A cold front is sweeping through southeast Texas. It was 82° yesterday and fairly balmy this morning, but then the temperature began to plummet. At present it feels like it’s about 50 and we’re destined for the low 40s overnight and tomorrow. If we hadn’t had snowfall a while back, I’d say these next two days were winter. It’ll be in the 70s again by the end of the week. Contrary to what many people claim, we do have four seasons here in Texas. It just takes a few years to get to them all.
“The Next Doctor” is the title of the 2008 Doctor Who Christmas special, which stars the intriguingly named Dervla Kirwan as the harlot in the red dress and David Morrissey as, well, a man with a sonic screwdriver and a TARDIS. The story is set in 1851 and features familiar Who adversaries, lots of climbing and zapping, and a convoluted storyline that resolves itself quite nicely. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to see Doctor Who Confidential in ages, a fascinating making-of that dips into some of the relevant Who history, including archival footage of early iterations of the villains and of some of the parodies of Doctor Who over the years, including one with Hugh Grant.
My 6200-word short story is now 3200 words long. I’m almost finished the new draft, amazed that I could remove so much and still have essentially the same story, though I am taking the plot in a slightly different direction late in the game.
