Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Happy 61st Anniversary, ‘Doctor Who’!
Yes, I know I’ve been sharing blog posts earlier in the day to share my latest review on ‘Ruby Red’ and re-share my 60th anniversary stories ‘Interdimensional Rescue’ and ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’, but this could be considered the official post for the 61st anniversary.
This isn’t something I’d normally do for one anniversary after the next, but I thought why not share how I’m celebrating ‘Doctor Who’s 61st year on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ in 2024. And I thought, why not share some of my convention memories of the ‘Doctor Who’ stars.
There’s my memories of seeing Sarah Sutton and Peter Davison as well as Nicola Bryant, Sophie Aldred, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann at the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’ in November 2023. There’s also my memory of seeing Jodie Whittaker and David Tennant at the ‘London Comic Con Winter’ in November 2022 and recently seeing Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson at the ‘London Comic Con Winter’ in November 2024.
Such happy times. 🙂 Whilst I’m here, I’ve seen the latest video of the deleted scenes from the 60th anniversary specials and episodes of Series 14 of ‘Doctor Who’. This includes ‘The Giggle’, ‘Space Babies’, ‘The Devil’s Chord’, ’73 Yards’ and ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’. Please feel free to check out the latest ‘Doctor Who’ YouTube video!
I enjoyed seeing the video. It was fascinating to see these scenes that didn’t end up in the final cuts of the episodes we’ve had recently. I like Ruby’s scenes in ’73 Yards’ and it’s a real shame the scene of the Doctor giving himself the whistle in ‘Empire of Death’ was cut. Also, I think the episodes could have worked well if less music had been included.
I hope you’re enjoying your ‘Doctor Who’ Day so far. Here’s to the next 61 years of a TV show I’ve grown to love these past 19 years.
Thanks for reading and watching!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
And yes, I’ve just seen the trailer for the upcoming colourisation of ‘The War Games’ with Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. Disappointed the 10 episodes is reduced to a 90-minute feature presentation, but still.
Check out the video below.
Enjoy!
Tim 🙂
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I first saw The War Games when I added it to my Dr. Who VHS collection at the time. How they plan to re-edit the original 10 episodes should be even more challenging than with the original 7 episodes of The Daleks. Thanks, Tim.
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Hi scifimike,
I know what you mean. I anticipate the 90-minute colour version of ‘The War Games’ not being good as the original 10-part black-and-white story, but that doesn’t stop me being curious in checking it out. Should be an enjoyable Christmas viewing this year.
Tim 🙂
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From what I saw in the trailer, the regeneration sequence will be somehow updated. That should be interesting.
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Hi scifimike,
Yes, I think that is the selling point for this colourisation. To see the Second Doctor’s regeneration into the Third Doctor. Not sure how that will add up to what’s been established in ‘Devious’. Also not sure if the regeneration’s being borrowed from the Confession Dial’s video as the two do look similar.
Thanks,
Tim 🙂
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Devious for its notion of a halfway state between Doctor regenerations was interesting, and with Tony Garner very well cast. I think that he inspired the notion of previously unknown or hidden Doctors that led to John Hurt and Jo Martin. Jon Pertwee’s contribution to bring a full closure to his Doctor (his last scene as the 3rd Doctor being a recreation of his first before he passed) is what I appreciate Devious for most of all. And now with Devious getting far more story potential with the new episodes coming out in the past couple years on YouTube, I’m just glad that it’s still getting good recognition as the most thoughtful Doctor Who fan films should.
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Hi scifimike,
I haven’t seen ‘Devious’ in a while since I first saw it on ‘The War Games’ 2-disc DVD. I know it’s had its legacy, particularly in the ‘Zagreus’ audio drama. I’ve also gathered more production has been made to it since it was released on ‘The War Games’ DVD, particularly with new episodes uploaded on YouTube, I believe as well as ‘Devious’ having its own website.
Many thanks,
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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Fan films around the time of the Wilderness Years, and before that when Barbara Benedetti was making her mark as a female Doctor for the Seattle International Film Festival, seemed like they were getting some good footholds. If Devious was popular enough to be given a spot as an official Doctor Who bonus feature, it might inspire other such opportunities. As YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo however have made such viewing opportunities possible, just as many DVD bonus features from movies and TV shows have now found their ways to YouTube, most fans may just find that preferable. It certainly was for me to finally help cure my addiction to buying DVDs.
