Check it out - after hitting sixty pushups last week I kind of hit a brick wall. The next day of the program naturally had more per set, and my arms fatigued before I could finish. It took repeating that same day's program three times until today I finally broke back through, the end result being I hit sixty four pushups today. Barely. I expect the next day's program is going to be the same fight all over again, but I'll deal with that then. Progress is progress.

I also watched Doctor Who get all werewolf-y this morning, so let's talk about that.

Tooth and Claw

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

A few days ago I watched The Christmas Invasion, where the whole idea of Torchwood was introduced. The name is an anagram of Doctor Who, and was used as a fake title during the filming of the first season of the revived season. Once the new show was a hit, producer/writer Russel T Davies revived another show idea he had, called Excalibur, and reimagined it as a Doctor Who spinoff. The idea was to have a companion show that would be aired later in the evening and be targeted to a more adult audience. Thus Torchwood the show was born, and hinted at in the Christmas special.

Today's episode, then, might as well have been titled THIS IS THE TORCHWOOD ORIGIN STORY. Set in the Scottish Highlands in the 1870's during the reign of Queen Victoria, the vast majority of the story takes place at the Torchwood Estate. The Queen is traveling to Balmoral Castle (which my wife and I visited a few years ago -- it's quite lovely), but winds up needing to stay the night in the aforementioned Torchwood Estate. She is accompanied by the Doctor and Rose because of Reasons, and they spend the night battling a werewolf that is actually an alien (a Lupine Wavelength Haemovariform, to be precise).

Seriously, Balmoral is gorgeous. They do tours and everything. There is also an amazing exhibit there about the life of Queen Elizabeth II. If you are ever in Scotland I highly encourage you to visit.

Rose spends a lot of the episode trying to goad the Queen into saying "We are not amused", which as running jokes go isn't bad. At one point the Doctor licks a door in order to determine that it has been lacquered with mistletoe oil, because the Tenth Doctor likes to do chemical tests with his tongue. The climax hinges around the Doctor doing a Very Clever Thing with the Kohinoor diamond.

That's the diamond there on the front of the crown

So of course the Doctor defeats the werewolf/alien, and of course in the end the Queen vocalizes her lack of amusement. And then, after knighting both the Doctor and Rose, she proceeds to banish them both from the United Kingdom and gives them a lecture about the life they lead. The moment they are gone, she proceeds to announce the creation of the Torchwood Institute (coming this fall to BBC3!).

Look, it's early days for the Tenth Doctor. Christopher Eccleston had a lot going against him, but at least he was able to reimagine the role without the character being fresh in people's minds. David Tennant, on the other hand, had the challenge of stepping into the show once it was a hit and carrying it forward. He gets there (the day after tomorrow, as a matter of fact), but these first few stories are a bit wobbly. This one wasn't bad by any means. Tennant gets to use his natural Scottish accent for the only time during his tenure, and that's nice. The CGI wolf effects are a bit dodgy in places but not distractingly bad. There's just nothing about the episode that makes me particularly want to revisit it ever again. It's.... ok. Better than New Earth, but that doesn't take much.

The good news is, from here on out the season gets much stronger. The better news is, tomorrow I get to see Sarah Jane Smith and K9 again. Yay!!

I've missed you, Sarah Jane. And I still miss you, Elisabeth Sladen

STATS:

Doctor(s): Tenth
Companion(s): Rose Tyler
Episode(s): Tooth and Claw
Steps Walked: 7,653 today, 2,657,543 total
Distance Walked: 4.28 miles today, 1,382.22 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 64 today, 605 total
Weight: 252.62 lbs (five day moving average), net change -54.84 lbs