Lately I've been wondering if manners, courtesy, and general good qualities in people were dead. So, before I wallow in absolute despondency, I've been carrying out a test: this week, I'll note down all the good and evil (OK bad) acts I see performed on my travels.

Good Acts

• Man walking dog who I see on a regular basis gave me a hi-visibility jacket for Zach.
• Bus driver let me off Zach's fair when I didn't have enough cash.
• Woman in street gave out dog sweets to the various dogs she saw (act of surprising kindness).

Evil Acts

• Woman on bus with pram got grief from old woman who wouldn't move and instead decided to insult her.
  
• Person who lets dog poop in these streets - and doesn't clean it up.

So it's 3 to 1 right now. So far, good is winning. It seems maybe there is some hope after all. Let's see where we stand at the end of the week.

It's definitely becoming fashionable to complain about TV shows. Certainly, there's been a fresh hoo-ha this week about I'm a Celebrity. OFSTEAD received a bucket of complaints when Dec said jokingly 'it's the dog's bollocks' after Nicola's kangaroo testicle eating challenge.

Now, which sane person would waste precious energy to complain about the use of the word 'bollocks' on a TV show filled with bad language - after the 9:00pm watershed.

Now it seems the show is being edited no matter what the hour.

A shame, and another sign that the planet is going tits up!

OOh, can I say that? Are you reading this after the watershed? If not, avert your eyes. But if you're offended by this email, you can complain about the content to virtualnames by sending an email to the following regulating body: ofstead.com.

Go on any Doctor Who forum and you'll see countless posts bemoaning the fact that the Doctor only has 13 regenerations. The hardened fans are adamant about this to the point that they feel the show should end because some crummy writer twenty years ago happened to mention that the Time Lords only had 13 regenerations. And it stuck as 'canon'.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, Doctor Who can run and run until it gets old and tired (I think it was getting there with the past few seasons but the senior writer change should turn things around). There are as many ways to give the Doctor additional regenerations as there are stories and there's no reason for it to end.

They could simply ignore the whole 13 limit and just keep going. Although somethings tells me the writers will have to at least pay lip service to the fans, who would wand blood if there wasn't a 'reasonable' explanation for the 14th reneneration.

Were it me, I'd have had the Doctor regenerate a 14th time and be entirely surprised by it. He could think it was the end, only to realise that being the last Time Lord, the limit was an arbitrary one placed by the Time Lords. He could then regenerate indefinitely - until he stopped earning wads of cash for the BBC who would unceremoniously send it to be exterminated (as they did back in 1997).

Seems pointless to bog a great show down in the mire of 'canon', and with David Tenant recently announcing that he's stepping down from the TARDIS after the 2009 specials, the media is full of speculation as to who will take over the controls of the most famous time machine in history.

Personally, I'm voting for a black, ginger, gay, female doctor...

But I might be asking for a bit too much.

What has the world come to when the top news story in the UK is John Sergeant quitting Strictly Come Dancing?

If you don't know, it would be a massive understatement to say that John isn't the best dancer in the world. He has consistently come bottom of the judges' leader board for the last nine weeks, only to be saved by the public. 

OK, that's all well and good. The public adores him, and it's not hard to see why: he's different, quirky, and he takes the judges' harsh comments dignity. Every sane person knows these 'reality' TV shows are little more than popularity contests and that the people of the UK love the underdog, but COME ON, it's a DANCE / Entertainment contest on BBC. Just like the ridiculously overblown incident with Ross and Brand, this has been blown out of all proportions. And turned into something unpleasant.

Sure, it's a dance contest, but John with his unique style has made me laugh week on week. His routines are incredibly amusing and, like so many others, I'm sure he brings a smile to the face of the nine million who watches the show (OK six million, the other few million are the ones raving about it being a dance contest).

There's no reason I can think of why there would be so much vitriol in the press that would force anyone to step down. If he won the show it would be because he's popular. Sure that's probably wrong as so many of the other contestants are working so very hard to perfect their routines, but if the system isn't working, then change it next year! You can't have a popularity show where the public phone in to vote and then BLAME the public when you don't agree with the results. You just make it so the public's vote has diminished impact.

I can see why people might say 'but it's a dance contest, so the best dancers should be in the final', but these shows never reflect reality. Had Will Young not spoken out at Simon Cowell, he'd never have been heard of again - he would have faded into the background and been forgotten.

