It's hard to write here with any punch or panache when my weight is exploding. You know the whole "two steps forward, one step back" thing? Well it feels more like one step forward and three steps back. Part of it, I think, is that I have been low-grade sick the past week or so. Not nearly as bad as my wife got, but definitely a headache mixed with lethargy. But that's mostly just an excuse. I am trying to will myself back into action, but just at the moment I am in "fake it until you make it" mode. On the upside? Physically I feel great (aside from the headache and lethargy). I remember how I felt before I started this ridiculous project, and I feel way better than that now. So this is mostly a mental game, and I am okay with that. Next week will be better. Tomorrow's gonna be a latter day! Mostly because after tomorrow I will be done with this stupid Sapphire & Steel story.

Sapphire & Steel: Assignment 5 a.k.a. Doctor McDee Must Die, Episodes 3 & 4

I love me a good Agatha Christie pastiche. The problem is that this is a really bad Agatha Christie pastiche. The second episode ended with one of the boring party goers dying boringly. That was rapidly followed in the third episode with one of the other boring party goers solemnly intoning, "...and then there were nine." Then the third episode ends with another boring party goer dying boringly. And sure enough, right off the bat the fourth episode has the same other boring party goer solemnly muttering, "...and then there were eight." 

You will be shocked to hear that the fourth episode ends with yet another boring party goer dying boringly. I can hardly wait to hear "...and then there were seven..." first thing tomorrow morning. It's the kind of snappy, unexpected dialog that I have come to expect from this story. I would almost consider it a mercy if I were to die boringly overnight so I don't have to see my prediction come true.

Elsewhere in the story, the reason the titular Doctor McDee must titularly die is because he is about to invent some kind of virus on the summer solstice of 1930. What happened originally is that he died before he could complete the work. But if instead he lives (which is apparently what the Whatever Force is trying to make happen) then he will accidentally break the vial containing the virus, and it will spread and mutate and wipe out all of mankind. So the dude's gotta die so that the rest of mankind doesn't. You'd think with those kind of stakes it would be a riveting thrill-a-minute adventure. But you would be wrong.

I don't know whose bright idea it was to do a third series without PJ Hammond, but whoever it was most assuredly got a lump of coal in their stocking on Christmas morning in 1981. The happy news is that he returns for Assignment Six, and so does Silver. And that's something to look forward to.

STATS:

Episode(s): Sapphire & Steel: Assignment 5 a.k.a. Doctor McDee Must Die, Episodes 3 & 4
Steps Walked: 6,003 today, 5,127,228 total
Distance Walked: 2.63 miles today, 2,639.08 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 12,458 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 7,865 total
Weight: 278.80 lbs (five day moving average), net change -28.50 lbs