Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
One of the biggest achievements I’m very pleased about with my blog was celebrating the 60th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’ in 2023. I wanted to make the most out of celebrating this landmark year. I’m very happy I was able to do that for every day in the month of 2023.
It’s just as well I did it like that considering the TV series wouldn’t match to the expectations I had of how to celebrate 60 years of a TV show I’ve loved for about 18 years by that point. It’s incredible I was able to put together so much to celebrate the occasion.
The main highlight of the 60th anniversary celebrations on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ was doing my ‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon. This was where I shared blog posts from January to December 2023 containing links to reviews on every ‘Doctor Who’ TV story.
This was from ‘An Unearthly Child’ with William Hartnell to ‘The Church on Ruby Road’ with Ncuti Gatwa. It’s incredible that I was able to put together blog posts containing links to reviews on every ‘Doctor Who’ story in the classic TV series and the new TV series combined.
Back in 2019, I did a ‘Doctor Who’ Marathon on all the new TV series stories from 2005 to 2019, including from ‘Rose’ with Christopher Eccleston to ‘Resolution’ with Jodie Whittaker. The 60th Anniversary Marathon was very gigantic endeavour compared to that.
I did prepare early in advance in the middle of 2022 to put the blog posts together for the 60th anniversary. I got as far as ‘The Abominable Snowmen’, as the new animation version of the story was yet to be released. Once released, I continued the rest of the marathon.
But even putting together the rest of the marathon was no easy task, since I had to consider the fact that not every ‘Doctor Who’ story in the TV series – both classic and new – was going to accommodate every day of 2023. I had to think of other ways to fill in all of the days.
Fortunately, I came up with summaries on every season of ‘Doctor Who’ – both classic and new – to fill in all of the days of 2023. I also came up with reflections on all the Doctors who have appeared in the TV series from the First Doctor to the Fifteenth Doctor.
I also put together reflections on the War Doctor and the Fugitive Doctor, as they’re just as significant as the main numbered Doctors in the TV series. The 60th anniversary marathon was a massive thing to put together on my blog, but I found it pretty worthwhile.
I also reviewed Big Finish audios for certain Doctors in the 60th anniversary celebrations. This included ‘The Beginning’, ‘The Dying Light’, ‘The Doll of Death’, ‘Luna Romana’, ‘And You Will Obey Me’, ‘Vampire of the Mind’, ‘The Two Masters’ and ‘The Witch From The Well’.
There was also ‘Agents of Chaos’, ‘Back to Earth’, ‘Wink’, ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles: Volume Two’ and ‘Timejacked!’. I also reviewed the comic story ‘Origins’, the book story ‘Combat Magicks’, and the comic story ‘Liberation of the Daleks’ for the 60th anniversary.
In terms of ‘Doctor Who’ stories I wrote for the 60th anniversary, I’m pleased I wrote ‘Interdimensional Rescue’ for the ‘A Sparkle of Doctors’ three-volume anthology by the Divergent Wordsmiths as well as my three-part epic story ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’.
In terms of conventions, I’m glad I went to the ‘Popcorn TV, Film and Comic Con Sheffield’ and ‘Regenerations 2023’ in September and the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’ in November to celebrate ‘Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary, as I got to see my favourite stars, including Sarah Sutton.
‘Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary is one I look back on with fond memories. It was a challenging endeavour to put together so many blog posts to celebrate ‘Doctor Who’. I’m glad I did it, and I’m glad I wrote stories and attended conventions to celebrate the occasion. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
The 60th Anniversary can certainly earn reflections for how much had changed for Doctor Who since the 50th. It’s the aftermaths of the anniversaries that may be most controversial. With the Toymaker’s return inspiring more of the least-recurring villains to also return like Sutekh, Midnight, the Rani and Omega, it’s always discussable where our favorite franchise could possibly go next to still be as enjoyable.
Peter Capaldi and especially Jodie Whittaker did what they could to keep the fans intrigued despite issues with the writing. And with things like the Timeless Child, bi-generation and Billie Piper possibly being the new Doctor to really shake things up, Whovian responses on WordPress and YouTube may attract a great deal more attention than the show itself.
Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor revitalizing the mysteriousness of the Doctor in the 25th anniversary, even if the classic series would be cancelled a year later, made the point that ambitious creativity could be worth it. I might agree with certain endeavors nowadays and also for Star Trek. But the demands in a time when the powers that be may not pay enough attention to what most fans truly appreciate can weigh heavily. I can still keep my hopes up that the Whoniverse will stay on the map thanks to Big Finish, the fan film universe and nostalgic revisits to the classic series and Wilderness Years. But my main reflection of the 60th is how David Tennant’s return could heal the wounds with Donna and the conclusion for The End Of Time. To be quite fair, a long-overdue happy ending can make a show’s troubled endurance worth it. Thank you, Tim.
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Hi scifimike,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the 60th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’. I suppose only time will tell as to where the TV show will progress as well as the accompanying media like the Big Finish audios, books, comics, etc. Whilst the 60th anniversary specials by Russell T. Davies weren’t exactly what I’d hoped for, I appreciate them for resolving a story arc involving Donna Noble and her relationship with the Tenth Doctor through the Fourteenth. A shame the promise of a glorious return for RTD isn’t followed up on greatly in the Ncuti Gatwa era, but that’s something for me to explore when it comes to sharing in-depth reviews on Series 14 and 15 next year. I hope to do those reviews as soon as I’ve sorted out the 62nd anniversary celebrations of ‘Doctor Who’ as well as the upcoming ‘Nyssa Challenge’ mini-review season for this year.
Many thanks and Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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