Special credit to author Rik Hoskin for today's title. I lamented to him in email this morning that I had already had a title in mind before today's episode of Blake's 7 was over, but that went out the window with the final scene. I laughed out loud when he suggested this. It's good to have successful authors as friends!

Ok, personal stuff first, then catch-up stuff, and then today's episode.

Personal stuff: I wrote a bunch the day before yesterday, and then it all disappeared before it posted. But the short version is this:  This past weekend I finished the last of the performances of the theatrical production I have been involved in for the past three months. The past three weeks I pretty much abandoned strength training and treadmills in favor of sleep where I could get it. That had predictable results. Yeah, I'm frustrated. But I'm also.... not.

I keep reminding myself that this ridiculous project is not about a number. It's about feeling better in my own body. The fact is, I feel so much better than I did a few years ago. I used to have frequent acid reflux issues, and some other GI issues that you will thank me not to discuss in detail. After 2 1/2 years on the Time Treadmill those problems are gone, and I have much more stamina in general. I also sleep better (most of the time).

Statistically, most people who lose a chunk of weight wind up gaining it all back again shortly thereafter. The statistic that gets thrown around is that 95% of people who lose weight gain it all back, and frequently more, within a matter of months. I don't know how accurate that is, but it is I thing generally true enough for my purposes. In my case, my first year of this ridiculous project was a massive success. I mean, just look at the slope on that chart in the upper right corner of this website's home page. I am genuinely proud of that.

I am, admittedly, less proud of the second year. But even though I gained some of the weight back, the truth is that more than a year later I seem to be stably floating within a pretty normal ten-pound range. I would love to bring it back down some, sure, but at the end of the day I am still well below the level where I start getting the previously mentioned health issues and I am still wearing the smaller clothes that I had to buy last year. 

So I am trying to be kind to myself, while at the same time stay motivated. As I have said several times before, weight loss is an emotional bear trap. Ain't that just the truth?

Catch-up stuff: I am kind of bummed that I lost what commentary I had on the block of Blake's 7 episodes from my post the day before yesterday. There was some really cool stuff in there. The first season wrapped up with the introduction of the artificially intelligent supercomputer Orac plus a prediction of the destruction of the Liberator. The second season opened with the resolution of that cliffhanger (it turned out to be an identical sister ship that was destroyed) and finally gave some explanation of the origins of the Liberator. That also marked the end of a run of fourteen consecutive episodes written by show creator Terry Nation. That is a seriously impressive run. He continued to write for the series throughout the second and third seasons, but from this point onward there are a variety of other authors contributing.

Onward to today's episode.

Pressure Point

(Blake's 7 Wiki Recap)

For most of the run time of this episode, the blog post title I had in my head was "Servalan Gets a Jaunty Hat". Can you guess why?

The gist of the plot is that Blake decides it is time to make a direct strike at the Federation by returning to Earth and destroying Control, the computer system that acts as the core of all knowledge for the Federation. This involves coordinating with an Earth-based resistance group (spoiler, they all die), and surprisingly to Blake but not so much to the viewer, it also involves plotting by Supreme Commander Servalan and Grumpy Eye-patch Villain Travis.

Oh, hey, I forgot to mention - in his previous appearance, Travis was suddenly played by an entirely different actor. Just a complete Dick York / Dick Sergeant situation going on here. I liked the first guy better. But he's still got the eye patch and cybernetic gun hand, so he is still plenty recognizable.

So the whole thing is a cat-and-mouse game of Blake and his team trying to outwit security measures, and of Servalan and Travis plotting away. The first big gut punch comes at the climax, when Blake finally reaches the control room deep underground that houses Control only to find that it had been moved away decades earlier. The site remains, by design, as an attractive target the Federation uses to draw out revolutionaries and to mask the fact that Control is actually hidden away somewhere safe and sound and invisible. Oops.

But the real gut punch comes as the Liberator crew is evacuating the site, only to have Travis toss an explosive that causes a partial roof collapse. Caught under the crush of concrete and metal, strongman Oleg Gan dies. Like, for real dies, not just a cliffhanger tease. Lord knows this show has killed off dozens and dozens of extras, but this is the first time that one of the lead characters has died. I gather it won't be the last.

I have to say, this is a really gutsy show. I like it a lot. How did I manage to not see it for the past forty years?

STATS:

Episode(s): Blake's 7: Pressure Point
Steps Walked: 6,339 today, 4,777,321 total
Distance Walked: 2.82 miles today, 2,482.90 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 50 today, 11,700 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 6,665 total
Weight: 268.58 lbs (five day moving average), net change -38.72 lbs