Product Details

• Actors: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison
• Writers: Sydney Newman
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: September 19, 1995
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303631940
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243,577 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the McCoy Era of Doctor Who, March 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Doctor Who: Time and The Rani [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The TARDIS hijacked! The Doctor is forced to Regenerate, and so begins, possibly, the silliest and funniest Sylvester McCoy adventure ever! We jump right into the main action, with the renegade Time Lord, the Rani, highjacking the TARDIS to use the Doctor's knowledge in one of her unorthodox experiment. There many great things about "Time and the Rani"; The production values, the design, costumes, the Tetraps and their quadruple vision, the Lakyrtians, the giant brain, the special effects and the wonderful OTT acting and over blown dialogue. McCoy's potrayal of the sixth Doctor(in the multi covered coat) is absolutely wonderful as is with the mis-quotes throughout the adventure. Even Mel's part is well written and played out. There's not a scene or a line that needs to be added or deleted. The funniest, silliest McCoy story ever, it's just a shame that more fans don't enjoy this one more.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Satisified, Mrs. Whitehouse?!, February 17, 2008

By 

The Cougar (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doctor Who: Time and The Rani [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Strange title, but that is what I thought when I saw Time and the Rani. Mary Whitehouse and the BBC had been forever whinging and whining about Doctor Who, what with Whitehouse's comments about the show being "too violent" for "kids" and constantly trying to get it toned down (honestly, who did she think it was being made for? Three year olds? What did she think this was? Sesame Street? Play School?), this season-opener (and indeed, the rest of McCoy's first season) must have been a dream come true for her.

Because that is what it feels like. With most of this season, for the first time, I'm feeling like I'm watching a children's show. And a horribly made children's show at that. Time and the Rani brought on the Dark Ages of Doctor Who (yes, Time and the Rani. Trial was for the most part an intriguing mystery season). From the moment of the ridiculous opening where we see the monster turning over the "Sixth Doctor" (and you can tell it's not Baker, that costume is wayyyyyy too big on the person) and we're forced to endure McCoy in a blonde wig (Why couldn't you just have him lying on the floor in Baker's costume, having regenerated unseen?) I cringe in embarrassment, and wonder what it was I liked about the show again.

The Rani? Oh, no, far from the intelligent and rational scientist in her first outing, doing what she merely wants to do. Oh, no, now she's a meglomaniac, another imitation of the Master. Arrgh, was it so hard to think of a storyline to better suit the character? The Mel disguise is probably the only thing worth remembering... simply for the "so bad it's good" factor, and O'Mara relishing the scene.

Oh, and Mel... talk about your "typical screaming companion?" More like an insult to every companion whose been in the series. In a way, I've felt a lot of the 80's female companions were WORSE than the 70's or even 60's at times... What was the best thing about Mel, her best trait? Oh, yeah, to scream for three minutes in the reprise of the end of Episode One, trip over, get unconscious... I read the rough inital character sketch off the Net that she was supposed to be this smart computer programmer and feminist... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh, stop, I can't breathe, that was better than any stand-up comic.

I haven't mentioned McCoy yet, but that was because I was trying to avoid it. JNT and co. have set up a situation similar to Twin Dilemma, a completely forgettable and awful story, but this time around, Colin and Nicola aren't around to save it. Twin became a good story because of its real storyline of The Sixth Doctor's regeneration trauma. With McCoy and Mel, there's no real electrifying scenes, and the only one that really sticks out is where they suspect each other of being impostors. After that it was back to business. The played down of the scene worked in Robot, with a fun adventure to get into, but when one lead actor is barely acting, and the lead actress makes you want to shoot yourself, that leaves... nothing.

Time and the Rani. The gateway to the sorry state of what Doctor Who was (with some exceptions). It's one thing if the writers intended the story to be a humourous one, but Pip and Jane apparently thought this was a dramatic way to start the season! And you can tell how prejudiced Michael Grade was against Baker, after this season he declared Sylvester McCoy the man who saved Doctor Who!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Rani is back!, January 11, 2006

By 

Neburo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doctor Who - Time and the Rani [VHS] (VHS Tape)

New theme -- the most emotional theme of the Doctors! It gives you the feeling "it's the last doctor theme." First time computer graphics were used. The best theme, in the 1980's is Colins' when he did Trial of a Timelord, which sounds very "dream like." It says Part 1,2,3 4 in the episode rather than on title theme -- much rather like in 1960's Doctor Who. The first story explains the use of the Tardis in the bubble.

I love the quarry set, the special effects! It looks more 3-dimensonal! It looks like one big area of caves and amongst a huge quarry! I was initially upset that that Colin was fired previously! I didn't enjoy seeing McCoy in Colin's outfit -- he looked awful in it and he was in it for quite a long time almost entirely in episodes 1 and 2. And yes I actually like Mel as a character (she reminds me of Jo so much -- particularly with that similar dialect of the English accent! I don't know why other people didn't pick that up!) but she does scream rather much! It gets on your nerves at times! Especially when she is trapped in one of the Rani's bubbles -- at least the special effects are good though. The screaming is fairly frequent, but it doesn't ruin the story. But...you think to yourself, I don't think someone her age in real life would scream that much! Maybe a teenager 15 years old, no more!

There are strange creatures that serve the rani -- which have eyes all around their heads which speak in a rather inaudible voice at times. They throw spider webs on their victims to trap them and are quite a bit agile in nature compared with other monsters in Doctor Who.

In a funny way, when the Rani wants her machine fixed and impersonates Mel, she does look similar I wouldn't mind her as a substitute! ha ha But Mel is a very nice person in the show -- she actually likes the doctor and does everything in her will to help him -- like the way she did with Colin's doctor was on trial. I'd certain want someone to rely on like that!

I had doubts about this, but the more I watched it, the more I liked it. Throughout the episode, Sylvester gets familiar sayings mixed up. At the end, for example, he says "Time and tide waits for no man." I think when he said "I'll grow on you Mel, I'll grow on you," I think that sums it up pretty well.