mooks]] carry the unconscious miners into another room, mysterious red marks appearing on their necks. In a serial called "The Mark of the Rani". Hmmmm, can't imagine what ''those'' are.

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Luke and two of the miners']] tree-ification by the Rani's land mines. Say what you like about the basic concept or the realisation of it, the thought of being trapped conscious and immobile in tree form for a potentially very long time must be one of the scariest ideas in the show's history.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Master expresses a rare bit of remorse when [[spoiler:Luke]] gets transformed into a tree. The Rani, on the other hand, seems to find it quite amusing.

* StalkingIsLove: The Master has been reading the Twilight books it seems, as he decides to randomly stalk the Doctor around. He doesn't even seem to have a plan in this story. In fact his "plan" for lack of a better word seems to be - 1) Dress up as a scarecrow, stand in a field and stalk the Doctor 2) Prove that he has one-upped the Doctor and 3) PROFIT!

* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: The Rani and the Master. She blames him (see GroinAttack).]]
* XanatosSpeedChess: [[spoiler: Six, of all people.]]

The Doctor and Peri land in what we'll learn is [[DidNotDoTheResearch Industrial Revolution-era Killingsworth]], and set off to track the time distortion. The miners from the bathhouse have apparently been brainwashed into homoerotic behavior and [[KickTheDog small-child kicking]], which is an improvement on Peri's dialogue. She makes a valiant effort to convince us that she's A) intelligent, with her specialty in botany and B) insightful, talking about extinction and the effect of technology on the environment, but despite her hideous dress covering up her two best assets, it's not working. Her obliviousness extends to the Doctor, who notices there are no birds, but completely fails to notice the blatantly-moving scarecrow Peri points out. Those of us who have seen a Master episode know random disguises are his [[PlanetOfHats hat]], so clearly, we've got at least one renegade Time Lord hanging about.

* KickTheDog: The Rani, even more than the Master, who's usually a walking, talking example of this trope. Poor dog. Poor presidential cat [[hottip:*:Kicked ForScience is still kicked]]. Poor millers. Poor guy that got turned into a tree. Poor Peri.
** This being Six, the Doctor gets a few in, too.

* [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs?]]: So...the Rani is using weird brain insects to extract chemicals from homoerotic miners which drives them mad and makes them want to smash things, while the Master stands about in a field dressed as a scarecrow FOR NO REASON just on the off chance the Doctor shows up (how long was he in that field?) and then teams up with the Rani for future universe-domination and kill the Doctor using mines that turn people into trees. Peri is nearly [[AndIMustScream turned into a tree]], but as she's needed for {{fanservice}}, she is saved from this FateWorseThanDeath by someone who's already been turned into a tree. And then the Master gets [[GroinAttack kicked in the nuts]] by the Rani for being a git, and the two of them get crushed by a [[TyrannosaurusRex T-Rex]] that's just...there for some reason, and sent off on an enforced intergalactic road trip. WHAT. THE. HELL.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Stephenson. The first real historical personality to appear in the series since the various Dodge City figures in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E8TheGunfighters "The Gunfighters"]], and the last until the twenty-first century show started doing it at least once per season.

* ThisIsSparta: "The Mark!... of the Rani!"
* TitleDrop: See above. The Master does it every other scene.

* IGotBetter: The Master, conspicuously failing to explain how he managed to escape certain death [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E5PlanetOfFire the last time we saw him]]. This came about from the script editor's desire to avoid a VoodooShark explanation of the Master's survival.
--->'''Master:''' Come, come, the whole universe knows I'm indestructible!\\
'''Rani''': Is that so?

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs?: So...the Rani is using weird brain insects to extract chemicals from homoerotic miners which drives them mad and makes them want to smash things, while the Master stands about in a field dressed as a scarecrow FOR NO REASON just on the off chance the Doctor shows up (how long was he in that field?) and then teams up with the Rani for future universe-domination and kill the Doctor using mines that turn people into trees. Peri is nearly turned into a tree, but as she's needed for {{fanservice}}, she is saved from this FateWorseThanDeath by someone who's already been turned into a tree. And then the Master gets kicked in the nuts by the Rani for being a git, and the two of them get crushed by a T Rex that's just...there for some reason, and sent off on an enforced intergalactic road trip. WHAT. THE. HELL.

-> ''What's he up to now? It'll be something devious and overcomplicated. He'd get dizzy if he tried to walk in a straight line.''