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Hi scifimike,
This does reinforce my annoyance with the new TV series that it doesn’t seem to acknowledge what came before in the Big Finish audios, comics and books to provide a rich expanse of what the ‘Doctor Who’ universe is about, especially as the regeneration between the Second and Third Doctors is discounting the Season 6B stories, including ones penned by Terrance Dicks like ‘World Game’. I know ‘Doctor Who’ continuity tends to be all over the place and the Toymaker making a puzzle out of the Doctor’s life is an explanation for it, but it’s sad not every ‘Doctor Who’ story in other media, including Big Finish audios and certain fan films like ‘Devious’ are acknowledged by the official TV series so much. Then again, it’s up to our interpretation on how these things turn out and hopefully ‘The War Games’ colourisation will be entertaining enough as its own thing, despite being modernised and truncated.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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You’re welcome. And I must admit that after the 8th Doctor mentioning the names of his Big Finish companions in The Night Of The Doctor, and after Kate emerging in the modern series after her character was originated in the Wilderness Years, it would be nice if they could have more acknowledgements in the modern series of what Big Finish has given us. I for one have had thoughts about Alex Macqueen’s Master somehow making a TV appearance. There may be changes in that regard and after the Star Beast (which began in the comics) coming to TV for Dr. Who’s 60th, the bravery to do so is clearly possible.
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Hi scifimike,
Seeing Alex Macqueen as the Master in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series would be amazing. Mind you, he would have to go up against Peter Capaldi as the Tweflth Doctor in order for that to happen, due to the two of them being in ‘The Thick of It’ years ago. 😆
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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The whole thing feels incredibly gimmicky to me. The end result of The Daleks didn’t instil much confidence — taking 2.5 hours of storytelling and crushing it down to 50 minutes.
I don’t know why The War Games was decided as the second colourisation. I’d have thought they’d want to cut their teeth on a few other stories before getting to the mammoth ten-episode tale.
In 2023, I tried to condense that story down as far as the natural pacing would enable. I managed two 90-minute segments. Much of the fat. Very little of the meat.
https://archive.org/details/fanedit-second-doctor-season-6/%5B050%5D+Doctor+Who+and+the+War+Games+(1).mp4
Anything smaller would mean ruining the War Lords’ reveal, the disintegration of their control, and the final revelation of the Time Lords (which assumes 25-minutes alone).
I think the best we can hope for is something akin to Malcolm Hulke’s novelisation, but even then… It felt like his abridged version would still have been told in six episodes, as opposed to ten.
A bizarre choice. Really bizarre.
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Hi Wolfie,
Thanks for your thoughts and for providing a link to your two 90-minute edits of ‘The War Games’. Honestly, I’d be happy to go along with that as well as with it being in colour. It would match to the omnibus movie editions that were done for the Jon Pertwee era, including ‘Day of the Daleks’, ‘The Sea Devils’ and ‘Planet of the Spiders’.
I would be for these colourisations of the original black-and-white ‘Doctor Who’ stories from the 1960s if all the episodes were in colour in order for us to enjoy, matching to what’s been done for colourisations of Christmas films like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and ‘Holiday Inn’ and to some extent the ‘Laurel & Hardy’ films. I don’t want less of what I’ve enjoyed in the black-and-white versions. Plus, I wouldn’t rate the colourisation of ‘The War Games’ highly if there was too much music and sound effects that drowned the story out, as it happened with ‘The Daleks’. But like I said before, I’m curious to see what it’s like and hope to enjoy ‘The War Games’ colourisation in some measure.
Many thanks,
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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Hi Tim,
Maybe it’s not so much the tv series not acknowledging extended media such as Big Finish, and it’s more that extended media isn’t as well known as the tv series. I’m not saying the tv series should completely ignore Big Finish, novels, etc. but the fact is, people are more likely to have experienced the tv series.
Xavier
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Ooh, okay, so I have thoughts on this…
I’m a bit more cynical, I think it’s that, definitely, and a matter of corporate ownership. Big Finish is licensed Doctor Who, but isn’t actually a part of the BBC. It’s an independent organisation with its own aims and output.
It is much easier — regardless of who you are as a company — to control things that will cost you money, if you do it in-house. Particularly if it’s working with properties that the company already has a working relationship with.
That said… Fandom as a whole has this very strange ability to ignore its own history. I think it’s because we tend to look at things from a Watsonian, an in-universe perspective.
