After two crackling, high-flying four-part serials to open Season 16 of "Doctor Who," first the sly intrigue and double-dealing of the brilliant "The Ribos Operation" and the manic world-crushing of the ambitious "The Pirate Planet," the season-long story arc concerning the quest for the Key to Time comes down to Earth, literally and figuratively, with the four-part "The Stones of Blood," the first of David Fisher's two efforts for this engaging story arc that finds the Doctor and his fellow Time Lord (or Lady) companion Romana on a mission for the White Guardian of the Universe, traipsing across the universe intent on recovering the six components to the all-powerful Key to Time before agents of the Black Guardian (you knew there had to be such an entity in a universe of opposites, right?) recover them first and plunge the universe into eternal chaos (or some such horrific fate).
Thus, the Doctor and Romana arrive on Earth to locate the third component, with Fisher's script working in a wry in-joke: When the Doctor tells Romana what their destination is, she replies, "Earth? I might've guessed. Your favorite planet." And when the Doctor asks her how she knew that, Romana quips, "Oh, everybody knows that." Indeed, many "Doctor Who" stories manage to wind up on Earth; Tom Baker's predecessor, Jon Pertwee, even languished on the third rock from the sun for several serials when the Time Lords disabled his TARDIS space-time machine (or "capsule," as Romana had already haughtily termed it), stranding him there until he redeemed himself.
This visit to Earth places them in Cornwall at the Druidic site the Rollright Stones, which isn't a rejected name for a legendary British rock group but rather an actual stone circle in Oxfordshire, where location filming was done, renamed for "Stones" as the Nine Travelers being surveyed by Professor Emilia Rumford (Beatrix Lehmann) and her assistant Vivien Fay (Susan Engel). The Nine Travelers are also of interest to modern-day Druidic practitioners De Vries (Nicholas McArdle, only slightly over the top) and Martha (Elaine Ives-Cameron, ditto, although not until later) whose sanguinary thirst pegs them as being rather atavistic, particularly when De Vries, entertaining the inquisitive Doctor, bonks him on the head so he and Martha and their associates of BIDS (British Institute of Druidic Studies) can sacrifice him to the Cailleach, more on whom later in the serial. Meanwhile, Romana winds up in a literal cliffhanger to end Part One.
As detailed previously in JamesHitchcock's outstanding, incisive review, Fisher's sturdy script provides a promising start to this four-part serial, even working in a scene in which the Doctor lets Romana, who believed that she had been sent on this mission by the president of their home planet Gallifrey, in on the truth about with whom she had been conversing, which also keeps the audience apprised of producer Graham Williams's Key to Time concept. Director Darrol Blake insisted on using outside broadcast video instead of film for the impressive location shots, thus blending them with the studio visuals for a unified, seamless appearance. Lehmann lights up the screen with her seemingly dotty yet forthright and self-possessed expert already clicking with Tom Baker while twigging fashion-plate Mary Tamm and her Romana for her choice of stylish yet impractical footwear. (The Doctor had already warned her about that in the TARDIS, and if don't blink, you'll catch another sly visual joke: The alternate pair Romana brandishes is even more outlandish and fetishistic.) At this point, "The Stones of Blood" seems poised for a memorable adventure.
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?
Thus, the Doctor and Romana arrive on Earth to locate the third component, with Fisher's script working in a wry in-joke: When the Doctor tells Romana what their destination is, she replies, "Earth? I might've guessed. Your favorite planet." And when the Doctor asks her how she knew that, Romana quips, "Oh, everybody knows that." Indeed, many "Doctor Who" stories manage to wind up on Earth; Tom Baker's predecessor, Jon Pertwee, even languished on the third rock from the sun for several serials when the Time Lords disabled his TARDIS space-time machine (or "capsule," as Romana had already haughtily termed it), stranding him there until he redeemed himself.
This visit to Earth places them in Cornwall at the Druidic site the Rollright Stones, which isn't a rejected name for a legendary British rock group but rather an actual stone circle in Oxfordshire, where location filming was done, renamed for "Stones" as the Nine Travelers being surveyed by Professor Emilia Rumford (Beatrix Lehmann) and her assistant Vivien Fay (Susan Engel). The Nine Travelers are also of interest to modern-day Druidic practitioners De Vries (Nicholas McArdle, only slightly over the top) and Martha (Elaine Ives-Cameron, ditto, although not until later) whose sanguinary thirst pegs them as being rather atavistic, particularly when De Vries, entertaining the inquisitive Doctor, bonks him on the head so he and Martha and their associates of BIDS (British Institute of Druidic Studies) can sacrifice him to the Cailleach, more on whom later in the serial. Meanwhile, Romana winds up in a literal cliffhanger to end Part One.
As detailed previously in JamesHitchcock's outstanding, incisive review, Fisher's sturdy script provides a promising start to this four-part serial, even working in a scene in which the Doctor lets Romana, who believed that she had been sent on this mission by the president of their home planet Gallifrey, in on the truth about with whom she had been conversing, which also keeps the audience apprised of producer Graham Williams's Key to Time concept. Director Darrol Blake insisted on using outside broadcast video instead of film for the impressive location shots, thus blending them with the studio visuals for a unified, seamless appearance. Lehmann lights up the screen with her seemingly dotty yet forthright and self-possessed expert already clicking with Tom Baker while twigging fashion-plate Mary Tamm and her Romana for her choice of stylish yet impractical footwear. (The Doctor had already warned her about that in the TARDIS, and if don't blink, you'll catch another sly visual joke: The alternate pair Romana brandishes is even more outlandish and fetishistic.) At this point, "The Stones of Blood" seems poised for a memorable adventure.
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?