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Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood
This is a brand-new audio novelization of a classic Doctor Who TV adventure, which originally starred Tom Baker as the Doctor. From the pen of the original script writer David Fisher, The Stones of Blood is set in 20th-century Dorset, where the ancient Cailleach has exerted her powers throughout the ages. The Doctor, Romana, and K9 team up with Professor Amelia Rumford and her friend Vivian Fay in their search for a powerful artifact…
Audio CD
First published June 7, 2011
About the author
David Fisher
8 books1 followerLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
David Fisher was a British professional writer for television. He wrote the scripts for four serials of Doctor Who.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_F...
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
David Fisher was a British professional writer for television. He wrote the scripts for four serials of Doctor Who.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_F...
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 4, 2020
The Target novelisations have a long lasting appeal that even younger fans of the show want to collect every book in the series.
With so many out of print for years and plenty being rare and expensive, it's a huge challenge to complete the set.
The BBC clearly know that there's an audience for audio recordings and most have now been released with a member of the cast narrating the novel.
I do wish that the books were republished, but there's no denying the effort that have gone into this recording.
The fact that this has been specially rewritten by the original script writer for this release is testament to the commitment by those involved.
I've not read Dicks original novelisation so cant compare the two versions, but this release certainly captures the mood of the story.
I've always preferred the first half of this story and with the inclusion of crow cawing helps build the gothic feel.
It's also a nice touch having John Lesson voice K9's lines too.
Audiobooks are certainly getting more and more popular and I'm appreciating the appeal, even though it still doesn't feel quite right when making them as 'read' on Goodreads.
Whilst I've always found this story to be just fine, I'm actually quite keen to hear some of my favourite stories from the series.
With so many out of print for years and plenty being rare and expensive, it's a huge challenge to complete the set.
The BBC clearly know that there's an audience for audio recordings and most have now been released with a member of the cast narrating the novel.
I do wish that the books were republished, but there's no denying the effort that have gone into this recording.
The fact that this has been specially rewritten by the original script writer for this release is testament to the commitment by those involved.
I've not read Dicks original novelisation so cant compare the two versions, but this release certainly captures the mood of the story.
I've always preferred the first half of this story and with the inclusion of crow cawing helps build the gothic feel.
It's also a nice touch having John Lesson voice K9's lines too.
Audiobooks are certainly getting more and more popular and I'm appreciating the appeal, even though it still doesn't feel quite right when making them as 'read' on Goodreads.
Whilst I've always found this story to be just fine, I'm actually quite keen to hear some of my favourite stories from the series.
April 4, 2012
David Fisher has never been thrilled with Terrance Dicks' novel adaptation of the four-part Key to Time story, "The Stones of Blood." And while the original adaptation by Dicks isn't terrible, it's certainly not one of Uncle Terrance's stronger Doctor Who adaptations, reading as little more than a scene-by-scene retelling of the shooting script.
Years later, Fisher has been given the opportunity to correct this perceived wrong with the audio release of "Stones of Blood." Having read and enjoyed Fisher's adaptation of "The Leisure Hive" I admit I was both looking forward to and curious about the new version of "Stones."
Let's get the big question out of the way here--is it better than the Dicks version?
Yes and no.
Fisher isn't slavishly devoted to the original script, moving some scenes around for narrative flow and changing dialogue so it works better on the printed page. Fisher also provides some deeper character moments and background to his story, including giving names and a backstory to the campers that are killed by the Ogri in the third episode.
And while these additions and minor changes work well, overall I can't say this is a huge improvement over the original. Part of this is the limitations of the original script, which really started to drag in the third and fourth episodes. The Justice Machines seems like an interesting idea on paper, but they lose their appeal quickly and the later segments of the story can't quite match the interest and hook of the early segments.
On the audio book side, Susan Engel who played Vivian Faye in the original television production, delivers a solid reading of the story.
As a curiosity, this works well. There are certainly some improvements on the Dicks novelization, but there are also some things that the original novelization did just as well, if not better.
Years later, Fisher has been given the opportunity to correct this perceived wrong with the audio release of "Stones of Blood." Having read and enjoyed Fisher's adaptation of "The Leisure Hive" I admit I was both looking forward to and curious about the new version of "Stones."
Let's get the big question out of the way here--is it better than the Dicks version?
Yes and no.
Fisher isn't slavishly devoted to the original script, moving some scenes around for narrative flow and changing dialogue so it works better on the printed page. Fisher also provides some deeper character moments and background to his story, including giving names and a backstory to the campers that are killed by the Ogri in the third episode.
And while these additions and minor changes work well, overall I can't say this is a huge improvement over the original. Part of this is the limitations of the original script, which really started to drag in the third and fourth episodes. The Justice Machines seems like an interesting idea on paper, but they lose their appeal quickly and the later segments of the story can't quite match the interest and hook of the early segments.
On the audio book side, Susan Engel who played Vivian Faye in the original television production, delivers a solid reading of the story.
As a curiosity, this works well. There are certainly some improvements on the Dicks novelization, but there are also some things that the original novelization did just as well, if not better.
January 9, 2012
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1839831...
David Fisher, who wrote the original TV story The Stones of Blood, has now converted it not to a print novel but to audiobook format, read with great gusto by Susan Engel (who played the villain of the piece on screen) with John Leeson doing K9's lines. I had been looking forward to this with hopeful enthusiasm, as Fisher's novelisations of his other two stories are among the best of the Target range.
I am very glad to say that I was not disappointed. The audio is about twice as long as the original series (four hour-long CDs), and Fisher has bulked out the material with lots more character background and atmosphere than was possible on screen - the full story of the campers gruesomely slain by the Ogri, for example, and various brazen but humorous infodumps. There are lots of decent sound effects as well. Very highly recommended.
David Fisher, who wrote the original TV story The Stones of Blood, has now converted it not to a print novel but to audiobook format, read with great gusto by Susan Engel (who played the villain of the piece on screen) with John Leeson doing K9's lines. I had been looking forward to this with hopeful enthusiasm, as Fisher's novelisations of his other two stories are among the best of the Target range.
I am very glad to say that I was not disappointed. The audio is about twice as long as the original series (four hour-long CDs), and Fisher has bulked out the material with lots more character background and atmosphere than was possible on screen - the full story of the campers gruesomely slain by the Ogri, for example, and various brazen but humorous infodumps. There are lots of decent sound effects as well. Very highly recommended.
March 25, 2015
After a slow start this turned into an enjoyable read.
May 4, 2016
I loved this! It's a great production and I felt like I was watching the episodes. Great fun!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews