YMMV / Doctor Who S22 E3 "The Mark of the Rani"

• Broken Base: The Rani remains very much a polarizing figure in Who fandom; some fans like her for her cold dispassionate personality and banter with the Doctor and Master, while others consider her a darker, edgier version of the Master and a pet character of Pip and Jane Baker (who wrote all of her various appearances).
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Doctor not only quotes William Shakespeare, but calls him "The Bard" and hopes to meet him again. He will eventually.
• Narm Charm: Seriously, this story is kind of awesome in a cracked-out way.
  • The Master hangs out in a field dressed as a scarecrow just for the sake of a Dramatic Unmask. Why? Because why not? It's the Master.
  • The land mines that turn people into trees! (The Rani; green before it was in!) And it leads to this gem of a line:
    The Doctor: The tree won't hurt you!
  • The Rani knees the Master in the groin. No, you did not read it wrong.
• So Bad, It's Good: The sheer ridiculousness of the story's central plot, combined with the copious amounts of Large Ham and Narm, lend it this sort of reputation among fans. Much of the entertainment value here comes from just how loopy-as-balls the whole thing gets.
• Special Effects Failure: The Rani's notorious "land mines that turn people into trees". This wouldn't have been so bad, except when a character who was turned into a tree grabs Peri with one of his branches to stop her meeting the same fate. The effect, with what is clearly a brown sleeve sticking out of a plastic trunk, is awful, and it's made even worse by the incredibly serious and glurgy tone of the scene.

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