Tag Archives: doctor who 60th anniversary marathon (bb)

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Arachnids in the UK’

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

It’s the first day in December 2023 today and we’re on the fourth episode in Series 11 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. It’s time to check out ‘Arachnids in the UK’ by Chris Chibnall, starring Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, Bradley Walsh as Graham, Tosin Cole as Ryan and Mandip Gill as Yaz. In the episode, the Doctor takes her three friends back to Sheffield, where they discover a serious problem occurring in the city, which in the form of giant spiders. Is one of the spiders Shelob from ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’? 😀 There are special guest stars like Chris Noth as Jack Robertson, Tanya Fear as Dr. Jade McIntyre and Sharon D. Clarke as the ghost of Grace O’Brien, Graham’s wife. We’re also introduced to Yaz’s family, including Shobna Gulati as Najia, Yaz’s mum; Ravin J. Ganatra as Hakim, Yaz’s dad; and Bhavnisha Parmar as Sonya, Yaz’s sister. Upon transmission in October 2018, ‘Arachnids in the UK’ received generally positive reviews from critics. Do I consider this a very good ‘Doctor Who’ episode in Series 11? ‘Arachnids in the UK’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Rosa’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Today’s instalment in the ‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon has us delve into more of our human history. It’s the third episode in Series 11 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series called ‘Rosa’ by Malorie Blackman (who also wrote the Puffin e-short story ‘The Ripple Effect’) and Chris Chibnall. ‘Rosa’ has Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, Bradley Walsh as Graham, Tosin Cole as Ryan and Mandip Gill as Yaz visiting Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, where they meet Vinette Robinson as Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks becomes a significant person in the American civil rights movement during the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. Vinette Robinson has been in ‘Doctor Who’ before, as she was in the new TV series episode ’42’. She’s also been in the ‘Sherlock’ TV series and later in ‘Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker’. There’s also Trevor White (who I’ve heard recently in the ‘Demon Quest’ audio story ‘Starfall’) as James Blake, and there’s Joshua Bowman as Krasko, a time-travelling criminal who wants to stop Rosa Parks’ influence in the American civil rights movement. ‘Rosa’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Ghost Monument’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Here we are on the second episode in Series 11 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, starring Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, Bradley Walsh as Graham O’Brien, Tosin Cole as Ryan Sinclair and Mandip Gill as Yasmin ‘Yaz’ Khan. It’s time for ‘The Ghost Monument’ by Chris Chibnall. In the episode, the Doctor and her friends are accidentally transported to a distant solar system, where they become part of an interplanetary alien rally that crash-lands at their final stop on the hostile planet of Desolation. The Doctor and her friends hope to reach the finish line – the titular ‘ghost monument’, which happens to be the TARDIS – to get back to Earth. There are special guest stars like Susan Lynch as Angstrom, Shaun Dooley (who I would later see in episodes of Series 6 of ‘Grantchester’) as Epzo and Art Malik (who I’ve seen in the final episode of ‘Sherlock’, 2023’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘True Lies’) as Ilin. There’s also Ian Gelder (who was in the five-part ‘Torchwood’ story (Series 3) called ‘Children of Earth’) as the voice of the Remnants. ‘The Ghost Monument’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Woman Who Fell to Earth’

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

And welcome to the Jodie Whittaker/Thirteenth Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’! 🙂 It’s Chris Chibnall’s turn to be showrunner of ‘Doctor Who’ from 2018 to 2022. He brings in his era of the show by having the main character be played by a woman. This era has divided fan opinion, but is this an era I regard highly compared to others? Let’s start off by checking out the first episode of Series 11 of the new TV series called ‘The Woman Who Fell to Earth’ by Chris Chibnall. Following on from the end of ‘Twice Upon a Time’, Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor crash-lands to Earth and meets up with Bradley Walsh as Graham O’Brien, Tosin Cole as Ryan Sinclair and Mandip Gill as Yasmin ‘Yaz’ Khan. The episode also features Sharon D. Clarke as Grace, Graham’s wife and Ryan’s gran; Samuel Oatley as the alien Stenza warrior called Tzim-Sha (or as the Doctor calls him ‘Tim Shaw’); and there’s Johnny Dixon as Karl. This ‘Doctor Who’ episode received a rating of 10.96 million viewers as well as positive reviews from critics. Does it still hold up well after all these years? ‘The Woman Who Fell to Earth’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – Reflection on the Twelfth Doctor

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

Like Matt Smith, I’ve found Peter Capaldi’s era of ‘Doctor Who’ to be a mixed bag overall. No doubt Peter Capaldi is a good actor, and he does very well with the material he’s given as the Twelfth Doctor. But for me, a lot of the storytelling by the showrunner Steven Moffat feels very inconsistent. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Twice Upon a Time’

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

It’s time to check out the final story of the Peter Capaldi/Twelfth Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’ and it’s the final story of the Steven Moffat era. Here we are on the 2017 Christmas Special called ‘Twice Upon a Time’ by Steven Moffat. As well as Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, he gets to meet and team up with David Bradley as the First Doctor. David Bradley played William Hartnell in the 2013 docu-drama ‘An Adventure In Space and Time’. Since then, he’s played the First Doctor more than once in the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’. Also in ‘Twice Upon a Time’, there’s the return of Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts and the introduction of Mark Gatiss as the Captain. There are guest returns of Rusty the Dalek from ‘Into the Dalek’, Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald and Matt Lucas as Nardole. There are also small appearances of the First Doctor’s companions, including Polly (played by Anneke Wills/Lily Travers) and Ben (played by Michael Craze/Jared Garfield). With this being the last story of the Peter Capaldi/Twelfth Doctor era, does ‘Twice Upon a Time’ conclude it on reassuring and satisfying notes? ‘Twice Upon a Time’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – Series 10 Summary

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Quite arguably, Series 10 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series is the best season out of the three that Peter Capaldi did as the Twelfth Doctor. There are some good episodes to take away from the season, including ‘Smile’, ‘Thin Ice’, ‘Empress of Mars’ and ‘The Eaters of Light’, which I’ve enjoyed. 🙂 Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘World Enough and Time’/’The Doctor Falls’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

We come now to the two-part season finale in Series 10 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, starring Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, Pearl Mackie as Bill and Matt Lucas as Nardole. This is ‘World Enough and Time’/’The Doctor Falls’ by Steven Moffat. This two-part adventure has Michelle Gomez as Missy actively involved in the season finale for a change, and there’s the return of John Simm as the Master, who was last seen in ‘The End of Time’ with David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. There’s also the return of the Mondasian Cybermen, who made their debut in ‘The Tenth Planet’ with William Hartnell as the First Doctor, and they’ve been in the Big Finish audio story ‘Spare Parts’ with Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. Clearly, ‘World Enough and Time’/’The Doctor Falls’ is supposed to be a dramatic and emotional finale to Series 10, especially considering what happens to our three main heroes: the Twelfth Doctor, Bill and Nardole. Do I think this two-part story is worthy enough to be considered a dramatic and emotional finale in Series 10 of the new TV series? ‘World Enough and Time’/’The Doctor Falls’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Eaters of Light’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

It’s fitting that today’s instalment in the 60th Anniversary Marathon of ‘Doctor Who’ on the 60th anniversary date is an episode by a writer who’s written for both the classic and the new TV eras of the show. Today, we’re checking out ‘The Eaters of Light’ by Rona Munro, who penned ‘Survival’, the last story of the classic TV series featuring Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace. ‘The Eaters of Light’ features Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, Pearl Mackie as Bill and Matt Lucas as Nardole. The story takes place in Scotland in the 2nd century, where our heroes investigate the fate of the Ninth Legion of the Imperial Roman army. As well as Romans, this story also features the Pict tribe, led by Rebecca Benson as Kar, who’s also the ‘Guardian of the Gate’. There’s a crow that happens to say words of English if you listen carefully. Nardole is in his dressing gown in this story ( 😀 ) and there happens to be a brief appearance of Michelle Gomez as Missy at the episode’s end. Is ‘The Eaters of Light’ as good as ‘Survival’ in being a ‘Doctor Who’ instalment by Rona Munro? ‘The Eaters of Light’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Empress of Mars’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

After ‘The Monks Trilogy’, we’re back to some proper standalone ‘Doctor Who’ episodes in Series 10 of the new TV series. Today in the 60th Anniversary Marathon, we’re checking out ‘Empress of Mars’ by Mark Gatiss. This features the return of the Ice Warriors. Still not sure if it’s Nicholas Briggs who’s voicing the Ice Warriors in this episode. Notable Ice Warrior characters that appear in this episode include Richard Ashton as Friday and Adele Lynch as the titular ‘Empress of Mars’ named Iraxxa. Incidentally, Adele Lynch recently played a similar character in the Ice Queen named Vextyr in the Big Finish audio story ‘Cry of the Vultriss’ with Colin Baker. The guest cast also includes Anthony Calf as Godsacre and Ferdinand Kingsley as Catchlove. There’s a nice cameo of Alpha Centauri from the ‘Peladon Tales’ of ‘Doctor Who’, and she’s voiced by Ysanne Churchman. And there’s a brief appearance of Michelle Gomez as Missy somewhere in the middle and at the episode’s end. At the time of watching this, I found ‘Empress of Mars’ a good ‘Doctor Who’ episode. Do I still regard it favourably after all these years? ‘Empress of Mars’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →