Tag Archives: gareth roberts

Season 25 of ‘Doctor Who’ with Sylvester McCoy on Blu-ray #2

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

Today, it’s time to check out the second story in Season 25 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series called ‘The Happiness Patrol’, starring Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace. I’ve updated and extended my thoughts on the story, based on my revisit of ‘The Happiness Patrol’ via the Season 25 Blu-ray box set. ‘The Happiness Patrol’ is a three-part adventure by Graeme Curry, who sadly passed away in 2019. Like ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’, there are two versions of the story on two discs in the Season 25 Blu-ray box set. There’s the original three-part story on Disc 3 and the three-part Special Edition version of ‘The Happiness Patrol’ on Disc 4. Continue reading →

Quick DVD Review – ‘The War Games in Colour’ (Doctor Who)

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

For my birthday, I received ‘The War Games in Colour’ on DVD, which I’m very pleased to have. I have shared my thoughts on the colourisation of ‘The War Games’ back in December 2024 when it came out on BBC Four. So, I don’t need to share them again here. Continue reading →

Book Reviews – ‘More Short Trips’ (Doctor Who)

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

It’s Easter Saturday today, and the 2024 ‘Nyssa Challenge’ mini-review season continues as we check out the second ‘Short Trips’ anthology book of ‘Doctor Who’ published by the BBC called ‘More Short Trips’, released in March 1999. There are seventeen stories in the anthology. Once again, one of them features the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. 🙂 Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Caretaker’

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

We’re now on the ‘Doctor Who’ episode in Series 8 of the new TV series where Danny Pink finds out that Clara Oswald is living a secret life of space-and-time travel with the Twelfth Doctor in the TARDIS. This ‘Doctor Who’ episode is called ‘The Caretaker’ by Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat, and it’s where Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor gets to be the caretaker at Coal Hill School. It took him this long since he was Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor in ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’, but he’s finally become the caretaker at Coal Hill School at last. 😀 As well as Jenna Coleman as Clara and Samuel Anderson as Danny, there’s Ellis George as Courtney Woods, who is one of the pupils at Coal Hill School. There’s Nigel Betts as Mr. Armitage, the head teacher at Coal Hill School, and there’s Jimmy Vee as the robot-like Skovox Blitzer in the episode. Will the Twelfth Doctor accept Danny as Clara’s boyfriend in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series? Will it be constant arguing and the Doctor utterly dismissing Danny for most of the episode? Could it mean the end of Clara’s relationship with Danny? ‘The Caretaker’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Closing Time’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

It’s time for us to check out the ‘Doctor Who’ episode called ‘Closing Time’ by Gareth Roberts. This is a sequel to the Series 5 episode called ‘The Lodger’ and it features the return of James Corden as Craig Owens. Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor is without Amy and Rory (though Karen Gillan as Amy and Arthur Darvill as Rory do appear briefly in the episode). Instead, Matt Smith’s Doctor teams up with Craig, as they work together to thwart some Cybermen hiding underneath a department store. And this is while Craig is looking after his baby son called Alfie – or Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All as he likes to be called, according to the Doctor. 😀 This episode also features the return of the Cybermats (well, one of them 😀 ), having last appeared in stories like ‘The Tomb of the Cybermen’, ‘The Wheel In Space’, ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’ and ‘Spare Parts’. There’s also special guest star Lynda Baron (who played Captain Wrack in ‘Enlightenment’) as Val at the department store. ‘Closing Time’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Lodger’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Today, it’s time for us to check out the ‘Doctor Who’ episode from Series 5 of the new TV series called ‘The Lodger’ by Gareth Roberts. This happens to be a TV episode based on a 2006 ‘Doctor Who Magazine’ comic story of the same name by Gareth Roberts, featuring the Tenth Doctor. I must check out more comic stories and perhaps do a comparison between the comic and TV versions of ‘The Lodger’. In the TV version of ‘The Lodger’, Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor becomes stranded on Earth after stepping out of the TARDIS whilst Karen Gillan as Amy Pond is still inside the blue box time machine. The Doctor meets up with James Corden as Craig Owens and ends up becoming his roommate. This is the first time I’ve come across James Corden in TV and film, and this is before James Corden went on to voice Peter Rabbit in the 2018 film and its 2021 sequel. 😀 ‘The Lodger’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Planet of the Dead’

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

Let’s check out the second of the 2008-2010 Specials of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. This is also the first Easter Special ever made in the new TV series. It also serves as the 200th story in ‘Doctor Who’, featuring a London double-decker bus affectionately called the Mighty 200 as well as featuring Tritovores and alien stingrays. 😀 It’s time for ‘Planet of the Dead’ by Russell T. Davies and Gareth Roberts, which was shown on BBC TV on Easter Saturday (11th of April 2009). The special introduces Michelle Ryan as Lady Christina de Souza, who would go on to appear in her own spin-off audio series by Big Finish. There’s also the return of Noma Dumezweni as U.N.I.T. Captain Erisa Magambo and comedian Lee Evans as U.N.I.T. scientific advisor Malcolm Taylor. There’s Adam James as D.I. McMillan, Victoria Alcock as Angela Whitaker, David Ames as Nathan, Daniel Kaluuya as Barclay, Ellen Thomas as Carmen and Reginald Tsiboe as Lou. ‘Planet of the Dead’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

My absolute favourite ‘Doctor Who’ story is ‘Black Orchid’. That was the classic TV series’ way of doing a period murder mystery in the 1920s. Today, we’re looking at ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’ by Gareth Roberts, the new TV series’ way of doing a period murder mystery in the 1920s. David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble meet Fenella Woolgar (who would go on to be in ‘Call the Midwife’) as Agatha Christie at a country house. The episode also features special guest stars like Felicity Kendal (who I’ve seen in ‘The Good Life’) as Lady Eddison, Christopher Benjamin (well-known for playing Henry Gordon Jago in ‘Doctor Who’) as Colonel Hugh, Felicity Jones (who’s been in 2007’s ‘Northanger Abbey’, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ and ‘Rogue One’) as Robina Redmond, and Tom Goodman-Hill as Reverend Golightly. Do I think that ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’ is better than ‘Black Orchid’ or vice versa? ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Shakespeare Code’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Today, we’re checking out the second episode of Series 3 – David Tennant’s second season as the Tenth Doctor – in the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series called ‘The Shakespeare Code’ by Gareth Roberts. In this ‘Doctor Who’ episode, David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones travel back in time to the Globe Theatre in London in the year 1599 where they meet Dean Lennox Kelly as William Shakespeare (Thankfully, a more heroic version of Shakespeare compared to the one depicted in the Big Finish audio ‘The Kingmaker’ 😀 ). Whilst meeting the playwright, the Doctor and Martha uncover the mystery about Shakespeare’s lost play ‘Love’s Labour’s Won’ as well as confronting the three witch-like Carrionites. There are guest stars like Christina Cole and Andree Bernard in the episode. ‘The Shakespeare Code’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

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

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

How fitting that on the 8th of May – my birthday as well as a Bank Holiday – we look at another one of my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ stories from the Fourth Doctor era as well as the actual finale to Season 17 of the classic TV series. This is ‘Shada’, a six-part adventure by Douglas Adams, featuring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Lalla Ward as Romana and K-9, voiced by David Brierley. This story was never shown on TV in 1979, but thankfully it has been completed with animation and was released in 2017. You can check out the feature-length 2017 film version of ‘Shada’ on DVD, Blu-ray and Britbox and you can check out the exclusive six-part 2021 version of the story on Blu-ray. Continue reading →