Russell T Davies Reveals Why Now Was the Time for ‘Doctor Who’ to Resurrect the Rani

One of the many, many things that happened on the latest episode of Doctor Who was that the show finally lifted the lid on what two years of teasing who Mrs. Flood was leading towards. Turns out, it was exactly what many Doctor Who fans had, jokingly or otherwise, guessed immediately. In some ways, according to showrunner Russell T Davies, that was the point. “The Interstellar Song Contest” climaxed with the reveal that Mrs. Flood was, in fact, the latest incarnation of the Rani, the renegade Time Lady scientist originally played by the late, great Kate O’Mara across two classic Doctor Who serials, “Mark of the Rani” and “Time and the Rani,” and the absurd 1993 anniversary special/charity drive Dimensions in Time. Very quickly after that she become the second-latest, as a mortally wounded Flood prepared to regenerate, only to bi-generate just like the 14th and 15th Doctors had, revealing a new Rani, played by Archie Panjabi. The Rani, aside from being something of a camp icon thanks ... Read full article.