Today was a longer-than-usual day on the treadmill. The next story was a three-parter, but where last season had the two three-parters back-to-back so I could just watch them together in three days, this season goes 4-3-4-3. So I decided to watch today's story in its entirety, and I will do the same on Monday. That means today I went for 80 minutes, and walked nearly six miles. Oh, and then I did 28 pushups. So, a bit of a workout today.

As for for the story, it was a good one. So let's talk about that.

Ghost Light - Parts 1, 2, & 3

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Ghost Light is noteworthy as being the very last classic Doctor Who story to be produced. There were still two more stories that aired after it, but both completed filming earlier. The performances in today's viewing, they were the very last ones of a historic twenty six year run. 

As for the story itself, it is played as a gothic horror period piece although the underpinnings are pure science fiction. The entire story takes place within a mansion in Victorian England in Ace's home town of Perrivale (although a hundred years before her time). When they first arrive, though, Ace has no idea where the Doctor has taken her. Not until the Creepy Things start happening, and Ace remembers a terrible event from her childhood.

During the day the house is maintained by a normal staff, but they all clear out before 6pm. After dark, it becomes a house of horrors. There is so much going on, and so many supporting characters, that it is hard to follow everything that is going on. Ultimately all the details fit together and it turns out to be a very carefully and cleverly constructed tale.

The crux of the story is all about evolution in all its forms. There is much debate about Darwinism. There is a Neanderthal man acting as a house servant. There are animated husks of insects crawling around the rooms. There is a spaceship in the basement. There is a literal Primordial Soup served for dinner. 

Through it all, there is the Seventh Doctor at his very darkest. He brings Ace to this place to help her face her childhood demons, and both Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred give some of their best performances of the series. It's just all so very good. It makes me so sad to think that in four more days I will be done with the Seventh Doctor, who has catapulted himself near the top of my favorite Doctors. I'm not ready to let him go yet.

On the other hand, I am ready to go to bed. After more than a year of doing this every day it's getting hard to come up with anything profound to say.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Seventh
Companion(s): Ace
Episode(s): Ghost Light - Parts 1, 2, & 3
Steps Walked: 10,552 today, 2,499,257 total
Distance Walked: 5.61 miles today, 1,296.24 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 28 today, 177 total
Weight: 249.44 lbs (five day moving average), net change -57.86 lbs