The Stones of Blood - Episode 4

This final episode of this story does feel slightly different to the previous three episodes. The Doctor is put on trial. The trial is because the Doctor broke a seal which apparently he shouldn’t have done. The Doctor uses the trial to try and discover who Vivien Fey truly is. Fey says who she is pretending to be without anyone mentioning the fact that she wearing silver body paint. The trial (or retrial) seems to be there to allow Tom Baker to be a bit comedic because he puts on his barrister wig on. The problem that I have is that I don’t really care much about this trial stuff. I am much more interested in the plot with Romana and Rumford.

The way that the megara discover who Fey was is done in quite a clever way because it does seem to come out of nowhere. Here punishment is to spend eternity as one of the stones. This seems to tie the story up nicely. I think that the final ten minutes was the best part of the episode because it was the only part that was of any interest and seemed relevant to the story. The trial stuff seemed like padding. It’s almost like David Fisher has got to the beginning of episode four and knows where the episode is going its just the journey that lets the episode down.

The performances were really good. Tom Baker does seem a bit out performed by Beatrix Lehmann. Her enthusiasm has never waivered at any point during the story and I would argue that her performance was the best out of anyone. Tom Baker’s performance has been largely good though I thought that this episode was a bit indulgent and was a bit disappointment. This story was another strong one for Mary Tamm because she was actually doing stuff and wasn’t relying on the Doctor to help her. Susan Engel was superb as Vivien Fey because she plays it like she’s playing Cruella de Vil. Even K9 wasn’t as bad as usual though that might be that because I wasn’t really paying attention to what he was doing.

Doctor Who’s 100^th story (and 15^th anniversary) is a nice adventure that works well really well and its definelty the best story of the season so far in terms of plot, acting and directing. As a season its working in such a way that you wouldn’t have really missed anything if you had come to the show late but at the half way point its moving along nicely and it shows that you can have a season long story arc that will make sense at the end unlike the new series.

The Stones of Blood - Episode 3

As this is the 100^th story of Doctor Who I thought that I would look at some stats. Currently, this story has a rating (based on episode one and two) of 7.65 which puts it in joint 5^th place in the chart of Tom Baker stories. The top five stories are Inside the Spaceship (1964), The Deadly Assassin (1976), Mission to the Unknown (1965), An Unearthly Child (1963) & Terror of the Autons (1971). The bottom five are The Space Pirates (1969), The Highlanders (1966), The Myth Makers (1965), The Smugglers (1966) & The Web Planet (1965). The lowest rated story from the 1970’s is The Pirate Planet (1978) which is currently in 82^nd place. Patrick Troughton’s highest rated story is ‘The Invasion’ (1968) which is in 6^th place. The first Dalek story is currently in 49^th place, the first Cyberman story is in 11^th place. In the top 20 stories, Tom Baker currently has 7 stories, Jon Pertwee and William Hartnell have 5 and Patrick Troughton has 3. In the bottom 20, William Hartnell has 10 stories, Patrick Troughton has 8 and Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker both have just one story. Death to the Daleks (1974) and The Pirate Planet (1978) respectively.

Now back to business and I have been enjoying this story a lot and my enjoyment continues. The Doctor and Professor Rumford partnership is a lot of fun to watch and its not difficult to enjoy Rumford’s enthusiasm for what’s going on. With Romana gone (for now), the Doctor and Rumford get to work to try and find Romana and Miss Fey. Sadly K9 has been fixed and appears in the story more than I like.

The action moves to a spaceship in hyperspace and this is where Miss Fey and Romana are. The model of the Hypership is rather impressive. This episode sees the introduction of the Megaera. They are a visual effect and it looks quite good and Tom Baker and Mary Tamm work well to try and keep eye levels just right. They turn up and put the Doctor and Romana on trial. There is a bit of a puzzle here because if Miss Fey had been on Earth for 4000 years then how can she be a prisoner on the ship and living happily on earth? Hopefully this small query will be answered in the next episode but it’s one thing that doesn’t quite make sense. Miss Fey is hovering around the story and doesn’t really do much until the very end when her laugh ends the episode.

