It seems pretty clear to me that, at this point, I have reached a perfect equilibrium between how much I like to exercise and how much I like to eat. My body continues to change as I add more strength training, but my weight has remained stable for a couple months now. I am perfectly, joyously happy with this. I feel great, and pretty much any time I go out like I did tonight I get multiple compliments on how good I look. I am wearing clothes right now that were packed away a dozen years ago because I got too fat for them. It's like having a complete new wardrobe without having to go shopping. And for all of this I have Doctor Who to thank. So, thank you Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman. Thank you Waris Hussein. Thank you William Hartnel, William Russel, Jacqueline Hill, and Carole Ann Ford. Thank you for everyone over the past 55 years at the BBC who provided me the perfect distraction so I wouldn't notice just how hard I was working and how much I was sweating. Five more months to go before I wrap up Phase 1 of this ridiculous project.

In other news, this morning I finished the very last Damn Dalek story of the classic era, and it was a good'n. Let's talk about that.

Remembrance of the Daleks - Parts 3 & 4

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Three words to best describe this story: Special Weapons Dalek!

Generally I am not a fan of gimmicks, but this one is just too cool for words. When the Renegade Daleks start getting a bit too successful the Imperial Daleks bring out their literal Big Gun, which trundles out and just straight up destroys anything in its path. This is hands down the coolest Dalek in the history of Daleks, and as much as I am sick to death of the pepper-pot Nazis this beast sails right above that prejudice and floods the screen with awesomeness.

As for the rest of the story, it's just one swerve after another. All of those rear views of Davros? Turns out not to be Davros after all, but instead a brainwashed creepy little human girl. The Imperial Daleks learned from their stalemate in the Movellan war, and have figured out how to harness the impulsiveness and imagination of a human puppet in order to avoid being predictable slaves to logic. Next swerve: the Emperor Dalek actually turns out to be Davros himself, encased in a brand new giant-headed Dalek machine. Which means that the Imperial Daleks are the newer hybrid ones, and the Renegade Daleks are actually the original models. Then the big swerve: the whole Hand of Omega red herring that the Doctor has been sneaking around with turns out to be a doomsday device to blow up Skaro and eliminate Davros and the Daleks once and for all. It mostly succeeds. Of course Davros escapes, and of course Skaro will return, but the fact remains that the Doctor has spent the entire story strategically unleashing a Machiavellian plan of epic proportions. This is Peak Doctor, and Sylvester McCoy sells it perfectly. I can not even begin to describe just how much I underestimated the Seventh Doctor going into this final run of classic stories, and I couldn't be happier about that fact.

Tomorrow: things get political with a very thinly-veiled satire about then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Should be interesting...

p>STATS:

Doctor(s): Seventh
Companion(s): Ace
Episode(s): Remembrance of the Daleks - Parts 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 7,458 today, 2,436,435 total
Distance Walked: 4.02 miles today, 1,262.53 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 64 total
Weight: 248.06 lbs (five day moving average), net change -59.24 lbs