Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Season 19 is my favourite season out of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. It has my favourite TARDIS team, including Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Janet Fielding as Tegan and Matthew Waterhouse as Adric. Anthony AInley also returns as the Master in two stories of the season. I always enjoy revisiting Season 19 on DVD, Blu-ray and Britbox. 🙂
It’s Season 19 that got me interested in the Big Finish audios, since I wanted to check out the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa audio stories, starting off with ‘Circular Time’. It’s also the season that encouraged and inspired me to write my series of ‘Doctor Who’ stories featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy.
The three best stories out of Season 19 for me include ‘The Visitation’, ‘Black Orchid’ and ‘Earthshock’. I got to enjoy the characters more in those stories, especially with ‘Black Orchid’ being my favourite out of the entire season. The characters had got on pretty well with each other by then.
For the majority of Season 19, the focus is about Tegan trying to get back home so that she can be an air stewardess. By the time ‘Black Orchid’ comes along, Tegan has softened in her travels with the Doctor. At the end of ‘Time-Flight’, Tegan regrets her decision to leave the TARDIS, which I found quite nice.
It was interesting to see the interaction between the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. Tegan and Adric are the more argumentative characters whilst Nyssa is the quietening referee between them and the Doctor. This is one of the reasons why Nyssa became my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion.
Season 19 is a season I look back on with fond memories, especially with checking out the stories initially on DVD and revisiting them on Blu-ray and Britbox. I wish that two seasons featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric as a TARDIS team were made. Thankfully, the Big Finish audios have made up for that.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Season 19 certainly showed how the drama on the TARDIS would become a lot more personalized and especially in Earthshock. John Nathan-Turner’s first era for a new Doctor was clearly a much needed change for younger viewers regarding Adric and Nyssa, with Tegan proving most bravely how inconvenience for a main character can be a great source of adventure. Thank you, Tim, for your summary.
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Hi scifimike,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Season 19 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. Glad you enjoyed my summary of it. I greatly enjoyed how this season developed on screen and behind-the-scenes in showcasing the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric as characters and their relationships with each other throughout each story. I’ve also enjoyed the other Season 19-era stories, including the Big Finish audios, as I’ve really got into the Fifth Doctor era characters. It’s from Season 19 where my inspiration to write my own series of Fifth Doctor era stories cane from as well as wanting to meet the stars of the TV show like Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, etc. It’s quite ironic, since I never saw Season 19 when it was first transmitted on BBC TV in 1982, as I was born in 1989. And yet, this is still my absolute favourite season out from the classic TV series.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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You’re welcome, Tim.
Ironies with how our most favourite sci-fi stuff might come about for us are always noteworthy.
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Thanks scifimike,
I don’t think it happens often that a season of a TV show made before I was born becomes my favourite, but I’m happy that Season 19 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series is my favourite and it has meant a lot to me over the years with my storywriting and attending conventions to meet the ‘Doctor Who’ stars.
Tim 🙂
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Even for first impressions, it’s certainly the even better appreciation we might have for our favorite sci-fi classics over time, like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner, that can make us the best reviewers we can be when we grow up. I’m in my 50s now and it has certainly been a great point in my life to see old favorites in better clarity, whether they can still be favorites or not. Even though Dr. Who, Star Trek and Star Wars as the sci-fi cornerstones for many classics will always be fondly in memory for that much, it has become easier to admire various other sci-fi legacies of the 20th and 21st centuries on deeper levels. Still, there’s nothing like reminiscing with a season from an old sci-fi show that brought out the best of you when you first saw it. Especially Dr. Who.
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Hi scifimike,
I can’t say I’m an avid sci-fi fan, but I certainly enjoy the action, adventure and fun in certain sci-fi properties, whether they’d be movies or TV shows in ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Wars’. In my reviewing, I try to find pros and cons to establish what I enjoyed about certain things and what I feel could be improved upon. Some reviewers find it easy to be very critical of things, but I prefer not doing that, as to use a Fifth Doctor quote, “There’s always something to look at if you open your eyes.” This is the case for both reviewing classic stuff from the 20th century and more modern stuff in the 21st century, which I hope I’ve done well these past eight years on my blog.
Many thanks for your comments,
Tim 🙂
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Good 5th Doctor quote indeed. And there can be something different for each of us to enjoy or appreciate about sci-fi thanks to how uniquely dimensional the genre can be. Most certainly for Dr. Who.
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Hi scifimike,
Glad you like my use of a Fifth Doctor quote. 😀 Yes indeed. I’ve definitely become more accustomed to more multiverse stories in sci-fi shows like ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Star Trek’ as well as in supehero movies like ‘Spider-Man’ over the years.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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As far as multiverse stories are concerned, Star Trek’s “Mirror, Mirror” started it all for me, giving Dr. Who: Inferno much to build on of course.
Best wishes.
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Hi scifimike,
My parents and I just watched ‘Inferno’ recently and we couldn’t help make comparisons between that and ‘Mirror, Mirror’. 😀 BTW, I’m currently three episodes into Season 3 of ‘Star Trek: Picard’. Enjoying it so far.
Tim 🙂
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