Today I started Galaxy 4, the first of a long run of reconstructions. Also today, I passed the 10% mark in total episodes watched. Yay! Anyway 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 basketball 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.

Four Hundred Dawns / Trap of Steel

The TARDIS materializes on a desert planet that does not at all look like a rock quarry. It is immediately approached by the cutest dang robot seen on the series to date, which Vicki quickly names as "Chumbley".

Source: the very awesome Doctor Kawaii

The Chumbley circles the TARDIS, raises an antenna and sends off a message to somewhere, and then trundles away. Once it is gone the Doctor & co. head out to explore, get surrounded by more Chumbleys with heat guns, and are rescued by some Amazon Women. Well, either rescued or taken prisoner, something like that. The group is taken back to a non-functional spaceship and meets Maaga - the leader of the Amazon Women (who turn out to be called Drahvin).

It turns out that Maaga is a real person, but the other three women are just clones or something. Maaga is militaristic, paranoid, overbearing, and just everything you might not like in a person. She rants on about how their ship was shot down four hundred dawns ago by some other aliens called the Rill, how the entire planet is going to self-destruct in fourteen days, and how they need to defeat the evil Rill, steal their working ship, and escape the planet. Needless to say, the Doctor is not impressed.

He also figures out, a little later, that the planet is actually going to blow up in two days -- the discrepancy having to do with the planet belonging to a trinary system, and how to correctly count dawns when there are three suns to rise. So anyway, it's pretty clear that Maaga is a raving loon. It is also clear that the Chumbleys could have destroyed the Drahvin ship at any time, since it is made out of cheap materials (and probably Maaga-spit). It therefore follows that the Rill are probably really nice people who are only trying to help.

Of course the Doctor heads off to meet the Rill, bringing Vicki with him and unwillingly leaving Steven as a prisoner of the Drahvin. Eventually they find the Rill encampment, which is much more advanced. They do a bit of exploring, and find that the Rill are clearly drilling for something and also have an air purifier. They even find a cute little baby Chumbley. Just then they hear a sound, turning around to see their first Rill, and oh my god it's horrible kill it with fire!!!

Tomorrow I will be bouncing between watching the one existing episode on DVD, and then the final episode as a streaming reconstruction. Have I mentioned how much fun it is to juggle electronic devices while half-exhausted and walking on a treadmill?

STATS:

Doctor(s): First
Companion(s): Vicki, Steven Taylor
Episode(s): Four Hundred Dawns, Trap of Steel
Steps Walked: 6,727 today, 285,882 total
Distance Walked: 3.19 miles today, 130.96 miles total
Weight: 295.08 lbs (five day moving average), net change -12.22 lbs