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.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Parts 5 & 6

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Does the fifth part of this story suffer from Spinning Plate Syndrome? Uh, yeah, just a bit. Here's the basic plot of Part Five: The Doctor is captured and put under arrest at UNIT, escapes, and is captured again. Meanwhile, down in the underground bunker, Sarah Jane Smith (who had previously been captured and placed on a fake colony spaceship) escapes out the fake airlock, makes it all the back to UNIT, and then is captured again and taken back to the underground bunker where she escapes again and sneaks back into the fake spaceship.

Of course things to finally get resolved in Part Six, with Mike Yates fully revealed as the traitor, with the occupants of the fake colony spaceship realizing their deception, and with the bad guys sent back sixty five million years to the Golden Age they so wanted to experience. One presumes they were promptly converted into dino poop.

I have to say, this story really fizzled out at the end. There is some interesting deeper stuff going on there, with discussions about mankind being poor stewards of the Earth, and with Mike Yates' betrayal given some degree of sympathy, but in the end the whole thing was kind of a nothing burger. I usually like it when the show's reach exceeds its grasp, but the dinosaur special effects really  haven't aged well (and I doubt they were considered particularly good in 1973). If nothing else, though, at least Elisabeth Sladen continues to shine as Sarah Jane Smith. 

Tomorrow it's another damn Dalek story. The last one wasn't bad, but it's just too soon for another one. I am not hopeful.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Third
Companion(s): Sarah Jane Smith, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Episode(s): Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Parts 5 & 6
Steps Walked: 7,069 today, 1,254,073 total
Distance Walked: 3.66 miles today, 619.37 miles total
Weight: 262.02 lbs (five day moving average), net change -45.28 lbs