Rani Chandra (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

Last updated

Rani Chandra
The Sarah Jane Adventures character
RaniSJA.png
First appearance The Day of the Clown (2008)
Last appearance The Man Who Never Was (2011)
Portrayed by Anjli Mohindra
In-universe information
Species Human
Affiliation
Home Earth
Home eraEarly 21st century

Rani Chandra is a fictional character played by Anjli Mohindra in the British children's science fiction television programme The Sarah Jane Adventures , a spin-off from the long-running series Doctor Who . She first appeared in The Day of the Clown .

Contents

Conception

Rani was introduced into The Sarah Jane Adventures as a replacement for departing character Maria Jackson, played by Yasmin Paige. Paige left the series as a regular due to her wanting to complete her GCSEs, thus, Maria moved to America because her father had been offered a job there. [1] Rani's parents, Haresh (Ace Bhatti) and Gita Chandra (Mina Anwar), replace Maria's parents, Alan (Joseph Millson) and Chrissie Jackson (Juliet Cowan), as Alan departs with their daughter and Chrissie no longer has reason to show up. [2] [3]

Rani shares her name with the Rani, a recurring villain from the classic series of Doctor Who . Russell T Davies told readers of Doctor Who Magazine that Rani is "not the Rani". [4]

Appearances

Television

Rani first appears in the second story of Series 2, following Maria's departure. In The Day of the Clown (2008), Rani and her parents move into the Jacksons' old house at 12 Bannerman Road [5] (sometimes 36 Bannerman Road), [6] opposite Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) and Luke Smith's (Tommy Knight) house, in Ealing, London. [1] Her father is the new headteacher of the school where she, Luke and his best friend Clyde Langer (Daniel Anthony) are pupils; her mother owns the Bloomin' Lovely florist. An aspiring journalist, Rani soon joins Sarah Jane's investigative gang. [1] [3] [7]

In the Series 3 premiere Prisoner of the Judoon (2009), Rani and Clyde are banned by extraterrestrial police force the Judoon from space travel as punishment for interference in their work. [8] Although grounded on her terrestrial homeworld, she is nobility of an unspecified alien planet. A humanoid child monarch known as Gavin creates her Lady Rani in appreciation of her assistance in his succession which also saved the whole of humanity. [9] Coincidentally, she is continually addressed as Lady Rani in the subsequent serial, when she is transported to the court of Queen Jane and mistaken for a newly summoned lady-in-waiting. [10]

The Series 3-story The Mad Woman in the Attic focuses on Rani. Sarah Jane discovers that, in violation of her rules, Rani has shared her adventures in letters to her former school friend Samuel; the events of the episode cause two timelines to occur, one where in 2059, Rani has acquired Sarah Jane's home at 13 Bannerman Road and become miserable and alone, and another where she will have a son and grandchildren and still friends with Luke and even her predecessor, Maria, living with her family at the former Smith home. Rani's final appearance comes in the last episode of the programme, The Man Who Never Was (2011).

Rani makes a further appearance in "Farewell, Sarah Jane" (2020), an epilogue for the series where years after the events of the main series, she becomes a full time journalist and is writing a story for a project at the North Pole. She finds out that Sarah Jane has died and along with Clyde and Luke, organise her funeral where everyone is celebrating her life. Rani chooses to believe that Sarah Jane did not pass away but rather went with the Doctor to travel the universe, forever. [11] [12]

Audio

Rani has appeared in several The Sarah Jane Adventures audiobook stories released between 2008 and 2011.

In 2022, Mohindra reprised her role and has since voiced Rani in several Doctor Who audio drama spin-offs. She first appears in "The Turn of the Tides", a story from The Eighth of March 2: Protectors of Time boxset from Big Finish Productions [13] and later several episodes of Doctor Who: Redacted, a podcast drama from BBC Sounds featuring the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker). [14]

Mohindra reprises Rani in her own audio spin-off series from Big Finish, Rani Takes on the World, set 15 years after the events of The Sarah Jane Adventures . The first boxset, Beyond Bannerman Road, was released in April 2023 and features Daniel Anthony and Mina Anwar returning as Clyde Langer and Rani's mother Gita Chandra, respectively. [15] A second boxset, The Revenge of Wormwood, was released in December 2023 and features the return of Tommy Knight as Luke Smith and Samantha Bond as Mrs Wormwood.

Characterisation

The official The Sarah Jane Adventures website offers the following description of Rani Chandra:

15, inquisitive, smart and sassy. Wants to be a journalist, a sort of junior Sarah Jane, and thus idolises Sarah Jane just a little and in return, Sarah Jane takes her happily on her investigations. Rani enjoys Luke's company because they're both quite bright and eager to learn. However, she's equally fond of Clyde because he's cool and a bit rebellious, and has charm.

