Review of The Stones of Blood (#101)
DVD Release Date: 01 Mar 09
Original Air Date: 28 Oct – 18 Nov 1978
Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana I
Stars: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm
Preceding Story: The Pirate Planet (Four, Romana I, K-9)
Succeeding Story: The Androids of Tara (Four, Romana I)

When I determined that this story was next up in my Bad Reputation series, I must admit I was a bit stumped. Despite its placement at #216 of 254 in io9’s Best-to-Worst ranking—putting it in the bottom 15%—I have always heard nothing but good things about this one.

Well, okay; maybe almost nothing but good things. Or maybe “enough” good things? Suffice to say, most of what I remembered before rewatching was the Ogri, a bad guy posing as a goddess (the Cailleach), and Amelia Rumford.

Going in, then, I was feeling pretty upbeat. The only “bad” part of the story I remembered was the horny campers who died stupidly at the hands of the Ogri (well, by their hands on the Ogri). But as I watched this time with a more critical eye, I found my estimation of the adventure dropping. I’m not sure I’ve ever come out of one of these Bad Reputation viewings with a lower opinion of the story than I went in, but that turned out to be the case this time.

So what’s not to love? A multi-dimensional mystery set around a circle of standing stones, powerful women—Romana, Rumford, and our antagonist all fit that description in their own way—and the Fourth Doctor successfully toeing the line between serious and silly all seem like marks in its favor. And I love that they actually used Romana’s ridiculous, if beautiful and fashionable, shoes as a recurring plot point in the first episode-and-a-bit.

Yet the further into the story I got, the more times I thought, “Yeah, okay; this part is a bit dodgy…” From the opening “druidic” ceremony to the Doctor using his coat like a bullfighting cape on the Ogri to the “justice machines” (the Megara) in hyperspace, the hits just kept on coming.

I don’t think the tonal shift in the fourth part did the story any favors, either. While I could get behind the Cailleach’s sinister plot, and the idea that some of the standing stones were actually creatures from another planet, a courtroom drama (in space! ~sparkle~) made for such a sharp change, that I found it wrenching.

(As a complete aside, the fact that I’ve been casually studying the Welsh language over the past couple of years resulted in yet another twitchy moment for me. As Romana, Amelia, and Vivien Fay, Amelia’s friend and local research partner, are discussing the line of succession of land ownership for the stone circle, they mention the local gorsedd, a mock druidical group. Every time they said the word, they mispronounced it. It set my teeth on edge.)

The story itself is no worse than average, and the concept is solid. But some of the execution—including the scenery-chewing character De Vries; the motion of the Ogri, especially when they crash through doors; and the entire fourth part—does, in fact, land on the cringeworthy end of the scale. Even the major saving grace, the glorious Amelia Rumford herself, suffers some Hartnell-esque moments when she’s clearly searching for her lines. She makes it work, but I felt a little disappointed, as my memory of the character’s awesomeness had edited out those bobbles.

In the end, I guess I still don’t think The Stones of Blood deserves to be in the bottom 15% of all time, but it’s probably not as high in my personal rankings as I would have put it before my re-watch. We’ll see what I think the next time I come back to it—but it’ll be a few years.