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‘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 Rings of Akhaten’

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’

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

Convention Report – ‘Regenerations 2023’

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

After enjoying our holiday in Amroth, West Wales, my parents and I attended the ‘Doctor Who’ convention ‘Regenerations 2023’, organised by Cary Woodward and held at the Village Hotel in Swansea from Saturday the 23rd to Sunday the 24th of September 2023. We had a pretty good time. Continue reading

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

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

And welcome to Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. Here we are on Series 7 – Part 1, starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams. This is what I would like to label as the Pond Season in Series 7 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. Series 7 – Part 1 depicts the five final adventures of the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory as a TARDIS trio. Will they be a satisfying final set of adventures featuring Eleven, Amy and Rory? We begin the season with ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ by Steven Moffat. This adventure features a variety of Daleks from both the classic TV series and the new TV series versions of ‘Doctor Who’. There’s also the introduction of Jenna-Louise Coleman as Oswin Oswald, whom the Doctor communicates via various intercoms throughout the adventure. Is ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ a satisfying Dalek adventure for me? Did I find it better than ‘Victory of the Daleks’ from Series 5? 😀 ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Wedding of River Song’

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Here we are on the season finale of Series 6 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. This isn’t a two-part story as you would expect. The finale happens to be a single episode. 😐 This is where theoretically mostly everything that’s been going on in Series 6 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series comes together in the episode. It’s time for ‘The Wedding of River Song’ by Steven Moffat, starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams and Alex Kingston as River Song. This ‘Doctor Who’ episode also features the return of Frances Barber as Madame Kovarian, along with the Silence. There’s also the return of Simon Fisher-Becker as Dorium Maldovar, Ian McNeice as Winston Churchill, Richard Hope as Malokeh and there’s even Simon Callow as Charles Dickens. Was this is a satisfying ‘Doctor Who’ season finale for me? Were all the unanswered questions that went on in Series 6 answered in this episode? ‘The Wedding of River Song’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading

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

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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 – ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

It’s time for us to start checking out Part 2 of Series 6 in the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. We start off with the episode called ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ by Steven Moffat. I was hoping that this would be an episode featuring a full-on Nazi Germany extravaganza with Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory. Will that be the case when checking out the episode itself? This episode also features Alex Kingston as River Song and Nina Toussaint-White as Mels, Amy and Rory’s childhood friend. There’s also the return of Caitlin Blackwood who plays Amelia Pond in the episode. ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ also features the Teselecta, a shape-changing and human-looking robot that’s manned by a human crew from the future, and they’re miniaturised inside it. The Teselecta also contains deadly antibodies inside it. ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘A Good Man Goes to War’

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Here we are on the mid-season finale in Series 6 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. Yes, this is where Part 1 of Series 6 comes to an end. In this episode called ‘A Good Man Goes to War’ by Steven Moffat, Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams have to rescue Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, who gives birth to her daughter Melody and is a prisoner aboard an asteroid base called Demon’s Run. This is where we properly meet Frances Barber as Madame Kovarian, who’s been appearing throughout the first half of Series 6. We’re also introduced to the Paternoster Gang from Victorian London, including Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as Jenny Flint and Dan Starkey as Commander Strax. We also have the return of Simon Fisher-Becker as Dorium Maldovar, who appeared briefly in ‘The Pandorica Opens’. And there’s Christina Chong (who’s recently been in ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’) as Lorna Bucket. Will the Doctor and Rory also receive help from Alex Kingston as River Song to save Amy and her baby? ‘A Good Man Goes to War’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Pandorica Opens’/’The Big Bang’

Hello everyone! 🙂

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

Here we are on the two-part season finale of Series 5 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series called ‘The Pandorica Opens’/’The Big Bang’ by Steven Moffat. In this two-part adventure, Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond receive a message. They journey back in time to Roman Britain where they reunite with Alex Kingston as River Song. The trio soon ride off on horses to Stonehenge. There, they go underground to find a box-like structure called the Pandorica, which has been waiting for the Doctor. This story features a number of returning characters who have appeared in Series 5, including the return of Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams, who has managed to survive and cheat death following ‘Cold Blood’. This adventure also features the Pandorica Alliance of ‘Doctor Who’ monsters, including Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Judoon, Silurians, etc. ‘The Pandorica Opens’/’The Big Bang’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer. Continue reading