Sci-Fi Review: Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood (1980, Target Books)

While I've not read all of them (heck, I don't even own all of them), I've yet to run across a truly terrible novelization of a Classic Doctor Who story. What's more, several of them are my personal literary equivalent of a hearty bowl of ramen: next to zero nutritional value, but the perfect comfort food. It's familiar territory, you know exactly what you're getting into, so you can re-read it and just enjoy the story. Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood, with its 124 wide-margined pages combined with Terrance Dicks's easily-digested prose, falls squarely and unashamedly into this category. This is the first Doctor Who story I read that dipped its toe into something approximating 'horror' instead of the traditional action-adventure fare I was used to. This certainly isn't the first-ever Who tale to do so, it's just the first I happened across. That's probably why I love it so much.

This was my dear old Uncle Terry read through the lens of Goosebumps.

This was The Stones of Blood!

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The story opens on a circle of standing stones, one of many such formations which dot the British landscape. It isn't Stonehenge, as Dicks is careful to point out in the first sentence, but a silly American could be forgiven for mistaking it as such. While most stone circles are now cultural landmarks, carefully curated and preserved from public prodding, the story is set in the then-present-day English countryside of 1978, where no such barriers or boundaries were in place.

Also unique to this particular circle is the very active Druidic community which makes use of it. Clad in white hooded robes, chanting the name "Cailleach" over and over, the robed ones douse one of the large stone slabs, laid down like an altar, with a copious amount of blood. Rather than dribbling over the top and running down the sides, however, the stone begins to glow, devouring the blood almost as quickly as the members of the cult can pour it. The high priestess of the group procures another decanter of blood, and pours it over another of the stones, which likewise glows as it absorbs the fresh liquid. As the chanting increases in pitch, we learn the group wishes to summon the Ogri. Who or what the Ogri are, we've yet to learn, but anyone possessing common sense knows if you summon something through blood sacrifice, no good will come of it.

We cut to the Doctor and Romana, his Time Lady companion, within the TARDIS. The Stones of Blood is the third episode in a six-part story arc called "The Key to Time", and the Doctor, having just acquired the second piece of the Key, is attempting to fit them together. Romana lets him muddle around at it for a bit before she takes the pieces and snaps them together as though it were the most obvious thing in the world--turns out the Doctor isn't as good with simple puzzles as he'd like to think. Also joining the Doctor on this adventure is K9, his mobile robotic, dog-shaped, talking computer.

But no matter -- after stowing the pieces in the vault, the Doctor sets the TARDIS on course for the third piece of the Key which, as it turns out, happens to be on Earth. In England, no less; modern-day Cornwall, to be precise, in a place called Boscombe Moor...somewhere within the formation of standing stones known as "The Nine Travellers".

The same ones we saw the cultists dumping blood on just a few pages earlier, in fact.

The Doctor and Romana find they aren't alone on the Moor: Professor Amelia Rumford and her assistant, Vivien Fay, are also on hand doing a study of the Nine Travellers. After the Doctor ingratiates himself with Rumford and passes himself off as a fellow interested historian, the pair hit it off quite easily. Romana and Vivien likewise strike up an easy friendship, each of them used to their companion going about things in his or her own stubborn way.

Leaving Romana to investigate the stones and determine why their Tracer is now not providing any readings on the piece of the Key it detected earlier, the Doctor heads to the nearby manor house of Mr. De Vries to learn some more about the local history.

What he uncovers is a cult based around blood sacrifice, where he's to be the next victim; a long-running charade where an escaped criminal from a far away star system has been impersonating the Cailleach, a Celtic goddess of War and Magic; and standing stones which aren't content to stand around. By the time the book reaches its climax, the Doctor will find himself literally on trial for his life, uncover the identity of the mysterious Cailleach, and learn the terrible truth behind why the stones walk.

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Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood is a snapping quick read, adapted by Terrance Dicks from David Fisher's original four-part screenplay. Despite being the third entry in a six-part story arc, it works perfectly well as a stand-alone tale. The Doctor is careful to recap the plot for anyone who wasn't paying attention -- isn't that nice of him?

The best thing Stones of Blood has going for it is the atmosphere. The original television serial was broadcast over the end of October through the middle of November, and it wears its Halloween vibes proudly with all manner of spooky images, whether its the dark crows watching the Doctor and Romana as they explore the Moor, the stones shifting and moving in precisely the way large standing stones shouldn't, or Dicks' care in detailing the way the mists close in to disorient the unwary on the Cornish countryside. It's a delightful October read in both setting and mood, perfect for consuming at night, preferably in front of a flickering fire, with the windows open and the breeze blowing a chill across the hairs on your neck.

It's a blazing fast read too, as many of Dicks's stories are. You'll have this one completed in an hour or two, and you'll love every minute of it, whether it's witnessing the standing stones feeding on a helpless pair of newlywed campers, or the banter between the Doctor and K9 as the mobile computer corrects his "Master" every opportunity he gets. The second half of the story veers into the science fiction territory the show is known for, but somehow Fisher's story pulls this off without being jarring and Dicks' adaptation is equally good in this regard.

It's also one of the most female-centric Classic Who stories I've ever come across, with Romana, Professor Rumford, and Vivien Fay (not to mention the Cailleach) all enjoying plenty of page time, having frequent discussions with one another, not once involving anyone's relationship status. You want a Tom Baker-era story which passes the Bechdel–Wallace test with flying colors, you got it. There's even a sub-plot concerning the Nine Travellers which explores the reason why the land upon which they stand has been owned by women going back centuries, all the way to the time of Henry VIII and the nuns who owned the parcel of land alongside their convent.

The atmosphere is top-notch, the build-up is handled perfectly, there's plenty of Tom Baker's flippant and sarcastic humor, and the scene where the stones feed is among the most violent you'll see committed to paper from the Fourth Doctor era. Fans of K9 will also see their favorite electronic dog save the day more than once, which is always a treat. Like I said before, this Classic Who story is comfort food. When you don't want to commit to a new book, but you want to read something you can open, enjoy, and close again, Stones of Blood is exactly the type of story I reach for.

Three-and-a-half Sonic Screwdrivers out of Five!

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(Note: astute observers may have realized I also posted this over on Hive. I'm currently straddling the fence about where to go and what to do, so this is more of an experiment than anything else. If you read/upvote this piece on one platform, don't feel like you have to hit it over there too.) :)