Didn't think very highly of her campy character, but Kate O'Mara has passed away today after a short illness. While not as tragically youngish as Liz Sladen and Mary Tamm, 74 still seems unlucky (maybe her son's recent suicide had an affect).
Saw this earlier, it's a shame we didn't get a cameo off her in the new series. Was she in any of the Big Finish Audio's?
Saw this all over Facebook earlier. Very sad news. Rest in peace, Kate. Sadly, no. Fans, myself included, had been hoping she would return, and, in fact, Kate herself wanted to reprise the role. I don't know why it never happened, but a persistent rumor was that Big Finish wanted Pip and Jane Baker to write the story (because they created the character) and I guess they didn't want to do it. I don't know if there's any truth behind that.
I think that it's the other way round: they own the character, so they have to approve anyone else writing her.
I really enjoyed The Rani in her first appearance, in Mark of The Rani. I enjoy the Serial as a whole, not just her character. Time and The Rani and Dimensions in Time are pretty bad as episodes (Especially two Mels <EEEK> in Time and The Rani), but, overall, I don't mind her character and would've loved to see her again with a much better script. I also enjoyed Kate O'Mara in Dynasty and AbFab Rest in Peace Kate
Yeah, I thought she was an interesting character with a lot of potential. Just sadly wasted on some pretty weak stories.
poor lady. she was a cool character..campy with the 7th doctor, but cool with the 6th. we need a regen ver in the new series..
The trouble with a fifty year old sci-fi series virtually everybody from long before the mid to late 1980s has either getting too old to do anything, been long dead or dying way too early. There's no genuinely good age to die - dying in your 50s and 60s is still way too early and very sad, dying in your 70s (like Kate) is badly timed and disappointing, most people seem to be dead by around 85, and Christopher Lee keeps on trucking.
As a side note, I'd forgotten that her first husband was Jeremy Young (Kal in An Unearthly Child and the bus driver in Asylum...) and the second Richard Willis (Adric's brother)
The only silver lining to this is that I've finally had my first satisfying night's sleep in weeks now that the Rani is no longer around to drain my brain fluid.
Such a shame, R.I.P I would have loved to see her appear as the Rani again, even if just to regen into another actor, but alas it was not to be.
Agreed. I even had some fun theories about how she might have survived the Time War. (I figured she was able to chemically transform herself into some other species so that the Doctor & the Master wouldn't telepathically recognize her as another Time Lord. So when she first appeared, she would be some kind of exotic hybrid, like a snake-lady or something.)
Big Finish have announced that the Rani will return in a forthcoming audio drama, portrayed by a new actress. The script in question was actually written for O'Mara, who had contacted BF about reprising the character for them. Recording was only a few weeks out when O'Mara passed away. Naturally BF were uncertain what course to take, until O'Mara's agent told them that the actress had wanted the character to continue in a new incarnation. So The Rani Elite, written by Who tie-in stalwart Justin Richards, will feature Siobhan Redmond in the role, alongside the sixth Doctor and Peri.