As of this morning I have done more than four thousand pushups cumulatively since I added them to this ridiculous project. Also, remember a few days ago when I complained about being as big as a whale? Well, the last of my illness-related bloating has fallen off and I have lost more than seven pounds in the last five days. Trust me, it ain't because I was doing anything different. It's just the vagaries of illness combined with normal daily fluctuations. This stuff gets into your head and messes with it, though, so I'm not going to pretend I wasn't thrilled when I saw the number this morning. Good stuff.

As for Doctor Who (and speaking of being as big as a whale), Amy was suddenly nine months pregnant at the start of the episode. Oh, and Rory had a pony tail. So let's talk about that.

Amy's Choice

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Five or six years ago there was a very short-lived TV series starring Jason Isaacs called Awake, in which the lead character finds himself living a double life. In one life his wife and son were in a horrible car accident in which the wife died but the son survived. Except that whenever he fell asleep, he would immediately wake up in an alternate live in which the same accident happened but it was the wife who survived. The entire series has him working to figure out which one is real and which is a dream, and not wanting to give up either. It was a really good show, i wish it would have lasted longer.

Anyway, two years earlier Doctor Who aired today's episode which has pretty much the exact same mechanic. The twist is that the Doctor, Amy, and Rory are all experience the same shifts in reality. In one world Amy is nine months pregnant, she and Rory have settled down in a quiet English village, and the Doctor has come to visit just when strange things start happening. In the other world, the three of them are trapped inside a failing TARDIS that is plunging towards an icy star.  Also: the mysterious Dream Lord keeps appearing to them, and tells them that they must decide which is real and which is the dream. If they die in the dream world they will wake up in the real world and all will be well. If they die in the real world then... well, they die. In the real world.

Most of the plot from there is just hand-waviness to force Amy to sort out her feelings about both the Doctor and Rory and to make a choice. There's a whole thing with the old people in the village actually being possessed by alien things that live inside them, with an eyeball stalk poking out of their mouths. And, of course, there's the whole thing with the TARDIS getting increasingly cold as it gets closer to the weird icy star. But like I say, that's all hand-waviness to drive Amy to confront her own choices and behavior.

Really, all it takes is Rory dying for her to finally sort herself out. Lucky for her, he only dies in a dream. Also lucky for all of them: the other reality is also a dream, and the whole experience was just a case of some psychedelic pollen getting caught up in the TARDIS' time rotor and causing all of them to go on an acid trip. So, you know, free drugs on the TARDIS - that's nice.

Poor Rory has been very specifically and deliberately mistreated so far this season, and it's a credit to Arthur Darvil how well he plays the role. The good news for him is that he gets to really shine in the future episodes now that Amy has finally got her head screwed on straight. Unfortunately, he also gets to die almost as much as Kenny in South Park. So, kind of a mixed bag to be Rory, I should think.

Tomorrow: Silurians! Yay!!

STATS:

Doctor(s): Eleventh
Companion(s): Amy Pond, Rory Williams
Episode(s): Any's Choice
Steps Walked: 7,532 today, 3,047,409 total
Distance Walked: 4.03 miles today, 1,589.58 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 100 today, 4,064 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 929 total
How Many Times has Rory Died?: 1 Is Anything Cool?: Bow ties are cool, the Doctor's gear is cool... heck, the Doctor is Mister Cool!
Weight: 253.64 lbs (five day moving average), net change -53.66 lbs