The TARDIS arrives near the village of Killingworth at the time of the Luddite uprisings. The local mine owner, Lord Ravensworth, alerts the Doctor and Peri to a rash of violence which has recently erupted, threatening the work of famed engineer George Stephenson. The Doctor follows a series of clues to a bath house, where a renegade Time Lord called the Rani lurks in disguise. She has been sending the miners into a rage by harvesting brain chemicals for her amoral experiments. But the Master is also present, scheming to harness Stephenson's genius for his own use, and he and the Rani soon agree to join forces.

The Master was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. Actor Anthony Ainley's contract had expired with 1984's Planet Of Fire, which had been designed to offer a potentially permanent end to the character. It was initially felt that no renewal would be sought; this was a position particularly favoured by script editor Eric Saward, who was not a fan of the character. However, as planning for Doctor Who's twenty-second season got under way, producer John Nathan-Turner experienced a change of heart, apparently because of the Master's continued popularity amongst fans. Instead, it was decided to bring the Master back for one story during the year.

In the meantime, Nathan-Turner was pursuing the husband-and-wife team of Pip and Jane Baker to write for Doctor Who. They were industry veterans known for their ability to work quickly and to budget, and hence would be valuable contributors to the show. The Bakers were initially reluctant, but were enthused by Saward's suggestion that they might attempt an adventure with an historical setting. They decided to develop a narrative which used the Luddite uprisings as a backdrop. Inspired by a (possibly mythical) eighteenth-century figure called Ned Ludd, Luddism was an anti-industrial movement which began in Nottingham in 1811. For the next several years, the Luddites engaged in a campaign of increasingly violent vandalism against mill and factory owners. The movement finally waned following the creation of new laws which imposed severe penalties against those engaged in industrial espionage. The Bakers wanted to contrast the Luddite philosophy with the achievements of George Stephenson, a British engineer famed for his pioneering work with steam locomotives and railways.

The Rani was envisaged as an amoral scientist for whom the universe was a giant laboratory

Mindful of his producer's desire for the return of the Master, Saward requested his inclusion in the Bakers' storyline. Nathan-Turner proposed that he be paired with another evil Time Lord, whom the Bakers suggested should be female. This character was christened the Rani, her name derived from a Hindi word for “queen”. Inspired by a neurochemist friend of theirs who held a very secular view of life, the Bakers envisaged the Rani as an amoral scientist for whom the universe was just a giant laboratory. This characterisation would also facilitate the inclusion of an element of real science. Drawing upon an article concerning sleep receptors they had read in the New Scientist, the Bakers developed a plot thread about the Rani's experimentation with the sleep centres of the human brain.

The Bakers were commissioned to write a storyline called “Too Clever By Far” on September 30th, 1983. By the time the full scripts were solicited on November 7th, the title had become “Enter The Rani”. It was planned that this would be the fourth story of Season Twenty-Two, although it would ultimately swap places with The Two Doctors in the broadcast order, becoming the year's third transmitted serial. In March, an error on the part of the BBC schedulers resulted in “Enter The Rani” losing two of its five studio days. Fortunately, Nathan-Turner was able to arrange for an extra week of location filming instead, and the Bakers were asked to amend their scripts appropriately.

The director assigned to “Enter The Rani” was Sarah Hellings, making her only foray into the world of Doctor Who. Hellings had previously worked on the children's magazine show Blue Peter, for which she had spent some time at Blists Hill Open Air Museum. A recreation of a nineteenth-century village located at Telford in Shropshire, Hellings felt that Blists Hill would be perfect to represent Killingworth in “Enter The Rani”. However, the Bakers had envisaged the story as being filmed at an open air museum in South Wales with which they were familiar; as such, they had included suitable elements such as overhead coal tracks and a turntable on the rails. These were not extant at Blists Hill, and so Saward had to amend the action to reflect Hellings' chosen location.

On June 6th, Anthony Ainley was contracted to return as the Master in “Enter The Rani”. For the title character, Hellings proposed Kate O'Mara. Nathan-Turner, on the other hand, preferred noted stage actress Sarah Badel, with whom he had worked on The Pallisers. When Badel turned down the offer, Nathan-Turner decided to follow Hellings' suggestion, and O'Mara was contracted on September 4th. By the time rehearsals began in October, the story had gained its final title: The Mark Of The Rani.

