‘Kate O’Mara dies at the age
of 74...
Not an earth-shattering news
item in the grand order of things but for those of us who remember the Doctor
Who of the 1980s, March 30th 2014 marks the passing of a Time Lord,
The Rani – twice a visitor to Earth and protagonist of two Doctors, Colin Baker
– the 6th Incarnation and Sylvester McCoy, the 7th
Incarnation.
And if Kate had had her wish
granted, she would have returned to Earth a third time, to plague the 12th
Doctor, Peter Capaldi!
Kate took on the role of the
Time Lord, The Rani for the first time in The Mark of the Rani, shown in two 45
minute parts in February 1985, and
reprised the character in the 4 part ‘Time and the Rani in September 1987.
The Rani was another renegade
Time Lord, but where the Doctor works to protect Earth and her people, the Rani
was busy contributing to the ‘brain drain’ by extracting ‘brain fluid’ from the
human population with the goal of draining the brain of the Doctor!
When it comes to Kate’s Rani,
her flamboyance easily matches that of River Song – with her tight leather
trousers, tall stilettos and cascading cloud of hair. Kate herself, like Alex
Kingston had a reputation for portraying strong, vibrant, ‘sassy’n’sexy’, often
somewhat aggressive characters – I’m sure Kate would have been delighted to
play River Song!
What is certain is that she
loved working on Doctor Who and when interviewed during the 50th
Anniversary celebrations she told the world that she wished she could portray
The Rani again and saw no reason why an older female character should be a
problem, & could open up interesting plot possibilities – (a point well
proven by the glorious Helen Mirren in ‘Red’ and ‘Red 2)’ – and with her slim
figure, sparkling eyes and mane of pure white hair Kate could have carried it
off, no problem!
Kate enjoyed working on
Doctor Who and the cast enjoyed working with her and she made many friends, and
the tributes continue - on hearing the
news of her death, Doctor Who co-star Colin Baker tweeted: "Oh my
goodness. Kate O'Mara is no longer with us. Sad sad news, a delightful,
committed and talented lady and actress. We are the poorer."
Carol Drinkwater who worked
and also toured with Kate said “She took over from me in An Ideal Husband and I took over from her in something else… She
was a gutsy, witty, highly disciplined, intelligent lady and she was a real
trooper in every showbiz sense of the word. She will be greatly missed. RIP,
dear, dear Kate.”
Being of much the same
generation, I too regret Kate’s passing and I believe that all those actresses
out there who now get to portray strong, sexy, sassy women, whatever their age
should honour her memory and be ever grateful to her and those others of her
generation for proving that women could be portrayed as strong, powerful, sexy,
sassy, feminine, in fact all the things a woman can be, and helping to destroy
the barriers that placed so many restrictions on women in the dramatic arts, be
they TV, film or stage.
Thank you Kate, you will be
missed.
Sources:
Special thanks to Carol
Drinkwater for her personal tribute
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