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

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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 – ‘Nightmare In Silver’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Here we are on the penultimate episode of Series 7 in the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. It’s time for ‘Nightmare In Silver’ by Neil Gaiman, his second contribution to the TV series (the first being ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ from Series 6). Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara are joined by the Maitland children – Clara’s charges as a nanny. There’s Eve de Leon Allen as Angie and Kassius Carey Johnson as Artie. In the episode, the Eleventh Doctor, Clara, Angie and Artie visit an extraterrestrial theme park called Hedgewick’s World of Wonders on an alien world. Unfortunately, an army of Cybermen is about to wake up after their defeat in a war centuries ago. The episode’s guest cast also includes Jason Watkins as Webley. I’ve seen him in the first three ‘Nativity’ films and the BBC4 ‘Dirk Gently’ TV series. There’s Warwick Davis as Porridge. He’s well-known for being an Ewok in the ‘Star Wars’ film ‘Return of the Jedi’ and I’ve seen him in the BBC’s ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ TV series and the 2008 film ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’. And there’s Tamzin Outhwaite as Captain Alice Ferrin. Recently, she was in the Big Finish audio ‘Secrets of Telos’ with Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor. ‘Nightmare In Silver’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Crimson Horror’

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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 Crimson Horror’, which happens to be the second contribution made by Mark Gatiss in Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series (the first one being ‘Cold War’). In this ‘Doctor Who’ episode, Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara visit Victorian London in the year 1893. There’s the return of the Paternoster Gang, including Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as Jenny and Dan Starkey as Strax. Interestingly, the Paternoster Gang mostly appear in the first half of the episode, since the Eleventh Doctor and Clara don’t appear until the episode’s second half. 😐 An unnerving mystery takes place at a utopian community in Yorkshire called Sweetville, led by the late Dame Diana Rigg (well-known for playing Emma Peel in the 1960s TV show ‘The Avengers’) as Mrs. Gillyflower. There’s also Rachael Stirling (Diana Rigg’s real-life daughter) as Ada. Can our heroes solve the mystery as to what’s happening with ‘the crimson horror’? ‘The Crimson Horror’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Here we are on a ‘Doctor Who’ episode in the new TV series that gets to delve deeper into the TARDIS. This is ‘Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS’ by Steve Thompson, who previously penned ‘The Curse of the Black Spot’ in Series 6 of the new TV series. In the episode, the TARDIS gets hit by a salvage ship’s magnetic tractor beam, which causes a lot of damage to the ship’s engines. Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor forces the salvage crew to help him rescue Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald, when she gets lost in the depths of the sentient space and time machine. This episode features special guest star Ashley Walters as Gregor van Baalen. I’ve seen Ashely Walters in the 2006 film adaptation of ‘Stormbreaker’. Apparently, this episode is based on showrunner Steven Moffat’s frustrations with ‘The Invasion of Time’, which intended to explore the TARDIS’ interior. Does this episode excite me enough as a ‘Doctor Who’ fan when our heroes delve deeper into the TARDIS? ‘Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

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

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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 second contribution made by Neil Cross in Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. This is the ‘Doctor Who’ episode called ‘Hide’, starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara. Our TARDIS heroes visit and investigate an old mansion in November 1974, as it seems to be haunted. The special guest stars featured in this ‘Doctor Who’ episode include Dougray Scott as Professor Alec Palmer. I’ve seen him in ‘Mission: Impossible 2’ and quite recently in ‘Ever After: A Cinderella Story’. There’s Jessica Raine as Emma Grayling. She’s well-known for playing Jenny Lee in the first three seasons of ‘Call the Midwife’ and she would go on to play Verity Lambert in ‘An Adventure In Space and Time’. I’ve also seen Jessica Raine in the 2015 TV series ‘Partners In Crime’ with David Walliams. Is ‘Hide’ a very satisfying and enjoyable episode in Series 7 of ‘Doctor Who’? Does Matt Smith’s mispronunciation of Metabellis III stop me from enjoying the episode? 😀 ‘Hide’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Cold War’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

