I had another strong day on the treadmill, and another good weight checkin. I also had a very long day of work plus a performance in the evening, so I am exhausted. The only thing I want to note is that I have a couple of big milestones coming up. In two more days I finish the Fourth Doctor. In about a week I will hit 1,000 miles cumulatively walked. In about two weeks I will hit 2,000,000 cumulative steps. Yes, I might actually hit that last one on Christmas day. Ho, ho. ho!

I also finished the first story of this Master trilogy, so let's talk about that.

The Keeper of Traken - Parts 3 & 4

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

By the end of the third part of the story the Master is finally fully revealed to be inside the Melkur, although the Doctor does not decisively figure it out until the fourth episode. Of course the Master briefly becomes the Keeper of Traken and gains access to the Source, before the Doctor does a Very Clever Thing and saves the day. The big swerve at the very end, though, is that not only does the Master survive the big showdown but he actually takes over the body of Nyssa's father Tremas. Of course, it should have been a pretty obvious swerve given the anagrammatic nature of Tremas/Master. And so it is that, after a long absence from the series, aside from the pivotal appearance in The Deadly Assassin, the Master is finally back in full form in the person of actor Anthony Ainley, staged and ready to bedevil the Fifth Doctor in much the same way he did the Third Doctor.

As much as I love this story, you can really tell that the part had really taken a toll on Tom Baker by this point. He had been ill off and on all season, and while the character of the Doctor is still as charming as ever ("Yes, yes, don't listen to me," he says. "I never do."), you can see the weariness on his face. This story is the first of a trilogy that features the Master as the primary nemesis, and establishes the next Doctor and his companions. By Thursday morning this will once again be an entirely new series, and Tom Baker will finally get a well-deserved rest after seven years of hard work.

One fun bit of trivia about this story: Today's viewing marks the very last time in this project I will see a story that features absolutely no human characters. Tomorrow we meet a new Australian companion, Tegan, and from this point forward (even including the entire modern series), there will never be another story that does not  have at least one Earthling in the roster.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Fourth
Companion(s): Adric, Nyssa
Episode(s): The Keeper of Traken - Parts 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 7,538 today, 1,912,550 total
Distance Walked: 4.30 miles today, 971.32 miles total
Weight: 247.78 lbs (five day moving average), net change -59.52 lbs