Another day, another story in which William Hartnell is written out of the story after the first episode, not to return until the fourth. This time around, with The Celestial Toymaker, the plan was in place to fire him and replace him with a new actor. Somehow he managed a stay of execution, for at least a few more stories, so he will return with tomorrow's viewing. But then there's a whole other bit of drama there that I will go into tomorrow. But as for today's viewing, I was hoping for something a little bit gonzo and imaginative. Instead, I got something dull and predictable.

Let's talk about that.

So, there wasn't another space trial. I guess that's an improvement with today's viewing? Not by much, though. I do feel like I missed out on an obvious virus sickness / Monoid / mononucleosis joke yesterday, and that saddens me heartily. As for how tedious The Ark is, here's some fun trivia for you: 1) Actor Peter Purves (Steven) thought the Monoids looked ridiculous, what with them basically being dudes wearing Beatles wigs to cover their eyes and then holding a ping pong ball in their mouth to be the singular eye. 2) Director Michael Imison also didn't like the story. 3) Probably not coincidentally, just before filming for this story Michael Imison was told that his contract as a BBC director was not going to be renewed. Is it any wonder that The Ark is such a disappointment?

Let's talk about that.

Before I get to today's two episodes from The Ark, I have to crow a bit. This morning marks the two-month anniversary of this project, and this morning for the first time I weighed in a full 20 lbs lighter than when I started the project. It will take a few more days for the moving average to catch up, but my daily weight was there. That's an average of 10 lbs per month lost, which is right there on the aggressive end of my goal of 1-2 lbs per week. Since we know that trends never, ever change and always carry on forever, I think it is safe to presume that by the time I finish this project after about two years I will weigh roughly 67 lbs. So that will be pretty awesome.

Anyway, about The Ark. Do I have to talk about it? Really? Ok.

Let's talk about that.

First off, so I don't bury the lede: Today my five-day moving average weight was under 290 lbs for the first time since I started this project. Can I get a what what? I am mightily pleased. On a day-to-day basis it seems like nothing is happening, and then I look at the chart and hit this kind of milestone, and I am re-invigorated.

Today was the first half of perhaps the most lost of all of the lost episodes. For most of them, at least some footage remains if only a fragment from a television capture or some such. But for The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve there is literally nothing except the audio track and some still photographs. There is not even a clear consensus on what the closing credits said. It's not surprising, in that this story comes on the heels of what some (not me) consider the greatest Dalek story of all time, and is instead a purely historical story with no science fiction of any kind to be found aside from the TARDIS materializing at the beginning and dematerializing at the end. In between, the story recounts a historical event that is not nearly as notorious as any of the other ones portrayed in these early historicals. On top of that, the Doctor disappears from most of the story so that it becomes a tale of Steven encountering a group of Huguenots in a tavern and being swept up in the impending wave of violence.

For me, though, I am pretty jazzed about the story. I have already said how much I enjoy the pure historicals, and this is the third one written by John Lucarotti (Marco Polo, The Aztecs). It is a foregone conclusion that this story is not going to have a happy ending, but along the way there are some things to be learned about the French Religious Wars.

Let's talk about that.

Today was the big finish for The Daleks' Master Plan, and also the big finish for Sara Kingdom. Is the universe saved?  Does the Dalek Time Destructor work? Does William Hartnell come back from his unexpected vacation right at the climax of the story?

Let's talk about that.

In the entire fifty-four-year history of Doctor Who there is precisely one episode that initially aired on my birthday.Escape Switch first broadcast on January 15th, 1966 -- two years before I was born -- and, as luck would have it, is one of the few surviving intact episodes from The Daleks' Master Plan. On top of that, the two episodes I watched this morning really played well together as a single unit, both taking place during a side trip to ancient Egypt at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Oh, also: this morning marks my 100th episode watched since starting this project.

Let's talk about that.

I know, I know, it's Easter. But the two episodes I watched this morning were originally aired on Christmas Day and New Year's Day respectively. So they've got me in the holiday mood. And hey, it must be Christmas because tonight I get the awesome present of the first new regular Doctor Who episode in over a year. So that's pretty cool. But getting back to The Daleks' Master Plan, half of this morning's viewing was worth watching. The other half? Not so much.

Let's talk about that.

This morning was the first day back on my own, now fully-repaired, treadmill. It was a comedy of errors. Part of repairing it was to spray some silicone lubricant underneath the new belt, and apparently a small bit of silicone got onto the front of my right shoe. I had to stop and change shoes after five minutes because every time I would stride forward, my right foot would lose traction and slip out from under me. Then somehow the magnetic key became jostled, and the whole thing cut out again thirty minutes later. Ultimately I made it through, and I think I have worked out the kinks and gotten the refurbished treadmill back into proper shape. Oh, and... I kid you not, at one point during the second episode this morning Sara Kingdom made a crack to Steven about treadmills. It's like the show was speaking directly to me across a gulf of fifty two years!

Let's talk about that!

This morning the treadmill pretty well kicked my butt. I had pushed the speed up yesterday, and I pushed it up another notch today. That turned out to be a notch too far. On top of that, while I already knew about one of the major plot points in today's viewing I was completely caught off guard with the second big moment. While watching the reconstruction of the second and third episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan (which primarily consists of audio and still images), I was not fully prepared for it to cut to real footage for the first big moment. It was a huge gut-punch that left me reeling.

Let's talk about that.