As I am sure you readily remember, the Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that the state of entropy in any isolated system (such as the Universe) will always increase over time.So, for example, left to its own devices your home will always get more messy and it will always take more effort to clean it up than it took to mess it up in the first place. Currently my own desktop is a monument to the Second Law, although I do intend to remedy that situation in the near future. I can honestly state that no chemistry of physics teacher taught me about thermodynamics; no, I learned about it from Doctor Who all the way back in 1981 and it has stuck with me ever since. This proves that the show lives up to its remit to be an educational program as well as an entertaining one.

Let's talk about that.

Logopolis - Parts 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Well, here we are: the final Fourth Doctor story. The first episode has the Doctor deciding that a return to Gallifrey is not a great idea, what with Romana's fate and all, and so he decides he wants to fix the TARDIS' chameleon circuit. That being the case, he returns to Earth in order to measure a real police box by materializing around it and then taking extensive measurements. Unfortunately, the Master has already been there and landed his own TARDIS around the same police box, which means there is one dimensionally transcendental object wrapped around another, leading to a sever gravity bubble and a nasty recursive loop. Oh, and the Master is running about being generally evil. On top of that, poor Tegan Jovanka is on her way to her first day of work as an airline stewardess when she gets a flat tire and makes the mistake of wandering into the TARDIS looking for help. And on top of that, the Doctor and Adric keep seeing a mysterious figure all in white watching them from a distance.

Tegan spends the entire first episode and a good chunk of the second lost deep inside the TARDIS without the Doctor or Adric even aware of her presence. By the time she finds her way back to the control room, they have already traveled to Logopolis, where the Doctor hopes to get some assistance in the form of block transfer computation from the best mathematicians in the universe. Upon their arrival they also find that the mysterious Watcher has also brought along Nyssa from the previous story, and so the new TARDIS crew is fully assembled. All that's left to complete the new show setup is tomorrow's regeneration.

This story features the first appearance of the Cloister Bell, the TARDIS' emergency warning system. It has been used several times in the modern series, and this right here is where it came from. It is just such a great concept, and adds to the gradual buildup of dread that permeates the entire story.

By the end of the second episode the Master has sabotaged the Logopolitan computations, and the TARDIS is being rapidly shrunk in size with the Doctor inside, while Adric, Tegan, and Nyssa watch in horror.

I love this story so much, and it is every bit as good as I remember. It has a slow build to it, and heady ideas about the underlying structure of the universe. It is not one I would recommend to a casual viewer, but as a swan song for the Fourth Doctor it is pitch perfect. I am a little bit bummed that tomorrow I'll be saying goodbye to Tom Baker, but also excited to finally meet the Fifth Doctor again for the first time. I'll be up bright and early.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Fourth
Companion(s): Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Episode(s): Logopolis - Parts 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 7,589 today, 1,920,139 total
Distance Walked: 4.30 miles today, 975.62 miles total
Weight: 247.94 lbs (five day moving average), net change -59.36 lbs