Dorky Things

Regarding the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, star Billie Piper says: "It's got scary Christmas trees, Santa attacks, there's an invasion, and the Doctor stays in bed for a long, long time. I am carrying most of the show." I am looking forward to it and the new season of Doctor Who starting in March.

All of this month's Big Finish Doctor Who releases are out. In addition, there are details and trailers for a few upcoming titles. The description of Night Thoughts (starring the 7th Doctor) sounds very intriguing:

'I warn you, things could get very nasty here before they get better.'

A remote Scottish mansion. Five bickering academics are haunted by ghosts from their past. Reluctantly they offer shelter to the Doctor and his companions Ace and Hex.

Hex, already troubled by a vivid nightmare, is further disturbed by the nighttime appearance of a whistling, hooded apparition.

Ace tries to befriend the young housemaid, Sue. Sue knows secrets. She knows why the academics have assembled here, and she knows why they are all so afraid. But Sue's lips are sealed, preferring to communicate through her
disturbing toy, Happy the Rabbit.

And then the killing begins. Gruesome deaths that lead the Doctor and his friends to discover the grisly truth behind the academics' plans, and ­ as the ghosts of the past become ghosts of the present ­ to recognise that sometimes death can be preferable to life.

I'm sorry, but any story involving bickering academics instantly attracts me like a fly to fecal matter. Then add in ghosts and, well, I'm hooked.

Firfox 1.5 RC 1 has been released. I've had only very intermittent and very minor troubles with the 1.5 betas so I've been happy. I take that back. I've had one problem and that is that I can't download videos from one site in particular. IE has no problem, however. It's like Firefox can't negotiate a connection with the site's FTP server or some such thing. Screwy.