Another Northern set episode saw the 6th Doctor and companion Peri visiting the mining village of Killingworth, home of railway pioneer George Stephenson. The Mark of the Rani is actually set a few years before Victoria ascended to the throne, but its industrial themes and setting are still distinctly "Victorian" in style. According to this story Luddite rioters were miners turned violent by mind altering chemicals found in the gases of a suspicious bath house. Colin Baker's curmudgeonly harlequin take on the hero and Nicola Bryant's busty "American" student sidekick are not the most fondly remembered inhabitants of the TARDIS, but this two part serial is one of their better stories. This is due in large part to the fact that the story pitches the Doctor against not one but two renegade Time Lords in an uneasy and antagonistic alliance with each other. While this story marks the return of Anthony Ainley's Master, intent on using the rapid technological developments of the age as a spur to world domination, it is his rival the Rani that makes the story memorable. Written by husband and wife team Pip and Jane Baker and played by soap actor Kate O'Mara, the Rani was the only major female Time Lord (Time Lady?) antagonist in the show and was very popular for it. She remains widely rumoured for a return to the rebooted series if and when more Time Lord characters are likely to appear. The serial has some silliness (a bit with a human-tree transformation is ludicrous), but is best remembered for the manipulative mad scientist villainess and did provide both Victorians and a tyrannosaur long before the 12th Doctor's debut.
