Doctor Who: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Rani
4. Steven Moffat Didn't Want To Bring Her Back
A mysterious woman? Popping up at the end of each episode? Where have we seen that before?
It's been hard to not think of Missy as we've watched Mrs Flood pop up throughout Doctor Who Seasons 1 and 2, putting her plan together. That's exactly what Michelle Gomez did throughout Series 8, leading many fans to suspect that she was the Rani. But of course, she was actually a female version of the Master.
However, fans shouldn't have been surprised that Moffat chose not to resurrect the Rani opposite Peter Capaldi, given his words on the subject a few years earlier.
In 2012, Moffat told SFX Magazine that "No one knows who the Rani is." He had a point, too. A general audience knows who Kate O'Mara is, but they would know her from Dynasty or Howard's Way, or the many other mainstream roles she's had over her career. But the Rani? Unlikely. As Moffat continued:
"They all know who the Master is, they know Daleks, they probably know who Davros is, but they don't know who the Rani is, so there's no point in bringing her back. If there's a line it's probably somewhere there."
A line that Russell T Davies has gleefully skipped over, 13 years later!