The Stones of Blood (TV story)

The Stones of Blood
Doctor:	[[doctor::Fourth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	K-9 Mark II Romana I
Main enemy:	Cessair of Diplos
Main setting:	Earth; circa 1978
Key crew
Writer:	David Fisher
Director:	Darrol Blake
Producer:	Graham Williams
Release details
Release number:	100
Premiere broadcast:	28th October - 18th November 1978
Format:	4 25-minute Episodes
Production code:	5C

Synopsis

The Doctor, Romana and K9 are led by the tracer to the Nine Travellers, a circle of standing stones on Boscombe Moor in present-day England, but the third segment is nowhere to be found. They meet elderly archaeologist Professor Emilia Rumford and her assistant Vivien Fay, who are surveying the site, and learn that the circle appears to have had a variable number of stones over the years.

The Doctor encounters a group of Druids led by a man named de Vries and narrowly avoids becoming their latest sacrifice. De Vries is later killed by one of the stones from the circle - an Ogri, a life form that lives on blood. Miss Fay is the latest guise of the Cailleach, a being worshipped by the Druids, who has been on Earth for four thousand years. She transports Romana to a spaceship suspended in hyperspace at the same coordinates as the stone circle.

The Doctor follows and accidentally releases two justice machines called Megara, which sentence him to death for breaking the seal on their compartment. When they attempt to carry out their sentence, however, he tricks them into knocking Miss Fay unconscious. Reading her mind, they learn that she is really Cessair of Diplos - the alien criminal they were originally sent to try. Having established her guilt, they transform her into an additional stone in the circle, but not before the Doctor has grabbed her necklace - the Seal of Diplos, alias the third segment of the Key to Time.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• Romana I - Mary Tamm
• Voice of K9 - John Leeson
• Male Camper - James Murray
• Female Camper - Shirin Taylor
• De Vries - Nicholas McArdle
• Martha - Elaine Ives-Cameron
• Megara Voice - Gerald Cross
• Megara Voice - David McAlister
• Amelia Rumford - Beatrix Lehmann
• Vivien Fay - Susan Engel

Crew

• Director - Darrol Blake
• Assistant Floor Manager - Carol Scott, Nigel Taylor
• Costumes - Rupert Jarvis
• Designer - John Stout
• Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
• Make-Up - Ann Briggs
• OB Cameraman - Trevor Wimlett, Mike Windsor
• Producer - Graham Williams
• Production Assistant - Carolyn Montagu
• Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
• Script Editor - Anthony Read
• Special Sounds - Liz Parker
• Studio Lighting - Warwick Fielding
• Studio Sound - Richard Chubb
• Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
• Title Music - Ron Grainer
• Visual Effects - Mat Irvine
• Writer - David Fisher

References

• Vivian Fey is Cessair of Diplos (aka the Calliac]]).
• The cells in the spacecraft contain a wirrn and an android.
• The Ogri are from the planet Ogros.
• The Ogri aided Cessair of Diplos contravening article 7954 pf the Galactic Charter.
• The Doctor reveals to Romana that it was the White Guardian that sent her not the President.
• Hyperspace is a "theoretical absurdity" according to Romana.
• Diplos is in orbit of a type G star in the Tau Ceti system
• The Doctor mentions the Galactic Federation.
• The Doctor says he's met Albert Einstein.

Story Notes

• The Stones of Blood had the working titles "The Nine Maidens" and "The Stones of Time".

Ratings

• Part 1 - 8.6 million
• Part 2 - 6.6 million
• Part 3 - 9.3 million
• Part 4 - 7.6 million

Myths

to be added

Location Filming

to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

to be added

Continuity

• Modified Ogri appear in Legacy.

DVD, Video and Other Releases

to be added

Target Novelisations

to be added

See Also

to be added

External Links

• BBC Episode Guide for The Stones of Blood,
• Doctor Who Reference Guide detailed synopsis of The Stones of Blood
• The Stones of Blood entry at A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• Outpost Gallifrey entry for The Stones of Blood