 This story was written by David Fisher, who also wrote "The Androids of Tara", the subsequent story, and is the third of six linked stories that comprise the whole of Season Sixteen, known collectively as The Key to Time.
"The Stones of Blood" has the accolade as being the 100th Doctor Who story.
As well as being the 100th story the fifteenth anniversary of the programme took place on 23 November 1978, five days after the broadcast of episode four.
To celebrate these two landmark events it was initially planned to include a scene involving The Doctor, Romana and K9 having a party in the TARDIS to celebrate The Doctor’s 751st birthday. It was to feature Romana and K9 surprising The Doctor with a cake and a new, identical scarf. This new scene was written by David Fisher, expanded by Darrol Blake, rehearsed but not recorded as Producer Graham Williams felt it was too self-congratulatory. Darrol Blake had already ordered a cake, and this was eventually eaten by the cast and crew.
The role of Vivien was originally offered to Honor Blackman, who declined the part as she felt Beatrix Lehmann had all the best material. Susan Engel was finally hired for the part. Honor Blackman would later appear in the 1986 Sixth Doctor story "Terror of the Vervoids" - the third story in The Trial of a Time Lord season.
The White Guardian’s dialogue, in the first episode, was provided by Gerald Cross (who was already playing one of the Megara) in order to avoid having to rehire Cyril Luckham, who had portrayed The White Guardian in "The Ribos Operation". Gerald Cross though was not credited on screen.
The director assigned to this story was Darrol Blake. This though would be his only Doctor Who assignment. His other credits included The Tomorrow People, Doomwatch and Coronation Street. Durring recording Darrol Blake elected to make a significant change to David Fisher’s conception of the Ogri, which the writer had envisioned as rocky-skinned humanoids who looked like regular stones only when stationary. To save costs, Darrol Blake elected to have the Ogri appear as large blocks throughout, although elements of David Fisher's original idea - such as the large footprint found by The Doctor and Romana - remained in the script.
Another change Darrol Blake made to David Fisher’s script was the way that the Ogri killed their victims. Initially, they were to simply crush people, but this was replaced by their ability to absorb blood. The scene with the two campers was written at a late stage to illustrate this. The Megara were also altered; rather than floating lights, David Fisher had depicted them as flying metal orbs, but Darrol Blake felt that this was too similar to some elements of the recently released feature film Star Wars.
David Fisher drew heavily upon British mythology for the names he used in his story. Vivian Fey who turns out to be Cessair of Diplos (aka the Cailleach) and her past alias, Lady Morgana Montcalm, recalled Morgan le Fay, King Arthur's sorceress half-sister. The word ‘Cailleach’ itself was a Gaelic term meaning ‘old woman’, and was associated with numerous entities in Celtic mythology. Dr Thomas Borlase was homage to two celebrated historians, Thomas Price and William Borlase. The Megara, on the other hand, were named for Megaera, one of the Furies (also called the Erinyes or Eumenides) of Greco-Roman mythology; these were goddesses who persecuted those they perceived as guilty of a terrible crime. Two names were modified during scripting: Leonard De Vries was originally called Charles, while the ‘Nine Maidens’ became the ‘Nine Travellers’.
The exteriors of this story were filmed on location at the Rollright Stones, a real megalithic site in Oxfordshire. An actual legend of the site states that it is impossible to count the stones. As the story ends, The Doctor notes that the number of stones in the circle has changed (due to the removal of three Ogri and the addition of Cessair's imprisoned form) and suggests Doctor Rumford write a monograph about it. In 2007, Mary Tamm returned to the site to tape a feature for the DVD release of this story in which she interviewed local historians about the site.
Exteriors in this story were videotaped rather than filmed, which is something that occurred only rarely prior to 1986. According to comments on the 2007 DVD release, Director Darrol Blake made the decision to use only one medium because of a dislike over the discontinuity created by the constant switch between filmed exteriors and videotaped interiors.
This was the one of only two stories between "Frontier in Space" and the end of the show's initial run not to have the special sounds created by Dick Mills. Due to Dick Mills suffering a brief illness, Elizabeth Parker provided the sound effects instead.
