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Doctor Who - The Stones of Blood [VHS]

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Ever since I was 12, watching the Tom Baker era of "Doctor Who" for the first time, "The Stones of Blood" has been one of my favorite stories. It was the combination, I think, of the Earth locale (particularly the echoes of Stonehenge) which dominate the first two parts of the story, and the literal-minded justice machines, the Megara, which dominate the final two. I won't say that the Megara influenced my choice of career in any way, any more than the barrister's wig that Baker wears while on trial, but .....

"Stones of Blood" is indeed the only Earth-bound story in the year-long Key To Time arc. It benefits from well-developed chemistry between the three lead actors (Tom Baker, Mary Tamm's Romana, and the robotic K9), and a terrific guest spot by the 75 year-old Beatrix Lehmann, as the eccentric archaeologist Professor Amelia Rumford. For a story which is about... well, an alien immortal and erstwhile Celtic goddess who's moonlighting on Earth as a research assistant, and her private army of killer styrofoam rocks, and the for-laughs computerized prosecutors who have been tracking her down for 4,000 years (while locked in a small room which can only be opened on penalty of death) ... for all that, the script is very funny, detailed and believable. As with most 1970s era "Doctor Who", there's a mix of outright comedy and horrific violence, and it all hangs together well, even on repeated viewings. Well, that is, once you've learned to ignore the wobbly styrofoam boulders and the barely-concealed PAs who push them.

The DVD release of "Stones of Blood" is the least elaborate disc yet released for the "Doctor Who" market. Oh, it's got the same pretty animated menus and format as previous discs, but... there's very little else on it. The text commentary is terrific, revealing as it does much of behind-the-scenes info about David Fisher's script (which, unusually for DW, had three major female roles) and the material that didn't make it to screen (a cake celebrating the Doctor's 751st birthday).

The audio commentary is recorded by Tamm, and one-time-only "Who" director Darrol Blake, whose claim to fame is that he once shared an apartment with Ridley Scott. Blake's voice is distinctly grating, but he has eerily precise recall -- noticing a tall patch of grass in the midst of an open field, he spontaneously shouts, "That's where we hid the boards!". Tamm's recall is excellent as well, although most the stories they tell are also located in the (quieter) text commentary. Tamm shows herself to be more of a ham(m) than she ever was in her year on DW, affecting all sorts of English accents and calling Blake "Darling" every few scenes.

If you can bother scrolling all the way through the photo gallery, there are two really neat stills of Tom Baker clowning around with the eponymous styrofoam boulders. Good luck getting there, though!

The 100th story of Doctor Who and the third part in the Key To Time sextet is The Stones Of Blood, which is also the only story in that canon to take place on Earth. Makes sense--why should more than one of the Key segments be on Earth?

The Doctor and Romana journey to contemporary Earth (1978) and encounter Professor Amelia Rumford and her assistant/neighbor Vivien Fay, who are researching a Gorsedd (stone circle) named the Nine Travellers, whose number has mysteriously changed from six or seven over the centuries. The Doctor investigates a nearby British Institute of Druidic Studies run by the unpleasant Dr. De Vries and is nearly sacrificed to the Celtic goddess Cailleach. Fortunately, he is saved by Rumford. However, in returning to the Institute, he finds DeFries and his assistant Martha killed and the place in a shambles. Both have been attacked by a colossal silicon-based creature, an Ogri.

The Doctor realizes that something is really amiss when he discovers paintings of certain woman painted over the ages in the Institute's basement. They are all of Vivien Fay! However, Vivien captures Romana and whisks her off to a spaceship existing in a hyperspatial dimension.

Beatrix Lehmann makes Professor Amelia Rumford quite an adorable and tenacious character. In the scene when she and the Doctor and pursued by an Ogri, she pulls out a truncheon and says that in the name of science, it's their duty to try and capture it. The Doctor simply pulls her away. Rumford's tenacity is further demonstrated when Vivien explains that while giving a lecture in NYC, Rumford carried the truncheon with her for fear of being mugged, and was arrested for carrying an offensive weapon (!) She also takes the Doctor's obvious alien origins in stride: "Are you from outer space?" Doctor: "I'm more from what you inner time." Rumford: "Ahh." She makes a wonderful partner and foil, as she is paired at various times with the Doctor, Romana, and K9.