The ‘Doctor Who’ episode that we’re checking out today is the one that features the return of the Ice Warriors (well, one of them anyway 😀 ) in the new TV series. This is ‘Cold War’ by Mark Gatiss. 🙂 ‘Cold War’ has Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna Coleman as Clara visiting a Soviet submarine in 1983 during the Cold War. It’s where the Ice Warrior called Grand Marshal Skaldak (played by Spencer Wilding and voiced by Nicholas Briggs) breaks loose and plots revenge against humanity. There are special guest stars in the episode like Liam Cunningham (who I’ve seen in the 2007 TV adaptation of ‘Northanger Abbey’) as Captain Zhukov. There’s the late David Warner (who I’ve met at conventions, seen in two ‘Star Trek’ films and heard in the Big Finish audios) as Professor Grisenko. There’s Josh O’Connor (who’s been in ‘The Durrells’ and the 2020 film ‘Emma.’) as Piotr, there’s Tobias Menzies (who’s been in the 2007 TV adaptation of ‘Persuasion’) as Lieutenant Stepashin, and there’s James Norton (well-known for playing Sidney Chambers in ‘Grantchester’) as Onegin. ‘Cold War’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Rings of Akhaten’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

In today’s ‘Doctor Who’ episode in the 60th Anniversary Marathon, Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor takes Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald on her first adventure in the TARDIS. This is ‘The Rings of Akhaten’ by Neil Cross, who makes the first of two contributions in the new TV series. The Eleventh Doctor and Clara visit the Rings of Akhaten, where several planetoids in a ring system are orbiting a larger planet. A religious festival takes place and Emilia Jones as Merry Gejelh, the young Queen of Years, is about to be sacrificed to the parasite of Akhaten. 😮 This episode also features a number of flashback scenes where the Eleventh Doctor witnesses Clara Oswald growing up and her parents raising her. Clara’s parents include Michael Dixon as her dad Dave Oswald and Nicola Sian as her mum Ellie Oswald. This is part of the story arc going on in the Clara Season in Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, where Matt Smith’s Doctor has to work out who Clara Oswald – ‘the impossible girl’ – is. ‘The Rings of Akhaten’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Bells of Saint John’

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

The Clara Season in Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series has restarted with the episode ‘The Bells of Saint John’ by Steven Moffat. This is where Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor meets Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald properly in the TV series. The previous two Claras in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ and ‘The Snowmen’ were killed off. The Doctor needs to solve the mystery of ‘the impossible girl’ whilst also having to deal with a deadly Wi-Fi that’s uploading people’s minds to it without consent. The episode also features Celia Imrie (who would later go on to be in the third and fourth ‘Nativity’ movies) as Miss Kizlet. There’s Robert Whitlock (who’s done quite a number of Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ including ‘The Edge’, ‘Psychodrome’ and ‘One Mile Down’) as Mahler. And there’s James Greene (who played Professor Purwell in ‘The Moon Stallion’ with Sarah Sutton) as the Abbott. Richard E. Grant also makes a return appearance as the Great Intelligence in the episode. ‘The Bells of Saint John’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

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

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Hello everyone! 🙂

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

We’re starting on what is arguably labelled the Clara Season – the second half of Series 7 in the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. This is where Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor gets to meet his new companion – Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald. Jenna Coleman previously played Oswin Oswald in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’. However, it turns out Matt Smith’s Doctor doesn’t get to meet Clara quite yet in this 2012 Christmas Special. This is ‘The Snowmen’ by Steven Moffat. I’m certain that the special was inspired by ‘The Snowman’ – both the book and TV special – by Raymond Briggs. 😀 The special takes place in London in the year 1892. It also features the return of the Paternoster Gang, including Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as Jenny Flint and Dan Starkey as Strax, who previously appeared in the Series 6 episode ‘A Good Man Goes to War’. There’s special guest star Richard E. Grant (who played one of the Doctors in ‘The Curse of Fatal Death’ and the Doctor in ‘Scream of the Shalka’) as Dr. Simeon. And there’s Ian McKellen (who played Gandalf in ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ film trilogies and Magneto in the ‘X-Men’ films) as the voice of the Great Intelligence. ‘The Snowmen’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’

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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 Angels Take Manhattan’ by Steven Moffat. This is the fifth episode in Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series and it’s the final episode of what I would label as the Pond Season in the first half of Series 7. This is Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill’s last regular appearance as Amy Pond and Rory Williams, who have been loyal companions for Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. In this episode, the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory visit Central Park in New York in the year 2012 before they get swept up in a deadly adventure involving the Weeping Angels on the planet Earth in the year 1938. They’re joined by Alex Kingston who returns as River Song in the episode. Will I find this Weeping Angels episode better than ‘The Time of Angels’/’Flesh and Stone’ from Series 5? Will it match in similar quality to ‘Blink’ from Series 3? And will this be a very satisfying and emotional departure for Amy and Rory as ‘Doctor Who’ companions? ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading →