This morning I watched the five hundredth episode of Doctor Who to be aired. It was numbers 501 and 502 that I have watched since February, since I began by viewing the original unaired pilot first. That's a heck of a lot of Who. Today also featured the first appearance of Tom Baker's future ex-wife Lalla Ward, although not in the role of Romana (that will happen later this week), but rather as Princess Astra. It's just an all around big day of viewing for me.

So let's talk about that.

Dang it, I am really getting tired of checking my news feed and finding out another classic Doctor Who contributor has passed. This evening I learned that actor Scott Fredericks died on Monday following a long illness. He appeared prominently in two classic stories, first as one of the soldiers from the future in Day of the Daleks, and much more recently in my viewing as the very awesomely-named Maximillian Stael in Image of the Fendahl. He also appeared in Blake's 7, but of course virtually every Doctor Who writer, director,and actor from the late 70's wound up on that show as well at some point or another. 

But enough dwelling on mortality, let's talk about the second half of the current story.

I set another personal record on the treadmill today, going 4.4 miles in my 55 minute workout -- a full tenth of a mile farther than my previous record. At this point I am up to 4.8 mph and it has not begun to cross over yet from a walk to a jog. Being 6'2" I have a pretty long stride. I expect that at some point soon I am going to hit the point where I am running instead of walking, which will be an interesting wall to break through. I am starting to ponder what I will do when I finish this project, and while initially I figured I would just move on to Torchwood and/or The Sarah Jane Adventures, perhaps I might take a break from the treadmill and switch to running while listening to Big Finish audio dramas. We'll see. I still have several months before I reach that point. 

In the meantime, let's talk Doctor Who.

In pop culture I have two weirdly random pet peeves. The first is any song with lyrics paring high mountains with wide rivers - I can't explain why, but that particular metaphor is like nails on a chalkboard to me. The second is any science fiction story that does a courtroom episode. They are inevitably cringe-worthy, and always turn on a plot point where the hero finds and exploits a previously-unnoticed flaw in the wacky space-laws. Unfortunately, just like every long-running horror franchise apparently has to devolve into a " in space" movie, every long-running science fiction franchise without fail ends up with a damned space trial story. So, you'll never guess what today's viewing did.

Yeah. Let's talk about that.

One sad thing about loving a television program that has been on the air for over fifty years is that the people involved with that show keep passing away. I was saddened yesterday evening when I heard the news that composer Dudley Simpson had died. His name has been appearing in front of me virtually every day for the past several months, and will continue to do so for several more weeks. Although the iconic title theme for Doctor Who was composed and recorded by someone else, Mr. Simpson was responsible for all of the other music in nearly 300 episodes spanning more than 60 stories ranging from Planet of Giants in the First Doctor era up through The Horns of Nimon in the Fourth Doctor era. He is also responsible for the title music to Blake's 7 and The Tomorrow People, among many others. He is perhaps not as well known as other Doctor Who luminaries, but he personally contributed new material to more episodes of the show than any other person. He is a true legend, and will be missed.

In happier news, I started a new story today. Let's talk about that.

I don't have anything interesting or noteworthy to talk about today on the personal front. I did my workout first thing, I weighed in again at the same all-time low of yesterday, and I am about to leave for rehearsal for the show I am doing. I'll be practicing dance choreography for a solid five hours, which pretty well counts as a second workout for the day. This is going to be a pretty brief post because I need to get out the door, and I won't want to stay up late to finish this after.

And on that note, let's talk Doctor Who.

I don't even know what to think at this point. I have no idea what magic switch I flipped in my body to make it suddenly go into fat-burning overdrive, because from a workout standpoint I haven't done anything materially different in the past week. Even so, after two months of only gradual progress, all of a sudden I have dropped nearly ten pounds in two weeks. Every morning I expect to discover that I have bounced back and returned to some kind of mean, and instead I find another drop. Two weeks ago I had set a modest goal to finally reach the 240's by Christmas, and now all of a sudden it seems plausible that I might get there sometime this week. That's just crazy! I'm just gonna keep plugging along and doing my thing, eating well and putting in my fifty five minutes of treadmill time each day, and I assume it will level off again soon. I am surely enjoying this ride while it happens, though!

In other news, I started a new Doctor Who story today, so let's talk about that.

With this project, although the big changes are certainly awesome I find the most pleasure in the little things that sneak up on me and catch me by surprise. Here's an example: I spend an awful lot of time at Walt Disney World with my (autistic) son. I am in either the Magic Kingdom or Epcot on average 6-8 times per month. I usually wear a little waist pack to carry around things like my son's cameras and medications, batteries, charging cables, et cetera. It used to be that I wore that pack low around my waist, primarily so that my gut would fall over its belt. Given that I have lost more than six inches around my waist since this past February, it is not surprising that I have had to adjust the pack to shorten up the belt over time. What I suddenly realized today, though, is that I have begun wearing it high on my waist now such that the belt crosses directly across my abdomen and the pack itself rests on my right hip where it is stable and won't get jostled around as I am walking. I'm not saying I don't have a belly anymore, because I certainly do, but it has now shrunk to the point where it is no longer a physical obstruction to my daily activities. I used to not wear tucked shirts because I was embarrassed about how my stomach rolled down over my belt line, but these days I almost always tuck my shirts because I like how it looks. What an amazingly gratifying transformation this has been!

Also, I watched the back half of the current story today, so let's talk some Doctor Who.

Earlier this week director Patricia (a.k.a. Paddy) Russell passed away at the age of 89. Doctor Who fans might recognize her as the director of The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, The Pyramids of Mars, and Horror of Fang Rock. She was notably the first woman to direct for the show. She had a very long and remarkable career, working on a number of classic British television series. I count both Massacre and Fang Rock among my all-time favorite Classic Who stories. Her legacy as a pioneering woman in her field is truly an inspiration. I was truly saddened to hear of her passing when I saw the news last night.

On a happier note, I began the epic Key to Time saga this morning. Let's talk about that.

You know what makes me stupid happy? This graph:

A week ago I had pretty much come to the conclusion that I had more or less reached the endpoint of my weight loss, and that I was going to level out in the upper 250's. I spent most of October hovering around 258 - sometimes a little higher, sometimes a little lower, but not really making any forward progress. And then five days ago the dam broke. You can see the exact moment in the chart above, where the blue line takes a sudden dip down at the end. That dip makes me extremely happy, all the more so because it is consistent over several days and not just a fluke. Whatever plateau I was up against, I seem to have broken through it. Five days ago I was feeling pretty demoralized despite my overall success, today I am feeling energized. What a difference a week can make.

I also finished the final story of the fifteenth season of Doctor Who this morning, so let's talk about that.