Hello everyone! 🙂
WOW! 2016 is nearly over! How time flies! Today it’s New Year’s Eve, and it’s time to look back and reflect on what 2016 has been like! My ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog has gone from strength and strength this past year! Here are some highlights of what I’ve enjoyed from 2016!
JANUARY
2016 started off well for me. Early in the year, I saw the movie ‘Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens’ at the cinemas. Later that year, I also saw ‘Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie’ at the cinema with my parents. I also watched and reviewed the extended DVDs of ‘The Hobbit’ film trilogy.
‘The Fifth Doctor by Tim Bradley’ series began in January that year with ‘The Railway of Time’, featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa and introducing new companion Billy Walker. It was well-received in that month and I was able to continue adding stories for the rest of my fan fiction series.
I also attended the ‘Science of the Time Lords 2016’ convention at the National Space Centre in Leicester from Saturday the 30th to Sunday the 31st of January. I saw Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred on the Saturday and saw Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton on the Sunday. It was a very happy weekend for me and I enjoyed both days, taking photos and videos and meeting up with the stars.
FEBRUARY
In February, ‘The Nyssa Challenge’ began right on cue to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Nyssa in ‘Doctor Who’. The challenge started on the 1st of February with ‘The Keeper of Traken’, the debut story for Nyssa in the series. ‘The Nyssa Challenge’ is still on-going to this day as we enter into 2017.
With movies at the cinema, I saw the 2016 ‘Dad’s Army’ movie starring Toby Jones and Bill Nighy. I also saw ‘The Revenant’ with Leonard DiCaprio at the cinemas, as recommended by Sarah Sutton.
The second story of ‘The Fifth Doctor by Tim Bradley’ series, ‘The Space Hotel’ was released in that month. That too was well-received and it was fun to revisit that story with many comedic elements in the story and also murder mystery elements. I re-watched ‘Fawlty Towers’ to help me on the way.
By the end of the month, my parents and I went on a family weekend holiday to Woodstock where we visited Blenheim Palace for two days from Saturday the 27th to Sunday the 28th of February. It was an amazing two days and there was much to see at Blenheim Palace, inside and on the grounds.
MARCH
With March, as well as my Mum’s birthday, my third ‘Doctor Who’ story, ‘Doom of the Daleks’, in ‘The Fifth Doctor by Tim Bradley’ series was released. This featured the first appearance of the Dwaxi. ‘Doom of the Daleks’ happens to be the most popular of the first trilogy of Fifth Doctor stories by me.
The highlight of March for me was attending the ‘Memorabilia @ Birmingham’ convention at the NEC on Saturday the 19th of March. I enjoyed that day very much as I saw both Sarah Sutton and Mark Strickson who played Fifth Doctor companions in ‘Doctor Who’ from the TV series in the 1980s.
Easter was celebrated in March 2016 instead of April. As well as celebrating the good news and message of Jesus Christ for Easter, I also added my reviews on the ‘Destiny of the Doctor’ series by Big Finish and AudioGo. I also saw the ‘Some Mothers Do ‘Ave Them’ sketch for Sports Relief that week before and I saw the ‘Laurel & Hardy’ DVD called ‘Bonnie Scotland’ during the Easter holidays.
With movies at the cinema, I saw ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ at the end of that month. It wasn’t a great superhero movie for me, but it’ll be interesting to see where the story will go in 2017.
APRIL
In April, I created a new page for my blog on ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ by C.S. Lewis. I revisited the Disney/Fox film trilogy from 2005-2010 and the BBC TV adaptations of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ from 1988-1990. It was a happy experience revisiting the adaptations of the children’s classic novels.
Musically, I went on holiday with my parents to Chichester to attend the ’30th Festival of Jazz, Swing and Cabaret’ from Friday the 8th to Monday the 11th. I also saw the concert ‘Fascinating Rhythm’ presented by the Llandaff Theatre Company on Friday the 22nd of April, shown where I locally live.
I also did my music presentation of ‘Tim’s Glenn Miller Favourites’ at the Newport Music Society on Wednesday the 27th of April. My music presentation was well-received by everyone who attended and I enjoyed sharing my favourite songs and numbers by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra.
I added a new page to my blog, attached to ‘The Nyssa Challenge’, called ‘The Works of Sarah Sutton’. This started with my review on ‘The Jarillion Mercy’ and there are more reviews on ‘The Works of Sarah Sutton’ page to this day, with the latest one being ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’.
I’ve also added a new fan-fiction page of ‘Doctor Who’ pages called ‘Short Trips by Tim Bradley’. My first ‘Short Trip’ for this new page was ‘The Space Car’ and features Ace and the Seventh Doctor in it.
