Usually my post titles are quotes of dialog from whatever show I watched that day, but this one demanded the obvious H.G. Wells reference. I'll get to that in a bit. I also just noticed that for all of my up and down, this is the third August in a row where I have been within ten pounds of my current weight. Two years ago I was firmly on my way down. Last year I was inching back up. This year I am fighting valiantly to turn it back around. But here I am again. On the one hand it is a bit frustrating, but on the other hand it is kind of reassuring. Kind of. I unintentionally missed two days, on Friday and Saturday. The first because of an unplanned childcare issue that disrupted my morning, and the second because I spent the morning doing the yard work that I had missed from three weeks of traveling for work. I figured it counted as a workout. But I was back at it again today, so here we go.

Animals

(Blake's 7 Wiki Recap)

The first episode of this season was an obvious Portrait of Dorian Gray homage, and now here we are again with another classic literature reference. The plot surrounds a scientist on a remote island planet performing genetic experiments creating humanoid animals intelligent enough to become slaves. The animals are, of course, revolting. And yes, I mean that both ways.

The surprising thing was that the story did not follow through with the obvious ending of the sentient animals rising up to overthrow the mad scientist. (Also surprising: the mad scientist is named Justin instead of Moreau.) Instead, Servalan arrives and tries to steal the mad scientist and his research. Stuff gets blown up. Servalan escapes. Roll credits.

I like the episode well enough. After the setup I expected a tired Wells retread, but the story went in a pleasantly surprising different direction. There was some nice character work for Dayna -- which is kind of funny since that function in the story was originally written for Cally, whereas Dayna originally filled the function here occupied by Soolin. The thing I am not quite following yet is that Servalan is still around, but going under an assumed identity. But she is not disguising herself in any way, she still looks and sounds exactly the same and she has on-camera videophone conversations. Sure, she kills one guy who recognizes her in this story, but how in the heck is she fooling literally anyone in the Federation? I gather it will be explained in a later episode this season, which I am looking forward to.

So that was today. Tomorrow I have grand intentions to get out of the house early and hit the gym, we'll see how that holds up in the morning when my alarm goes off. Stay tuned.

STATS:

Episode(s): Blake's 7: Animals
Steps Walked: 7,191 today, 4,952,491 total
Distance Walked: 3.30 miles today, 2,560.43 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 48 today, 12,398 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 7,765 total
Weight: 274.16 lbs (five day moving average), net change -33.14 lbs