Today has been a tremendously satisfying day. First of all, I managed to do sixty pushups today. A month ago I could only do three. I expected to barely break fifty today, but here I am. Aside from that, I got a callback for the show I auditioned for. How cool is that? On top of that I had an extremely productive day at work, completely refactoring a big chunk of code plus fixing something like fifteen bugs. Like I say, it's been a satisfying day.

I also watched the first half of arguably the single best story of the Ninth Doctor era. So let's talk about that.

The Empty Child

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

This story marks the first writing contribution to the modern series by future show runner Steven Moffat. Prior to this he was know for a twenty minute Comic Relief special called The Curse of Fatal Death starring Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor and Jonathan Pryce as the Master, and for creating and writing the series Coupling. Both are very, very funny. For example:

from The Girl With Two Breasts

What I am saying is, Moffat was very well known for being a very talented comedic writer. So you can imagine what a shock it was when it turned out he was also damned good at writing a properly scary story.

The Doctor and Rose follow a piece of alien technology to the center of London in the midst of the 1941 blitz, are rapidly separated, and become embroiled in a mystery involving a strange gas-mask-wearing boy wandering the streets of London searching for his mother. Check this out:

This story is also noteworthy as being the first appearance of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, renegade Time Agent. Barrowman instantly magnetic on screen -- it is no wonder he became so popular he got his own spinoff series.

By the end of the first part, the Doctor, Rose, and Jack are trapped in a creepy hospital surrounded by gas-mask-face zombies all infected by the same plague that created the titular Empty Child. It is easily the most "hide behind the sofa" moment thus far in the modern series, and an instant classic.

I can hardly wait until tomorrow morning to watch the second half, which (spoiler alert) has an absolutely glorious ending.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Ninth
Companion(s): Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness
Episode(s): The Empty Child
Steps Walked: 7,651 today, 2,603,039 total
Distance Walked: 4.37 miles today, 1,352.69 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 60 today, 431 total
Weight: 250.78 lbs (five day moving average), net change -56.52 lbs