MAY
Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at the ‘Stars of Time Film and Comic Con’, Weston-super-Mare, May 2016
May was my favourite month for me in 2016! I celebrated my birthday and I got to see Sarah Sutton the day before my birthday at the ‘Stars of Time Film and Comic Con’ at the Helicopter Museum in Weston-super-Mare on Saturday the 7th of May. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer birthday present!
Check out my other birthday posts including ”Happy Birthday To Me’ 2016!’ and ‘The Railway of Time’ signed by Sarah Sutton’. I also saw ‘Captain America: Civil War‘ at the cinema to celebrate my birthday. I had a nice meal at ‘Frankie & Benny’s’ before seeing the superhero movie at the cinema.
I also had two DVDs from my parents for my birthday in May. They include ‘The Peanuts 2 Movie Collection’ and two ‘Doctor Who’ DVDs on the ‘Longleat ’83’ convention which I found very enjoyable.
I also enjoyed the brand-new CD box set of ‘The Tenth Doctor Adventures – Volume 1’ of ‘Doctor Who’ by Big Finish. It was great to hear David Tennant and Catherine Tate return as the Tenth Doctor and Donna for these brand-new audio adventure. I hope it won’t be the last we hear of those two!
JUNE
In June, I continued to enjoy my birthday presents including three DVDs given to me by my best mate from school, Stephen. The DVDs I had included ‘Batman Forever‘, ‘Sgt. Bilko’ and ‘The Fifth Element’. I enjoyed all three DVDs in turn. My favourite of the three would be ‘Batman Forever’! 😀
I also saw the movie ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ with my best mate Stephen at the cinema. It was a very enjoyable film and I was able to settle back into the ‘X-Men’ movie universe when watching this ‘X-Men’ film.
That month, I also revisited the two ‘Fantastic Four’ movies from 2005 and 2007. I enjoyed seeing these movies again and there is now a new page on my blog containing reviews for the two movies.
A highlight for me from June this year was the two news items from Big Finish on some new Fifth Doctor audio stories. The first was on the 2017 trilogy with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. The second was on the audio adaptation of ‘Cold Fusion’ featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric with the Seventh Doctor, Chris and Roz. I’m looking forward to hearing these new audios.
JULY
I’ve added a lot of new pages and reviews to my blog for 2016. First I added a new ‘Dad’s Army’ pages and updated each of my reviews on the episodes from Series 1 up to Series 9. I also added a new ‘Glenn Miller’ page and revisited the movies featuring Glenn Miller including ‘Sun Valley Serenade’ and ‘Orchestra Wives’ and also the 1954 film ‘The Glenn Miller Story’ with James Stewart.
Tim Bradley with Sophie Aldred at ‘Science of the Time Lords’, National Space Centre, Leciester, January 2016
I had a nice surprise in July! Sophie Aldred, who plays Ace in ‘Doctor Who’, mentioned me in a Big Finish interview on the CD extras for ‘A Life of Crime’. Sophie was pleased with Ace’s Timeline that I gave her and I’m pleased she mentioned me and made me famous. Here’s the blog post for you to see.
I saw a good number of movies at the cinema in the summer of 2016 from July into August. The first two movies that I saw in July at the cinema were ‘Ice Age: Collision Course’ and ‘Star Trek Beyond’.
AUGUST
The visits to the movies at the cinema continued in August with seeing ‘Finding Dory’ and ‘The BFG’. I can’t believe I saw four movies in a row that summer in 2016. I enjoyed having McDonald meals before I went to see these movies at the cinema with my parents. All four movies were so enjoyable.
I also revisited the ‘Toy Story’ movies by Disney/Pixar and created a new page with reviews on the films for my blog. This included reviews on the ‘Toy Story’ trilogy and the two short films including ‘Toy Story of Terror’ and ‘Toy Story That Time Forgot’. I wonder what Pixar movies I will review next!
I also created a new page on ‘The World of Jane Austen’ and revisited and reviewed adaptations of Jane Austen’s works. This included the 2005 film of ‘Pride & Prejudice’, the 1995 film of ‘Sense & Sensibility’, the 2007 TV Movie of ‘Mansfield Park’, the 2007 TV Movie of ‘Northanger Abbey’ and the 2007 TV Movie of ‘Persuasion’. Revisiting these Jane Austen adaptations have been very refreshing.
August was a very exciting time for me in terms of conventions. I saw Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton at two conventions that month including the ‘Worcester Comic Con’ on the 21st and the ‘Stars of Time Film and Comic Con’ @ The Tropicana in Weston-super-Mare on the 28th. I also had my own holiday in Weston-super-Mare whilst I attended the convention from the 26th to the 30th.
