Nick Mellish@nickmellish The Stones of Blood is a marvellous story. I now want a sausage sandwich. These two things are connected.
Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin Haven't seen this story in ages so their might be a few surprises for me
Lee Mahon@Lee_JM75 Always liked the Stones Of Blood but it's very much a story of two halves, the first of which is miles better I feel.Yes, very much in agreement, there. Falls apart with the arrival of the Megara
Wobbly TARDIS. It's only a model.
2 down, 4 to go, as the search for the Key to Time continues...
There was supposed to be a birthday cake here.
The cake was for this being the 100th story. Graham Williams vetoed it as too silly. But the Megara, fine.
The Doctor is overjoyed to be returning to Earth. Didn't he hate it last season?
Mind you, how much time passed between seasons 15 and 16...?
The 4th Doctor's opinion on whether Earth is somewhere boring or wonderful to go seems to be very variable.
Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin His 3rd incarnation tried his best to be getting away from it. :-) 
On Earth some cult types chant at the stones in their circle, which glow blood red...
atruedrwhofan@atruedrwhofan every story has only four. Four Daleks. Four Cybermen. Four Ice Warriors etc. This one. Four crows.In Pertwee's time it'd have been 2 normal crows, a gold crow and some Ogrons.
"I'm no fashion expert. In fact, wait till you see my 6th incarnation. And my 7th."
A message burbles into the TARDIS: "Beware the Black Guardian!"
The Doctor finally comes clean that it wasn't the Time Lord president that recruited her...
The explanation of the White Guardian allows for a nice little Key to Time recap from Tom here.
Kosmic Kris@KosmicKris interesting that all the "season long arc" stuff is dealt with at the start of the story rather than the end like nowadays. this approach means even if you haven't seen anything else, all you need to know is they are looking for something :) 
Yes, exactly, great economy in that, and great accessibility as a result (intended and earned).
"Anyone for tennis?"
Kosmic Kris@KosmicKris Mary Tamm and Tom were beautifully in their stride by this point - Romana was a wonderful idea: The brilliant Ingénue :) 
"Forget it."
"Forget. Erase memory banks concerning tennis. Memory erased."
atruedrwhofan@atruedrwhofan if only we could do that. "Forget Love & Monsters" "memory bank on Love and Monsters. Memory erased" :D 
How wierd do the outdoor scenes look, being on video?
Very unusual at this time for exterior shots not to be on film, and it's true video can tend to lend things a cheap and nasty look, particularly in the later Who of the late 80s, where worse video stock is being used.
He was right about the shoes, she's sitting down already.
This is the point in his 7 year tenure when Tom starts to mumble the lines he can't be arsed with.
Anyone who doesn't love Professor Amelia Rumford is just plain wrong.
Kosmic Kris@KosmicKris This story uses actors who Tom wants to impress (esp Beatrix Lehman) so he noticeably ups his game mid way through! 
The Doctor leaves Romana surveying with Amelia Rumford and Vivien Fay while he goes to meet the locals at the big house.
De Vries is busy having some form of black mass with a single follower.
Not exactly Devil's End, is it?
De Vries shows Tom his art collection, which has some glaring omissions.
Tom's hair is at its most spectacularly big in this story.
Stone the crows!
The Doctor drinks some sherry while De Vries smokes at him and evades his questions about the local legends...
atruedrwhofan@atruedrwhofan so Tom obviously forgot his own rule of 'never show the Doctor drinking to the children' then as he necks the sherry. 
The Doctor gets his first look at the Cailleach, the Druidic goddess of war & magic, then De Vries knocks him unconscious.
The Cailleach is a great bit of costume design.
Was that an actual skull used to batter Tom?
Romana hears the Doctor's voice...
...and stumbles off a dangerous precipice...
Mary Tamm shows Sylvester McCoy what a proper cliffhanger looks like...
and that's the end of part 1.
"Leonard, I don't like this!" Oh, come on, love, it's only the start of part 2, give it a chance.
There's dissent in the ranks as De Vries prepares to sacrifice the Doctor, & he's rescued in the nick of time by Rumford.
"BICYCLE!" Hilarious.
Tom just loves Beatrix Lehmann. She's pretty handy with a knife, too.
K9's on the case, now, zipping thru the long grass as if being pulled along tracks on a piece of string. Ahem.
Find it very hard to believe Romana seriously suspects the Doctor. Diminishes her character.
