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.

Ah, what a bittersweet day of viewing Doctor Who. At this point I have lost track of how many companions I have seen come and go. Some left huge impressions, like the original trio of Ian, Barbara, and Susan. Some came and went easily enough, like Dodo Chaplet. The most difficult to leave behind up until now was Jamie, but his departure was swept up all in one package with the Doctor regenerating and the format of the show changing to color. This one, though, hurts. At the end of today's viewing the Doctor dropped Sarah Jane back home before leaving to face Gallifrey alone, and I have to admit I teared up a bit. Maybe it was just sweat dripping in my eyes after fifty minutes on the treadmill.

For nine out of the last ten days I have weighed in at under 260 pounds, and I expect that tomorrow will finally be the day when the five-day moving average finally shows me at more than fifty pounds lost since I started this project. This makes me very happy. On the other hand, tomorrow will also be the last day that Elisabeth Sladen appears in the classic series as Sarah Jane Smith, and that makes me very sad. True, I have Louise Jameson's Leela to look forward to this weekend, but that's a whole different thing. The good news is, Sarah Jane goes out on a strong story.

So let's talk about that.

As I have worked through this project, I have encountered any number of odd coincidences (due, certainly, to the human mind's propensity to see patterns even where none exist). Today I noticed that today is Columbus Day (I know, I know, Indigenous Peoples Day), and I just finished watching a story set in the same year that Columbus set sail. This evening I also saw that news that a full restoration of Shada, the great unfinished story from the Fourth Doctor era, will be released next month. I counted out the days, and it will become available for digital download two days before I hit that point in my viewing. If I hadn't missed three days due to my Texas trip the week before last, I would have had to watch it slightly out of order. Instead, it will drop into place perfectly. How wild is that?

Anyway, let's talk about today's viewing.

You know, I am just so wiped out today I can't even think of anything pithy to say. I didn't even get on the treadmill until late afternoon because I just couldn't drag myself out of bed to get it done in the morning. Then I had kind of a rough afternoon with my son (some days dealing with autistic obsessions is hard, yo). But you know what? It's all good. I felt better after my workout, I had a nice dinner with my wife, and life is good.

But before I go to bed, let's talk about the awesome new backup TARDIS control room.

True story: I first heard of St. Paul's Cathedral in London because of Doctor Who. If you don't know anything about the show, you might think "that's nice."  If you are a big fan of the show, you might assume that I (a young American boy in the Pacific Northwest at the time) learned about it from the classic story The Invasion with the iconic scene of the Cybermen marching down the steps of St. Paul's. But no, my first exposure to the cathedral in pop culture was from reading the novelization of The Seeds of Doom. There is a scene towards the climax where someone asks the Doctor how large the Krynoid will grow, and he replies "About the size of St. Paul's Cathedral..." Ten-year-old me had to go to the school library and look it up in the Encyclopedia Britannica (fitting!) to understand the reference, and I went on to read all about the history of the cathedral and its importance during the Second World War. So there you have it, Doctor Who achieved its stated mission of being an educational television program for young viewers!

So let's talk about the giant plant.

I had a very late night last night with work (major software release), and a busy day today, and I don't have much to write about here. There's another damn hurricane in the Gulf, but it's not coming anywhere near here so I guess I don't have to worry about our roof getting any worse. We're just going to have lousy weather for the next few days. Which is fine, I guess, I can always just stay inside and use the treadmill.

Speaking of which, let's talk about plant zombies.

Today marks five consecutive days under 260 lbs, and for three of those days I came in at more than fifty pounds lost since I started this project. I keep saying I don't have any specific weight goal for the project, and that my motivation is to feel better and not just specifically to lose weight, but I also have to say that it feels mighty good to have consistently crossed that fifty pound line the past few days. Any further weight loss from here is almost certainly going to be incremental and hard-fought, but I do have a fantasy that I will get below 250 before Thanksgiving (at which point I will probably shoot right back above it for at least a few days [I really seem to have a fondness for parentheticals {I should probably do something about that}]).

Anyway, Doctor Who, let's talk about it.

Another day, another hour on the treadmill. My brain is kind of burned out right now, coming off of the furious activity to stage and perform my very first cabaret (it was a huge success). That being the case, I have nothing exciting to say above the fold.

As of this morning, I have now watched one half of all television episodes of Doctor Who that have ever been produced. That includes watching reconstructions of every single missing episode. I have been at this since the 20th of February, seven and a half months of viewing and treadmilling, and I have made it from November of 1963 up to January of 1976. Of course that doesn't mean I am halfway done in terms of time. Thus far I have been watching two twenty-five-minute episodes per day, and I will be continuing at that for a good long while yet. But there is a point during the Sixth Doctor's era where the episodes go to 45 minutes, so it will be one per day for those, and then the modern series episodes will all be one per day since they are full hour episodes. I haven't mapped out exactly when I will finish with the main series, but I expect it will be sometime next summer. After that I have Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Chronicles and the like. I am a good long way from being done. But today? I hit fifty percent on episodes, which is a pretty nifty milestone. Even better, when I weighed in this morning I was still more than fifty pounds lighter than when I started this project. How cool is that?

So anyway, today I started in on the Frankenstein pastiche. Let's talk about that.