The Stones of Blood (TV story)

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The Stones of Blood was the third story of Season 16 of Doctor Who. It was the show's 100th television story, and Part 4 was first broadcast on the week of the show's 15th anniversary.

Synopsis

Searching for the third segment to the Key to Time brings the Doctor and Romana to present-day Earth, where the travellers have to contend with stone circles, Druidic rituals, and a not-so-mythical goddess known as the Cailleach.

Plot

Part 1

File:Stones of blood part1.JPG
The Doctor and Romana at the Nine Travellers in Cornwall

The Doctor and Romana are about to embark in search of the third segment of the Key to Time when an aural warning tells them to "Beware the Black Guardian." At this prompt the Doctor reveals Romana was not sent on this quest by the President of the Time Lords, but rather by the omni-powerful White Guardian, who wishes them to gather the Key to maintain galactic stability. They venture outside to find themselves near the Nine Travellers, a group of gromlech or standing stones in Boscombe Moor, Cornwall. Also interested in the location is aged archaeologist, Professor Amelia Rumford, who is surveying the stones along with her friend, Vivien Fay.

Alerted to the activities of a local druidic sect, the Doctor heads off to meet its implied leader, de Vries, who lives in a large property nearby, Boscombe Hall, built on the site of the Convent of the Sisters of St Gudula. Inside, de Vries and his maid Martha are incanting to the Cailleach, the Druidic goddess of war and magic. The Doctor interrupts and is entertained briefly by de Vries until his host sees the opportunity to knock him out. De Vries and his mistress, dressed in a hideous bird costume, aim to sacrifice him to the Cailleach.

At the same time Romana is wandering by the cliff edge when an apparition of the Doctor confronts her and she falls over the edge.

Part 2

File:Stones of blood part2.JPG
K9 takes the initiative and almost pays the price

The sacrifice is disturbed by Professor Rumford, who helps the Doctor get free. They go to help Romana, who is found clinging to the cliff just below the edge. She is somewhat confused, but the newly arrived K9 calms her by assuring Romana it is indeed the Doctor – and he is convinced of the existence of a projected doppleganger. He determines that de Vries can answer some questions, and sets off for Boscombe Hall. When he gets there he finds the owner and his maid dead, crushed to death and the place under attack by a pair of mobile giant stones like those from the Moor. The Doctor and K9 repel the attack, though the robot is badly damaged and needs repair work in the TARDIS. Some more curious facts come to light: the Doctor works out that the stones need blood to survive; and Romana has pieced together that the owners of the Hall and the preceding convent were all women. It soon becomes clear they all had the same face too – that of Vivien Fay.

Meanwhile the woman in the bird costume has brought more stones (or Ogri, as she calls them) to life using poured blood. Romana ventures back to the stone circle and there finds Miss Fay in the costume. When challenged, she fires a weapon at Romana, causing her to dematerialize.

Part 3

File:Stones of blood part3.JPG
The Megara pass judgment on the Doctor

After dispensing with one of the stones which is pursuing them, the Doctor and Professor Rumford reach the stone circle they are told by Miss Fay that Romana will be safe providing the Doctor stops interfering, and then disappears. The Doctor now identifies the stones as Ogri, a life form from Ogros in the Tau Ceti system, and there are two of them still missing and moving around the countryside. Two innocent campers help quench their taste for blood.

The Doctor calculates Romana and her captor must be in hyperspace, and builds a projecting device which he uses to transmit himself there. He arrives on a hyperspace craft which appears to be a prison vessel. He soon breaks a lock on a sealed door, releasing two floating globes. They are Megara, justice machines - dispensing the law as judge, jury and executioner. They contend that as the Doctor broke the seals he has transgressed the law and should be eliminated.

K9 and Amelia have meanwhile been tasked with protecting the projector used by the Doctor to cross the dimensions, but find themselves under attack from two of the Ogri. Vivien returns to Earth and destroys the device but spares her friend. She takes the Ogri back to the hyperspace vessel with her and there tells the Doctor and Romana she has destroyed their linking device between the dimensions, leaving them trapped in hyperspace though she, with her wand, can cross the dimensions easily. She will now destroy them.

Part 4

File:Stones of blood part4.JPG
The Ogri threat is not the only one facing the Doctor

The Megara destroy one of the Ogri when it threatens them. The Doctor now faces trial by the Megara, an abrupt and unfair process dependent on the word but not the spirit of the law. Conducting his own defence, he attempts to draw Vivien Fay into the trial and to get the Megara to subject her to truth indicators, surmising she is one of the criminals from the prison ship. He finds out that one of the prisoners the ship was carrying is Cessair of Diplos, a criminal wanted for murder and the removal and misuse of the Great Seal of Diplos, which had the powers of transmutation, transformation, and the establishing of hyper spatial and temporal coordinates.

