Checked it out, I bumped up my speed another notch today. I am currently going at 4.7 mph, and I completed the entire workout at that speed (although I was sorely tempted to slow down by the last third of my workout). I have also started tiptoeing into an extra workout, by doing a 30-day Planking Challenge. Today was easy enough at 20 seconds, but it ratchets up pretty quickly. Theoretically by November 30th I should be holding a proper Plank position for five full minutes. I figure if there is some chance that my abs will become visible at some point, I should start working them, right?

As for Doctor Who, I watched the middle third of the current story. Let's talk about that.

The Invasion of Time - Parts 3 & 4

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

As expected, in the third episode we finally find out why the Doctor has been behaving so strangely. The bad buys, the Vardens, have the ability to travel on energy waves and can read minds. As such, the Doctor has had to shield his thoughts with chaotic behavior and prevent anyone else from becoming aware of his plans. Having the presidential office lined in lead gives him a safe room where he can finally reveal to Borusa what is really going on, and he had to get Leela entirely out of the Citadel because her mind is entirely open and susceptible. By the end of the third episode the security guard (and soon-to-be love interest for Leela) Andred corners the Doctor in the TARDIS and is about to execute him for being a traitor.

Also as expected, right away in the fourth episode the Doctor is able to explain to Andred what is really going on. The Doctor needs the Vardens to physically arrive, instead of just being there in projections, in order to track them back to their home world and lock the planet in a time loop (an action foreshadowed in the previous story with the Minyans). After much subterfuge the Doctor is able to do just that, the Vardans are summarily defeated, and all is as it should be.

Except that the way the Doctor exposed the Vardans was to drop all of Gallifrey's defense shields, which leads to a final shot where a squad of Sontaran soldiers appears in the Panopticon. So much for the day being saved.

This is just a great, great story with lots of character work and subterfuge. Tom Baker gets to play a tremendous range in this one, and Leela is also given interesting things to do outside the Citadel raising an army of expatriate Time Lords. I am sure they will come in handy in the upcoming fight against the Sontarans.

Also, I just have to say how striking Louise Jameson's blue eyes are in this episode. She wore brown contacts for her entire first season, and then there was the big plot point at the end of Horror at Fang Rock which turned the character's eyes blue and thus allowed the actress to not wear the contacts anymore. So they have been blue for several stories now, but something about the lighting and locations in these two episodes really made her natural eye color stand out. 

Tomorrow marks the end of this story, the end of Season Fifteen, and the end of Leela as a companion. It should be a doozy.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Fourth
Companion(s): Leela, K-9
Episode(s): The Invasion of Time - Parts 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 7,660 today, 1,644,276 total
Distance Walked: 4.30 miles today, 822.81 miles total
Weight: 254.68 lbs (five day moving average), net change -52.62 lbs