Monthly Archives: October 2023

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Rings of Akhaten’

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

In today’s ‘Doctor Who’ episode in the 60th Anniversary Marathon, Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor takes Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald on her first adventure in the TARDIS. This is ‘The Rings of Akhaten’ by Neil Cross, who makes the first of two contributions in the new TV series. The Eleventh Doctor and Clara visit the Rings of Akhaten, where several planetoids in a ring system are orbiting a larger planet. A religious festival takes place and Emilia Jones as Merry Gejelh, the young Queen of Years, is about to be sacrificed to the parasite of Akhaten. 😮 This episode also features a number of flashback scenes where the Eleventh Doctor witnesses Clara Oswald growing up and her parents raising her. Clara’s parents include Michael Dixon as her dad Dave Oswald and Nicola Sian as her mum Ellie Oswald. This is part of the story arc going on in the Clara Season in Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, where Matt Smith’s Doctor has to work out who Clara Oswald – ‘the impossible girl’ – is. ‘The Rings of Akhaten’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Bells of Saint John’

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

The Clara Season in Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series has restarted with the episode ‘The Bells of Saint John’ by Steven Moffat. This is where Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor meets Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald properly in the TV series. The previous two Claras in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ and ‘The Snowmen’ were killed off. The Doctor needs to solve the mystery of ‘the impossible girl’ whilst also having to deal with a deadly Wi-Fi that’s uploading people’s minds to it without consent. The episode also features Celia Imrie (who would later go on to be in the third and fourth ‘Nativity’ movies) as Miss Kizlet. There’s Robert Whitlock (who’s done quite a number of Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ including ‘The Edge’, ‘Psychodrome’ and ‘One Mile Down’) as Mahler. And there’s James Greene (who played Professor Purwell in ‘The Moon Stallion’ with Sarah Sutton) as the Abbott. Richard E. Grant also makes a return appearance as the Great Intelligence in the episode. ‘The Bells of Saint John’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

Quick Film Reviews & Cinema Experience – ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’, ‘Casebusters’ & ‘Toy Story’ (Disney 100)

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

This isn’t a Disney+ Roundup. This is me sharing my thoughts on three films that I’ve seen recently on Netflix, Disney+ and at the cinema respectively. I saw these three films towards the end of September. They’ve been interesting in their own way and enjoyable to check out when I saw them. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Snowmen’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

We’re starting on what is arguably labelled the Clara Season – the second half of Series 7 in the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. This is where Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor gets to meet his new companion – Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald. Jenna Coleman previously played Oswin Oswald in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’. However, it turns out Matt Smith’s Doctor doesn’t get to meet Clara quite yet in this 2012 Christmas Special. This is ‘The Snowmen’ by Steven Moffat. I’m certain that the special was inspired by ‘The Snowman’ – both the book and TV special – by Raymond Briggs. 😀 The special takes place in London in the year 1892. It also features the return of the Paternoster Gang, including Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as Jenny Flint and Dan Starkey as Strax, who previously appeared in the Series 6 episode ‘A Good Man Goes to War’. There’s special guest star Richard E. Grant (who played one of the Doctors in ‘The Curse of Fatal Death’ and the Doctor in ‘Scream of the Shalka’) as Dr. Simeon. And there’s Ian McKellen (who played Gandalf in ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ film trilogies and Magneto in the ‘X-Men’ films) as the voice of the Great Intelligence. ‘The Snowmen’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

Quick Official Trailer Thoughts – ‘The Star Beast’/’Wild Blue Yonder’/’The Giggle’ (Doctor Who)

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SPOILERS ALERT!!!

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Yes, I’ve seen the latest official trailer for the upcoming ‘Doctor Who’ 60th anniversary specials, due to be shown in November 2023. I saw the trailer whilst attending the ‘Regenerations 2023’ convention in September. If you’ve not seen the new trailer yet, check out the YouTube video below. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s time for us to check out ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ by Steven Moffat. This is the fifth episode in Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series and it’s the final episode of what I would label as the Pond Season in the first half of Series 7. This is Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill’s last regular appearance as Amy Pond and Rory Williams, who have been loyal companions for Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. In this episode, the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory visit Central Park in New York in the year 2012 before they get swept up in a deadly adventure involving the Weeping Angels on the planet Earth in the year 1938. They’re joined by Alex Kingston who returns as River Song in the episode. Will I find this Weeping Angels episode better than ‘The Time of Angels’/’Flesh and Stone’ from Series 5? Will it match in similar quality to ‘Blink’ from Series 3? And will this be a very satisfying and emotional departure for Amy and Rory as ‘Doctor Who’ companions? ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

Convention Report – ‘Regenerations 2023’

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

After enjoying our holiday in Amroth, West Wales, my parents and I attended the ‘Doctor Who’ convention ‘Regenerations 2023’, organised by Cary Woodward and held at the Village Hotel in Swansea from Saturday the 23rd to Sunday the 24th of September 2023. We had a pretty good time. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Power of Three’

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Let’s check out the fourth ‘Doctor Who’ episode in Series 7 of the new TV series, starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams. This is ‘The Power of Three’, which is the second of two episodes by Chris Chibnall for Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. The episode features another appearance of Mark Williams as Brian Williams, Rory’s dad, who previously appeared in ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’. There’s the debut of Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, who is the daughter of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and is now the new leader of U.N.I.T. And there’s special guest star Steven Berkoff (who voiced King Herod in ‘It’s a Boy’) as the alien Shakri of Time Lord legend. This ‘Doctor Who’ episode features the slow invasion of the cubes on planet Earth. Can Amy and Rory balance out their normal lives when travelling with the Doctor whilst also having to contend with the slow invasion of the cubes? ‘The Power of Three’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

Holiday Report – Amroth (September 2023)

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

After attending the ‘Popcorn TV, Film & Comic Con Sheffield’, I went on a family holiday in West Wales for about a week. On Tuesday 12th of September 2023, I caught the train from Cardiff to Tenby and met up with my parents before we got the bus to go to the caravan we were staying at in Amroth. 🙂 Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘A Town Called Mercy’

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Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Today, it’s time for the third episode in Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. It’s called ‘A Town Called Mercy’ by Toby Whithouse. This is a Wild West adventure for Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams, as they find themselves dealing with the cyborg-like Gunslinger, played by Andrew Brooke, in the American Frontier town of Mercy (played by Fort Bravo and Oasys theme parks in Spain 😀 ). This ‘Doctor Who’ episode also features Adrian Scarborough (who’s been in the Big Finish audio story ‘The Boy That Time Forgot’ with Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton as well as the 2018 film ‘Patrick’) as Kahler-Jex. There’s Garrick Hagon (who’s been in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Mutants’ with Jon Pertwee) as Abraham, and the episode’s narrator happens to be Lorelei King (who I’ve seen in an episode of ‘Monarch of the Glen’ and she’s been in Big Finish audio stories like ‘The Contingency Club’). ‘A Town Called Mercy’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →