Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Okay, so, I must admit, I’ve not seen every episode of the behind-the-scenes documentary ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ by this point. Hopefully, I can make up for this when it comes to doing in-depth reviews on Series 14 and 15 of ‘Doctor Who’ in 2026. 🙂

I did see the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episodes for ‘Destination: Skaro’, ‘The Star Beast’, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, ‘The Giggle’ and ‘The Church on Ruby Road’ for the 60th anniversary celebrations in 2023. I also saw the episodes for ‘Space Babies’ and ‘The Devil’s Chord’.

But for the rest of Series 14 and for Series 15 of ‘Doctor Who’, I drifted from seeing ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ in 2024 and 2025. Like I said, I hope me doing my in-depth reviews on Series 14 and 15 will permit me to check out all of the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episodes.

Despite that, I can’t say ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ excited me compared to ‘Doctor Who Confidential’ during the original Russell T. Davies era. This is especially when the series became quite showy and was turning more into the Steffan Powell show for ‘Doctor Who’.

And that’s not to discredit Steffan Powell, as he’s a good presenter. But I liked it when ‘Doctor Who Confidential’ was comprehensive and took time to explore story and characters of new TV series episodes. At least, that’s how I recall ‘Doctor Who Confidential’.

The ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episodes don’t match to how ‘Doctor Who Confidential’ did their episodes, especially with the episode lengths being 30 minutes or so. I recall the ‘Doctor Who Confidential’ episodes being longer than that. Not being showy and fast-paced.

When it was announced that there was going to be a special one-off ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode to celebrate 20 years of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, I wasn’t particularly excited by it. Bear in mind, this was back in June when I felt about like that. 😐

I was still recovering from the shock that Billie Piper appeared at the end of ‘The Reality War’ and took Ncuti Gatwa’s place in the TARDIS. Plus, I felt out of touch with ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’, having not seen most of the episodes. I didn’t feel compelled to see it.

But lately, when a repeat of the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode ’20 Years in Wales’ was shown last Saturday on BBC Two, I felt the time had come to see this one-off ‘Unleashed’ episode and find out how the 20th anniversary of the new TV series was being celebrated.

After seeing ’20 Years in Wales’, I thought it was a decent documentary episode celebrating the fact that the new TV series had lasted for 20 years. I think the episode could have done with an extra hour or so, but I found it quite well put together in its output.

The documentary contains interviews with all three showrunners for the new TV series, including Russell T. Davies, Steven Moffatt and Chris Chibnall. It was nice to hear their contributions on how they made their impact on the new TV series in their particular eras.

There are also interviews with the stars including Billie Piper and David Tennant as well as Arthur Darvill, Karen Gillan, Pearl Mackie, Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill. There are brief interviews with Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu from the UK premiere of Series 15. 🙂

Like I said, I wish ’20 Years in Wales’ was given an extra hour or so in order to accommodate more interviews with the stars. Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, Peter Capaldi and Millie Gibson weren’t interviewed for this ‘Unleashed’ episode, which is a big shame.

I like that the documentary goes through each era of the new TV series from Christopher Eccleston to David Tennant to Matt Smith to Peter Capaldi to Jodie Whittaker to David Tennant again to Ncuti Gatwa. Mind you, for me, some of the eras are briefly glossed over.

We don’t stay long enough for Matt Smith’s era nor for Peter Capaldi’s era, which is ironic considering Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant #1 and Jodie Whittaker’s era seem to be given more attention. Though David Tennant #2 and Ncuti Gatwa’s eras are brief as well.

Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan speak for Matt Smith’s era whilst Pearl Mackie speaks for Peter Capaldi’s era. Had Jenna Coleman been included in the documentary, Matt Smith’s final season and the first two seasons of Peter Capaldi’s eras might have been talked about.

It’s nice that the episodes ‘Blink’ and ‘Fugitive of the Judoon’ were talked about in terms of their filming locations. It’s interesting that ‘Blink’ was filmed in a shop in Newport and it was good to uncover the lighthouse in ‘Fugitive of the Judoon’ and meet its owner.

Even though Millie Gibson and Bonnie Langford aren’t interviewed, it was nice to see shots of them throughout the ’20 Years in Wales’ episode. This included Millie at the Series 15 UK premiere and Bonnie meeting one of her fans and having a selfie with her. 🙂

Statistical information is given on how ‘Doctor Who’s place in Wales for the past 20 years has contributed the TV and film industry and how the Welsh economy has improved because of that. I like that the fan community gets talked about towards the episode’s end.

This is particularly from the stars of ‘Doctor Who’ who share how they feel their interaction with the fans has affected the TV show significantly. Even though I have my ups and downs with ‘Doctor Who’, I can’t deny how enthusiastic I’ve been about the show.

I prefer a combination of both classic and new ‘Doctor Who’ in my life, but there’s no denying the new TV show has had a prominent impact in TV culture for the past 20 years. I’m amazed and thrilled to have been a part of it, especially through the fan conventions.

‘Doctor Who’ is in a bit of fragile state at present and I know there are fans who have lost their love for the show lately. But speaking personally, I can’t break from this TV show I’ve grown to love over the years, especially as I’ve contributed to it in my own way via my blog.

It’s good that ‘Doctor Who’ has been able to celebrate the new TV series in this one-off ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode, especially with acknowledging that it was filmed in Cardiff and Wales for the past 20 years. It’s had its ups and downs, but it’s still successful.

I don’t know what the future of the TV show is going to be like, even with the knowledge that the 2026 Christmas Special is on its way. I’m sure that I’ll still be checking out more ‘Doctor Who’ content in 2026 and beyond that and I’m sure that I’ll be enjoying it to its fullest.

’20 Years in Wales’ concludes with an interview with Billie Piper who sort-of hints about her return to ‘Doctor Who’ in ‘The Reality War’ without the ‘Unleashed’ team knowing about it. 😀 One wonders how things will turn out when ‘Doctor Who’ makes its return in 2026. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