Good news! I survived my debilitating illness. Ok, honestly, I had a head cold for about a day and a half, no big deal. But I'm sure I almost died! I was feeling mostly better yesterday, but didn't want to risk pushing myself too quickly and getting sick again. Today I was up and at 'em, and hit the treadmill for the second half of The Leisure Hive (finally!).

So let's talk about that.

The Leisure Hive - Parts 3 & 4

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

I figured there was a swerve coming, but I didn't expect the double-swerve. Turns out the hidden reptilian infiltrator to the Hive was not the saboteur. It turns out that he (and a companion) were ambassadors from the Foamasi (the victors of the war that forty years previously had turned Argolis into a sterile and dying planet). It turns out the human businessman trying to talk the Argolins into selling their planet were actually rogue Foamasi in disguise, known criminals that the ambassador had come to apprehend. It also turns out that the young next-in-line to be the leader of the Argolins was not current leader's son as previously stated, but was actually a kind of clone created by the Tachyon Recreation Generator, and was also the saboteur himself. Oh no!

It was a convoluted plot, not really helped by the overbearing synthesized soundtrack running throughout. I didn't hate the story, but it certainly isn't one I would choose to revisit anytime in the next few decades. Viewers at the time agreed with me -- the ratings dropped steadily from episode to episode, causing the show to fall out of the top 100 programs for the first time in eighteen years. Apparently the science fiction audience preferred to watch Buck Rogers over on ITV.

One thing that definitely didn't help was that reportedly Tom Baker and Lalla Ward were having a seriously rocky time in their relationship, thus making it a very uncomfortable set to work on. Also not helping -- the director Lovett Bickford grossly mismanaged the shoot and caused it to go significantly over budget. He was never invited back to work on the show again.

Tomorrow: the Doctor turns into a cactus.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Fourth
Companion(s): Romana
Episode(s): The Leisure Hive - Parts 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 7,522 today, 1,837,653 total
Distance Walked: 4.31 miles today, 929.74 miles total
Weight: 250.90 lbs (five day moving average), net change -56.40 lbs