Eventually Romana rumbles that someone must have used the segment to appear as the Doctor, and celebrates by changing costume
"If you mean you don't know, why don't you just say so?"
Does Susan Engel remind anyone else of Eleanor Bron a bit?
And do we think Prof. Rumford was an influence on Big Finish's Evelyn Smythe?
When the Doctor & K9 arrive at De Vries' house, the place has been wrecked by the Stones. Bloody Mick Jagger.
The Doctor is knocked unconscious, but K9 pursues the offending stone.
Romana picks Rumford's brains to figure out what's so special about this stone circle as opposed to others.
Isaac Dakin@IWhittakerDakin "Nothing like sausage sandwiches when you're working something out" 
Romana's clocked that the previous owners of the Hall were all powerful women.
Romana & Rumford find the Doctor amidst the wreckage of K9...
2nd story in a row K9's been knackered. Crushed by a living stone rather than dead battery this time though.
K9 advises feeding him to some cannibals, or something.
Romana reckons the TARDIS stores have the equipment they need and takes the incapacitated K9 for his MOT.
K9 has told them the secret of the stones: they feed on blood.
The missing paintings reveal the culprit...
They're all the same woman: Vivian Fay!
Info that Romana could have done with, really.
Romana beams up and out of part 2!
One of the stones arrives in the cellar to menace the Doctor and Rumford. As it has to be propped up by one of the production crew, this one's probably Keef.
Rumford thinks it her duty as a scientist to take on the Stones of Blood with a truncheon. I'd like to see her hypothesis on that.
Was this bullfighting bit Tom's idea? Very stupid.
Vivian helps the Doctor finally put a name to the (rock)face - the Stones of Blood are called "Ogri".
Then she naffs off.
The Doctor needs some crystals for his contraption.
SHUT UP K9!!! Blimey, Tom, bit harsh.
He gives Rumford instructions for fiddling with knobs so he can travel to another dimension.
K9 tries to keep the Stones at bay...
The Doctor travels to the spaceship in hyperspace where Romana is imprisoned.
There were supposed to be other monsters here, as it is we just get a Wirrn and a stripped down Kraal android.
A wirrn! Would a wirrn really be a convict?
(Thanks to @paulpcooke for a sensible theory: The convict was a host and the Wirrn ate its way out after the cell was sealed!)
An unusually Hinchcliffian slice of Hammer here as a couple on a mucky camping weekend are guzzled by the Stones of Blood...
That little riff from Dudley when the Megara were released was a bit Blake's 7, wasn't it?
"It is not permitted to touch the Megara on a first date."
For some reason the Megara, or their jobsworth dialogue & officious delivery anyway, remind me of the oiks in The Mysterious Planet.
Vivian knackers the Doctor's gear and beams up to the ship with 2 Ogri guards.
"You're trapped in Hyperspace - forever!"
I'm sure he and Romana will figure out a way to pass the time.
End of part 3.
Here we go, the cheapo flashing lights decide to put the Doctor on trial. He'll like that.
The Megara claim Romana is out of order. Seems to be working okay.
The Doctor's contraption is another matter, though.
Rumford goes all Bones for a moment. "I'm an archaeologist, not an engineer."
Surprised that that wig fits atop the massive barnet Tom sports in this one.
This courtroom guff goes absolutely nowhere.
K9 instructs his assistant, Professor Rumford, to fix the machine, and she successfully retrieves Romana... with an Ogri hot on her heels.
The Megara claim not to make mistakes.
Rumford tells Romana that Viv's allergic to lemon juice & all citric acid. She won't even have a lager & lime!
In the "process" of the trial, the Doctor identifies Viv as one Cessair of Diplos, a thief and murderer...
The Doctor demands a last toffee apple.
He's finally able to trick the Megara into reading her mind, and they discover her identity.
But they still insist on their bollocks legal process.
The Ogri have other ideas.
The Megara finally concede their mistake and convict Viv.
They release the Doctor, returning him & Romana to Earth.
The Doctor retrieves the Seal of Diplos - this story's segment...
...before Viv becomes an extra "traveller" as her punishment.
Time to go.
"Will you write everything that happened?"
Goodbye Professor Rumford!
So that's 50% of the Key to Time collected!
Wonder if the Doctor's a key half-full or half-empty kinda guy?
TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Survival
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