If we go way back to the 2000s, RTD was very clever in how he integrated Big Finish into Doctor Who. In fandom of the time, continuity was seen as the dragon. It was the thing that killed Doctor Who. People allegedly hated it, and it was allegedly what made the TV Movie fail.
Now, to have the 2005 revival stand on its own feet, there’s a compromise that has to be made. No direct mention of the past. None. However… And it’s a big however…
Behind the scenes, a lot of Big Finish’s talent ended up making the transfer across to television. In one way or another. We take it for granted that Nicholas Briggs would become the voice of the Daleks and the Cybermen. That wasn’t guaranteed, but a choice. The same is true of including Rob Shearman, Paul Cornell, Barnaby Edwards and a variety of other faces from Big Finish.
RTD was also someone who was the master of the pastiche. In those early days, we had imagery taken from Doctor Who galore. Echoes of past glories everywhere. Particularly if you look at the Cyber-stories. Davies was very deliberate there.
But, if you go even deeper… Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways is influenced by the plot structure of The Apocalypse Element (which, in turn, is influenced by Attack of the Cybermen). Davies even mentions the Dalek invasion of Gallifrey in one of the annuals, which is where I found Big Finish.
But, if we’re playing hard mode, and we’re looking at the first continuity reference to something outside of the television series…
Kronkburgers might be it.
Remember them?
I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t, dear reader. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment from The Long Game. Kronkburgers are from The Iron Legion. The Fourth Doctor meets alternate Rome story from Doctor Who Magazine‘s comics.
And RTD was an enormous fan of those comics back in the day.
The Eighth Doctor run is as much a blueprint for 2005 Who, as the original Human Nature was. In those stories, you will see the beginnings of Davies’s first era in inks and lines.
So… It’s actually tricky. If you want a one-for-one continuity reference… Hard luck. If you want an influence from the audios, comics, novels, etc. They are everywhere. And acknowledgements are made, but very surreptitiously.
A nod to Marc Platt’s Spare Parts in the credits of The Age of Steel. An unusual mention of Mavik Chen between the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors (guaranteed, a reference to Dalek Universe). Bonnie Langford’s appearance as a Melanie bush far more in line with The Juggernauts, than Paradise Towers.
It’s everywhere. All over the place. But, it will rarely ever be as direct as a litany of companions spoken by a dying Doctor. If you want something that direct, check out the DWM comics for the New Adventures. Comics featuring Benny Summerfield, exclusive from Virgin Books.
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Hi Wolfie,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on how Big Finish has subtly made its way into the new TV series, particularly in the 2005-2010 period under Russell T. Davies. It’s easy to forget that people like Nick Briggs, Rob Shearman, Paul Cornell and Barnaby Edwards started off in Big Finish before they became involved in the new TV series in various forms. I knew about ‘Spare Parts’ being an inspiration for ‘Rise of the Cybermen’/’The Age of Steel’, but I didn’t think ‘The Apocalypse Element’ was an inspiration for ‘Bad Wolf’/’The Parting of the Ways’. Thanks for sharing that insight.
Thanks also for mentioning that Kronkburgers were in the comic story ‘The Iron Legion’ before they were mentioned or included in ‘The Long Game’. I wouldn’t have known that unless you mentioned it. 😃 I’m pleased with how Mel has turned out lately in the new TV series, being more like the version of her character in the Big Finish audios compared to how she was in the classic TV series when she used to scream quite a lot. Yes, the comics and the Virgin New Adventures did try to match together in terms of continuity, but that was often fraught with continuity issues in trying to match it all together, which is a shame really.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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Ah, see… I find the New Adventures comics quite consistent (and I’ll explain why). They’re also just really good stories.
Picking three, Final Genesis, Pureblood and Emperor of the Daleks, especially, are all soaked in an aggressively ’90s flavour that brings a distinctive tone to them. Helps that Andrew Cartmel set the scene with his Seventh Doctor and Ace stories beforehand. (All wonderfully Steven King and pushing the envelope in a natural progression of where things were going on television).
By the mid-’90s, the Seventh Doctor was very much aligned with Doctor Manhattan from Alan Moore’s Watchmen. Down to the Doctor’s New Adventures costume having the Comedian pin that served as a symbol for Moore’s series. We get some really nice storytelling from that NA comics era. The denouncement of Final Genesis is one of the best in Doctor Who comics, period (“I suppose I cheated, really. Bad habit of mine. Sorry. Goodbye.“).
