I'll be honest, I'm a wee bit distracted at the moment because there is a giant Category 4 hurricane headed remorselessly towards my house right now.  The storm proper will reach my location on Sunday evening. If you don't see any entries from me on Sunday or Monday, don't be too concerned. It is virtually certain that we will lose power for some length of time. The good news is that we are far enough inland, and in a sturdy enough location, that I am not fearful for our physical safety. I am genuinely fearful for everyone remaining in South Florida, and along either of the coasts. This is a monster storm that will engulf the entire state both side-to-side and top-to-bottom before it is done. I hope everyone out there stays safe and stays smart.

But anyway, yeah, I did spent my hour on the treadmill today watching Doctor Who. Let's talk about that.

I had my annual physical today, and guess what? In every measurable way I am the healthiest I have been in decades. My cholesterol levels, both LDL and HDL, are fantastic and have significantly improved since my last physical. All my other numbers are excellent as well. My stated goal at the start of this project was "...to feel good about myself physically and mentally", and I have fully achieved that goal already. Which only makes me that much more energized about how I might feel after another six months of this journey. I am not even halfway through the episodes yet, and just barely a quarter of the way through the stories, so I know I will be at this until at least next spring.

Today's new story The Monster of Peladon thus far boils down to a treatise about the inequities between Capitol and Labor. The Doctor returns to Peladon to visit his friend the King, but arrives fifty years later than planned (and also a few hundred meters deeper than planned, down inside the caverns instead of up in the citadel). The King is long dead, his daughter is queen, the Galactic Federation is still mucking about, and as usual it's the common folk who are getting screwed. Let's talk about that.

I weighed in at a new record low today, how cool is that? After two consecutive days below 260 I had a six day run back above the line. Today, though, I dropped back down well below the line. In fact, I think I've got a decent shot at hitting 50 lbs lost by the end of the week. Fingers crossed. Unfortunately, today I also had to watch the second half of Death to the Daleks, which I didn't particularly enjoy.

Let's talk about that?

Fun fact: The original working title for today's new story was The Exilons, and did not include any Daleks. It is,however, a Terry Nation script and at some point both he and producer Barry Letts decided to shoehorn some Daleks to goose viewership and sell toys. I mean, I assume that was the reason, it certainly wasn't because the plot demanded it. So here we are with another damn Dalek story, and one where they don't even need to be there. What a crock.

I got a bit of a late start today. As in, I didn't even get on the treadmill until nearly 9pm. But I know just how much you rely on me, my dear Imaginary Readers (not at all), and I know how disappointed you would be if I missed a day of watching Doctor Who while walking in place (again, not at all). So here I am, with midnight fast approaching on this lovely holiday weekend, writing about deceptive lizards wandering around the streets of Central London in 1973. It's a life.

So let's get to it.

So, Jon Pertwee was a fan of James Bond type fiction, and in particular the gadgets. He personally commissioned a spaceship-looking vehicle for the Doctor to drive around in, and in today's viewing it shows up as the Doctor forgoes a UNIT jeep in order to use his new wheels to triangulate the location of the hidden power source dredging up dinosaurs. Ultimately the car is only seen onscreen one more time (I think, I suppose I'll find out for sure over the next two weeks). Pertwee kept the car, though, after he retired as the Doctor. And also, by the way, it wasn't just some cheap dolled-up prop. It was fully capable of hitting a top speed of 105mph. Check out this short feature about it:

So anyway, let's talk about today's viewing.

A bit of an odd day today. My (autistic) son stayed home sick from his Adult Day Training program, I stayed out sick from work as well, and although I did eventually treadmill it was at a weird time of day. Then, when I started watching Invasion of the Dinosaurs on the treadmill, I was initially thrown because part 1 was in black & white and opened with the title Invasion. I knew it couldn't be the Second Doctor story because the opening credits were clearly Third Doctor, but I was very confused. It turns out that the color master videotape for the first part had been wiped and re-used, and was lost for a full ten years until a 16mm black & white telerecording of the episode was found. That makes it one of the very latest "lost" episodes in the series, with only one other coming up in the next story. As for the title, the complete title was deliberately elided for the first part in order to keep the appearance of a t-rex at the cliffhanger a surprise.

So hey, dinosaurs running around in Central London. Let's talk about that.

Yes, I watched the second half of The Time Warrior today. Yes, it is a quarter to midnight and I want to go to bed. So let's keep this short.

What a viewing today! The Time Warrior was the first story in the eleventh season of Doctor Who, and although I had never seen it before it was just like visiting home after being away for years. There were just so many firsts in this story, starting off with this:

Right off the bat it's the familiar time tunnel that began literally every single episode of Doctor Who that I watched as a boy in the 70's, combined with the iconic diamond logo that was used for the remainder of the decade right up through the end of Tom Baker's reign as the Fourth Doctor. Within the first few seconds of treadmilling this morning I had a stupid grin on my face, and the hits just kept on coming.

Let's talk about that.