By Owen Quinn Photos copyright BBC
The Stones of Blood, originally broadcast during the Key to Time season was the show’s 100th story. It saw the fourth Doctor, K9 and Romana 1 land on Earth in the present day where they find a stone circle and witchcraft.
The nine travellers stone circle has a couple of extra digits which have a habit of going off on their own. They also have the habit of sucking every drop of blood from your body. The Ogri from Ogros are stone monliths that, when they come to life, light up from within with the sound of a heart beating. They live in swamps but as we will learn they have been brought to Earth for a very special reason.
The Doctor and Romana meet Miss Fay at the stone circle where she is introduced as the friend and colleague of Professor Amelia Rumford. Amelia is one of the most eccentric characters in Doctor Who history. It would have been fun to have her in the Tardis for a time.
The Doctor notes that she moves very quietly as he didn’t hear her approach to which she credits being a Brown Owl for that. She is versed on druids and their history. This is not surprising as she has been in the area for thousands of years. She has manipulated the locals all this time especially the druids. She assumes the guise of the Cailleach, a celtic goddess in order to keep the stones fed, her guard dogs. But as Vivienne, she is conducting a topographical, geographical, astronomical survey of the stones. Some of her identities include the wicked Lady Morgana Montcalm, Mrs Trefusis, Mother Superior of the convent of the Little Sisters of Saint Gudul and Senora Camara. Two of these identities seem to have murdered their husbands…allegedly. So it is safe to say, she has married and romanced men of wealth and power in order to secure her position on Earth. Each have had portraits done which have been taken away to be cleaned but in fact are hidden in the cellar of the house of De Vries, her right hand in the Cult of Cailleach. He is merely a pawn for Fay, demonstrated when he is murdered by the Ogri. Fay ordered him dead along with his wife, Martha, for failing to kill the Doctor at the stone circle.
As Vivienne, she is a charming host but actress Susan Engel brings a predator quality to her performance. She is also serpentine, always fishing for information about strangers to the area, ready to strike down anyone that susses her real identity. It is almost a ballet when she interacts with either of the time travellers. You can see this in the scene in episode two when Romana figures out that it has been all women owning the land in this area since the twelfth century. This is the time Fay became Mother Superior so disrespecting religion just to strengthen her power base here. As with De Vries, anyone threatening this was killed straight away. With a cup of tea in hand and eating a sausage sandwich she made herself, she counters every one of Romana’s theories including pointing out Ded Vries is a man, and head of the order.
But Romana thinks he is just a figurehead to put people off. There is something beautifully macabre about this. Fay is so cool and calm in the face of Romana’s correct reasoning yet beneath the surface, she is plotting to get rid of Romana for getting too close to the truth. Engel does it in such a blase fashion as the perfect host including telling Romana an amusiong story about Amelia being arrested in America for carrying an offensive weapon, a policeman’s truncheon for self defence. In the next scene , she is waking the Ogri to go after the Doctor. She kills two birds with one stone when she sends Romana to the prison ship she has in hyperspace which kills her investigations. Neither does she have a problem leaving Amelia and K9 to be killed by the Ogri.
It turns out that she is fact a criminal wanted for murder from the planet Diplos who has been hiding on Earth. She stole the Great Seal of Diplos, killing someone in the process. She has a prison ship in hyperspace which is connected to the stone circle in a teleport beam.
Ironically, it is in a courtroom that the Doctor must defeat her. Freeing the judicial Megara, the Doctor faces death for breaking the seal of their cell. She uses her Fay identity to fool the Megara, demanding they execute the Doctor immediately. But it is just typical of Fay that she hides behind a disguise to ensure her own ends. She fears the Megara so when Fay is called to be a witness, she is not keen on that. She calls the Ogri but the Megara destroy one. Again, just a pawn in Fay’s machinations. But the Megara have only a name on their judicial papers, no photogrpahic evidence at all to identity Cessair of Diplos. Even under oath, she evades detection. She uses the strict A to B thinking of the Megara. It is not within their awareness that she could be the criminal they have been sent for.
The Doctor uses the law against the Megara to call them as witnesses and detemine their original mission which was to judge Cessair of Diplos. In one last desperate attempt, the Doctor grabs Fay as they try to electrocute him. Under law, the Megara can read someone’s mind in certain circumstances such as a state of unconsciousness. They read her mind and Cessair is revealed as the murderer, the thief and removing Ogri from their natural habitat illegally. Fay is condemned to eternal imprisonment and is made into living stone, becoming part of the stone circle.
Vivienne Fay was a great villain. She used everyone and everything around her to ensure her powerbase. The properties of the Great Seal allowed her to cement myth and legend including the Gog, Magog legend. Susan Engel gives one of the most relaxed portrayal ever in the show. Her villain is so sure of herself that nothing fazes her. She instantly deals with problems and the Doctor proves a difficult one to deal with. It is sheer desperation that allows him to defeat her once and for all. Fay was the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing with the patience of a serpent. Nothing mattered to her bar her own ambitions. And for the 100th story, she was the perfect fit. Evil has never been so suave.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 