A common complaint
against the Key to Time story arc is that the Black Guardian didn’t really play
a big role until the final story, The
Armageddon Factor, but I’d argue that isn’t true. As spin-off media has established the Black
Guardian uses a crow or a raven as a symbol to announce his arrival and The Stones of Blood in particular has a
villain who couldn’t be doing what she’s doing without the interference of the
Black Guardian, more on that later. The Stones of Blood could have been
corrupted with a stale format as The
Ribos Operation and The Pirate Planet
have the similar plot of the Doctor and Romana going to a planet, finding
the segment, a problem arises stopping them from getting the segment
immediately, they defeat the problem, they get the segment, and finally say
goodbye, moving on to the next. David
Fisher’s first script for Doctor Who actually changes this format just a little
bit by setting up where the segment is as a mystery. The Doctor and Romana arrive on Earth knowing
the segment is somewhere in the vicinity of the TARDIS landing, but the Tracer
seems to be malfunctioning and they cannot locate it. It isn’t until Part Four when the segment
reveals itself and that’s a good fifteen minutes into the episode with Fisher
focusing most of the story on the plot of who is the Callieach, a Druid goddess
of war and magic.
Part One, at least
everything until the scenes leading to the cliffhanger, is the weakest portion
of the story mainly down to the direction from Darrol Blake. The scenes with the group of Druids look
great in Part One, but much of the day shots and shots inside the TARDIS just
come across as stale and could have easily been chopped down to opening with
the disembodied voice of “beware the Black Guardian” and putting together the
first two segments to show that that’s how they will work. It really just makes it a bit difficult to
get into the plot until it is already underway.
This also comes down to the script, which is heavy on the exposition as
if people haven’t been watching the season already. You don’t need a recap of the Key to Time,
but the revelation to Romana that it wasn’t the Lord President, but the White
Guardian who is responsible for getting them on the quest. It could have easily tied into the
cliffhanger where Romana is pushed off a cliff, supposedly by the Doctor. This is the best cliffhanger of the episode even
if the direction of it is a bit off in places so that you cannot see if it is
the Doctor, but I believe that is intentional.
Part One should also be noticed for De Vries and Martha played by
Nicholas McArdle and Elaine Ives-Cameron respectively. They survive until Part Two where they are
killed by the titular stones of blood, but their function is to be cultists
that worship the Callieach. They don’t
really serve a higher purpose but both actors give such over the top
performances it is impossible to forget them.
Mary Tamm as Romana
really gets her chance to shine in Part Two as she is wary of the Doctor for
the first five minutes as it is the Doctor who pushed her off the cliff. What is great though is that this gets the audience
intrigued into the segment of the Key to Time, because it is suggested whoever
controls the segment has forced it to look like the Doctor. John Leeson as K9 actually gets involved in
the plot in this part as he helps the Doctor look for Romana and just stay around. Part Two also really serves the purpose to
introduce us to the Ogri, the titular stones of blood. The Ogri make for a great monster as they are
silent, but they kill people to regain strength and are difficult to kill. The way they are portrayed really helps the
story give off an atmosphere of fear as many scenes are shot at night, adding
to the tone, and the fact that blood is used only improves on realism. You can really believe that these Ogri are
killing people and there is a danger as they destroy some of the sets by
lumbering around. A random camping
couple are introduced only to be gruesomely killed by the Ogri
The Tom Baker era has an
odd habit of using elderly ladies in adventures as a foil for the Doctor and The Stones of Blood has Professor Amelia
Rumford. Rumford is an archeologist studying
the Nine Travelers, and gets caught up with the Doctor. She’s a no nonsense type character and has
some of her best moments in Part Three.
She spends most of the episode with the Doctor while Romana has been
sent into hyperspace, which Rumford thinks is impossible. While the tone of the episode stays towards
that of the gothic stories of the Hinchcliffe era, Beatrix Lehmann as Professor
Rumford has amazing comedic timing. Just
look at the scene where she and Tom Baker figure out Vivian Fay’s secret
identity or the scene where the Doctor tries to explain hyperspace to her. It is no small feat as she is working with
the comedic timing of Tom Baker who isn’t cracking jokes, but one-liners that
catch you off guard at first and then make you begin to laugh at how humorous
the situation the characters are in actually are.
There is a real shift in
the plot between Part Three and Part Four as it turns out there is a spaceship
in hyperspace, one which has been there for thousands of years. There is a bit of a decrease in quality as
the sets are a bit jarring. The sets and
location footage for Earth look real, while the spaceship looks just a bit too
cheap for comfort. Part Four is a
highlight for the alien aspects of the story.
Vivian Fay, also known as criminal Cessair of Diplos, played by Susan
Engel, is a marvelous villain. Engel
gives the performance of a cool, calculated murderer. She seems almost one step ahead of the Doctor
at all times. This is where the Black
Guardian comes in as Vivian uses ravens and crows for one, and couldn’t have
escaped her prison without help. She
also knows of the Doctor’s quest, but the Doctor and Romana didn’t mention it
to anyone. The highlight of Part Four
are also the ending’s small downfall with the Megara who are justice
robots. They put the Doctor on trial which
amounts to fifteen minutes of complete madness and a clever ending, but sadly a
deus ex machina. Also Romana has little
to contribute outside of opening statements.
To summarize, for the one
hundredth Doctor Who story The Stones of
Blood is an excellent story with a good mix of humor and horror. It is one of the remains of the Hinchcliffe
era of Doctor Who and works as a welcome change of pace for the Key to Time
season. Sadly the direction is rather
poor and the cliffhangers really don’t allow an actual hang as they cut off
just when the time is out. The ending
however is awful as it doesn’t really satisfy everything up to that point with
the Ogri as great villains. 83/100
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