Good news: my floppy right arm is less floppy today. It's still not back to full strength, and I am still avoiding any heavy lifting with it, but it is definitely improving. I see both my primary doctor and the chiropractor tomorrow, so hopefully that will go well. My intention is to avoid push ups for the remainder of the week, and then ease back into it if things continue to improve. Which means I will be starting back up with it just as I am starting up with the last Doctor in this ridiculous project. How cool is that?

But Eleven still has a bit more life left in him, so let's talk about that.

Nightmare in Silver

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

I don't know whether or not it was an intentional choice, but the penultimate episode for nearly ever season in the Steven Moffat era features the Cybermen, and today's viewing was no different. The two kids for whom Clara acts as nanny somehow managed to figure out that she was time traveling with the Doctor, and blackmail her into taking them on a trip. So of course the Doctor takes them to the largest amusement park in the universe. Unfortunately, he takes them there at a point in time where the park is in ruins and occupied by a military platoon of rejects. Oh, and there are also three million Cybermen hibernating in tombs below ground. So, you know, a fun family outing.

The core of the story has the Doctor infected by a CyberMite (kind of like a Cybermat, only the size of a silverfish), at which point he starts flipping back and forth between himself and "Mister Clever" - the evil personification of the Cyberiad trying to turn the Doctor into a Cyber-Planner. I am sure you will remember that a Cyber-Planner last appeared in The Wheel in Space back in the Second Doctor era. I am sure you will also remember that that was the episode that introduced Zoe, in all her jump-suited glory.

I'm a fan

But enough reminiscing. Getting back to the story at hand: also present on the amusement planet is a character named Porridge, played magnificently by the legendary Warwick Davis. He seems to be just a carnival worker, but in the big reveal at the end he turns out to be the Emperor of the Universe just kind of slumming it and trying to ditch work. What with being the Emperor and all, he is able to command the detonation that destroys all of the Cybermen (and the amusement planet along with them), so...  happy ending?

This is the second story contributed by Neil Gaiman, and not nearly as good as his first. Not that it is bad by any stretch of the imagination, it does some clever things and evolves the Cybermen into a new kind of threat. It also allows Matt Smith to have some fun playing around with schizophrenia. That's always fun. I guess I just expect a bit more from Gaiman. The Doctor's Wife ranks as one of my all-time favorites, whereas this one ranks... I dunno, in the upper third? I guess?

Maybe I'm just burnt out at this point. I've been at this pretty much daily for nearly a year and a half, it's getting hard to be impressed with anything.

Tomorrow: The Impossible Girl is finally explained.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Eleventh
Companion(s): Clara Oswald
Episode(s): Nightmare in Silver
Steps Walked: 7,469 today, 3,302,929 total
Distance Walked: 4.01 miles today, 1,726.55 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 6,529 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 929 total
Is Anything Cool?: Not a single thing is cool in this episode
Weight: 248.68 lbs (five day moving average), net change -58.62 lbs