The two-week location shoot was planned to take place entirely at Telford, and began on October 22nd with a day at the Granville Colliery Spoil Heaps. This was where the TARDIS materialised, and was also used for part of the attack on the drayman in Redfern Vale, plus shots of Jack Ward and his cronies transporting the purloined police box. Unfortunately, Nicola Bryant had injured her neck while sleeping, causing her some discomfort. She was consigned to wearing a neck brace throughout filming, except while the cameras were actually rolling. The next five days -- from October 23rd to 27th -- were all spent at Blists Hill, recording a variety of scenes in Killingworth, at Redfern Vale, and around the pithead. For the scene in which the Doctor dirtied his face, Baker was provided with a tray of Fuller's earth. Afterwards, unfortunately, the actor realised that the tray had been befouled by a passing dog.

After a day off, the second week of filming at Telford began on October 29th, when the nearby Coalport China Works served as the exterior of Lord Ravensworth's office and George Stephenson's workshop. It was then planned to return to Blists Hill for three further days, from October 30th to November 1st; the outstanding material largely dealt with sequences in Redfern Vale and Redfern Dell. However, heavy rain had begun falling, significantly slowing the team's progress. A contingency day had already been scheduled for November 2nd to address such an eventuality, but the bad weather scarcely let up and, by the week's end, Hellings still had a number of vital scenes left to film.

It was agreed that some of this material could be rewritten for the studio, but many of the sequences had to take place in a woodland environment. Nathan-Turner successfully lobbied for a remount, but the money allocated for this purpose would not cover a return to Shropshire. Fortunately, the Bakers knew of an area called Park Wood, near their home in Ruislip, London, that would match the Blists Hill footage well enough for Hellings' purposes. Cast and crew completed the necessary material there on November 12th. Meanwhile, on November 6th, Baker and Bryant were both offered contracts for Season Twenty-Three, which was again planned to consist of thirteen forty-five-minute episodes.

Studio time was tight because of the unexpected need to tape material held over from Blists Hill

The lone studio session for The Mark Of The Rani ran from November 18th to 20th, at BBC Television Centre Studio 1 in White City, London. Time was very tight because of the unexpected need to tape material held over from the second week at Blists Hill. The first day saw scenes recorded in the bath house, Ravensworth's office, and the Doctor's TARDIS. More bath house sequences were taped on the second day, along with those at the disused mine and in the Rani's TARDIS. Unlike the Master's TARDIS seen in recent years, this was not a redressed version of the Doctor's console room but rather an entirely new set, designed by Paul Trerise around a circular theme. For the final day of production, recording took place on a variety of sets, including Stephenson's workshop, Ravensworth's office, the Rani's TARDIS and the mine shaft, while Hellings also completed several effects shots.

Unusually, the original commission to score The Mark Of The Rani did not go to a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop -- as was Nathan-Turner's usual policy -- but rather to an independent composer named John Lewis. Unfortunately, Lewis fell ill from AIDS-related complications and died in February 1985. By this time, he had composed thirty-two minutes of music for The Mark Of The Rani, but it was decided that his work would not be used; his family was compensated all the same. Instead, Jonathan Gibbs of the Radiophonic Workshop was assigned the task of composing a new suite of incidental music for the serial.

Meanwhile, the Rani had proved to be a very popular character with the production team. Nathan-Turner, in particular, saw her potential as a recurring adversary for the Doctor -- one whom he felt would be more complex and less hackneyed than the Master. Kate O'Mara was quickly sounded out to gauge her interest in returning to Doctor Who, and she confirmed that she was open to reprising the character. A preservation order was given for the Rani's TARDIS console room, and discussions began with writer Robert Holmes about adding the character to his planned Season Twenty-Three story, “Yellow Fever And How To Cure It”.

• Doctor Who Magazine #217, 28th September 1994, “Archive: The Mark Of The Rani” by Andrew Pixley, Marvel Comics UK Ltd.
• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #3, 22nd January 2003, “Everything Must Change” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #41, 2018, “Story 139: The Mark Of The Rani”, edited by John Ainsworth, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Eighties by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1996), Virgin Publishing.
• Doctor Who: The Handbook: The Sixth Doctor by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1993), Virgin Publishing.
• In·Vision #81, November 1998, “Production” edited by Anthony Brown, Cybermark Services.