‘THE STONES OF BLOOD’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

“Count the Stones, Doctor! Beware the Ogri!”

K9 from ‘The Stones of Blood’ signed by John Leeson (‘Tailwags to Tim from your friend K-9!)

Tim Bradley with John Leeson and K-9 at the ‘London Film & Comic Con 2011’, Earl’s Court, London, July 2011

‘The Stones of Blood’ by David Fisher is the third story in ‘The Key to Time’ season. It’s a four-part adventure on one disc. This is another one of my favourites from ‘The Key to Time’ season and it’s about a stone circle with stones hungry for blood.

David Fisher makes his first contribution to ‘Doctor Who’ here. I like David Fisher’s stories, as he has a knack of writing very good, gripping and dramatic adventures, filled with elements of humour and interesting ideas thrown in.

The Doctor and Romana head for Earth in the late 20th century to look for the third segment of the Key to Time. They discover a stone circle in connection to some blood sacrifices and a Celtic goddess.

The story has a gothic horror feel to it. It would have fitted well in the first three years of Tom Baker’s era. I’m not familiar with Druids and blood sacrifices, but it’s so disturbing in this familiar earthbound setting.

Tom Baker delivers a superb performance as the Fourth Doctor. He lets his curiosity get the better of him, which leads him to be nearly sacrificed. I enjoyed the friendship the Doctor has with Amelia Rumford.

Mary Tamm’s Romana is stunning as ever and she gets to be resourceful. She fares well, despite not having a good fashion sense in shoes. She gets sent to a spaceship in hyperspace where danger awaits.

K-9, voiced by John Leeson, was a joy to see in this. I liked it when the Doctor summoned K-9 to track down Romana. I also liked it when Amelia called K-9 a ‘dear’ and he defends her to the last against the Ogri.

The story’s guest cast includes Beatrix Lehmann as Professor Amelia Rumford. Amelia is an endearing and eccentric elderly lady. She becomes a very willing ally when the mystery of the stone circle is to be solved.

Susan Engel guest stars as the villainous Vivien Fay. She starts off being friendly when she lives with Amelia Rumford, but it turns out she’s responsible for the blood sacrifices and she isn’t who she seems.

The guest cast also includes Nicholas McArdle as Mr. De Vries and Elaine Ives-Cameron as his acolyte Martha. Both are Druids. There’s also James Murray and Shirin Taylor as a couple of campers that get killed off in ‘Part Three’.

The moving stones are the alien Ogri. I’m impressed with the believable stone monsters. 😀 I’m pleased the director Darrol Blake decided to not have actors in cumbersome rock-suits to play the Ogri.

The story features the Megara. They’re alien justice machines. I found the Megara pretty appalling in terms of visual effects. It soon turns out that the third segment of the Key to Time is a pendant that Vivien Fay wears.

The DVD special features are as follows. There’s the ‘Getting Blood from the Stones’ making-of documentary with behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. There’s the ‘Hammer Horror’ behind-the-scenes featurette and ‘Stones Free’ with Mary Tamm. There are deleted scenes, continuity announcements of the story and ‘Model World’ with Mat Irvine. There are two audio commentaries with the first one featuring Mary Tamm and director Darrol Blake, and the second one featuring Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, Susan Engel and writer David Fisher. There’s an info-text commentary option of the story, a ‘Blue Peter’ item and a ‘Nationwide’ interview with cast members including Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and Carole Ann Ford. There’s a photo gallery of the story and a ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDF of the story. And there’s a coming soon trailer for ‘Planet of Evil’, starring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen.

‘The Stones of Blood’ is a great ‘Doctor Who’ story by David Fisher. I’m not one for gothic horror, but I found this a very enjoyable tale with the Fourth Doctor, Romana, K-9 and…sausage sandwiches of all things. 😀

‘The Stones of Blood’ rating – 10/10

‘DOCTOR WHO – THE STONES OF BLOOD’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Getting More Blood From The Stones

For David Fisher

I’m glad I’ve checked out ‘The Stones of Blood’ novelization in both audio and prose form at last! 🙂

‘The Stones of Blood’ is one of my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ stories in ‘The Key To Time’ season, starring Tom Baker and Mary Tamm. I have fond memories of this story when I first saw it on DVD. I was even inspired by ‘The Stones of Blood’ to write my first Fifth Doctor story ‘The Railway of Time’.

It came as a welcome surprise when ‘The Stones of Blood’ was released as an audiobook novelization in May 2011. It was an exciting audiobook for me to purchase when I was on holiday in York with my parents in August 2011. I was looking forward to checking out this audiobook at home.

