Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

Over a decade after her last appearance, Siobhan Redmond is returning as the Doctor’s Time Lord rival, the Rani.

Jonathon Carley and Redmond star in The War Doctor Rises: Fear of the Light, a brand-new box set of Time War audio drama, due for release in May 2026.

In the next volume of his full-cast audio adventures, the War Doctor (Jonathon Carley) must make an uneasy alliance with an old enemy – the Rani (Siobhan Redmond)!

This renegade Time Lady, a brilliant but cruel scientist, first appeared in classic Doctor Who TV serials The Mark of the Rani and Time and the Rani, in which she was played by Kate O’Mara. She made a return appearance as the main villain of the 2025 TV series, portrayed in two incarnations by Anita Dobson and Archie Panjabi.

But what happened to the Rani between those encounters? Siobhan Redmond returns to play the character on audio for the first time in ten years (following 2014’s The Rani Elite and 2015’s Planet of the Rani), in a story that goes deeper into this morally murky character than ever before, and reveals for the first time just what she was up to during the Time War.

The Doctor and the Rani may have been staunch enemies in the past, but with the Daleks (Nicholas Briggs) out to kill them both, they’ll have to work together! Unless she has other tricks up her sleeve, of course…

Fleeing from the Daleks, the Doctor sends a distress call, in desperate need of rescue. It’s answered by one of his oldest friends, and deadliest foes… the Rani. In the midst of the Time War, the Doctor must now consider the unthinkable. Can he set their differences aside and work with the Rani – to change the future of the universe?

Producer David Richardson said: “The Rani is back at last… and it’s about time. Rochana has written a stunning script which reunites two of Gallifrey’s most renowned runaways, and they are front and centre in almost every scene of a story that explores the history and dynamic of their relationship.”

Writer Rochana Patel added: “It’s been over ten years since the Rani’s last Big Finish appearance, so a rematch is long overdue… Where’s she been? What’s she been doing? As the universe burns, where does the exiled Rani stand in the war between the Time Lords and the Daleks? All these questions will be answered… And, in these dark and terrible days, are the Rani and the War Doctor enemies…?  Or something else…?

“For this epic three-part story, I wanted to completely re-examine the Rani as a character, revisit that apathetic scientist that we first encountered in Mark of the Rani, her backstory with the Doctor, and explore what makes her into the woman who re-emerges in Wish World and The Reality War. This is very much the missing piece of the Rani’s story… And, perhaps, the Doctor’s too…”

The War Doctor Rises: Fear of the Light, written by Rochana Patel, is now available to pre-order for just £19.99 (download to own) or £29.99 (download to own + three-disc collector’s edition CD), exclusively from http://www.bigfinish.com. Please note: the collector’s edition CD box set is strictly limited to 1,000 copies and will not be re-pressed.