Great dialogue: the Doctor has a bit of fun of the Druids at De Vries' expense, saying that John Aubrey invented them as a joke, and later, when he is about to be sacrificed, he rattles on about the knife at his throat: "I hope that knife's been sterilized. ...You can catch all sorts of things from a dirty knife." And when Rumford tells the Doctor that it's impossible for silicon-based creatures to exist, he tells her, "Maybe it doesn't know that."

Mary Tamm's fashionable yet again, wearing salmon-coloured blouse, slacks, heels, and cap, and later, in a long red dress.

The first two episodes work well as a light horror-mystery, but the subsequent plot of the alien spaceship hovering over the stone circle, the Megara, and the Doctor's trial causes the story to go awry. The Doctor pulling out a cake from a fridge celebrating the show's 100th story, as Tom Baker once suggested, would have improved the story a lot more. Naturally, that idea was nixed.

The Doctor, Romana and K-9 land on Earth, in hopes of finding the Third Segment to the Key of Time. During their visit in the english countryside, they encounter Druids, ravens & crows, moving stones, and a spaceship in hyperspace. I've always found that "The Stones of Blood" was very underrated. Hailed for the Hammeresque-quality of the first two episodes, and panned for the second half of the story being too boring on the hyperspace vessel. David Fisher's debut in Who is great! Tom Baker is at the height of his powers. The Doctor and Romanna's relationship with Emelia Rumford is wonderful. Her amazement and acceptance of the situation she is in, and her performance as well, help give the story a little believability. Vivien Fay, also is a great OTT character(not as great as another one of Fisher's creation, Lady Adrasta in "The Creature From the Pit") "O-Greeeee" she says repeatedly. And the Megara, well, if you didn't like the last two episodes, don't read anymore, the megara(let's start again) are very hilarious dealing the Doctor's death sentence,"No matter! None can escape the Megara!" And as for the Ogri, well, at least they're original. And Mary Tamm proves that she might be the worst screamer in the entire series. Love the location footage!

This is a terrific episode of Dr. Who. It's the 3rd installment of the Key to Time series and brings the Dr. and Romana to Earth at an ancient stone circle, the 9 Travellers. During their investigation, they uncover a spaceship trapped in hyperspace hovering over the circle. The stones are a silicon-based organisn that need gobulin to live, hence the blood sacrifice. These Orgi (ogres) serve Vivian Fey, actually an alien outlaw from Delos. Fey is stranded (?) on Earth and has used the circle for 4,000 years to control the surrounding lands as a deity/goddess.
Fey captures Romana and travels to hyperspace, followed by the Dr. who releases the Magara, justice machines that condemn the Dr. to death for releasing them. The trial is humorous and ends up with Fey being recognized as the outlaw that the Magara were after and condemned to perpetual confinement at a Traveller.
A fun episode but it leaves so many questions unanswered.
Who pushed Romana off the cliff? If the circle were built to mark the place of the hyperspace ship and Fey's coming and going, what about the other stone circles? Was Vivian Fey also Morgana leFey of Arthurian legend? Why do the number of Travellers keep changing? What happened to the Magara? Dr. Who just snapped his fingers and they disappeared.
The Key to Time series is an excellent series because it reminds the Time Lords that they are not the supreme powers in the universe.
This episode marks the 100th time that Tom Baker played Dr. Who and everything shows it. The dialogue is witty, the characters are protrayed wonderfully and there is a familiarity about the entire set that makes watching it a pleasure.

This adventure, the third in the Key to Time saga, is a wonderfully dark, creepy horror tale full of sprawling moors, druids, Celtic goddesses and ravens, which then changes into a sci-fi/courtroom drama. It has wonderful incidental music and audio effects, especially the unsettling but atmospheric sound we hear whenever the Key to Time or the third segment are referred to. From the very beginning the story generates a sense of unease and terror, especially so after the brevity of the previous adventure ("The Pirate Planet"). There is interesting direction and camerawork (the soft focus scenes on the moors, for example) and the Cailleach has always terrified me - watching the scene when she is alone in the circle at night always sends a chill up my spine. "The Stones of Blood" is full of other memorable moments. The campers in episode three, the stones lumbering through the bushes (although the matador moment at the cliff edge is a bit silly) - and Beatrix Lehmann's delightful performance as Professor Rumford. When the story switches to the hyperspace vessel, it loses its horror tones, which I find a little disappointing, but nevertheless essential to the plot. This is the very first Doctor Who story I saw as a whole, way back in 1980, so I suppose it holds a special place in my heart. Watching it reinforces both nostalgic memories and the fact that it's a superbly written, directed and acted adventure.

