The Rani

The Rani is a fictional character in the British BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She is a renegade Time Lord, and a nemesis of the series' title character, a Time Lord known as the Doctor. The Rani is an amoral biochemist who experiments on humans and other species, and considers everything secondary to her research.

The character was first portrayed by Kate O'Mara, appearing in two classic serials, The Mark of the Rani (1985) and Time and the Rani (1987), before the original run of Doctor Who went off the air in 1989. O'Mara reprised the role as the principal villain in Dimensions in Time, a 1993 Doctor Who charity television special for Children in Need. The Rani has since been featured in multiple Doctor Who audio dramas and novels. The character later reappeared in the Doctor Who revival series, though only identified as Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson), throughout the Fifteenth Doctor's adventures. In "The Interstellar Song Contest", 40 years after her first appearance, Mrs Flood bi-generates into a new incarnation (portrayed by Archie Panjabi) and reveals that she – and Mrs Flood before her – are the Rani.