You know how I said I was having a fat day yesterday? Today I was three pounds lighter. Here is Ron's Weight Loss Tip: You have to weigh yourself every day to track the trend lines, but paying attention to the day-to-day weight will drive you insane. Speaking of insane, in The Seeds of Death in the late 21st century mankind has developed a matter transfer system called T-Mat, and has for some reason decided that since they have that one form of travel they don't need any others. That decision does not turn out well.

Let's talk about that.

The Seeds of Death - Episodes 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

The T-Mat system is controlled globally via a base on the moon, not unlike global weather control system in The Moonbase. Unfortunately, that means that when some Ice Warriors show up and kill the dude in charge of the base, but not before the dude deliberately shorts out the computer system that controls T-Mat, the Earth-side base has no way to get a repair team up there because -- follow me here -- the T-Mat system is broken. So the head of T-Mat has to go to an old rocket scientist who happens to have a rocket on-hand that just needs to be finished up.

Coincidentally, the TARDIS materializes inside the rocket scientist's museum of classic space travel stuff. Nobody on Earth knows about the Ice Warriors yet, but without T-Mat to transport things around the planet, thousands of lives are at stake if the T-Mat system can't be repaired. The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe agree to travel to the moon in the rocket because a) the TARDIS can't be trusted for that precise of a journey, and b) if they don't there won't be a plot for the rest of the story. Tragically, Zoe changes out of her micro-mini-skirt prior to boarding the rocket. I know that she changes into some short-shorts in time for the next story, though, so it's all good.

Unfortunately, by the end of the second episode the rocket is headed for a crash landing on the moon because the homing beacon is interrupted. Granted, that happens because the one free guy on the moon base manages to actually kill one of the Ice Warriors, but his small victory spells doom for our lead characters. Roll credits!

Structurally, this is a really interesting story so far. The first episode runs for several minutes establishing the moon invasion before it ever gets around to having the TARDIS crew arrive, and when that does happen it turns out they are on Earth and not at the crisis location as one might assume. Also, for at least the first two episodes the Doctor is completely unaware of the actual threat on the moon. He knows there is a problem that could lead to a real crisis on Earth, and he and Zoe are uniquely positioned as literally the only two people on the planet with the skill set to fly a rocket from the Earth to the Moon, but they are doing so without any knowledge of the real situation. 

Although I disliked writer Brian Hayles' first story (The Celestial Toymaker), I definitely liked his next two (The Smugglers and The Ice Warriors). He has a definite flair for character, and this story has several interesting ones. The story also introduces a new type of Ice Warrior, the leader Slaar who is not wearing the full-body armor of the regular warriors and who is wearing a very different kind of helmet. 

The design shows off more of the reptilian face, and is nicely done. I gather that Slaar is sometimes erroneously referred to as an Ice Lord, but that designation is never used anywhere in the actual story.

Anyway, i am quite enjoying the story so far and am looking forward to tomorrow's middle two episodes. Here's hoping they continue to hold up well!

STATS:

Doctor(s): Second
Companion(s): Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot
Episode(s): The Seeds of Death - Episodes 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 6,937 today, 794,623 total
Distance Walked: 3.66 miles today, 384.55 miles total
Weight: 273.44 lbs (five day moving average), net change -33.86 lbs