This morning I did 109 sit-ups, the first time I have done more than 100 sit-ups in a session since I left the army more than twenty five years ago. So that's pretty cool. Aside from that, I watched the very last appearance of the Brigadier in the Whoniverse (unless you count CyberBrig, which I most assuredly do not). That was simultaneously pretty cool and incredibly sad.

Enemy of the Bane - Parts 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

As the title would imply, this story features the return of the baddies from the very first SJA episode Invasion of the Bane. The first interesting swerve is that Mrs Wormwood, the Bane leader who created Luke in the first place, has returned to ask for Sarah Jane's help. It seems that Wormwood is on the run from the rest of the Bane, who want to punish her previous failure by eating her. Just straight-up chewing her up and swallowing her. Oops. The Bane also have a plot involving recovering some Whatever Artifacts from some ancient evil warlord, and once they have those things they will destroy the Earth. Also oops.

The second big swerve is that Wormwood is actually working with Kaagh, the Sontaran from this season's first episode, in order to double-cross the Bane and get the Whatever Artifacts for herself.

So, there's a whole lot of "I'm your mother" back and forth tension between Sarah Jane and Wormwood over Luke, which is all pretty fine as dramatic tension goes.

There is also the return of the Brig, to whom Sarah Jane turns when she needs access to the Black Archive but doesn't want to reveal Luke's alien origins to UNIT. Nicholas Courtney is perfect as usual, and with this appearance he cements a full 40 years of playing the character ranging from his first appearance in 1968's Web of Fear and then right up to this one (granted, after a minor 19 year absence after 1989's Battlefield.) The fact remains that the Brigadier is far and away the longest running character on the show played by the same actor. He is second only to the Doctor himself, and he will never be surpassed. Tragically he passed away in 2011, but I am so glad he was able to make this final appearance.

So, back to the story, the final showdown happens at some low-rent Stonehenge knock-off in Whitebarrow, where Wormwood uses the alien Whatever Artifacts to open up a portal to resurrect the evil warlord. Unfortunately, because she is particularly rude to her Sontaran accomplice, he flips at the last moment and sacrifices his own life while shoving her into the open portal, thus closing the portal forever. A happy ending!

I dunno. This one was okay. I didn't hate it, I just didn't love it as much as I wanted to. It had a few good swerves, but it lacked the emotional punch of the previous story. The Brig was amazing, but necessarily under-utilized due to Courtney's age and general health. On the whole it was perfectly enjoyable. Which is certainly loads better than the stupid astrology episode earlier in the season, so I'll take it.

STATS:

Featuring: Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith, Clyde Langer, Rani Chandra, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
Episode(s): Enemy of the Bane - Parts 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 7,632 today, 4,112,619 total
Distance Walked: 4.07 miles today, 2,154.61 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 8,799 total
Sit-ups Completed: 109 today, 1,625 total
Weight: 259.92 lbs (five day moving average), net change -47.38 lbs