Sometimes life comes up with amazing little synchronicities, perfect little coincidences that come out of nowhere and make you smile. This morning, after doing 130 pushups (holy crap!) and then walking over four miles on the treadmill, I arrived at Rose Tyler's big emotional departure. She walked out onto the beach at Bad Wolf Bay in Norway, the Doctor appeared, and then... the DVD glitched and hung up. I tried to take the disc out and clean whatever smudge was causing the problem, but my sweaty hands only made it worse. So that's how I said goodbye to the Sainted Rose today, by shrugging and thinking, "Ah, well, I remember how it ended. Goodbye."

How it should have ended...

Yeah, hey, it's late and I want to go to bed. I did my workout this morning and watched some Doctor Who. So let's briefly talk about that.

Everybody has pet peeves that matter to them but seemingly to nobody else. For me, right near the top of the list is any title that uses the construction "Rise of the (fill in the blank)". It ranks right up there with the phrase "the one that started it all" and with song lyrics about tall mountains and wide rivers. I can't tell you precisely why those things annoy me. I mean, sure, they are all lazy and trite, but there are plenty of lazily trite phrases in the world that don't bother me at all. But give me a story that starts with "Rise of the..." and you have already lost me.

So you can imagine how I felt when, in order to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first appearance of the Cybermen, Doctor Who went with Rise of the Cybermen for the story title. *shudder*  So let's talk about that.

Look, I've got father issues. Heck, I put together an entire show to work through them (seriously, if you are in Central Florida please come see The Gospel According to My Old Man at the Orlando Fringe Festival this coming May). So there was never any question that the story about Rose going back to 1987 and the day of her father's death was going to get me right in the feels. And it totally did.

So let's talk about that.