Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
It’s interesting about the 60th anniversary celebrations of ‘Doctor Who’ in terms of conventions. There’s no official convention by the BBC for the 60th year of the TV show in November 2023, like there was when the BBC did a convention for the 50th year at Edexcel, London in November 2013. 😐
Some would prefer that. I know Sarah Sutton is pleased to not be attending an event like the one in Edexcel, London ten years ago, due to how it was organised. I couldn’t make that event in November 2013, since it had been sold out. So, it’s interesting the BBC didn’t do a big event for the 60th year. 🙂
I’m happy that I’ve attended three conventions to celebrate the 60th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’. First, it was Sheffield in September 2023 and then it was Swansea in the same month. Last weekend, I attended the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’, run by Unleashed Events, and I had a very enjoyable time. 🙂
The convention was a full-on day for me on Sunday the 5th November, held at Scarborough Spa in the South Bay of Scarborough. There were plenty of ‘Doctor Who’ guests, including four Doctors and three companions. It was enough to get me very excited about the ‘Doctor Who’ 60th anniversary. 🙂
The guests included Sarah Sutton (Of course! 😀 ) who plays Nyssa in ‘Doctor Who’ as well as Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor) and Paul McGann (the Eighth Doctor). It was nice to see them.
There was also Sonny McGann, Paul McGann’s son, who’s been in the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’, playing Alex Campbell, the Doctor’s great-grandson; and there was Karen Clegg, who played Sarn in ‘Time and the Rani’ with Sylvester McCoy. The convention itself seemed too good to be true.
As I said, the day I was pretty full-on, including meeting the stars; having autographs signed by them; having photoshoots and eventually seeing their panel talk to close off the day. It was a pretty exciting time though, and I’m so happy I achieved most of what I wanted to do on the particular day.
I spent the whole weekend in Scarborough. I arrived on Friday, recovered on Saturday, and went to the convention on Sunday before going home on Monday. On Saturday, I had a nice walk along the beach. Buggles and his friend Donald the Duck also enjoyed their little trip to the beach on the day. 🙂
Incidentally, whilst exploring Scarborough on Saturday, I managed to spot a blue police telephone box. It looked nothing like the TARDIS as seen in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, but it could’ve easily been. 😀 Tom and Jerry were there too. There was also a jewellery shop called Bradleys in Scarborough. 😀
Regarding the convention itself, I arrived an hour early to be in the advance entry queue for 10am, especially since it was raining that day. There was shelter whilst queuing and waiting to go inside. Whilst waiting, cars arrived containing the ‘Doctor Who’ stars, who were about to go into the venue.
First, there was Sarah Sutton and Peter Davison, and Paul McGann and his son were behind them, I believe. I recall Peter looking at us whilst we were waiting in the queue on that rainy morning and he said, “You’re all mad!” I couldn’t help but laugh at that moment and other fans laughed away too. 😀
Sophie Aldred soon came along and then there was Sylvester McCoy, who said “Good morning!” to us and then realised it was raining and said “Morning” instead. 😀 I also saw Nicola Bryant and Colin Baker arriving by car that morning. It was lovely to see the ‘Doctor Who’ stars arriving whilst waiting.
Eventually, we got into the venue, and I wasted no time in exploring to find where everything was. I went to the autograph tables on the top floor and saw that Sarah Sutton hadn’t arrived at her table yet. I was on my way out to explore further, and Sarah came and gave me a big wave on my way out.
It was lovely to see Sarah first thing before everyone else. I told her I would see her later on once she settled at her signing table. Shortly, at her table, I had a lovely chat with her. In fact, I had some very lovely chats throughout the day with Sarah, especially as she’s my favourite person at conventions. 🙂
Incidentally, the poppy Sarah wore that Sunday was made by a friend of hers. It was lovely to hear her share that with me and it’s a lovely poppy she wore compared to the plastic ones you’d usually get for Remembrance Sunday. I wore my TARDIS badge whilst attending the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’. 🙂
Sarah signed my booklet for the Season 20 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’. I haven’t seen any of the Season 20 Blu-ray extras yet. Sarah told me I’m in ‘for a treat’, especially with the behind-the-scenes documentaries, i.e., the Germany road trip she, Janet Fielding and Peter Davison went on in 2019. 🙂
I also saw Peter Davison that day and I had my Season 20 Blu-ray box set booklet signed by him too. It was nice to see him again. We chatted about what it was like checking out the latest 40th anniversary edition of ‘The Five Doctors’ at the BFI and what being in ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ was like.
I had a photoshoot session with Peter and Sarah that day as well as a photoshoot with just Sarah. There was a delay to the photoshoots since there was a technical problem with the green screen the photographers used, which they replaced with a grey screen. 😐 Fortunately, it was alright in the end.
I gave Sarah some new versions of ‘The Nyssa Challenge’ and Nyssa’s timeline, which she greatly appreciated, and I gave her a copy of my latest two-part ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Interdimensional Rescue’. Sarah liked the title ‘A Sparkle of Doctors’, which is the Divergent Wordsmiths anthology that the story is a part of.
I asked Sarah about whether she had been invited to appear in the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ spin-off series, which was released on BBC iPlayer recently. She said she had, but it was a two-week notice and unfortunately, she was on holiday at the time the series was made, which is a big shame indeed.