On my return from the Weston-super-Mare weekend, I had a nice surprise and listened to a Big Finish podcast interview with Sarah Sutton. It was an archive interview from the recording of the Big Finish audio story ‘Return to the Web Planet’. It was an enjoyable interview and interesting to hear.
SEPTEMBER
In September, I saw the prequel for the BBC sitcom series ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ called ‘Young Hyacinth’ on TV. I’m afraid it wasn’t a great prequel and didn’t last long enough beyond 30 minutes.
The highlight of September for me was our family holiday to Amroth from Sunday the 4th to Thursday 9th. My parents and I had a great time in Amroth and we enjoyed visiting the area, including the Colby Woodland Garden as well as visiting Tenby, Wiseman’s Bridge and Saundersfoot.
Also my parents and I attended the ‘Doctor Who’ convention ‘Regenerations 2016’ in Swansea from Saturday the 24th to Sunday the 25th. There were guests including Wendy Padbury, Frazer Hines, Anneke Wills, Deborah Watling, Michael Jayston, Colin Baker and Peter Davison from that weekend!
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of ‘Star Trek’, I began my review series in September on the first ten ‘Star Trek’ movies including ‘The Original Series’ and ‘The Next Generation’ casts. This started with ‘The Motion Picture’ in September and finished with ‘Nemesis’ in November. It was a happy experience for me, as I enjoyed revisiting and reviewing these ‘Star Trek’ ten movies for my ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog.
I reviewed the ‘Classic Doctors, New Monsters – Volume 1’ CD box set (which I purchased from the ‘Regenerations 2016’ convention) and reviewed the ’12 Doctors, 12 Stories’ Puffin series for my blog.
The last day of September for this year also marked the 1st Anniversary of my ‘Bradley Basement’ when it was created in 2015. I’m so pleased that I managed to achieve a lot with my blog in one year.
OCTOBER
With October, I added my fourth ‘Doctor Who’ story in ‘The Fifth Doctor by Tim Bradley’ series called ‘The Tree of Riverloth’. This new story with the Doctor, Nyssa and Billy featured the Melkurs. It was written specifically for ‘Bradley’s Basement’ after the warm response to my stories on the blog.
October was an exciting month for me as I went on a day trip with my parents to ‘LEGOLAND Windsor’ on Saturday the 15th. It was the first time I’d been to ‘LEGOLAND Windsor’ in a long time since I was a kid. I enjoyed going on the rides; seeing the shows; eating the food and seeing the fireworks display at night.
I also went on another holiday weekend to Chichester with my parents to attend the ’32nd Festival of Big Band Swing, Hot Jazz and Cabaret’ from Friday the 21th to Monday the 24th. The two Chichester weekends that I went to this year has some wonderful jazz music and featured Tony Jacobs.
The buzz for me in October was the release of ‘The Moon Stallion’ TV serial with Sarah Sutton on BBC Store. I have the original six-part serial of ‘The Moon Stallion’ to watch and enjoy on my tablet.
NOVEMBER
In November, it was my Dad’s birthday and we mostly celebrated at home. We enjoyed revisiting ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ – Season 1, as Dad purchased the remastered DVDs for his birthday. The re-mastered episodes of ‘The Original Series’ are amazing with the new picture quality and new CGI effects in them. This helped add to the continue celebrating the 50th anniversary of ‘Star Trek’!
Also in that month, I saw the superhero movie ‘Doctor Strange’ with Benedict Cumberbatch at the cinema. Not the best Marvel superhero movie for me, but it was a very enjoyable experience indeed!
A highlight for me in November was listening to the Big Finish podcast interview with Sarah Sutton in the week from Monday the 14th. It was a recent interview with Sarah. I enjoyed listening to her comments about ‘Doctor Who’ in general and what she enjoyed and loved about other things in life.
On the last Saturday of November, I went to ‘The Doctor Who Experience’ in Cardiff Bay for one last time before it closed in 2017. I really made the most of my time at ‘The Doctor Who Experience’. Also on the same Saturday, I saw the film ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them’ at the cinema!
DECEMBER
December was an exciting month, as I did my ‘Bradley’s Basement Advent Calendar’ for 2016 in the run-up to Christmas. This included some of my favourite YouTube videos that I watch including Mr. Bounce from ‘Mr. Men’; Laurel & Hardy; Sweep Superdog from ‘Sooty’, ‘Wallace & Gromit’, etc.
Also in that month, I attended a Glenn Miller Orchestra concert at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff. I also updated my reviews on the ‘Dad’s Army’ Christmas Specials! In December, I did my music presentation called ‘Tim’s Nostalgia Trip’ at the Newport Music Society.
With movies, I saw a re-release of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ with my parents just in time for Christmas. I also saw ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ at the cinemas and enjoyed it very much as it was an exciting, thrilling, interesting and enjoyable experience!
With fan-fiction, I released the first Christmas Special in the ‘Merry Christmas From The Doctor, Nyssa and Billy’ anthology in ‘The Fifth Doctor by Tim Bradley’ series called ‘The Ghost of Leckwick’. I also released two new ‘Short Trips by Tim Bradley’ including ‘Brain and Heart’ with Zoe, the Second Doctor and Jamie and ‘Foundations of Life’ with Romana I, the Fourth Doctor and K-9
I had a very enjoyable Christmas with my family on Christmas Day. I wore my Fifth Doctor cricket jumper on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and received some nice Christmas presents. I also watched the 2016 ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special with Peter Capaldi called ‘The Return of Doctor Mysterio’.
Throughout the year, I’ve been adding and updating plenty of ‘Doctor Who Timelines’ to my blog. Now I have five sets of timelines – ‘The Doctors’ Timelines Index’, ‘The Companions’ Timelines Index’, ‘The Monsters’ Timelines Index’, ‘The Allies’ Timelines Index’ and ‘The Planets’ Timelines Index’.
I’ve also added plenty of ‘Doctor Who’ reviews to my blog. I’ve discontinued ‘The Complete History’ pages I’ve been adding to ‘Bradley’s Basement’, but I still continue to add DVD reviews on stories from the TV series and CD reviews on the Big Finish audios. There’s still more stories left to add on.
I’ve also added new pages on my favourite films and TV shows including the ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy , ‘Laurel & Hardy’, ‘Wallace & Gromit’, ‘Monarch of the Glen’, ‘Fawlty Towers’, ‘Jeeves & Wooster’ and ‘Disney’. I’ve also added reviews on the novelizations by Peter David on the original ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy with Tobey Maguire and directed by Sam Raimi.
I’ve also added a review on the ‘Get Smart’ TV comedy series which my parents and I started watching from Christmas 2015 and finished in July 2016. This was a great seven months of laughter.
I’ve had gifts from other users who’ve supported my blog. These include two videos from Elinor Ekman on ‘Everything and the TARDIS console’ including ‘Character Talk – Nyssa of Traken’ (‘Doctor Who’)’ and ‘Audio Talk – Top Five 5th Doctor Audio Dramas’. I’ve had two paintings by Timelord007 (Simon Rogers) on Nyssa and ‘Black Orchid’ and have ‘The Space Hotel’ – Hotel Designs by captshade (Johnny Motley).
I’ve been blessed with seeing my favourite TARDIS duo from ‘Doctor Who’ three times together at conventions. I’ve enjoyed seeing Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton who play the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa in ‘Doctor Who’ and I’ve never felt so lucky to have seen them more than once at conventions.
2016 has been an amazing year for me! I’m so pleased that I’ve achieved so much with my blog this year and enjoyed all the various activities I’ve done including holidays, day trips and conventions. I’m looking forward to find out what happens next in 2017. I hope you are looking forward to it too!
Bye for now!
Best wishes!
Tim. 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Gosh, Tim, you have had a busy year – lots of movies, music, conventions, Who, visits, and all good things!
I did enjoy reading your review of 2016 and what it has meant for you; it seems to have been a very good year, and I am glad you have so many good memories of it all.
It’s already 2017 here, but still a little way off for you over there. Happy New Year to you and your family, Tim, and I hope 2017 is a great year for you, and brings you everything you would wish.
Best regards
Leigh
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Hi Leigh.
Yes 2016 has been a busy year for me and my blog. I’m so pleased I achieved a lot in one year with movies, music, conventions, ‘Doctor Who’, holidays, etc. I’m looking forward to what 2017 brings.
Very pleased you enjoyed my review on 2016. Glad you found it entertaining and the items I’ve mentioned worth reading.
Oh wow! That’s come quick for you hasn’t it, where you are in NZ?! Happy New Year to you in 2017! It’ll be at least two hours before it comes to me with 2017. I hope you and your family and friends have a good 2017 too!
Many thanks!
Tim. 🙂
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Hi Tim
It’s really nice for you to be able to look back on the year that was, and see what you’ve done throughout the year like that. A great idea.
I’m glad you could join us in 2017, even if we in NZ got there before you in the UK!
Thank you for your 2017 wishes, Tim, I appreciate it.
Leigh
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I love looking back at my fondest memories of 2016, especially with going to conventions and seeing Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton. May and August are probably my favourite months with conventions.
Thanks Leigh.
Tim. 🙂
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