-CBBC The Sarah Jane Adventures website [7]

In an interview for SFX , Mohindra asserts that Rani and Maria are only similar in the extent that they are both girls, live in the same house and "[i]n personality terms...[they are] both quite strong-willed", although she notes that there are "a lot less tears from Rani than there were from Maria." She describes Rani's relationship with Sarah Jane as "a lot different" to that between Sarah Jane and Maria. Mohindra notes that Rani is "very much an apprentice of Sarah Jane...[although] at first...Sarah Jane is not really that interested in taking on another child." Rani shadows Sarah Jane and copies her behaviour to help her deal with a situation. She is keen on fighting mentally as opposed to physically and Mohindra likes the fact that Rani is "a girl between two guys at times". [1]

Reception

Reviewing the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures for Digital Spy , Ben Rawson-Jones writes that: "As Rani, Anjli Mohindra was fine with dialogue, but painfully self-conscious on a physical acting level when compared to the effortless ease with which Daniel Anthony and Tommy Knight portray Clyde and Luke. It was almost as if someone was stood slightly off set operating her with strings. That theory at least fits into the whole 'body possession' procession of the second season." [16]

Following Rani's first appearance, Michael Bush writes for Den of Geek: "Rani is another asset to the fledgling cast: a gabby young journalist whose inquisitive nature leads to a run in with alien foes. Comparisons between Rani and Sarah Jane's former companion Maria are almost inevitable, and bound to be divisive, but – based on this episode, at least – Mohindra gives as good as she takes, and her character manages to be interesting and endearing without treading on Miss Jackson's toes." [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Jane Smith</span> Fictional character in various TV series including Doctor Who

Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running BBC Television science fiction series Doctor Who and two of its spin-offs. Sarah Jane is a dogged investigative journalist who first encounters alien time traveller the Doctor while trying to break a story on a top secret research facility, and subsequently becomes his travelling companion on a series of adventures spanning the breadth of space and time. After travelling with The Doctor in four seasons of the show they suddenly part ways, and after this she continues to investigate strange goings-on back on Earth. Over time, Sarah Jane establishes herself as a committed defender of Earth from alien invasions and other threats, occasionally reuniting with The Doctor in the course of her own adventures, all the while continuing to work as a freelance investigative journalist.

<i>The Sarah Jane Adventures</i> British science-fiction television series

The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television programme that was produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies, and starring Elisabeth Sladen. The programme is a spin-off of the long-running BBC science fiction programme Doctor Who and is aimed at a younger audience than Doctor Who. It focuses on the adventures of Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist who, as a young woman, had numerous adventures across time and space with the Doctor. Following Sladen's death in 2011, the BBC confirmed that the show would not return for a sixth series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judoon</span> Fictional species from BBC sci-fi show Doctor Who

The Judoon are a fictional extraterrestrial species of mercenary police from the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who and its spin-offs, first appearing in the Series 3 episode "Smith and Jones" (2007).

Luke Smith (<i>The Sarah Jane Adventures</i>) Fictional character

Luke Smith is a fictional regular character played by Tommy Knight in the British children's science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures, a spin-off of the long-running series Doctor Who. Luke is a regular character in The Sarah Jane Adventures both in television and audio adventures. He has also appeared in three episodes of Doctor Who: the two-parter "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" (2008), and the Tenth Doctor's finale episode "The End of Time, Part Two" (2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Anthony (actor)</span> English actor (born 1987)

Daniel Anthony is an English actor. He is known for his regular roles as Clyde Langer in the Doctor Who spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011) and as Jamie Collier in the medical drama Casualty (2013–2014).

Joseph Lidster is an English playwright and screenwriter, best known for his work on the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

<i>Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?</i> 2007 Sarah Jane Adventures story

Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? is the fourth serial of the first series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It first aired on the CBBC channel on 29 October and 5 November 2007.

<i>Warriors of Kudlak</i> 2007 Sarah Jane Adventures story

Warriors of Kudlak is the third serial of the first series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It first aired in two weekly parts on the CBBC channel on 15 and 22 October 2007.

<i>The Lost Boy</i> (<i>The Sarah Jane Adventures</i>) 2007 Sarah Jane Adventures story

The Lost Boy is the fifth serial of the first series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It first aired on the CBBC channel in two weekly parts on 12 and 19 November 2007. This episode was intentionally named after Dave Pelzer's The Lost Boy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anjli Mohindra</span> English actress (born 1990)

Anjli Mohindra is an English stage, screen and voice-over actress and writer. She is best known for her television roles as Rani Chandra in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures (2008–2011) and would-be suicide bomber Nadia Ali in Bodyguard (2018). Her other television roles include Surgeon Lieutenant Tiffany Docherty in Vigil (2021), Detective Constable Josie Chancellor in Dark Heart (2016–2018) and Archie in The Lazarus Project (2022–2023).

