I am back-dating this, because it is nearly a week later. Last week was... well, not awful but not awesome. My wife was sick with the flu that is going around, and I had just enough of it to give me a headache and not want to risk working out too much. On this day I did fifty push-ups and staggered through an hour on the treadmill, while watching a fairly mediocre episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. After the weakness of the previous episode, I hope this isn't a long-term trend.

The Mark of the Berserker

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Sarah Jane runs off for the weekend ostensibly to research a story but really to track down an alien running around in a hospital. Meanwhile, a kid at the school finds a magic alien Whatever pendant that grants the wearer the ability to tell anyone to do or think anything. So, kind of like the Word of God from Preacher, but with less swearing and bestiality. So the kid gets spooked by the power, the pendant gets picked up by NotMaria, she tortures her dad with it for a bit before getting spooked herself, and then she leaves it in Sarah Jane's attic for safe keeping. Unfortunately, that same morning Clyde's deadbeat dad shows up on his doorstep after five years missing and wants to make up for being an awful dad. He does so by... being an awful dad. Through a complicated chain of events, DeadbeatDad winds up with the pendant and does progressively more and more awful, selfish things to show off to Clyde, while NotMaria and Luke scramble to try and solve the problem without having Sarah Jane around to guide them.

Things go badly.

Ultimately they phone Maria and her dad in Washington, DC, there is some more Whatever technology, and Sarah Jane shows up at the last minute to wrap things up. DeadbeatDad tosses the magic alien Whatever pendant into the bay, and everyone lives happily ever after. Even DeadbeatDad gets a tiny bit of redemption. But seriously, still an awful person.

This one wasn't nearly as awful as the previous astrology story, it just wasn't particularly good either. Sarah Jane was absent for most of the story, and when Maria shows up for a few scenes to help out, it only reinforces how much NotMaria is not Maria. The only vaguely noteworthy thing about this story is that it is the first one that does not feature Mister Smith, the alien supercomputer. 

And that's all I got for this one.

STATS:

Featuring: Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Clyde Langer, Rani Chandra, Maria Jackson
Episode(s): The Mark of the Berserker
Steps Walked: 7,508 today, 4,097,376 total
Distance Walked: 4.10 miles today, 2,146.42 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 50 today, 8,699 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 1,516 total
Weight: 256.86 lbs (five day moving average), net change -50.44 lbs