.I am a year and nearly nine months into this ridiculous project, and as the chart clearly shows the second year has been much more difficult than the first. It is spectacularly difficult to maintain such an aggressive mindset for so long. It's always psychologically difficult to be on the upward end of a spike, especially one as significant as this one. The five day moving average is basically stalled out today, but should gain momentum downwards as the week goes on. Should.

In the meantime, I have reached the midpoint of Children of Earth.

Children of Earth: Day Three

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

This middle episode is long on exposition and short on action. Sure, a few bits here and there, but nothing like the first two parts. The time for building threats has passed, now it is time to position all the players for revelations and showdowns. The titular children of Earth are only possessed once today, pointing at the sky as the 456 arrive in London via a spike of fire. We never get a clear view of them, inside their poisonous chamber, but get plenty of glimpses of cyclopean tentacled terror, complete with random spurting green slime. You know, aliens.

The big revelation comes at the very end, when Jack confesses to having been involved with the previous 456 encounter in the sixties, and admits to giving away a busload of children as gifts to the 456. Jack is not the Doctor, not by any stretch of the imagination. 

The star of this episode, though, is Peter Capaldi as Frobisher. He knows he is just a middle man, a sacrificial lamb put out by the Prime Minister to create plausible deniability if and when the whole thing goes south. He is not a good man by any stretch of the imagination, but he is not conventionally evil either. Philosophically he is not far off from Jack, making horrible choices in order to protect his family and his country. The difference between John Barrowman and Peter Capaldi, though, is that Capaldi can carry that ambiguity with stunning subtlety and dexterity. 

Unfortunately I know what is coming tomorrow, and I am really dreading it. The next two days are going to be brutal storytelling. 

STATS:

Featuring: Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams, Ianto Jones
Episode(s): Children of Earth: Day Three
Steps Walked: 8,230 today, 3,928,501 total
Distance Walked: 4.30 miles today, 2,055.93 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 55 today, 7,978 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 1,079 total
Weight: 261.62 lbs (five day moving average), net change -45.68 lbs