Amelia and K9 have meanwhile repaired the projector and use the device to beam Romana back from the hyperspace vessel – plus the one surviving Ogri, which pursues them. They find some incriminating data at Miss Fay's cottage and then Romana and the Ogri return to the spacecraft to await the verdict.

At the close of his trial, the Doctor is convicted and the Megara fire executing beams at him. He quickly drags Vivien into the beams' focus, forcing the Megara to examine her to see if she is badly hurt. On doing so they find that she is indeed Cessair of Diplos. She is charged with her crimes when she awakes and the last Ogri is confined in a cell aboard the ship to be returned to its own planet. Cessair is sentenced to confinement for 1500 years and perpetual imprisonment, both to run consecutively, and is turned into stone on Boscawen Moor.

Evading further questioning by the Megara on the matter of his delayed execution, the Doctor, K9 and Romana return to the TARDIS, thanking Amelia for her great assistance. As he suspected the Great Seal of Diplos – removed from the Cessair's neck before she was turned to stone - is the third segment of the Key to Time and he translates it to its proper form.

Cast

Crew

References

Astronomical objects

Individuals

  • Vivian Fey is Cessair of Diplos (aka the Cailleach).
  • The Doctor reveals to Romana that it was the White Guardian that sent her not the President.
  • The Doctor says he's met Albert Einstein.
  • During his appeal, the Doctor refers to Romana by her full name, Romanadvoratrelundar, for the first time, although he subsequently shortens this to "Miss Voratrelundar".

Galactic Law

  • The Ogri aided Cessair of Diplos contravening article 7954 of the Galactic Charter.
  • According to Galactic Law, impersonating a relious figure is punishable by imprissionment for 1,500 years.
  • According to Galactic Law, theft of The Great Seal of Diplos is perpetual imprissionment.
  • According to Galactic Law, breaking a seal without authorization is punishable by death.

Organisations

Races and species

Theories and concepts

  • Hyperspace is a "theoretical absurdity" according to Romana.

Story notes

  • This story had the working titles of The Nine Maidens and The Stones of Time.
  • Gerald Cross also provided the voice of the White Guardian, uncredited.
  • Director Darrol Blake originally offered the role of Vivien Fay to Honor Blackman, who declined the part as she felt Beatrix Lehmann had all the best material. Blake then asked Maria Aitken, who wasn't interested. Susan Engel was finally hired for the part. Blackman would later appear in the Sixth Doctor serial Terror of the Vervoids, third segment of 'The Trial of a Time Lord.
  • The fifteenth anniversary of the programme took place on 23rd November 1978, five days after the broadcast of Part 4. To commemorate this, Anthony Read asked David Fisher to write a new scene (expanded by Darrol Blake) featuring Romana and K9 surprising the Doctor with a cake celebrating his 751st birthday (and a new, identical scarf). However, producer Graham Williams vetoed this idea as being too self-indulgent, and the scene was never shot. Blake had already ordered a cake, and this was eventually eaten by the cast and crew.
  • This is the 100th story of Doctor Who
  • This was the only story between Frontier in Space and the end of the series' initial run not to have the special sounds created by Dick Mills. Due to Mills suffering a brief illness, Elizabeth Parker provided the sound effects instead.
  • Exteriors in this serial were videotaped rather than filmed, which is something that occurred only rarely prior to 1986. According to comments on the 2007 DVD release, director Darrol Blake made the decision to use only one medium because of a dislike over the discontinuity created by the constant switch between filmed exteriors and videotaped interiors. Although not discussed, the fact "exteriors" taking place at night were actually shot in the studio probably made it necessary from a practical point of view, too.
  • A frequently recounted humorous behind-the-scene incident occurred during location filming (and is recounted yet again by John Leeson in the "Getting Blood from the Stones" featurette on the 2007 DVD). Tom Baker was filming on location with the remote-controlled K9; Leeson was in a van some distance away, providing K9's voice over a loudspeaker for Baker to play off of. During a break in filming, utilizing the two-way radio set up for feeding Leeson's voice to the set, Baker was seen by onlookers to be sitting down with K9 and doing the Times Crossword puzzle (as Leeson discussed the puzzle with Baker while remaining in character as K9).
  • According to the "Getting Blood from the Stones" featurette on the 2007 DVD release, the scene in which the Doctor and Romana embrace while preparing to be transported back to Earth constituted one of several visual in-jokes perpetrated by Tom Baker to play up his Doctor's utter asexuality, as the Doctor acts oblivious to being in close quarters with the lovely Romana (a similar scenario occurs in the catacombs during The Ribos Operation.
  • Romana gives the TARDIS wardrobe a workout in this episode, being seen in three distinct outfits during the story (if one includes her costume held over from The Pirate Planet).

