I dove into The Daleks' Master Plan this morning with some trepidation. As I have said before, "How can I miss you if you won't go away?" The good news is, this story is a vast improvement over the previous outing. The better news is, I completely forgot that this story marks the first appearance of Nicholas Courtney on the show. The director liked working with him so much that he asked him back the next year to appear in The Web of Fear, and the rest is history. So yeah, sure, he isn't the Brigadier yet, but that's just fine. His calm demeanor and stiff-upper-lippedness in the face of adversity shines through and raises the level of the story immensely.

Let's talk about that.

Much like the Thunder Dome, on Doctor Who when one companion leaves another companion must soon come aboard. In these early days, the swap is clearly in service to future stories already written -- teenager Susan leaves, and so teenager Vicki slots right in. Man of Action Ian leaves, and so Man of Action Steven slots right in. Arguably Barbara fails this mold, to which I would say: 1) Barbara was a goddess, and cannot be replaced, and 2) More likely, whatever future scenes had been written for Barbara could have been picked up easily by Vicki, so the same principle still applies. And so, with today's departure of Vicki also comes today's arrival of Katarina. Of course, Katarina won't be around all that long... But that's a conversation for another day (specifically: Wednesday). But today we have Trojan horses and Achilles tendons to discuss.

My son was sick last night, spectacularly so. The good news is that he seems to be feeling better today. But I was up doing a full hazmat cleaning routine at 1am, and he was up for several hours after that just feeling miserable. None of us got any sleep, and I don't feel up to leaving the house to go walk on a treadmill. Still, this is only the second day out of 49 that I have missed. That's a pretty good record. I'll finish up The Mythmakers tomorrow.

I am deep into recon territory now. It looks to me like it will be nine more days before I watch another non-reconstructed episode, and fully nineteen of the next 24 stories I watch will be either fully or partially reconstructed. As for today's story, it was the first half of The Myth Makers. We did the Romans in the second season, so it's only fitting that we should do the Greeks in the third. More specifically, the story is centered on the climax of the ten-year siege of Troy. It does help, when watching the story, to be familiar with The Iliad, since all of the major characters are there and some are played against type for irony. But it is another pure historical, and those are my favorite type of First Doctor stories.

Today's episode, Mission to the Unknown. is a bit of an oddity in the history of Doctor Who. It is the only story in the entire fifty-plus year history of the show to not include even a brief appearance by either the Doctor or any companions. All of the regulars went on vacation for a week, and instead we got a weird little story about a damaged spaceship, some murderous plants, the Daleks, and a brand new Axis of Galactic Evil. There is also one other significant detail, for which I will leave you, my dear imaginary readers, in suspense for the time being.

Yay! I just got the shipment notification, the replacement parts for my treadmill came in a month sooner than expected. The parts have been shipped and will arrive next Thursday. That means that I will have a working treadmill in my home before the completion of The Daleks' Master Plan. Woo Hoo!!

I had to cut my workout about ten minutes short today, because I was cramped for time. But at least I was able to finish watching the rest of Galaxy 4, which I enjoyed quite a bit even if it wasn't particularly surprising. I was especially impressed with how the designers managed to get away with portraying a truly alien race on a miniscule budget. The strategy served to make the storytelling more interesting, even as it spared expenses.

Today I started Galaxy 4, the first of a long run of reconstruction. By my count, the next twelve days will be nothing but reconstructions. Fortunately, the Loose Canon recons are really well done and very enjoyable. Also worth mentioning, today mister "I'm a natural leader" was back playing basketball. I chose to work out far, far away from the court. I did notice as I was leaving, however, that the entire row of machines near the court was completely abandoned. Them's some serious leadership skills ya got there, champ!

Anyway, let's talk about those Amazon Women.

There were no angry atheletes to distract me this morning. Just Vikings, Saxons, Time Lords, and a surprise infestation of Underpants Gnomes. 

Let's talk about that.

I am going to start by saying: I really miss my own treadmill, and the repair parts can't get here fast enough. This morning during my workout, there was a heated basketball game going on directly in front of me. That's usually no big deal, except there were also two Alpha Jocks arguing over something, which culminated in one of them screaming about how he was a natural leader, and people follow him because (again) he is a natural leader. Just as a quick tip, if you have to loudly insist multiple times that you are a natural leader, you are by definition not a natural leader. You are just a loud jerk making my workout miserable. Grr.

Regarding today's episode, it is Steven Taylor's first trip on the TARDIS. He doesn't believe it is really a time machine. He is proven wrong.

Let's talk about that.