I got this with the key to time dvd set, knowing I would get it on dvd I had only bought some key to time stories on vhs. Ofcouse I went with the Douglas Adams stuff first, but now I am shocked, I think this is a good script. Even the name "Stones of Blood" thru me off, I thought it would be your basic on earth monster story. Not so, we in end up in hyperspace with cool aliens and a very clever script. I am on the hunt now for other David Fisher work. Commentary was good too.

THE STONES OF BLOOD was never one of my favorite stories, but thanks to its recent release on DVD I've had time to rewatch it and reevaluate it. It's still not one of the best stories, but it's average enough, though a few bits of sloppy plotting do prevent it from being a more satisfying adventure. It's a good bit of fun, but nothing more serious than that.

The first thing that many reviews and commentators mention is how wonderful Beatrix Lehmann is as Professor Rumford. Well, I'm not going to break with convention here. She is indeed absolutely fantastic. She has an excellent rapport with Tom Baker, and she plays well off of Mary Tamm's slightly aloof but naive Romana. In fact, by the time we get to episode four, she even has great chemistry with the K9 prop. A wonderful actress, a great performance, and I couldn't help but wish that the Doctor had ditched Romana and finished the quest for the Key To Time with the slightly batty, but quick-witted elderly professor. It would have made THE ARMAGEDDON FACTOR much more interesting anyway.

The story marches forward at a relatively fast pace. Perhaps a little too quickly, as there are several plot elements that are dropped, never to be addressed again. We begin the adventure with a story about modern-day druids practicing blood sacrifices to their weird god, but by the time we reach the ending, this has been completely discarded in favor of Tom Baker fooling around in a barrister's wig. All of the effective atmosphere, gloom and mystery are lost as soon as the action switches to the over-lit spacecraft, and it's only Tom Baker's tomfoolery with two glittery alien-props that give the conclusion any redemption.

By the end, there are a few too many questions that were never properly addressed. Why was the Cessair of Diplos going around impersonating Celtic gods? What were her followers doing? Why did she have followers? How did her followers know of the Doctor's impending presence and why would they care? Why was an alien with a fully functioning hyperspace craft and the powers of the Key To Time segment just sitting around on Earth for four thousand years? Each of these unanswered questions (and the many others that the story provides) could be explained away given a sufficiently wily and creative mind, but the story simply doesn't address them, and I found that to be mildly annoying. Unexplained motivations never sit well with me, and I just couldn't figure out what on Earth the Cessair of Diplos was doing. Doctor Who doesn't always have the most thoughtful or realistic villains, but they usually at least have a plan of some sort, even if it is just an insane desire the rule the universe. But here the villain is causing havoc for no good reason that I could see. She was bad merely because the script required her to be bad.

Still, there is a lot to like about THE STONES OF BLOOD. The opening episode is sufficiently gloomy. Despite their obvious limitations, the eponymous Stones actually manage to be genuinely creepy as they stalk their way noisily through the English countryside. There's a lot of fun to be had watching the Doctor uncover the mystery, even if it doesn't make much sense. Viewers won't soon forget the Doctor's assurances that electronic dogs like K9 are all the rage in Trenton, New Jersey. Those little sparkles of humor shine like the electronic effects of the alien Megara. Mystery and suspense hold up the first half of the story, and their absence in the second half are just barely replaced with the bizarre humor of the Graham Williams era.

From the creative side of the direction there were several small things that I enjoyed. There's a particularly noteworthy sequence that occurs early on in the adventure concerning the Doctor's initial encounter with the Cailleach. The sequence is quite underplayed. Tom Baker is merely walking across a room in an almost casual manner. The shots leading up to this moment have been fairly run-of-the-mill close-ups of people talking intermixed with views around the room. But suddenly the camera switches to a shot of the Cailleach herself in all her feathered glory. There's no dramatic music, no build-up, and it works as a very surprising scene because the viewer simply isn't expecting to see this. If you've let yourself be drawn into the scene as it was unfolding, it's quite a shock to see something completely unexpected like that. It surprises me every time. Little touches like this really help the overall adventure.

The commentary track, consisting of Mary Tamm and director Darrol Blake is well worth listening to. The pair discuss the location, the casting, and a host of interesting topics. It's intriguing to hear the story from the director's point of view, and I really like listening to his approach to directing Doctor Who. The production notes are again quite good and highlight a lot of the changes that went into the script between David Fisher's pen and its life in front of the camera.

When you throw this disc into the player, just try not to think about it too much. Watch it for the great interactions between Professor Rumford and everyone else. Watch it for the eeriness of the Stones as they chase their victims. Watch it for the funny dialogue that's usually coming from the mouth of Tom Baker. Just don't watch it expecting it to be a tightly plotted adventure, or you'll be disappointed. Turn your critical mindset off and enjoy.

In "The Stones of Blood" hyperspace is described as theoretically absurd, and yet there it is, the location for much of the latter part of the story. Likewise, this whole storyline in theory falls apart abysmally, and yet it somehow manages all the same.

In some ways it's the perfect 100th storyline, starting off as it does in a mode highly characteristic of this show--horror movie themes and motifs given a slight but sufficient sci-fi spin. Blood sacrifice by modern neo-Druids, unsolved deaths associated with a mysterious ancient stone circle, crows with the evil eye, and of course vampire rocks with inexplicable mobility. The second half of the story shifts into a different mode equally characteristic of the show, more along the lines of the prior adventure ("The Pirate Planet"): ambitiously conceptual science fiction blended with subtle yet sharp social satire, all spiced up with just the right dash of adventure. A prison barge in hyperspace, blindly legalistic justice machines (the Megara) objective to a fault, and keys to time that allow cosmic beings to realign the cosmic balance.

This is all the stuff of greatness. Unfortunately, these two modes don't cohere very well in practice, at least as they unfold here, and so the whole story seems rather disjointed. Far too many loose ends from the first half are just sort of swept under the rug without ever being resolved--the relation between the neo-Druids and the story's main villain, especially. This is never adequately explained, nor are her motivations for associating with these weirdos (if she is. Even that's a bit unclear). In fact, her motivations for hanging around on earth for millennia after trapping her jailors in their own prison and escaping are utterly glossed over, and she remains thus an unconvincing and rather hokey character.

Still, these noticeable flaws are offset somewhat by some excellent directing making the most of the story's creepy atmosphere, some fine location shooting accentuating that atmosphere, and some classic moments of wit by the Doctor that serve to defuse the lingering moods of darkness wonderfully. The archaeologist and stone circle expert Emilia Rumford also helps immensely as a memorable supporting character with a nice chemistry with the Doctor, Romana, and even K9. And the effect used to render the Megara is visually stunning and highly inventive, especially given the show's limited resources. Finally, the overall story ideas are good, even if their execution leaves a little something to be desired. So "The Stones of Blood" may very well not be "Doctor Who" at its best, but it's quite good and entertaining nonetheless.

P.S. Since "The Stones of Blood" is the third storyline in the six-part "Key to Time" saga of the sixteenth season, this DVD is also included with five other DVDs in a box set, Doctor Who - The Key to Time Collection, so unless you have a particular interest just in this one storyline, that may be the better option both in terms of economics and convenience.

What slugs? Where? There were lots of crows... Hmm, and glitzy justice machines, and killer standing stones that just won't stand still :) And a mad old lady professor, and Romana clumping around in hilarious heels. This is a good one, and probably my favorite key to time episode. Totally gothic, totally brit and totally weird. Yes, it is silly, but that's the fun of Doctor Who. Well worth the price. Did I mention the usual great performance by Tom Baker, our hero?

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This story is one of my FAVORITES of the Doctor Who Stories.

When they use historical connections in a story, I love it, and Stonehenge type stones are such strange subjects.
The hyperspace tilt makes it especially interesting.
The justice thingys are quite interesting but a bit annoying ..... so smart they have no common sense!
It is just genius how Doctor Who tricks them!

You will love this story, but I would recommend buying the WHOLE - "Key to Time" Series 6 in all.
You will watch them over and over and over and ..........

Key to Time Stories::

1. The Ribos Operation
2. The Pirate Planet
3. The Stones of Blood
4. The Androids of Tara
5. The Power of Kroll
6. The Armageddon Factor

All are pretty good stories! You won't be sorry if you are a Doctor Who Fan!
And if you aren't .... You might want to start here - while Tom Baker was Doctor Who .... You soon will be a Fan!
Also, The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a good one to start with. It is one of my Favorites too!