“My troubles are coming by threes and by twos, We’ll lay off tomorrow with the coal miner’s blues.”

Seen: 2nd and 9th February 1985

The Doctor Who stories that stick most vividly in my head from early childhood are those with historical settings. If you believe that the essence of Doctor Who is in juxtaposition, and I do, then an adventure is history is an easy win. Stick a monster in a ruff and you’re away. Boom.

Now, The Mark of the Rani doesn’t actually contain any monsters, as such - and certainly none appear in its historical setting of Killingworth, in the North East of England, in 1813. Instead Colin Baker’s Doctor tangles with two renegade Time Lords, his regular nemesis the Master (Anthony Ainley) and the Rani (Kate O’Mara). The latter is a character created for this story but presented as someone whom has had multiple encounters with the Doctor before, presumably offscreen. (That the Rani is the creation of this serial’s authors, married writing team Pip and Jane Baker, is something we’ll come back to later.)