History Recap / DoctorWhoS16E3TheStonesOfBlood

'''Production code:''' 5C

Written by David Fisher. This four-episode serial first aired from October 28 to November 18, 1978.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks "Oh look, rocks!"]]]]

* LiteralMinded: K-9 as usual. Also Romana's reaction on hearing that Miss Fay used to be a brown owl[[note]]British girl scout leader[[/note]].

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

->'''Professor Rumford:''' Are you from outer space?
->'''The Doctor:''' No, I'm more from what you'd call "inner time".

The one with malevolent sparkles.

[[caption-width-right:344: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks "Oh look, rocks!"]]]]

!!Tropes

* AIIsACrapshoot: The Doctor's tale of justice machines.

* AllMythsAreTrue

* ArtShift: Fourth and final Creator/TomBaker serial shot entirely on video (director Darrol Blake had a dislike for the VideoInsideFilmOutside look, although it did come in handy when the circle of stones had to be recreated in the studio for the sequences set at night, which would have been much more obvious had the daytime sequences been shot on film). The show would ditch film for good at the start of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet Trial of a Timelord]]".

* CreepyCrows: Romana is spooked by a crow at the moor, and a pair later watch her from atop the TARDIS.

* {{Druid}}s

* HalfwayPlotSwitch: In which a story about Druids and human sacrifice in a stone circle suddenly turns into a courtroom drama aboard a hyperspace ship.
* HangingJudge: The Megara act according to a very strict legal code which mandates the death penalty for pretty much everything.

* RockMonster: The Ogri.
* RubberForeheadAliens: In her true Diplosian form Cessair looks just like she did as Vivien Fay, except with silver skin.
* [[SealedEvilInACan Sealed Lawyers in a Can]]: A slight variation happened, where the Doctor releases a pair of biomechanical judges called the Megara from a ship stranded in hyperspace, and the judges promptly sentence him to death for letting them free without the proper legal authorization.

Written by David Fisher. This serial first aired October 28-November 18, 1978.

* CoverInnocentEyesAndEars: When the Doctor and K-9 discover the dead body of De Vries, the Doctor puts a hand over K-9's visual sensor.

--> '''Romana:''' What's that?
--> '''Vivien:''' A policeman's truncheon. Last year, when she lectured in New York, she took it with her in case she got mugged.
--> '''Romana:''' And did she get mugged?
--> '''Vivien:''' No, she got arrested for carrying an offensive weapon.

* [[SealedEvilInACan Sealed Lawyers in a Can]]: A slight variation happened, where the Doctor releases a pair of biomechanical judges called the Megara from a ship stranded in hyperspace, and the judges promptly sentence him to death for letting them free without the proper legal authorization.

* HomoeroticSubtext: Earlier drafts of the script made it much more clear how Amelia Rumford and Vivian Fay spent their time in that cabin. Somewhat astonishingly, Mary Tamm (Romana) didn't notice until fans pointed it out to her, and her comment was "we were all so innocent back then..."

* KangarooCourt: The Megara are hardly impartial judges concerning their case against the Doctor, given that they are also his accusers. The most effort the one who volunteers to act as defense attorney goes through is to try to argue for a painless execution, without making any real attempt to get his client off.

* LiteralCliffhanger: Romana gets pushed off a cliff. Clearly a punishment for the Burberry hat and impractical shoes.

* ArtShift: Fourth and final Creator/TomBaker episode shot entirely on video (director Darrol Blake had a dislike for the VideoInsideFilmOutside look, although it did come in handy when the circle of stones had to be recreated in the studio for the sequences set at night, which would have been much more obvious had the daytime sequences been shot on film). The show would ditch film for good at the start of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet Trial of a Timelord]]".

* MoodWhiplash: The serial goes from a dark, gruesome horror story to... a black comedy about malfunctioning justice robots. [[JustifiedTrope Could be justified]] in that the show's had far too many tonal shifts for just one tone to be represented by the 100th story.

* ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder: Professor Rumford is an archaeologist, not an engineer.

* ArtShift: Fourth and final Creator/TomBaker episode shot entirely on video. The show would ditch film for good at the start of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet Trial of a Timelord]]".

* TooDumbToLive: When confronted with a door which is clearly marked as 'do not open', what does the Doctor do? Open it, of course, and get sentenced to death.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Vivian makes a suggestive remark to Romana about how much fun she can have with a bicycle seat.

Accidentally releasing two justice robots, the Doctor is sentenced to death. He takes a lawyer wig out of his pocket and instead begins a magnificent bit of BotheringByTheBook. He manages to knock Fay unconscious by poking her necklace, which legally allows the sparkly justice robots (called Megara) to read her mind, seeing as she can't speak for herself anymore. The Megara quickly notice that Fay is in fact Cessair of Diplos, the criminal they've actually been sent to try. She stole a few Ogri from a nearby planet and employed them on Earth as her bodyguards while avoiding the interstellar police for four thousand years. They transform her into the final stone in the circle, but not before the Doctor has snagged her necklace -- the segment of the Key that he has been looking for.