{"id":179,"date":"2013-10-13T20:23:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T01:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/?p=179"},"modified":"2013-10-13T20:23:29","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T01:23:29","slug":"dr-who-the-stones-of-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/13\/dr-who-the-stones-of-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Who: The Stones of Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"p00vfqz3\"<\/a>The search for the third segment of the Key to Time leads the Doctor, Romana and K-9 to the Doctor\u2019s favorite planet, Earth, in a story that is a complete opposite from last week\u2019s. While The Pirate Planet<\/i> featured the Comedy Destroyer of Worlds, The Stones of Blood<\/i> plays it mostly straight and even attempts a little of the series\u2019 past \u201cGothic Horror\u201d as our heroes encounter a villain who has no plans to conquer or destroy the world at all, but is just trying to hide.<\/p>\n

The villain in question is an escaped alien criminal, and evidently a near-immortal one, since she\u2019s been hiding out in the same patch of England for the last four thousand years, posing as a series of women owners of an old manor house (and the various more ancient buildings that preceded it). Besides this series of identities, she\u2019s also been playing the role of a Celtic goddess for a small but devoted cult of neo-druids who sacrifice the occasional chicken at a nearby stone circle.<\/p>\n

She could probably have gone right on hiding out if she hadn\u2019t been hasty enough to try to kill the Doctor just for asking a few questions. To be fair, if she\u2019s that quick to try and murder someone she thinks is just an archaeologist looking at the stone circle, then she\u2019s probably committed plenty of similar crimes over the centuries to keep her secret, so she\u2019s certainly not innocent and it\u2019s just as well the Doctor puts a stop to it all. But she\u2019s certainly not a world-threatening alien invader.<\/p>\n

This is a small-scale story, and that\u2019s a welcome thing after the excesses of last week\u2019s. It does well for two episodes, striking a similar spooky tone as the departed Hinchcliffe\/Holmes era (although never quite as dark). The monsters of the story, who serve the main villain as henchmen, are unconvincing even by Classic Who standards but they\u2019re used to as good effect as they can be, and one scene in the third episode when they kill an innocent couple out camping is right up there with Dr Who\u2019s best scary moments. Unfortunately a lot of episode 3 and almost all of episode 4 is devoted to a far-too-long trial scene involving the Doctor, the villain, and the alien \u201cjustice machines\u201d sent to apprehend her, which is little more than an excuse for the Tom Baker comedy hour and fails to serve as any kind of exciting climax.<\/p>\n

Details<\/h4>\n