The events of this story occur immediately after (or very soon after) the conclusion of "The Pirate Planet". Romana is still wearing her outfit from the preceding story at the start of the story and it is suggested that they have just obtained the second segment.
For the benefit of Romana (and presumably new viewers), The Doctor recaps his mission briefing from The White Guardian following the reception of a mysterious warning regarding The Black Guardian.
This sequence also includes The Doctor revealing to Romana that it was The White Guardian in disguise, rather than the President of the Time Lords, who sent them on their mission.
Romana gives the TARDIS wardrobe a workout in this story, being seen in three distinct outfits during the story (if you include her costume held over from "The Pirate Planet").
It is implied that Cessair of Diplos is an agent of The Black Guardian. Aside from the evidence of a warning given by The White Guardian at the beginning of Part One, there is also the fact that Cessair knows what the segment of the Key is and tells The Doctor in the closing stages of Part Four that if he lets the Megara turn her into stone, he will never find what he is looking for.
The Doctor is heard to mention a Galactic Federation that appointed a justice machine, which, finding the Federation to be in contempt of court blew up the entire galaxy.
So as to establish the Megara’s spacecraft as a prison ship, it was decided to feature old Doctor Who monsters amongst the deceased convicts. In the event, only a Wirrn (from "The Ark in Space") and the ‘skeleton’ of a Kraal android (from "The Android Invasion") was seen, although permission had been obtained to feature a Sea Devil (from "The Sea Devils") but shots of the Sea Devil were lost at the editing stage.
It is revealed that the third segment has powers of transmutation, transformation and the establishing of hyperspacial and temporal coordinates.
According to Romana hyperspace is a ‘theoretical absurdity’.
It is revealed that the Type 40 TARDIS is fitted with molecular stabilisers. Also after an attack by an Ogri K9’s circuits are regenerated by connecting this stabiliser to his circuit frequency modulator.
The first episode cliff-hanger called for a scene in which Cessair, disguised as The Doctor, pushed Romana off the cliff. Tom Baker however, objected to this scene, as he felt it would be very upsetting to children. Instead the scene was filmed so that you never actually see who pushed Romana.
Look out for the scene where The Doctor and Amelia are first chased by the Ogri as two crew-members are quite clearly visible in the doorway manipulating the creature. One appears in the right side of the doorway just after the Ogri enters, the other can be glimpsed behind the Ogri itself, pushing it forward. In addition, in part four a boom mike can be seen at the top of the screen while Romana is searching Cessair’s cabin.
The Ogri are from the planet Ogros. The Doctor is also heard referring to the Ogri as ‘Gog’ and ‘Magog’, and also links their name to the word ogre.
Despite there only meant to be three Ogri after one is seen falling off a cliff later in the story there are still three.
Modified Ogri appear in Virgin Book’s The New Adventures story "Legacy" written by Gary Russell.
Creatures made of stone are also seen in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "Blink" and the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone" in the form of Weeping Angels.
During his appeal, The Doctor refers to Romana by her full name, Romanadvoratrelundar, for the first time, although he subsequently shortens this to ‘Miss Voratrelundar’.
In this story The Doctor is heard stating that he has met Albert Einstein.
When The Doctor says, ‘Nobody home except us druids’, he is referencing the popular Louis Jordan song Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens. The Ninth Doctor also later quotes the title in the 2005 story, "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances".
At one point, Amelia is heard saying ‘I’m an archaeologist, not an engineer’. This is very similar to Doctor McCoy’s popular ‘I’m a doctor, not an ….’ catchphrase in Star Trek.
This story was released on VHS in May 1995. This release contained an extended cut of episode two, which featured a longer exchange between de Vries and his mistress before they were attacked by the Ogri. This scene had been removed from the UK broadcast of the story because of concerns about its presentation of adults consumed by terror. The scene is contained in full in the deleted scenes package on the later DVD release, which contains the episode as televised.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be written by David Fisher.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Darrol Blake.
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(Position = 51 out of 159)
(Position = 67 out of 200)
