🙏🏼61.6 = Skippable!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! This time: the Key to Time quest continues, the Doctor is put on trial, and the show celebrates its 15th anniversary with its 100th televised adventure!

WRITING:

• The Stones of Blood sees a return to a darker tone reminiscent of the early Tom Baker era: the plot involves religious cults, druidic rituals, and godlike beings on present-day Earth; it draws inspiration from folklore and myths. These aspects of the plot are quickly forgotten, though, and never explored in depth.
• The adventure also contains light humour, especially in some of the dialogue (the Doctor commenting on Romana's inappropriate shoes, Romana unintentionally asking K9 to erase his tennis databanks, or the peculiar Matador scene in Part 3).
• The Part 1 cliffhanger is simultaneously stupid and fun (it’s one of those literal cliffhangers). The Part 2 cliffhanger, meanwhile, is plain bad.
• Part 3 brings in proper sci-fi elements and switches up locations. However, I've never been a fan of the last part's lengthy, pointless, and awkward trial sequence. That very episode, by the way, is the most bizarre example of a space comedy I've ever seen. It's painful to sit through, as well as one of the worst single episodes in the show's history.

POPULATION:

• Tom Baker and Mary Tamm continue to build on their fun and effective relationship. This one portrays Romana more like a traditional Who girl, as she rarely displays her clever side and frequently requires the Doctor's rescue. Professor Rumford occupies the chief companion role, leaving her with nothing interesting to do.
• I’m glad to see K9 put to good use once again!
• Beatrix Lehmann makes for a very memorable scholarly character as the slightly absent-minded but sympathetic and highly educated Professor Rumford (she’s like a softer version of the Big Finish companion Evelyn Smythe). She is a bit overeager at times, which can turn annoying.
• The two filler characters and cult members, Elaine Ives-Cameron and Nicholas McArdle, are among the most wooden actors I have ever seen in anything. Fortunately, they disappear from the story halfway through.
• Vivien Fay is an annoying diva, not as memorable as the villain of the piece. However, Susan Engel perfectly fits the role, particularly when she unleashes her full potential in the second half.
• The idea of glowing killer stone pillars (the Ogri) is so stupid that it kind of works. Despite their limited use, the Ogri's violent killing methods prove to be effective. They are better than the annoying and useless flashing lights introduced in the final episode, called Megara. They seem to be some kind of precursor to the Shadow Proclamation from the new series, but as an idea, they are just as terrible as they appear on screen. They're not even remotely funny, and they ruin the tail end of the adventure.

PRODUCTION:

• The direction by debutant Darroll Blake is sometimes messy; the actors speak on top of each other on multiple occasions.
• The story utilises location footage heavily, and the remote English landscapes with fields, cliffsides, and forests are very cosy but also creepy once darkness falls.
• The rather nice prison ship set seen in Part 3 resembles the rebel ship seen at the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope, released the year before this story.
• I like the incidental music. It's so layered and multi-dimensional that it almost feels impossible for Doctor Who. I adore how it suddenly transforms from joyful and bouncy to menacing and irritable, and then back again.

ATMOSPHERE:

• The first two episodes are a bit slow to build tension or even plant any hints as to the sinister things going on. Part 3 is the best of the lot, as it gets closest to the gothic horror era of the show (especially with that grim scene where the Ogri kills the two campers).
• Even when it seems to finally build a good, creepy atmosphere, Part 4 loses all of that and opts for something slower and more lighthearted.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS:

• Tom Baker wearing that stupid wig in Part 4 makes me think of David Tennant doing the same in The Star Beast.
• The role of Vivien Fey was originally offered to former Bond girl Honour Blackman (I'd have liked to see that!).