The Stones of Blood [TV/1978.10.28 ~ 11.18]

★★★★☆

  "Good for the first half until the second half comes rolling in"? Don't give me all that. I have always found The Stones of Blood to be an exquisite piece of work, balancing comedy and horror with such confidence so that the former comes on top (this is a very, very funny serial) but never lets the latter seem half-arsed. When the story needs to get dark and ominous, it does so with great effect with good location work, set design and sound effects. The Ogri are strange, menacing creatures -- quite literally glowing boulders with a constant need for blood -- and they work surprising well as monsters in a Hinchcliffe-era love letter (for the first two episodes, anyway). You wouldn't expect shining rocks to be the right kind of baddie for a Hammer horror pastiche, but it works remarkably well!

  Then, of course, the Graham Williams era comes back in glorious fashion -- brightly-lit spaceships in hyperspace, floating glitter robots carrying out justice, and the real baddie with the name Cessair of Diplos. She has a giant glowing stick that transports unsuspecting characters to hyperspace, and she's got silver paint all over herself. Naturally, if you're not a fan of the Williams-era shenanigans, you'd be averse to this sort of thing popping up in what you expected to be a Gothic horror story. Me? I absolutely love the comedy, the imagination and the casual nature that all this is presented. The Key to Time saga churns out another banger; Tom Baker delivers some of the best performances by any Dr. Who actor during this season, and he shines in Stones of Blood with his rapport with both Romana's Mary Tamm and Amelia Rumford's Beatrix Lehmann. Why didn't we get Amelia as a companion, for that matter? She's simply one of the most delightful additions to the 'one-off characters with so much potential to be an incredible companion' roster, and every scene of hers makes the entire adventure better. I still long for the day Seaeson 16 gets a fandom-wide re-evaluation; it holds so much treasure, so many wonderful things, and The Stones of Blood is one of the high towers of that coveted menagerie.