Tag Archives: doctor who (50th anniversary)

Week 35 – ‘The Nyssa Challenge’ REVISITED & UPDATED

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 –UPDATED REVIEW ON AUDIO CD AND VINYL TODAY–

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

It’s New Year’s Eve today! I’m sharing the penultimate instalment of my latest ‘Nyssa Challenge’ mini-review season on ‘Bradley’s Basement’. Today, it’s time to revisit the ‘Doctor Who’ audio story ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’, which I’ve recently listened to on my brand-new vinyl recorder player. I greatly enjoyed revisiting ‘Fanfare’ on vinyl. I must admit, I enjoyed it more than revisiting ‘Spare Parts’ on vinyl lately. 😮 I know ‘Spare Parts’ is highly regarded as a Big Finish audio story, especially with it featuring the Cybermen in it. However, I found ‘Fanfare’ more enjoyable, especially with it being set in the 1960s and having a Beatles-like atmosphere to it as well as starring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. Continue reading

Season 25 of ‘Doctor Who’ with Sylvester McCoy on Blu-ray #1

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

It’s taken me a while, but I’m at last checking out and sharing my updated reviews on Season 25 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, starring Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace. This is the 25th anniversary season of ‘Doctor Who’, which was shown from October 1988 to January 1989. The Blu-ray box set came out in October 2024, but I had to check out Seasons 15 and 20 on Blu-ray first before getting onto sharing my updated thoughts on the four stories in Season 25. Let’s begin out look into Season 25 by checking out ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’, a four-part story by Ben Aaronvitch, who makes his first contribution to the TV series. Continue reading

Tim Bradley’s Convention Memories and Reports – 2010-2023

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

To celebrate Sarah Sutton’s birthday today, I’ve put together a list of all the conventions I’ve attended over the years from 2010 to 2023, which includes ‘Doctor Who’ conventions, multi-purpose conventions and a ‘Star Trek’ convention. You can check out my ‘convention memories’ blog posts and my convention reports by clicking on the images below. Continue reading

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – 2013 Specials Summary

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

I have mixed feelings about how the 50th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’ was celebrated on TV. For many fans, the highlight was of course ‘The Day of the Doctor’, which was followed by the 2013 Christmas Special ‘The Time of the Doctor’ featuring the end of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. 🙂 Continue reading

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Time of the Doctor’

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Here we are on the final adventure of the Matt Smith/Eleventh Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’. This is ‘The Time of the Doctor’, the 2013 Christmas Special by Steven Moffat, starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald. It’s the fourth Christmas Special to feature Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor. The special also has Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Sontarans, the Silence and plenty more monsters to finish off the Eleventh Doctor. There’s Orla Brady (who I’ve seen more recently in the ‘Star Trek: Picard’ series) as Tasha Lem, and there are guest stars like Sheila Reid (who was in ‘Vengeance on Varos’) as Clara’s Gran. Tessa Peake-Jones (well-known for being in ‘Only Fools and Horses’ and she would go on to be in ‘Grantchester’) makes a small guest role in the special as Marta. There’s also a couple of guest cameos, including a past face and a new face in ‘Doctor Who’. 😀 Will this be a satisfying swansong of a ‘Doctor Who’ adventure for Matt Smith’s Doctor? Can a single Christmas Special conclude the Eleventh Doctor era entirely on a worthwhile note? ‘The Time of the Doctor’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Day of the Doctor’

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

The time has come for ‘The Day of the Doctor’ by Steven Moffat – the 50th anniversary special of ‘Doctor Who’. This was shown on BBC TV on the 23rd of November 2013. It stars Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald, Billie Piper as the Moment and John Hurt as the War Doctor. There are special guest stars like Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Osgood and Joanna Page as Queen Elizabeth I. The story also features the Daleks as well as the return of the Zygons, who previously appeared in their first TV story ‘Terror of the Zygons’. There are surprise guest cameos of Doctors and companions that a keen ‘Doctor Who’ fan would need to look out for. 😀 This is a ‘Doctor Who’ anniversary special that’s highly rated by the fans. Do I agree with that? Do I think that this is a better anniversary special than ‘The Five Doctors’, the 20th anniversary special? Does it cover everything that I want to celebrate about 50 years of my favourite TV show? Are there things that I like about ‘The Day of the Doctor’? 😀 ‘The Day of the Doctor’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – Series 7 Summary

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

Like Series 6, Series 7 in the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series – Matt Smith’s third and final season as the Eleventh Doctor – is divided into two halves. Unlike Series 6 though, the two halves feel like they’re two separate seasons – with the Pond Season shown in 2012 and the Clara Season shown in 2013. Continue reading

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Name of the Doctor’

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

And thus, we have come to the season finale of Series 7 in the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. This is also where the 50th anniversary celebrations of ‘Doctor Who’ begin in the new TV series. It’s time for us to check out ‘The Name of the Doctor’ by Steven Moffat, starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald. This is where the mystery of ‘the impossible girl’ is resolved, as the Doctor finds out who Clara is and how she died twice in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ and ‘The Snowmen’. The episode features the Paternoster Gang, including Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as Jenny Flint and Dan Starkey as Strax. There’s also the return of Alex Kingston as River Song, and there’s Richard E. Grant who returns as the Great Intelligence. This time, it’s not Yeti or Snowmen that the Great Intelligence are controlling, but it’s the Whispermen. 😀 There are nods to previous Doctors in the classic and new TV shows of ‘Doctor Who’ and we have the introduction of a unique incarnation of the Doctor that our time-travelling hero chooses to not talk about. ‘The Name of the Doctor’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Night of the Doctor’

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

I know we’re jumping ahead with this one in terms of the TV series’ history for the 60th Anniversary Marathon, but we might as well talk about it here. It’s time to check out ‘The Night of the Doctor’ by Steven Moffat, a special six-minute mini-episode celebrating the 50th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’. Transmitted in 2013, ‘The Night of the Doctor’ stars Paul McGann, who returns to play the Eighth Doctor. This mini-episode also features the regeneration between him and John Hurt as the War Doctor. There’s also Emma Campbell-Jones as Cass, who has reprised the role in a box set of Big Finish audios recently, and there’s Clare Higgins as Ohila of the Sisterhood of Karn. ‘The Night of the Doctor’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray, BBC iPlayer and here via the official ‘Doctor Who’ YouTube channel. 😀 Continue reading

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

It’s time for the 25th anniversary season of ‘Doctor Who’ – Season 25 – starring Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace. We begin with my absolute favourite story from the Sylvester McCoy/Seventh Doctor era called ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’, a four-part adventure by Ben Aaronovitch. This story has the Seventh Doctor and Ace travelling back in time to the year 1963 where they visit Coal Hill School in Shoreditch, London. We’re also introduced to the Counter-Measures team, including Simon Williams as Group Captain Gilmore, Pamela Salem as Rachel and Karen Gledhill as Allison. ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ can be checked out on DVD and Britbox. Continue reading