I have had a long and mortifying day, so I am going to keep this one brief. One positive thing to note: this morning I was back withing two tenths of a pound of my record low, and less than two pounds away from hitting my goal of weighing in below 250 at least once before Christmas. So that's pretty dang cool. As for the mortifying part, I won't dwell on it. It's not a life-or-death thing, and I am probably embarrassed out of proportion to what anyone else thought, but I definitely had a difficult rehearsal tonight for mys how. That's ok, fix it and move on, right?

So moving on, I watched the first half of a new story today. Let's talk about that.

The Creature from the Pit - Parts 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

I'll give this story for being on point it its opening setup. The very first scene takes place with a group of people gathered around a pit, and one of those people is summarily tossed into the hole where he is subsequently devoured by a creature. So, title covered in the first ninety seconds.

If that's not quite literal enough for you, there is an exchange of dialog a bit later where the Doctor is taken to the same spot and asks, "What's this?", to which the evil Lady Adrastra replies, "We call it the Pit." In another scene Romana asks, "What is that thing int he pit?", to which the evil Lady Adrastra replies, "We call it the Creature."

One might think that with that level of dialog there is no subtext to be had in this story, but one would be wrong.

So very, very wrong.

I'm not saying that the titular Creature in the titular Pit is phallic. Not at all. I am saying that the Creature is quite literally a giant five-foot erect penis shambling around the caves on its giant scrotum body. 

The Creature appears to be Jewish

There is actually a plot going on here, in between the rampant literalism and penis symbolism. Something about a giant eggshell that is alive, a planet with a sever metal shortage, the robber baron woman who is hoarding all of the available metal, and the roguish thieves who steal what they can. It is actually all surprisingly watchable, too. But holy cow, that creature.

Also, K9 is no longer voiced by John Leeson, which is painfully obvious. It just doesn't feel like K9 at all. The good news is that Leeson comes back at the start of the next season, so it's only a few stories with this knock-off voice.

Other than that, I don't have much to say about this story. I presume it tomorrow's viewing the Doctor will reunite the Creature with it's mother or some such, and the Lady Adrastra will be deposed in one way or another. We'll see.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Fourth
Companion(s): Romana, K9
Episode(s): The Creature from the Pit - Parts 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 7,520 today, 1,785,902 total
Distance Walked: 4.21 miles today, 901.09 miles total
Weight: 253.54 lbs (five day moving average), net change -53.76 lbs