The Stones of Blood Part Three

The one where the Doctor and Romana travel into a theoretical absurdity...

"Run!" urges the Doctor to Amelia as a pulsating Ogri glides toward them. He beckons the way with an outstretched arm, Amelia nods in agreement, and they're off! What a delightful coupling they make, the Doctor and Professor Amelia Rumford having adventures together. Wouldn't it have been fantastic to have Amelia on board as a companion? Years later, the natural synergy of the Doctor with an older female companion was capitalised upon in the Big Finish audios, with Evelyn Smythe, and in the BBC's own Nest Cottage audios with Mrs Wibbsey. Tom Baker seems to gel with older ladies (see also Amelia Ducat and Martha Tyler), but I'd love to see this pairing taken a bit further. Sadly, Beatrix Lehmann didn't have very much longer left on this Earth...

Amelia is fascinated by the Ogri that's chasing them, and suggests they try and capture one in the interests of science (much to the Doctor's frustration). I still find it hard to take the Ogri seriously. The fact they glide along the ground so smoothly merely brings attention to the fact they have no legs. So you immediately start to wonder how they move along, and at one point I was imagining little stony feet popping out of the bottom of them and shuffling along! That's not really how a Doctor Who monster should look (although that didn't stop them designing the Tractators that way).

After leaving an Ogri at the bottom of the English Channel (has anyone ever followed that up in spin-off fiction?), the Doctor and Romana retire to Vivien's cottage with a rejuvenated K-9 to knock up a contraption which will transport the Doctor into hyperspace, which is where Vivien sent Romana. How the Doctor knows all this isn't made clear. All that Vivien tells him is that she is somewhere "you'll never be able to find her", and from that he instantly seems to know that place is hyperspace, and that he needs tritium crystals to help build the machine to get him there too. It's done very subtly - you don't notice that the Doctor suddenly knows Romana's in hyperspace, without learning the fact - but it's also a bit naughty of writer David Fisher to make that leap and leave the viewer behind.

A lot of time in this episode is spent treading water. The scenes in the cottage between the Doctor, Amelia and K-9 are delightful enough to watch (the chemistry is spot on) but it's dragged out unnecessarily with quips about Einstein and sniping with K-9. When the trio finally get to the stone circle, even more time is wasted when the circuitry blows up, and is then immediately fixed. It's blatant padding which adds nothing to the story, but it's fun enough to watch, especially as Lehmann has such an amazing face. It's such a shame she didn't have long left...

The Doctor is finally transported to a ship in hyperspace, located in the same place as the stone circle, but in a separate dimension. It's quite a jarring transition from a gloomy gothic night-time to a brightly-lit sci-fi spaceship, but it keeps the viewer on their toes (and it's a great set). It's nice to have a story that's both Hammer and Star Wars! I adore Dudley Simpson's music when the Doctor is exploring the ship, it's steady descending chords are like something off David Bowie's Low album. He finally discovers Romana tied up in a cell next to a deactivated android (is it a rule that Romana has to have reduced screen time in episode threes?). I must say that Mary Tamm is looking particularly beautiful this week, especially in that flowing red dress.

This is a prison ship, and the Doctor encounters a dead Wirrn at one point, which made me want to see more monster prisoners. It'd be great to see them leering and snarling out of the windows in the cell doors, a nice little touch for the 100th story in the 15th year. Imagine glimpsing a Zygon, a Kraal, a Sontaran or an Ice Warrior in the cells, it would have been such a lovely moment. A dead Wirrn doesn't really cut it.

Back in the stone circle, K-9 is fending off the Ogri with his nose laser, but he's fast running out of juice. Luckily, so are the Ogri, which turn tail and glide away to find themselves some globulin to feed off.

The Ogri find two unsuspecting donors in a pair of campers out on the moor, played by Shirin Taylor (who pops up again in Dragonfire) and James Murray (son of DJ Pete Murray). This is a brief scene, separate to everything else in the story, but it's wonderfully gruesome. Stepping out of the tent, the bare-chested male camper buttons up his jeans (oo-er!) and notices two stones that weren't there before. His girlfriend Pat joins him to take a look, at which point they're both assaulted by the Ogri, their blood drained from their bodies, leaving just skeletal husks. The picture fades to a crimson red as their screams ring out. It's such a gruesome scene, and it really does sound like they're dying horribly! Tragically, James Murray would take his own life in 1981, on the eve of his 29th birthday.

On the prison ship, the Doctor unintentionally releases two fairies from one of the cells. These sparkling Tinkerbells are justice machines called the Megara, and serve as judge, jury and executioner as they uphold the statutes of galactic law. Let's face it, they are not very good, and although the effect itself is done well, they just don't cut the mustard. They look like fairies from a Disney film, and pretty cheap with it. I'm not sure that's how David Fisher intended them to look originally, but they certainly don't look like metallic bio-machines, as described.

Elsewhere, Vivien's changed into a rather revealing silver dress and had her skin painted silver, because now the cat's out of the bag, she can dress much more evilly. She has a magic staff which blows up the Doctor's contraption, and then brings her back to the spaceship with two Ogri, which look even more silly now they are brightly lit. They look like bits of set more than monsters.

Part 3 has taken a dip. It's still enjoyable to watch, but I get the impression the story's losing focus a little, so I hope part 4 can wrap it all up sufficiently.

First broadcast: November 11th, 1978

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The scene where the Ogri kill the campers is wonderfully gruesome (and features a handsome bare-chested young man buttoning up his jeans - this doesn't happen very much in Doctor Who!).
The Bad: The Tinkerbell Megara.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 18

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-stones-of-blood.html

The Stones of Blood is available on BBC DVD as part of the Key to Time box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Key-Time-Re-issue/dp/B002TOKFNM