489 The Stones of Blood Part Two

EPISODE: The Stones of Blood Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 489
STORY NUMBER: 100
TRANSMITTED: 04 November 1978
WRITER: David Fisher
DIRECTOR: Darrol Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Key to Time Box Set (Ribos Operation/Pirate Planet/Stones of Blood/Androids of Tara/Power of Kroll/The Armageddon Factor)

The Doctor is taken to the stones for sacrifice but is saved when Professor Rumford arrives scaring the cultists away. The Doctor summons K-9 and together the two of them track her to the cliff edge where she is desperately hanging on and rescue her. On hearing her story the Doctor wonders if someone is harnessing the powers of the third segment of the Key To Time. The Doctor leaves Romana to research Vivian & Amelia's library on the stone circle and goes to visit Mr De Vries at Boscombe Hall. On his arrival he & K-9 find the inhabitants dead and are attacked by a giant mobile stone which K-9 repels. Joined by Professor Rumford the Doctor searches the house and finds a number of missing paintings of previous owners all of which are identical to Miss Fay. At the stone circle a masked woman brings another stone, which she calls an Ogri, to life with blood taken from De Vries & his wife. Romana returns to the circle and finds Miss Fay in the costume who raises her staff blasting Romana who vanishes....

Cracking episode, lots of Gothic horror overtones. Tom's obviously enjoying himself acting opposite Beatrix Lehman (Professor Rumford). Unfortunately the shots of Romana hanging over the cliff and her sitting with the Doctor afterwards aren't the greatest CSO the world has ever seen!

The episode itself is set near the sea despite my Wife's protests that the Vegetation doesn't look cliff top. That's because location filming for this story took place in Oxfordshire not that far short of the furthest distance from the sea in England! Rollright Stones stand in for the Nine Travellers with the nearby Little Rollright Quarry providing the slightly suspect cliff edge and The Manor, Little Compton providing De Vries home. Actually given how close these locations are each other and to where I live, I really must go and have a look!