Good lord, what a long day. For the past eleven months I have been watching two 25-minute episodes per day, but this morning's viewing was the twentieth anniversary special that is effectively a movie with no breaking point. That meant that I spent a full 102 minutes on the treadmill, walking further than I ever have in a single day. Then I had a full day of work, and then a big birthday party. Aside from being Alexander Hamilton's birthday, today is my wife's birthday (and also my boss' birthday, and also a friend's birthday), plus my own birthday is on Monday. So we had a whole big thing planned for tonight. Unfortunately my wife has the flu and couldn't go out, but we filmed everyone singing to her. After that I had to go back to work to do a software release, and so now here I am at nearly midnight just finally writing this post.

So let's talk about the big twentieth anniversary special.

This morning marked my viewing the final episodes of The War Games, and by extension the final episodes of the Patrick Troughton era, the final monochrome episodes, and the end of the 60's. On top of that, I very nearly broke the 270 barrier weighing in at 270.1 lbs. That is a new record low for this project, and I am within three tenths of a pound of dropping below my lowest recorded weight of the twenty-first century. It appears that I may well hit that milestone tomorrow morning, fittingly with an explosion of color as Doctor Who enters the 70's with a new Doctor, a new companion, and a new basic premise for the show. But before then, there were still two last episodes to get through today.

Let's talk about that.

In today's viewing of The War Games, the TARDIS-like transport units are finally identified by name: SIDRAT (pronounced "side rat"). The acronym (which is quite obviously just TARDIS spelled backwards) is never defined on-screen, but apparently in the novelization it is given as Space and Inter-time Directional Robot All-purpose Transporter. Which, let's be honest, is a stretch. But hey, what can you do? Other than that, Doctor Who's longest serial continues to march on, and the forces of good are finally beginning to rally against the forces of evil.

Let's talk about that.

Here it is! Finally, after 250 episodes and five and a half years, in the sixth episode of The War Games we finally hear the phrase "Time Lords". It still won't be concretely associated to the Doctor until tomorrow's viewing, but as a viewer we finally have a name for the Doctor's people. From a historical perspective it is a huge moment, even if it is treated almost as an aside in the story itself.

Let's talk about that.