There is a death that is shown where a couple camping find two of the Ogri stones outside their tent and when the woman touches it he starts to groan and the screen turns red. This is quite a grim death but this is down to the fact that there is no blood and the death doesn’t happen on screen. It’s a short scene that does seem out of context for the rest of the episode

There is an awful lot of BBC Computer graphics which shows that the 1980’s aren’t too far away. Sadly this is a problem when they use current technology because nearly 40 years later it would look extremely old fashioned. That could be aimed at the stuff we see in today’s Who. This is a good episode and I am still enjoying the story but I don’t think that this episode was as much fun as the previous two. I think that as the story has progressed, the darker tones have disappeared and have been replaced with the bright white hyperspace studio. If memory serves me correctly I have found the stuff with the Megaera to be a bit boring but maybe that will change tomorrow.

The Stones of Blood - Episode 2

The direction used in the reprise is what makes it so impressive. There are some inconsistencies as far the sky is concerned but that’s the only thing that’s wrong with the start of this episode. Romana thinks that the Doctor is the one that pushed her over the cliff but obviously we know this isn’t the case. This introduces a nice sense of distrust for a moment between the Doctor and Romana. Oddly the story seems to have time for Romana to have a costume change. I do think that the costumes is better than her posh farmer look.

The idea that the stones should light up when active is a clever idea and one that belongs to Matt Irvine. The stones are a force that have been gradually introduced into the story and despite not having a face or a voice it seems to be quite destructive and causes some damage to K9, so there not totally evil. The idea also that the third segment can be used to conjure up an image of the Doctor to make Romana think that he pushed her is quite a clever one.

Normally I don’t praise studio sets because they are…well studio sets but the stone circles set is rather impressive. I don’t know if its because its poorly lit but it looks rather good. Other things that are good include Professor Rumford who spends some quality time with the Doctor and I could easily see Rumford travelling with the Doctor. She is a TV version of Evelyn Smythe. If only she were a little younger then it could have happened.

The gothic vibe is running through the episode and I am still amazed that this happened during a Graham William story. The whole episode is directed with a freshness and I think that considering that the episode is only 25 minutes, there seems to be quite a lot going on and I was quite surprised when the episode ended. The cliffhanger is quite a good one and again it involves Romana which shows what good form the character is on at the moment. The end is when we learn that Vivien Fey isn’t as good as she made out. I think that the revelation wasn’t handled in the best way but that aside its another very good episode and this is definelty the best story of the season so far.

The Stones of Blood - Episode 1

The Stones of Blood is the 100^th Doctor Who story. That’s quite an achievement and this story is one that I have always enjoyed in the past. After not being terribly impressed with the previous story, it feels like the show has got back to doing what it does best and the first thing that strikes me about this story is that it feels like the sort of story that Philip Hinchcliffe would have produced. It doesn’t take that long for the story to become quite creepy. We hear from the White Guardian for the first time episode one of ‘The Ribos Operation’. I think that it’s good that we are reminded that there is a white and black guardian. Even though I have forgotten about the segments, it’s nice for there to be a bit of a reminder about the potential danger. It puts it back in my mind and adds something different to the story.

The Doctor and Romana’s relationship is quite funny at the moment. Romana instructs the Doctor to search for the next segment with the Doctor realising and then talking to her like he’s made that decision. It feels like their relationship has cooled down a bit but there is a prickliness to it that makes it an utterly enjoyable experience to watch. The story is set on earth and it feels like an age since the TARDIS landed on earth. That is why there is perhaps a new interest in the story because the whole feel of the story is different to the previous two stories.

The Doctor and Romana encounter Professor Rumford who is played superbly by Beatrix Lehmann. From the moment that she appears on screen its clear that she is someone that the Doctor and Romana will be able to call a friend and the viewer will be able to warm to and like. They also encounter Miss Fay who’s first appearance should be an indication that she’s got a bit of a dark side to her. I think that Susan Engel plays her brilliantly because whilst there is something intriguing about her.

The location filming is some of the best for quite sometime. I think filming it on the coast lends a different atmosphere to it and considering that about 80% is filmed outside and that is why this has to be one of the strongest episodes of the season. When the story does move inside I am a little bored with it but that’s because the outside seems so much more interesting. Don’t get me wrong, the studio stuff is still better than what was shown in the previous story but I don’t think that it was particularly memorable.

After being disappointed with cliffhangers in previous episodes, it was nice to get back to a solid cliffhanger. Romana is the one facing threat and its literally a cliffhanger. Romana’s screaming is the last thing that is heard before the credits roll. Ok so it’s similar to episode three’s cliffhanger from the previous story, but I still think that it’s a cracking end to a cracking opening episode. I love it when an episode picks me up after being somewhat depressed by a story. It almost makes enduring ‘The Pirate Planet’ worth it now I get to enjoy this story.