The Stones of Blood

Continuing the old series vidfest with my impressions of The Stones of Blood.

There's a divide between comedy and horror in this story. In some places they work together, in others they don't.

Somehow the jokey hyperspace trial scenes don't sit too uneasily with the mayhem on Earth. I don't know how that works. Perhaps I subconsciously think that huge mobile bloodsucking monoliths are really a ridiculous comedy idea which fits well with Baker T's barrister's wig and the Megara (who seem much more camp this time round).

On the other hand I thought the initial scenes in the stone circle, which are surely meant to establish a sense of foreboding and apprehension, are badly deflated by Romana stumbling around in high heels.

I remember the plot of this story very clearly from the origination, but my visual memories are misleading. I recalled De Vries as being much more like Peter Bowles in To The Manor Born, and Vivien Fay as being thinner and sharper-faced. And Romana I is far more like a children's television presenter than I remembered - a sort of icy professional 'let's get this over with, shall we?' air.

It's a difficult job being one of the eccentric old women of Doctor Who. One false move and you're over the line into the Amelia Ducat/Mrs Remington territory of being simply annoying. Amelia Rumford stays on the right side with ease. She has the character of the old-school female academic off to a T.

K9 seems, well, more like a prop this time round. I'd forgotten his eye area didn't glow in the earlier stories. The Ogri on the other hand retain all their original menace, particularly when looming through doors and outside windows. The combination of the grinding noise and the glow of bloodlust is well judged. The ubiquitous crows also work. Just because something's as corny as hell doesn't mean it isn't effective.

You'll have detected a much more equivocal note in my reaction to seeing this story again, compared to Seeds of Doom.

I still like the concepts in this one: the rational explanation behind the bloodsucking stones, the ship hovering just 'above' the circle in hyperspace for thousands of years, the idea that advanced beings consider it a criminal offence to impersonate a religious personage (nice of them to protect us primitives against exploitation).

But I don't seem able to overlook the flaws in the execution. Why does Seeds get a pass in that regard? Perhaps we'll find out when we consider my impressions of the next story.