One of the latest in a recent wave of novelizations based on episodes classic and moern era. The Stones Of Blood was the third story in the Key To Time season, the ambitous season long story arc that had The Doctor, Romanna and K9 back and forward bouncing back and forward through the Cosmos on a quest for a pleasingly elegant and easily explained Cosmic Maguffin (We are talkingInfinity Stones power levels here. On a BBC budget, off course.) Following the hugely overcomplicated Pirate Planet its a return to deceptively familiar territory with a story set against a backdrop of standing stones, ancient Goddesses and two looney justice machines. I say that last bit with a degree of casuality that would imply justice machines are not uncommon. Not forgetting some genuinely unsettling silicon based blood devouring moveable beasts; The OgriJust a few weirdly shaped balls being juggled by a creative team hellbent on testing the elasticity of the Doctor Who format. A touch of Nigel Kneale and Quatermass, a touch of MR James and A Warning To The Curious, jumping with a witty lightness of touch of theme upon theme.
Its all quite ridiculous, off course, and all the more magnificent for that. There is nothing even remotely like it on television these days.Nope, not anymore. This delightful and imaginatively enriching televisual experience has pretty much disapeared. The generation who leant it wings moving on to other dreaming pastures, where England is always dreaming.
Looking for another segment of the Key To Time, The Tardis team lands in modern day, ahem, Cornwall, next to a standing stone circle , ahem, named The Nine Travelers, the intrepid, (yes, they surely are.) soon encounter the delightful and dotty Professor Emelia Rumford and her "companion, a big loud ahem here, Vivien Fey and quicker than it takes to say "Would you like a jelly baby?" they find themselves almost sacrificed by Calliech Cultists or crushed and drained of blood by the ominous and unrelenting Ogri. Hyperspace and justice machines are involvedbefore too long. With supposed supernatural events merging with hyperspacial ones in ways that feel as though someone had found a script for an unproduced Hammer Horror movie written by Douglas Adams.
Atmospheric location shooting and memorable and engaging protagonists, its Doctor Who at its most barmy. Although it can feel as though the Good doctor has been around forever, at the time of airing the show had been on the air for fifteen years, Years filled with great story telling, joy and invention. With fear and laughter, tears of joy and tears of sadness. In many ways the years now passed have been even kinder to a show that feels like a comforting and familiar endless scarf..