Inconsistency I wouldn’t say is an issue of that era. The Seventh Doctor’s comic adventures during Seasons 24-26, on television, however… Those really, really struggled. They were tied-in. Except they weren’t. Mel never existed. But Ace does. We’re off on zany adventures. No, we’re being torn apart in Aliens pastiches (incidentally, Dan Abnett who wrote Alien: Isolation got his start here). This way! That way! Up! Down! Shimmy!
It doesn’t really settle down until 1990. After the television series has been cancelled. We have a few Seventh Doctor and Ace adventures. Orphaned from any context but their own.
And then, the New Adventures arrive. The Seventh Doctor has grown into a haunting vigilante, Ace has a short-fuse from her trauma as a soldier, Benny gets all the good jokes. It’s thoughtfully dark (using its darkness with a purpose), and engaging with Doctor Who in a way that raises the hairs on the back of your neck.
The trade-off — and this can be an observation or a criticism — is that the comics are definitely being led by the novels. They are tie-ins, rather than their own entity.
And that’s not weird for the era.
You have to remember, Doctor Who was dead. Not resting. Not biding its time. D-E-A-D. Gone from public consciousness. Enough that Sonic the Comic, of all things, would homage the Daleks in the mid-’90s with the Brotherhood of Metallix. With the understanding that — while some might make the connection — it would be from a programme that had been seven years off the air. That’s the length of Tom Baker’s whole tenure. That’s really dead.
Doctor Who? Only fans really knew.
(Remembering, also, that fandom, then, was treated very differently to fandom now. A lot more closeted. A lot more anxious. And with good reason.)
That’s one of the great ironies of ’90s Doctor Who. The comics show a lot more consistency in 1990 to 1996, than it did 1987 to 1989. Purely because of the chaos going on behind-the-scenes on the television series.
The cancellation was bad news. It also propagated a staggering amount of talent that would later go on to work in licenced properties and on their own works. Ben Aaronovitch is known for writing Rivers of London. A #1 best-seller. Not counting a novelisation, his first published work is Transit from the New Adventures. Also, a really good book, but leaps and bounds away from where he started.
History. It’s very weird.
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Hi Wolfie,
Thanks for sharing your insight on the ‘Virgin New Adventures’ comics of ‘Doctor Who’. I’ve not had much exposure to the comics as opposed to the books and audios, but it’s fascinating how you find the comics tied in well to the book adventures of the Seventh Doctor. I’ve not read many VNAs with the Seventh Doctor, but it’s intriguing from what I’ve seen and read, particularly in the ‘Stripped For Action – The Seventh Doctor’ special feature on the ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ DVD, how the Virgin New Adventures book and comics worked together in terms of matching up continuity compared to how things occurree when the TV show was still on from 1987 to 1989 in conjunction with the comic stories being made. I enjoyed a ‘Doctor Who Comics’ panel talk at the ‘London Comic Con Winter’ recently this November and had a nice chat with former script editor Andrew Cartmel about his insight into how the ‘Doctor Who’ comics’ continuity contrasts with other continuities made by the TV series, books and audios and how flexible it can be.
Many thanks for your comments.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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Hi Xavier,
That is true. I appreciate people would be more aware of the TV series than extended media, and that licencing agreements often prevent the Big Finish audios from the being mentioned or referred to the TV series. But with the Eighth Doctor mentioning Charley, C’rizz, Lucie, Tamsin and Molly in ‘The Night of the Doctor’, I was hoping for the TV series to be brave and more flexible with acknowledging the Big Finish audios’ place in ‘Doctor Who’.
Maybe it’s more subtle and the references to Big Finish are present in the TV series. It just frustrates me when things established in the Big Finish audios – Mary Shelley meeting the Eighth Doctor in ‘The Company of Friends: Mary’s Story’ before the Thirteenth Doctor in ‘The Haunting of Villa Diodati’, Ace reuniting with Thirteen in ‘At Childhood’s End’ before reuniting with her in ‘The Power of the Doctor’, and Tegan reuniting with the Fifth Doctor in ‘The Gathering’ before reuniting with Thirteen in ‘The Power of the Doctor’ – aren’t made reference to in the TV series just to make people aware of the Big Finish audios being a thing as well as the TV series. This is something I’m likely to keep bringing up again and again, as the flexibility of it all is a bit dubious for me at present. I’m growing accoustomed to it as a pattern in ‘Doctor Who’, but it still can be frustrating.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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