And it's exactly the same with John Sergeant. It makes me furious that a simple dance show gets top news billing, has derogatory remarks posted across the newspapers, and basically vilifies and accuses John of being unfortunate / popular enough to be still in a dance contest when a less popular dancer would have been sent packing weeks before. It's like they're trying to blame him or make it somehow his fault! 

I think we're turning into a nation of hysterical over reactionaries - with the war being instigated by the newspapers that seem to revel in stirring up contention, even on the most innocuous of television shows. It happened with the ultra brainless Jade Goody; it happened again with Ross and Brand, and I'm sure we'll only need to wait until the furore dies down before the tabloids will find their next victim when it'll start all over again...

Because the cast list for this year's I'm a Celebrity (Get Me Out of Here) is in! The show is a crummy reality-esque TV show in the UK that puts celebrities in ridiculously icky situations in the jungle. It's a bit like Fear Factor (without the fear factor).

But while there's no fear factor, there might be a warp factor, because, of interest to geeks everywhere is that George Takei (Mr. Sulu) from Star Trek will be among the ten celebrities subjected to various indignities in the jungle. 

I've never really watched this show, but I might tune in to see how George handles the transition from the Enterprise, to Heroes, to eating kangaroo penises (I'd say it wouldn't be the first time, but that would be crass and WAY beneath me).

The full line up this year is: Esther Rantzen, Robert Kilroy-Silk, Simon Webbe (from boy band Blue), Carly Zucker (WAG), Martina Navratilova; TV presenter Dani Behr; ex-EastEnder Joe Swash, Deputy Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police Brian Paddick, and glamour model Nicola McLean.

So there you go, another year of Z-List celebs and just barely somebodies...

I found a dead mouse on the landing floor last night. It was pretty gross seeing the little guy lying there all curled up (as though he was just taking a nap).

It’s weird co-existing with the tiny rodents. They don’t do much. They don’t fix our shoes – something I was MOST disappointed to learn: mice are NOT good cobblers by trade.

They should at least pay some of the bills, but nope. They come out at night to scoff whatever they can find and to poop in the kitchen (ick).

The one on the floor was pretty cute though. It wasn’t dead, merely sleeping…

So, knowing I have a mouse infestation got me thinking long and hard: should I leave them be, or call an exterminator? Does every living being have a right to life, or should I have them all killed, knowing they carry disease?

This is a difficult question to which I’m not sure there IS a right answer.

I've been going on about how utterly dire the new season of Knight Rider is with its non-existent storyline and shallower than shallow - well - everything else. And now we find that the show has been commissioned for a full season, but they are dumping the whole 'Terrorist of the Week' plot and going for simpler (as if that's even possible) stories involving Mike and Kitt helping regular people.

I can just see it now - high octane action adventure in mediocresville:

Old Woman: Dearie me. My cat is stuck up that tree.

Mike: No problem, old woman. Kitt, turbo boost! Fire lazers - let's get those bad guys!

Yep. That's a sure fire way to boost the ratings... Mike helping school kids with their maths homework (with a backstory that their teacher is Asian, so they MUST be a terrorist).

If there was a huge woosh and cat, tree, and old lady, were crushed under Kitt's clumsy turbo boost, there might be hope for the show yet for pure (evil) comedy value.

I do wonder WHO commissions these shows? They obviously cost millions per episode, so why don't they check out the scripts  beforehand, or, better still, get someone who can actually write and who has vision, on board before they lay down their cash? It all seems incredible to me that this show has managed some seven episodes, never mind twenty two. There's just not enough story to fill one 45 minute slot.

They're also 'rebooting' the show (again after that dismal pilot) and this time getting rid of the "bird at the base" (Sydney Poitier, who did approximately bugger all, anyway) and the two tech-heads (the sexy Asian and the geeky one).

But unless this show majorly changes direction, it will continue to see ratings plummet (I know, again). It needs a stronger storyline, some decent acting, and some fresh diesel in its engine, but, judging from past experience, the writers will use unleaded and the same old plotlines, which is a sure fire way to condemn this show from the fast lane and onto the used car forecourt.

It's official, the entertainment industry is strapped for ideas. Creatively impotent, producers are scrying far into the past in search of shows to attract those all important ratings. Some of these shows have been hits (Battlestar Galactica), while others fell apart before they'd even begun (Bionic Woman), here's a list of the shows that should never again see the light of day.

10 - Friends - brilliant in its day, but grew stale toward the end when the characters became little more than outrageous stereotypes of themselves (Oh. My. God, and other such annoying phrases). Bring it back - if you must - for a lavish one off special that will be seen by everyone around the world and for which we'll probably be invaded by aliens from the planet Torrunt (who can't wait the sixty years until it's beamed to their homeworld), but that's a small price to pay. Whatever happens, the special will be lackluster at best and the show should be allowed to die with dignity. Same with Sex and the City (no more movies, please).

