The good news this morning was that, for the first time, I completed a full 55 minutes on the treadmill at 4.0 miles per hour and at level six on the incline. I was feeling mighty good about that, until I stepped on the scale and came in at just over 270 pounds. I thought I had seen the last of the 270's, but apparently that is not the case. I have mentioned before that looking at the daily numbers will definitely drive you crazy, and today is one of those days. Still, I keep plodding forward, and I am less than thirty miles away from the big 500 milestone, so that's cool. Oh, and I watched the rest of Terror of the Autons today.

Let's talk about that.

Terror of the Autons - Episodes 3 & 4

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Really, there's not a lot to talk about here. The Doctor finally sees the Master face to face, they spar a bit, the Auton invasion is thwarted, and the Master gets away. I mean, it's a bit more interesting than that, but those are the broad strokes.

I liked the devious way the Master tried to unleash the invasion -- by spreading a half-million plastic daisies around England that, when signaled by radio, squirt out a thin bit of plastic to cover the nose and mouth of whoever happens to be nearby. The person suffocates, the plastic film dissolves, and it looks like an unexplained natural death. Very clever. Also, we get the first instance of the Master using a full-face disguise, a trend that will run all the way up to the end of the Twelfth Doctor at least. The story also results in the Master's TARDIS being disabled such that he is trapped on Earth just like the Doctor, and thus positioning him as the recurring adversary.

All in all a fun viewing, if a bit of a light story. It's main intention was to introduce the Master and set up the Holmes/Moriarty relationship between the two, and it certainly served its purpose. I expect the next story will be a bit more meaty.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Third
Companion(s): Jo Grant, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Episode(s): Terror of the Autons - Episodes 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 7,005 today, 968,376 total
Distance Walked: 3.66 miles today, 472.78 miles total
Weight: 265.98 lbs (five day moving average), net change -41.32 lbs