As the Thanksgiving holiday weekend wraps up, I have just completed three performances in the last two days of the show I am in. Fortunately we have three nights off now, because I am tuckered out. Tomorrow morning I am back to work at my day job, and I have a few days of normalcy. I am falling asleep in my chair as I type this, so let's get this thing done.

The first two episodes of Doctor Who to air in the 80's - let's talk about them.

The Horns of Nimon - Parts 2 & 3

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

I will be the first to admit that in this story the monster costumes are cheap and tacky, and that the main human bad guy is played with a breathtaking level of overacting. Even so, I still enjoyed the story quite a bit. The main thrust of the back half of the story is that the NImon is not actually the last of his race. Instead, he is the spearhead of an invasion. His race travels like locust, stripping a planet bare of all resources before moving on to the next and ensnaring them in the same trap. The man-made black hole encountered in the first episode turns out to be the gateway through which the Nimon travel, and their new target planet is about to be swarmed.

In the end the Doctor does a Very Clever Thing, and all of the Nimon are destroyed. Along the way, though, there are some very nice twists and turns of character. Best of all, K9 gets to be a hero, which is always a welcome turn.

This story was the last to be aired for the 17th season. Originally there was supposed to be one more story, the legendary Shada, but it was never completed due to a strike at the BBC. I had hoped to begin watching Shada tomorrow, but there is a brand new restoration that hasn't quite yet been released in the United States, so I am going to have to circle back to it early next year. In any case, not only does today's story wrap up the 70's and the 17th season, it also marks the end of Graham Williams turn as Producer and Douglas Adams' turn as Script Editor. Tomorrow I reach the dawn of the John Nathan-Turner era, and all of the radical changes that that entails. I am bracing myself, because I know that right off the bat I am going to hate the opening credits...

STATS:

Doctor(s): Fourth
Companion(s): Romana, K9
Episode(s): The Horns of Nimon - Parts 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 7,326 today, 1,822,770 total
Distance Walked: 4.09 miles today, 921.34 miles total
Weight: 250.30 lbs (five day moving average), net change -57.00 lbs