9 - Hercules / Xena - while Hercules was undoubtedly pants from the go get, Xena saw huge success. Popular with ladies in comfortable shoes and leather fetishists everywhere, it was all about high adventure and girl power. That said, it ended on a high and doesn't need resurrecting. The writers had told all the stories they could, besides, how many times can someone die at the end of a series and be brought back fresh as a daisy at the start of the next season - it kinda loses its impact after a while. Hercules can stay in the trash, but Xena will be fondly remembered as one of the great fantasy TV shows of all time.

8 - Andromeda - was it ever any good? Was it ever even average? Did anyone actually watch this show? If a tree falls in the woods, does anyone hear it*? Do these questions really matter? Probably not. What is important is the question: is Kevin Sorbo decent lead role material? The answer to that is probably not, but let's have a mass debate with him in our thoughts...

7 - Charmed - a show in its winter (creatively speaking^) after its first season. I think the writers just didn't really have any idea of where they were going and this reflected in the stories, which were exactly the same week on week, year on year. My advice, if you must reboot the show: if you have a show about sexy witches, then MAKE THEM SEXY. I love the idea of Charmed but it really didn't work with frumpy characters and chip fat stories. Or should that be chip fat characters and frumpy stories?

6 - Star Trek - it's all been done before. No, really. It has. Over and over again... If they can't do something fresh, they really shouldn't bother because no one's going to buy another tired old series knock off. What's annoying is that Paramount held a competition to find a new series - and promptly ignored the top entries. Yes, they ignored all the juicy stuff and went for - you  guessed it - the oh so dynamic Enterprise (which was jolly good for seasons 3 and 4, but the damage was already done and the show was doomed). If this was a school report it'd say "must try harder" (and not sit at the back trying to cop off with Sarah Rogers).

5 - Knight Rider - What do you mean 'they already brought it back'? The new show should be sent back to the garage for a tune up because it's shallow, devoid of plot, and utterly repetitive. What do you mean 'just like the original series?' Oh well. I should remove this one from the list, but I can't because it should never have seen the light of day. Especially after the craptastic spin-offs Knight Rider 2000 and Team Knight Rider. This show should have its name changed to something that rhymes with "knight".

4 - Star Wars - it's just so very tired. The last four movies pretty much proved that Lucas hit it lucky with the first trilogy, as he seems incapable of writing a good story. The dirty hack! Star Wars shouldn't be seen in any incarnation until they can get a really interesting story and stop regurgitating the same tired old nonsense. I know we all love the idea of Star Wars, but be honest, has anyone actually really liked anything Star Wars related in the last decade? I didn't mind The Ewoks, but that's as far as it goes. And Knights of the Old Republic was rather excellent, but I draw the line there.

3 - Buck Rogers - I can't tell you how much I hated Twiki, the belipsticked Wilma, and later on, the white feather hair cap of Hawkman. Yes. this show was unreservedly dire from the start, from the outragous stories of future seasons to the attempt at gritty dross of the early years. Quite how this show managed to get picked up year on year is beyond me, and I hope we never have to suffer its like again. Altogether now: bidi bidi bidi, it's crap, Buck!

2 - Street Hawk - Fly on the wall in the TV producers' brainstorming session: 'Knight Rider is topping the polls, how can we compete? An alien speed boat? Nah. Pan-dimensional rocket powered roller skates? Hokey. A magic zimmer frame? Abysmal. The creative juices are dead, until one writer steps up with an idea sublime: "I've got it," he cries, "how about a motorbike that can fire lazers and do loop the loops!"... Inspired guys, really. Street Hawk was the epitomy of those '80s shows with soft focus, lots of lip gloss and no substance. The writers should have been fired and replaced with rhesus monkeys...$

1 - Manimal - so much to say. So much to slag off. So little time. The premise is simple (but shit): Simon McCorkindale can turn into animals, but, in the absence of computer generated graphics, the transforming sequence involves a close of up his hand while he does wierd things with it (don't be dirty), before - poof! - there he is, a bird, a panther, a marmoset, a complete pillock in an utterly rubbish TV show. This should never be brought back from the dead, not even if the best script writers decided to work on it. It's just wrong. With zero plot and a budget of fifteen pounds ($30) per episode, let's pray we never see this show - even on reruns.