Ratings

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

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

  • The exteriors of this story were filmed on location at the Rollright Stones, a real megalithic site in central England. An actual legend of the site states that it is impossible to count the stones. As the serial ends, the Doctor notes that the number of stones in the circle has changed (due to the removal of 3 Ogri and the addition of Cessair's imprisoned form) and suggests Dr. Rumford write a monograph about it. In 2007, Mary Tamm returned to the site to tape a featurette for the DVD release of the story in which she interviewed local historians about the site.
  • Brewery Row, Little Compton, Warwickshire
  • The King's Men, Rollright Stones, Little Rollright, Oxfordshire
  • Little Rollright Quarry, Oakham Road, Little Rollright, Oxfordshire (Location of the "cliff" that Romana falls off)
  • Reed College (now known as Reed Business School Ltd), Little Compton, Warwickshire
  • Manor Farm, Oakham Road, Little Rollright, Oxfordshire (Location of the TARDIS's arrival)
  • BBC Television Centre (TC3), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • In spite of allegedly having his skull crushed, the "corpse" of de Vries is visibly breathing.
  • When the Doctor and Amelia are first chased by the Ogri, two crew-members are quite clearly visible in the doorway manipulating the creature. One appears in the right side of the doorway just after the Ogri enters, the other can be glimpsed behind the Ogri itself, pushing it forward.
  • At minute 12 of the 4th episode, when Romana stands in the kitchen, a microphone is visible at the top left for a few seconds.
  • In the "Getting Blood from the Stones" featurette on the DVD release, director Darrol Blake claims you can see one of the Ogri prop's wheels when it falls over a cliff.
  • When the Doctor and Amelia are on the cliff being chased, a van can be seen in the background right after she says "We're trapped."

Continuity

  • This is the third of six linked serials that comprise the whole of Season 16, known collectively as The Key to Time.
  • Modified Ogri appear in NA: Legacy.
  • The events of this story occur immediately after (or very soon after) the conclusion of The Pirate Planet. Romana is still wearing her outfit from the preceding story at the start of the serial and it is suggested that they have just obtained the second segment.
  • For the benefit of Romana (and presumably new viewers), the Doctor recaps his mission briefing from the White Guardian following the reception of a mysterious warning regarding the Black Guardian.
  • The above sequence reveals that Romana thought the President of the High Council had assigned her the mission, when in fact it was the White Guardian in disguise.

Timeline

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

  • Also released with same stories as Doctor Who: The Key to Time, an extras-laden box set limited to 15,000 in its initial UK release on 24th September 2007, later followed by wide release in Region 1 on 3rd March 2009 as The Key to Time - Special Edition.

Contents (2007/2009 version):

  • Commentary by Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, Susan Engel and David Fisher.
  • Commentary by Mary Tamm and Darrol Blake (carried over from the 2002 set).
  • Getting Blood from the Stones - Cast and crew look back at the making of The Stones of Blood, including Mary Tamm, John Leeson, Susan Engel, David Fisher, Anthony Read, Darrol Blake and Mat Irvine.
  • Hammer Horror - A short featurette considering the influences of horror films on Doctor Who stories over the years.
  • Stones Free - A 2007 featurette in which Mary Tamm visits the Rollright Stones to meet experts on this ancient stone circle.
  • Deleted Scenes - Deleted footage from Part 2.
  • The Model World of Robert Symes - An excerpt from a 1979 programme looking at the modelwork for The Stones of Blood.
  • Blue Peter & Nationwide - The two BBC magazine programmes celebrate Doctor Whos 15th anniversary. The Nationwide segment includes interviews with Carole Ann Ford, Mary Tamm and Tom Baker.
  • Continuities - Off-air continuity links from the story's original BBC1 transmission.
  • Radio Times Billings - Original listings from Radio Times (DVD-ROM PC/Mac)
  • Coming Soon Trailer - Planet of Evil (2007 UK version only)
  • Production Subtitles
  • Photo gallery (2009 Region 1 version)

Notes:

  • DVD Region 1 US cover

    DVD Region 1 US cover

  • DVD Region 2 UK cover

    DVD Region 2 UK cover

  • DVD Region 1 US special edition cover

    DVD Region 1 US special edition cover

The Key to Time boxed set covers

  • DVD Region 2 UK The Key to Time cover

    DVD Region 2 UK The Key to Time cover

  • DVD Region 1 US The Key to Time cover

    DVD Region 1 US The Key to Time cover

  • DVD Region 4 Australian The Key to Time cover

    DVD Region 4 Australian The Key to Time cover

Video releases

  • VHS UK cover

    VHS UK cover

  • VHS Australian cover

    VHS Australian cover

  • VHS US cover

    VHS US cover

  • VHS US 'The Gateway Collection' cover

    VHS US 'The Gateway Collection' cover

Novelisation and its audiobook

Stones of Blood novel.jpg
Main article: Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood

External links

Template:Season 16 Template:Wikipedia

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