Seventy five push ups today, can I get a "what what"? Also another personal best in distance covered during a fifty-five minute workout, so that's pretty dang cool. Also: it was a pretty dang good episode of Torchwood today.

Adam

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

The premise of today's story is that a mysterious man named Adam has infiltrated Torchwood Three, and apparently has the power to re-write the memory of anyone he touches. He actually appears in the opening title sequence as if he has always been a member of the team, and as the story opens he is palling around with almost everyone as if he has been there for several years. When Gwen arrives she doesn't recognize him, until he touches her shoulder and reminds her that she has known him since her first day on the team. Unfortunately, that tweaking of her memory actually causes her to completely forget Rhys -- to the point where when she goes home at the end of the day and finds him in her apartment she completely freaks out. Similarly, both Tosh and Owen have had complete personality changes, with Tosh suddenly becoming extremely self-confident and showing off lots of cleavage whereas Owen has become a meek and awkward wallflower pining away after Tosh but terrified to act on his feelings.

And then there is Jack. He suddenly begins remembering his childhood, particularly the day he lost his younger brother Gray to some kind of an alien invasion. On that same day his father also died, making it the most traumatic day in Jack's entire life. This, then, is the first time that we have ever gotten any kind of glimpse at Jack's history before he turned up in The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, and it's powerful stuff.

Oh, and poor poor Ianto. He is the one who finally realizes what is happening, after reading his own handwritten diary and finding absolutely nothing there about Adam even though the rest of his co-workers are present in the text. This leads Adam to maliciously insert dark memories into Ianto's brain, causing him to believe he is a serial killer stalking the streets of Cardiff at night and having already brutally murdered three women. Ouch.

In the end Jack locks Adam up in a cell and then everyone takes Retcon to wipe out the last forty-eight hours. This, then, causes Adam to completely fade away since he is an alien creature that survives entirely upon the memories of other sentient beings. Having been forgotten, he simply ceases to exist.

So, lots of powerful character work in this one, and all of the series regulars get to really stretch themselves and try new things. That is not surprising, in that it was written by Catherine Treganna, who also penned Out of Time (a tragic love story between Owen and a pilot who falls through a crack in the Rift), Captain Jack Harkness (Jack falls through a crack in the rift and meets the man whose identity he stole, and makes out with him), and Meat (Rhys finally finds out what Gwen really does for a living). In short, she writes powerhouse emotional stories that are generally more concerned with character and emotion than with action and special effects. This bodes well, in that she also happens to be the writer for the first episode with Jodie Whitaker as the Doctor, which debuts in less than two days. I am a wee bit excited.

Tomorrow:  Martha Jones! Yay!!

STATS:

Featuring: Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, Ianto Jones
Episode(s): Adam
Steps Walked: 7,749 today, 3,843,659 total
Distance Walked: 4.29 miles today, 2,011.18 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 75 today, 7,411 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 1,029 total
Weight: 256.20 lbs (five day moving average), net change -51.10 lbs