The Stones of Blood

The search for the third segment of the Key to Time takes the Doctor and Romana to Earth in present day. The trail leads to a stone circle in the countryside where lately a group of druids have been gathering and pouring blood onto the stones, an act which brings the stones to life. The sacrifices are made in the name of the Celtic goddess the Calleach, but the goddess is anything but divine, and the stones are actually alien creatures called Ogri. And someone out there has gotten hold of the segment the Doctor and Romana are searching for, and they know how to harness its powers for their own evil ends.

This one was fun. It was also a bit creepy whith bloodsucking stones rampaging all over the English countryside. The entire body of the show's location work was done on video, giving the show a uniform look, and several dusk-scenes were used to loan an air of menace to the countryside. The Ogri don't exactly look convincing as they slide around on the ground or when one goes over a cliff into the sea, but other areas of the script cover for this. Romana is tricked to the edge of a cliff by an image of the Doctor, but the viewer never actually sees him through her eyes; all we hear is his voice in a manner reminiscent of one of the missing hikers in The Blair Witch Project. And just to make the Ogri more frightening, one of them absolutely kicks the shit out of K9, leaving him battered and scrapped. It's interesting to note how every so often in a television show one of the main characters gets absolutely demolished and demoralized; KITT from Knight Rider got slammed the odd time to boost ratings, Kira got her ass kicked real good once in Deep Space Nine, even Simon McCorkindale's Manimal was thrashed once, and this time it's K9's turn. Well we can't have the Doctor or Romana brutalized close to death can we? Anyways, they'd just regenerate.

The supporting cast of the adventure is quite small, with most of the work falling to the elderly archaeologist Amelia Rumford. Amelia's got all the makings of a companion in her but it was not meant to be. Interesting thing is, though, later on in years the Big Finish audios would introduce a companion for the sixth Doctor whose attributes would be very similar to Amelia's. Amelia not only steps in to ask the companion questions when Romana is captured and absent for most of part three but she also provides a hint of comic relief while waving her billy club about and demanding that she and the Doctor capture an Ogri in the cause of science. The other character of note is the evil Vivien Fay, also known as the Calleach, or Cessair of Diplos, who is on the run from the Megara justice machines for her crimes on her home world. She's almost a match for the Doctor; she's indeed older then he is but her trouble is she stayed in one place too long and got lazy. 4000 years on Earth with only the Ogri as company would do anyone in. But she's powerful enough to hijack a hyperspace cruiser and even miraculously conjure up a silver wrap to go with her painted skin at the climax of part four.

Oh and while I'm on about the continuity error there, how's about the full on view of a stagehand at the climax of part two while an Ogri runs into the doorway in the basement of DeVries' house. Ah these are the moments we live for, just like the stagehand running off-screen back in The Keys of Marinus.

So three segments down, three to go. Half way done. So why not take a break and look at a couple novels thrown in for fun?

Good, I knew you'd like that.

NEXT EPISODE : THE SHADOW OF WENG CHIANG