10 MORE Unanswered Mysteries From Doctor Who
9. What Happened To The Rani?
The Rani was played by Kate O’Mara and was another Time Lady
from Gallifrey. Like the Master, she was not interested in being a saviour like
the Doctor. Instead, she was something of a cold scientific villain, utterly
unconcerned about the consequences of her actions. Her last on-screen appearance
was in 1993 in the Children in Need special Dimensions In Time. Here, she
attempted to trap all seven incarnations of the Doctor in a time tunnel.
When the show returned in 2005, the Doctor believed that all of the Time Lords had died on Gallifrey on the final day of the Time War. However, as the show progressed the audience discovered that this was not the case. First, the Master returned, having escaped the war and hidden as a human. Then, it was later revealed that Gallifrey had not been destroyed at all, merely frozen in time.
By the time the Twelfth Doctor broke his way out of the confession dial, Gallifrey was back in the heavens again. This being the case, where is the Rani? She certainly did not seem content to wait on the planet during her encounters with the Sixth and Seventh Doctors. While O’Mara passed away in 2014, this has never stopped the show from bringing characters, particularly Time Lords, back. She seems too dangerous a thread to be left unattended.