The Stones of Blood

"I wouldn't want you to miss my execution."

Writer: David Fisher

Format: TV

Broadcast: 28th October - 18th November 1978

Season: 16.03

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana I, K9

Synopsis

The search for the third segment of the Key to Time leads the Doctor, Romana and K9 to Boscombe Moor on Earth in the late 20th century. Here they encounter Professor Amelia Rumford and Vivien Fay, who are surveying an ancient stone circle called the Nine Travellers. What is the link between an ancient Celtic goddess, an alien criminal and a transporter ship concealed in hyperspace? And can the Doctor escape the Druidic sacrifice of blood to uncover the mystery of the moving stones?

Verdict

The Stones of Blood was not the best of Doctor Who stories if I'm being perfectly honest. I went into this one with a pretty clean slate in terms of memory as I had only watched the story once before and that was over seven years ago, so other than the Doctor and Romana locating the third segment of the Key to Time, I didn't know what to expect. It was inevitable that there would be a segment hidden on Earth but the story that came with the home setting was pretty horrible for the most part. I'll start positively though and say that Professor Rumford was a wonderful character and definitely the highlight of this adventure! I really liked her a lot and her refusal to say that she would cover all of the events she witnessed in this story because of her publishing reputation was delightful, the Doctor was always going to stay hidden. Now, the plot. Well, it jumps all over the place really and doesn't seem to have a main focus outside of the Nine Travellers. Those in itself were an intriguing focus and exploring their history could have been done in such a better and more exciting way. This was just all over the place for much of proceedings which was a shame and how we went from there to the inclusion of the Megara and a pathetic courtroom trial in part four is beyond me. It's a real shame as there was the basis there for a very interesting story there and it seems that David Fisher just went on one hell of a tangent! I wasn't a fan of them at all and the very fact that they were justice seems just hilarious given how the Doctor's trial went. He would of course use anything to his advantage and did brilliantly to turn the tables on who we knew as Vivien Fay. She had always seemed more mysterious than Rumford which was against the norm given the pair of friends' ages, but when it was revealed that she was the subject of the missing portraits and that she was in fact the Cailleach, it was just painfully obvious. I had no idea why she needed to dress up in that ridiculous costume and it was not even mentioned again once the Doctor told her he knew of her identity. There were just a lot of flaws which was a shame. Right, let's get onto the Ogri. I hated them. I thought they were really bad and just the image of them smashing doors and what have you was just silly. A silicon based life-form? No thank you. Romana was actually pretty good in this story though which was good and I definitely enjoyed her more here than I did in The Pirate Planet so that's a positive. K9 is always fantastic and this was no exception with his power circuits overloading and in needed of regeneration. The cliffhangers were a real mixed bag with part one's being one of the very worst ever in my opinion. It made no sense and I think it would have been so much more powerful if we actually saw the image of the Doctor pushing her towards the cliff edge. Even in scenes afterwards when she was hanging on for her life, supposedly, Mary Tamm played that with no urgency or desperation which I was flabbergasted by. I wasn't a fan of a lot of the direction for this story either which is something I rarely mention so that tells you how much I disliked it. I think there needed to be more elaboration on the concept of the Black Guardian becoming basically anything and his presence was felt in this adventure, but it could have been in a more direct and lengthy way. But I fully appreciate that there was still half of a season to go after this one concluded. But I was glad for it to finish, especially when the Doctor very easily got rid of the Megara at the end very easily. Overall, this one was pretty bad. My rating is incredibly low for a personal perspective but it honestly could have been lower. For me, this is up there with the likes of The Gunfighters and Fear Her when it comes to all-time awful adventures. Overall, not good. 

Rating: 5/10