‘Grantchester’, Series 3, Episode 2
This past week, I discovered that in the ‘Grantchester’ episode that Peter Davison was in, there is a book whose author happens to be Nessa Sutton – as in ‘Nyssa Sutton’ (a combination of both Nyssa and Sarah Sutton). I shared this fact with Sarah, and she was amazed since she likes ‘Grantchester’. 🙂
Later, I had groups photoshoots with the guests, including one with the Doctors and companions (Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant, Colin Baker, Sophie Aldred, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann). I also had a nice group photoshoot with just the companions (Sarah, Nicola and Sophie). 🙂
During the Doctors and companions’ photoshoot, Colin introduced me to everyone, and Sylvester called me a Tim Lord (not a Time Lord), which I found very funny. For the companions’ photoshoot, when I was putting my bags to one side, Sarah told me to ‘hurry up’ and join her, Nicola and Sophie. 😀
I played along and was like “I’m coming, I’m coming!”, jogging as I did so. 😀 Sophie was like, “Look at Tim run!” and I went, “It’s hard work doing these photoshoots!”, which made Sarah, Nicola and Sophie laugh. 😀 I’m pleased that I did the photoshoots with the Doctors and their companions.
I met up with Nicola Bryant at the convention and had a very nice time chatting to her. She signed my Season 22 Blu-ray box set booklet and we chatted about her appearance in ‘Tales of the TARDIS‘ too. I told Nicola about my ‘train-lag’ in getting to Scarborough on Friday. She knows it’s not a real word, but she thought it was a good word anyway. 😀
The queues for the Doctors were quite lengthy, but I managed to see Colin Baker at the event, and he signed one of my Blu-ray covers for ‘The Power of the Doctor’. I enjoyed chatting to Colin about his appearance in that ‘Doctor Who’ special episode as well as him starring in ‘Tales of the TARDIS’. 🙂
It was great to see Sophie Aldred again, having previously seen her for ‘Regenerations 2023’ in Swansea back in September. She’s had a haircut since then. 😀 Sophie signed my booklet for the Season 26 Blu-ray box set and I enjoyed chatting to her about her appearing in ‘Tales of the TARDIS’.
Sadly, I didn’t get to see Sylvester McCoy for a signing session that day, which is a shame. I managed to see Paul McGann though, and he signed my Blu-ray cover of ‘The Power of the Doctor’. I accidentally picked up a few photographs of Paul’s and he teased me a bit by saying, “Stop, thief!” 😀
I didn’t take many photos of cosplayers and props on display at the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’, as I was focusing on seeing the ‘Doctor Who’ guests for signings and for photographs. Thankfully, I managed to take a photo of the blue police box TARDIS we’re so familiar with and I’m very happy that I took it.
Toward the end of the day, I saw Sarah for a pre-goodbye session. She told me there’s going to be a new website for her, which is being developed by Matt Evenden (who co-organised ‘Timey-Wimey 1’ with Louise Jameson in 2014). 🙂 Hopefully, this will list Sarah’s upcoming convention appearances. 🙂
I’m looking forward to when that website will be available. There was then the ‘Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey ‘Doctor Who’ guest panel talk with all the guests – Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant, Colin Baker, Sophie Aldred, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Sonny McGann and Karen Clegg.
I was helpful to Sarah when she was trying to recollect the title of the Big Finish audio episode she did with Sir Derek Jacobi as the War Master in ‘Killing Time’ called ‘The Orphan’. I got to say goodbye to Sarah after the panel talk ended, hoping that I would see Sarah again soon at a future convention.
The 2023 ‘Scarborough Comic Con’ by Unleashed Events was very exciting and fulfilling. It satisfied the ‘Doctor Who’ fan in me for the TV show’s 60th anniversary. I’m so pleased I saw Sarah Sutton as well as Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant, Colin Baker, Sophie Aldred, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann.
I’m also pleased I achieved about everything I wanted to do on the Sunday, particularly with seeing Sarah and having photos with her and the other guests. It was definitely the 60th anniversary ‘Doctor Who’ event I wanted to go to in November 2023 and I’m glad Unleashed Events organised it.
Stay tuned! There’ll be a extra surprise to look forward to from me from attending the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’ in November 2023. I’ll be sharing the surprise on my ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog soon. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Being called a “Tim Lord” is funny and nice of Sylvester. Thank you, Tim Lord, for sharing this new update on how well the 60th Anniversary for Doctor Who is going for fans.
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Hi scifimike,
Yes, it was nice of Sylvester to call me a ‘Tim Lord’ and I told him that it was very good of him to say that. 😀 Glad you enjoyed my latest convention report on the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’. Thanks for the ‘Dr. Who Review’ trailer you’ve provided.
Tim 🙂
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“Buggles by the Seaside” Colourised, 2023. Marvellous article, Tim. It’s lovely how much the image of Doctors and companions looks like a family photograph. I suppose in many ways it is! Looks to have been a charming day.
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Thanks Wolfie,
Glad you enjoyed my latest convention report on the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’. I’m pleased you enjoyed Buggles and Donald’s photo as well as the group photo of me with the Doctors and the companions. It was a lovely day out for me and a great way to celebrate 60 years of ‘Doctor Who’.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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