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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 →