I was surprised to discover that David Fisher wrote the audiobook novelization. Initially, I wondered if he novelized the story for Target books in the 1970s/80s. Apparently, Terrance Dicks first novelized ‘The Stones of Blood’ for the ‘Doctor Who’ Target book range. It was published in 1980. 😐

It quickly became clear to me that the audiobook novelization was brand-new one for the story and at the time, was exclusive only on audio. It was a delight for me to find that David Fisher had written a brand-new novelization of ‘The Stones of Blood’ for us as ‘Doctor Who’ fans to enjoy and listen to.

I found it a shame there wasn’t an actual book of the audiobook novelization to read from whilst checking it out. Usually, when I purchase audiobooks of ‘Doctor Who’ novelizations, I’d like to have the book versions of the novelizations to read from whilst hearing the audiobooks at the same time.

This is so I can make comparisons between the TV story and the novelizations/audiobook easily enough as well as being able to absorb the story’s text whilst reading it. It didn’t matter though, since ‘The Stones of Blood’ 2011 audiobook novelization really felt like a Target novelization anyway.

It was good to listen to it on audio too. David Fisher has also novelized for the Target range of ‘Doctor Who’ books too, since he novelized ‘The Creature From The Pit’ and ‘The Leisure Hive’. So, it’s clear he knew how to handle this format of writing Target novelizations when doing the 2011 audiobook novelization.

I’m surprised David Fisher didn’t novelize ‘The Stones of Blood’ and ‘The Androids of Tara’ instead of Terrance Dick back when the TV stories were quite recent in the late 1970s/early 1980s. I’m very pleased that he made up for this with the audiobook novelizations of both stories in 2011 and 2012.

Thankfully, in July 2022, David Fisher’s 2011 audiobook was released as a novelization by Target Books with new cover art by Anthony Dry. This pleased me, as I was able to check out the 2022 novelization and compare it to the 2011 audiobook whilst updating my review like I’m doing now. 😀

Most of the text translated from the 2011 audiobook into the 2022 novelization is present, although it’s clear that some pieces of text don’t match with each other when reading the book and listening to the audio simultaneously. Not certain whether the novelization text is the original than the audio.

Still, I was able to keep up with the flow of Susan Engel’s reading of the story whilst reading the book at the same time, despite having to pause a few times when checking out each chapter. Mind you, there are pieces of audiobook narration that I wish were kept in the 2022 novelization when reading it. 😐

In the 2022 novelization, there’s a foreword by David Fisher’s son, Nick Fisher, which I enjoyed reading twice in the book. Nick Fisher shares what his father was like as a father and as a writer. It was intriguing to learn new things about David Fisher, especially with being intelligent in terms of writing.

There’s also an epilogue at the end of the book by Michael Stevens, the project editor of the ‘Doctor Who’ Target audiobooks, who invited David Fisher to write the audiobook novelization in 2011. David Fisher’s writer notes from the 2011 CD inlay have been included in Michael Steven’s epilogue. 🙂

Both novelization and audiobook are divided into 11 chapters. When I purchased the CD release, the story was spread across a 4-disc set. There’s also appendix (now called an interlude in the 2022 book) that details the Megara as Justice Machines. In the 2022 book, the interlude is two pages long.

The audiobook’s narrator is Susan Engel, the actress who played Vivien Fay in ‘The Stones of Blood’. I was pleased to hear Susan Engel read this story. She’s a good narrator and she captures the spirit of the story from beginning to end. She delivers the story very well with such emotion and enthusiasm.

I think it’s fair to say that Susan doesn’t do good impersonations of the characters like the Fourth Doctor and Romana. She still does capture their tone in terms of voices as well as getting the range of emotions across when the Doctor and Romana go through perilous events that happen in the story.

As well as Susan Engel, there’s John Leeson as the voice of K-9 in the 2011 audiobook. It was nice to hear John Leeson as K-9 in the 2011 audiobook. Him joining Susan Engel makes this almost feel like a Big Finish ‘Companion Chronicle’, ‘Lost Story’ and one of the ‘Destiny of the Doctor’ stories somehow.

Occasionally, John Leeson pops in and out when voicing K-9 in the story. Hearing K-9’s tinny voice whenever he has lines of dialogue with the Doctor, Romana and Professor Rumford was amusing and enjoyable to listen to. Most of K-9’s lines in the audiobook are similar to the ones in the TV story.

In both novelization and audiobook, David Fisher makes use of his research to develop the world he has created in ‘The Stones of Blood’. This includes the history of Bodcombe Moor, the Druids’ involvement in the story and the stone circle which becomes a prominent plot device throughout. 🙂

The story’s first chapter is basically a history of Bodcombe Moor and the Tor where the stone circle is. It was very intriguing to find how Vivien Fay placed herself throughout history at Bodcombe Moor in her various guises, including the Lady Montcalm, Mrs. Trefusis, Senhora Camara and the Cailleach.

I like how David Fisher developed the Fourth Doctor and Romana as characters in the story, as he’s good in developing on how they reflect upon certain events in the adventure, before the next scenes moves them on. It feels easily paced and Romana’s curiosity about Earth is handled nicely in the story.

A few TARDIS scenes featuring the Fourth Doctor and Romana from the story’s TV version are omitted in both novelization and audiobook. The Doctor and Romana discussing the Key to Time in ‘Part One’ is not included in the second chapter, especially after the Black Guardian warning is made.

The ‘Part Two’ TARDIS scene featuring Romana getting a new pair of shoes and new fashion gear aren’t included in both novelization and audiobook. Neither is the scene where Romana is repairing K-9 in the TARDIS. I’m wondering if David Fisher didn’t like having TARDIS scenes much in his stories.

I like how David Fisher has developed Professor Amelia Rumford (‘Emilia’ in both book and audio) and Vivien Fay in the novelization/audiobook. A brief history is given on how Emilia and Vivien first met each other at university. This provides more depth to how Emilia feels about Vivien in the story.

This is especially when Emilia becomes shocked about Vivien’s true identity in being the Cailleach. When Vivien/Cessair of Diplos becomes a stone statue and then a standing stone in the stone circle by the story’s end, Emilia considers visiting her from time to time as a sign of showing her friendship.

There are a lot of feminist attitudes made by both Emilia and Vivien in both novelization and audiobook. It was touched upon in the TV version, but I feel this has been enhanced in book and audio when exploring the characters’ thoughts and feelings. This is also reflected through Emilia’s opinions of the Doctor. 🙂

Leonard De Vries (his first name is Anton in the 2011 audiobook and the 2022 novelization) is interesting as a character in terms of character development. This is especially the case when I found out that De Vries and Martha weren’t married, as I presumed them to be from seeing the TV version.

Still, it’s clearly indicated that Martha loves De Vries. At least in the 2011 audiobook anyway. Strangely, that detail isn’t included in the 2022 novelization. You’d think that would be an important detail to be included when transferring from the 2011 audiobook to the 2022 novelization. Odd that. 😐

An interesting point to note is that the story’s deleted scenes, as featured on the DVD release, are included in both novelization and audiobook. I’m glad that David Fisher reinserted those scenes in the 2011 audiobook. This includes the extended scene featuring De Vries and Martha getting killed by an Ogri.

There’s also the scene where Vivien Fay as the Cailleach takes De Vries and Martha’s blood from their corpses to give to the Ogri as standing stones. It was disturbing to read and hear how the Ogri drank blood. The novelization and audiobook reveals more on how the Ogri are dependent on blood.

A strange thing in the transition between the 2011 audiobook and the 2022 novelization is how Vivien’s identity as the Cailleach is revealed. In the audiobook, Vivien’s identity is revealed too quickly, whereas in the novelization, it’s not revealed until the Doctor and Emilia find her portraits. 😐

I prefer the revelation of Vivien’s identity in De Vries’ manor house more than earlier on at the standing stones when Vivien as the Cailleach speaks. Unless you’re not paying attention, you could easily hear Vivien’s voice through the Cailleach mask when you’re watching ‘Part Two’ of the story.

It’s interesting the manor house owned by De Vries happens to be a school for the BIDS (British Institute of Druidic Studies). David Fisher clearly indicates the students of Druidism come to the manor house to study. De Vries makes out to the Doctor that his visit to the manor house is at a quiet time.

I’m pleased that the two campers that got killed off by the Ogri in ‘Part Three’ are given names in the novelization and audiobook. The male camper is called Zac Hardcastle and the female camper is called Pat Blount. Both are given backstories as characters, making their deaths even more tragic to read/hear.

I found the Megara a huge improvement in both novelization and audiobook compared to the TV story. David Fisher has them being the silver globed spheres instead of the awful blinking lights as they were in the TV version. They’re convincing as spheres and so easy to visualise, both on audio and in prose.

In both novelization and audiobook, the Doctor uses the pedant that he stole from Vivien to send the Megara back to their ship in hyperspace. This was shown in the TV story, but it wasn’t very clear. This also makes sense when Vivien’s pendant happens to be the third segment of the Key to Time. 🙂

Both novelization and audiobook end with the Fourth Doctor and Romana in the TARDIS. The Doctor leaves Romana to put the three segments of the Key to Time together, as he fetches a chessboard for him and K-9 to play chess with. This leads very nicely into the next story – ‘The Androids of Tara’.

‘Doctor Who – The Stones of Blood’ is a wonderful novelization and audiobook of the TV story by David Fisher. It’s great he novelized his TV story for audio in 2011. I found the original audiobook novelization experience in 2011 easy-going and enjoyable, especially having seen the TV story itself.

I’ve also enjoyed the latest experience of checking out the 2011 audiobook with the 2022 novelization. David Fisher’s novelization of ‘The Stones of Blood’ deserves to be in print, and it’s great that after all these years, ‘Doctor Who’ fans can check out both versions of the novelization. 😀

‘Doctor Who – The Stones of Blood’ rating – 10/10