The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith is the fifth serial of the second series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It first aired in two weekly parts on CBBC on 17 and 24 November 2008.

The Last Sontaran is the first serial of the second series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. The first part of the two-part story aired on BBC One on 29 September 2008, with the second part premiering immediately after the first on the CBBC channel. This serial marks the departure of Maria Jackson, played by Yasmin Paige.

The Day of the Clown is the second serial of the second series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was first broadcast in two weekly parts on the CBBC channel on 6 and 13 October 2008. The Day of the Clown introduces main character Rani Chandra and her parents, Haresh and Gita Chandra, and they would stay for the rest of the series.

The Mark of the Berserker is the fourth serial of the second series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was first broadcast in two weekly parts on CBBC on 3 and 10 November 2008. Due to Elisabeth Sladen's commitments elsewhere, main character Sarah Jane Smith has a minor role in this serial, making the episodes similar to the 'Doctor-lite' episodes of Doctor Who which do not feature The Doctor heavily, as well as the Torchwood episode "Random Shoes", which had minor roles for most of the main cast.

Prisoner of the Judoon is the first serial of the third series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. It was first broadcast on 15 and 16 October 2009.

<i>The Nightmare Man</i> (<i>The Sarah Jane Adventures</i>) 2010 Sarah Jane Adventures story

The Nightmare Man is a two-part story of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures, which was first broadcast on CBBC on 11 and 12 October 2010.

The Vault of Secrets is the second serial of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures. It first aired in two parts on CBBC on 18 and 19 October 2010. It features the return of Androvax, previously seen in the episode Prisoner of the Judoon, and of the android servants of the Alliance of Shades, last seen in the Doctor Who special Dreamland.

The Empty Planet is a two-part story of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series The Sarah Jane Adventures, which was broadcast on CBBC on 1 and 2 November 2010. It is the fourth story of the fourth series.

<i>Sky</i> (<i>The Sarah Jane Adventures</i>) 2011 Sarah Jane Adventures story

Sky is a two-part story of The Sarah Jane Adventures which was broadcast on CBBC on 3 and 4 October 2011. It is the first story of the fifth and final series. In this episode, Sinead Michael joins the main cast.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Berriman, Ian (29 August 2008). "New Rani interviewed!". SFX . Retrieved 4 September 2008.
  2. "Comings & Goings". SARAH-JANE.tv. 20 August 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2008.
  3. 1 2 Rawson-Jones, Ben (31 August 2008). "Cult Spy: Autumn Preview". Digital Spy . Retrieved 4 September 2008.
  4. Davies, Russell T (15 October 2008). "Further Investigation!". Doctor Who Magazine (400). Tunbridge Wells: Panini Publishing: 53.
  5. Gareth Roberts, Russell T Davies (writers), Colin Teague (director), Susie Liggat (producer) (1 January 2007). "Invasion of the Bane". The Sarah Jane Adventures . Episode – 2007 New Year's Day Special. BBC. BBC One.
  6. Phil Ford (writer), Joss Agnew (director), Matthew Bouch (producer) (29 September 2008). The Last Sontaran . The Sarah Jane Adventures . BBC. BBC One, CBBC.
  7. 1 2 "Rani Chandra". BBC. Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2008.
  8. Phil Ford (writer), Joss Agnew (director), Nikki Wilson, Phil Ford (producers) (16 October 2009). "Part Two". Prisoner of the Judoon . The Sarah Jane Adventures. Series 3. Episode 2. BBC. CBBC.
  9. Gareth Roberts (writer), Ashley Way (director), Brian Minchin, Phil Ford (producers) (2 November 2010). "Part Two". The Empty Planet . The Sarah Jane Adventures. Series 4. Episode 8. BBC. CBBC.
  10. Rupert Laight (writer), Joss Agnew (director), Brian Minchin, Phil Ford (producers) (8–9 November 2010). Lost in Time . The Sarah Jane Adventures . BBC. CBBC.
  11. Seddon, Dan (19 April 2020). "Russell T Davies' Sarah Jane Adventures farewell story is the perfect send-off". Digital Spy. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  12. "BBC One – Doctor Who, Farewell Sarah Jane". BBC. 19 April 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  13. "2. The Eighth of March 2: Protectors of Time". Big Finish Productions. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  14. "Tune into the new Doctor Who spin-off podcast, Redacted". Doctor Who. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  15. "Anjli Mohindra to return as Rani in Sarah Jane Adventures spin-off". Radio Times. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  16. Rawson-Jones, Ben (14 December 2008). "'Sarah Jane' Season Two: The Verdict". Digital Spy . Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  17. "The Sarah Jane Adventures series 2 episode 3 review". Den of Geek. Retrieved 20 February 2018.