Doctor Who: Stones Of Blood
I know the Key To Time box set is a bit “long in the tooth” in retail terms, but here we are at least, reviewing the final volume that we haven’t covered yet. Sadly, while there is a nice commentary included and the episodes them selves are in decent shape, The Stones Of Blood represents a sad failure to present what could well be the holy grail of Tom Baker-era DVD extras.
And what might that be? The disc’s only two real bonus features (the customary text trivia subtitle and an audio commentary with director Darrol Blake and Mary “Romana” Tamm) mention it right off the top of episode one: when the first of this story’s four episodes came in short, Blake and script editor Antony Read cobbled together a quick, slightly self-referential scene to celebrate Stones’ status as the 100th complete Doctor Who story, as well as that first episode falling on the show’s 15th anniversary in 1978. Producer Graham Williams was appalled at the scene - which has since shown up as an online video on the BBC’s web site - which included K-9 singing “Happy Birthday” to the Doctor, and launched into a series of objections, ranging from the valid (too self-indulgent, though that same rationale should’ve been used to nip Silver Nemesis in the bud a decade later) to the silly (we can’t show the Doctor eating birthday cake, because that means he has to go the bathroom eventually). But the footage remains intact…and it remains unseen on this DVD. (No doubt this oversight will be corrected when the Key To Time season is eventually released on DVD overseas.)
The commentary is interesting, with the director owning up to some of the story’s production gaffes, but it’s also quite evident that he cared alot about this story and about making his first Doctor Who gig different from the rest, from insisting on shooting outdoor scenes on video (to avoid the infamous BBC-style cutting between video and film) to rigging up the elaborate spaceship set with microphones to record the sounds of the actors’ footsteps so they could be treated in post-production to sound as though they’re walking on metal rather than concrete studio floors and wooden set platforms. Not every director at this point in the show’s history was worried about such details, so it’s interesting to hear the viewpoint of a “renegade” director trying to shake up the status quo. Both he and Mary Tamm also wax rhapsodic about guest star Beatrix Lehmann, who reportedly forced everyone - even Tom Baker - to rise to her level of performance for the duration of her stay (!!). (She died the year after this story first aired.)
A nice enough presentation, given the stripped-down nature of the Key To Time DVD releases, but the omission of that one extra that we know is still available is deeply disappointing; it could have made this disc the highlight of the whole set.
