Trivia / Doctor Who S16 E3 "The Stones of Blood"

---

• Acting for Two: In addition to voicing one of the Megara, Gerald Cross provided the voice of the White Guardian early in the first episode, largely to avoid having to re-hire Cyril Luckham just to deliver a couple of lines.
• Actor-Inspired Heroism: Originally, the Doctor would have lead Romana off the cliff's edge and pushed her off for a cliffhanger, Tom Baker refused to perform this, thinking that younger viewers would think "the Doctor" was doing this, and that the "possessed Doctor" idea had been done to death. To compromise, Baker had his voice be used calling out "Romana!"
• Awesome, Dear Boy: According to director Darrol Blake, Beaxtrix Lehmann only agreed to a guest role to see how K9 worked.
• Follow the Leader: The story clearly took notes from Children of the Stones.
• Inspiration for the Work: Writer David Fisher was inspired by the many ancient stone circles in the UK, including cycloliths, which were mythical stones that travelled back and forth across the country.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Director Darrol Blake originally offered the role of Vivien to Honor Blackman, who declined the part as she felt Beatrix Lehmann had all the best material. Blake then asked Maria Aitken, who wasn't interested. Susan Engel was finally hired for the part.
  • The Ogri were originally rocky-skinned humanoids who only looked like regular stones when stationary. To save money, Darrol Blake decided to just have them as stone blocks, though some elements of this, like Romana discovering a footprint, remained. This had the unexpected benefit of freeing up enough of the budget to be able to add the scene with the two campers in part three, since the money was no longer being spent to play on actors to play the Ogri.
  • Initially, the Ogri were to simply crush people, but this was replaced by their ability to absorb blood.
  • The Megara were originally depicted as floating metal orbs. This was changed to floating lights, because it was deemed too similar to the training droid in Star Wars.
  • The fifteenth anniversary of the show took place around this episode’s airing, in addition to this story being the 100th serial overall. To commemorate this, the crew created a Milestone Celebration scene featuring Romana and K9 surprising the Doctor with a cake (and a new identical scarf), celebrating his seven hundred and fifty-first birthday. Producer Graham Williams and the staff rejected the concept for being too congratulatory, despite a cake already having been ordered.
• Working Title: The Nine Maidens and The Stones of Time.

---