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

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Cessair of Diplos is, on the face of it, an alien criminal who happens to be in posession of the third segment of the Key to Time, disguised as the Great Seal of Diplos and will stop at nothing to prevent the Doctor from obtaining it. But the story hints that there's more to this than meets the eye: is she an agent of the Black Guardian who is trying to stop the Doctor getting the segment on the Guardian's behalf? Maybe, but a third explanation arises from "The Armageddon Factor": Cessair was a false agent of the Black Guardian. She was given the task of stealing the Great Seal, supposedly to stop the Doctor getting his hands on it, but actually to help him. The Guardian's plan was to trick the Doctor into giving him the complete Key. By this reasoning, Cessair stole the Great Seal, and was actually doing what would have been the dirty work. End result: the Doctor has the relatively easy job of recovering the Seal from a criminal as opposed to stealing it from its proper home on Diplos. Cessair got turned to stone for her efforts. The Doctor was then able to seek the remaining segments.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Near the end of Part 3, the Ogri attack a pair of random campers to recharge themselves. This has no bearing on the plot, beyond giving the Professor and K9 a temporary reprieve before Cessair returns.
• Confirmation Bias: The two Megara claim that they are impartial judges, and yet, they downplay the Doctor's claim that they are capable of error; presumably because of the fallacy that they are machines, thus machines cannot be in error.
• Les Yay: There is a definite, if subtle, romantic undertone to Rumford and Fay's relationship. Mary Tamm herself said "We were all so innocent back then" when the Les Yay was pointed out to her. Romana may have twigged to it in-universe, though, as she gives Rumford a kiss on the cheek before departing.
• Magnificent Bitch: Cessiar of Diplos is an intergalactic professional criminal and possibly an agent of the Black Guardian. Arrested for numerous crimes, including stealing the Key to Time's third segment and three Ogri, she manages to take control of the ship and escapes to Earth. Using her advanced tech and manipulative skills, Cessair tricked the Celts into worshiping her as the Callieach and training the Ogri to obey her. Using multiple invented identities for four thousand years, she retains absolute power over her fiefdom. In the present she continues to rule the area from behind the scenes using a sect of modern druids. Warned the Doctor is coming, Cessair orders the druids to dispose of him, and taking his form, she lures Romana to a cliff's edge where she pushes her off. Using the Ogri to wipe out the druids when they fail, Cessair traps Romana, and after giving the Doctor a chance to leave her be lures him onto the prison ship, then traps him with the Ogri. Her plan only failing due to the Megara's intervention, Cessair manipulates them, coming within a hair's breadth of having them kill the Doctor.
• Nightmare Fuel: The scene with the 2 campers. Especially the closeup of the hand.
  • Cessair's fate. And I Must Scream Indeed. The look of sheer horror on her face when the Megara pass sentence says it all.

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