‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Five Doctors’

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

It’s time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’, as we take a look at the 20th anniversary special called ‘The Five Doctors’ by Terrance Dicks. ‘The Five Doctors’ stars Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, William Hartnell and Richard Hurndall as the First Doctor, Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, and Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. There’s also Janet Fielding as Tegan, Mark Strickson as Turlough, Carole Ann Ford as Susan, Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Lalla Ward as Romana and more. I highly recommend watching the 101-minute Special Edition version of ‘The Five Doctors’, as that has more scenes and CGI effects in it. You can check out the Special Edition version on Disc 2 of the 25th Anniversary 2-disc DVD edition of ‘The Five Doctors’. There’s also the original 90-minute TV version of the story, which can be checked out on DVD and Britbox.

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Time-Flight’

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

Here we are on the season finale of Season 19 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. It’s time to check out ‘Time-Flight’, a four-part story by Peter Grimwade. The story stars Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Janet Fielding as Tegan. The TARDIS trio help to save a missing Concorde plane by going back in time to the prehistoric age on Earth. Janet Fielding as Tegan also makes her first departure from the series. This ‘Doctor Who’ story is considered one of the worst stories ever made in the entire series. Do I agree with that? ‘Time-Flight’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray or Britbox.

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

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

This is the first classic TV series ‘Doctor Who’ story that I discovered after checking out the first two seasons of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series back in 2006. It’s time for us to check out ‘Earthshock’, a four-part story by Eric Saward. In this story, Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Janet Fielding as Tegan and Matthew Waterhouse as Adric find themselves tackling against the ‘shocking’ return of the Cybermen. This story also features the departure of Adric as a ‘Doctor Who’ companion. Not all will be plain-sailing in this adventure. 😦 ‘Earthshock’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray or Britbox.

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

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

The third Season 19 story of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series is actually the first story of the ‘Mara Tales’ saga. Today, it’s time for us to take a look at ‘Kinda’, a four-part story by Christopher Bailey. Whilst Sarah Sutton as Nyssa is recovering in the TARDIS from the end of ‘Four To Doomsday’, Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Janet Fielding as Tegan and Matthew Waterhouse as Adric explore the planet Deva-Loka, where they discover that all is not as it seems. ‘Kinda’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray or Britbox.

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Keeper of Traken’

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

Here we are on my favourite story out of Season 18 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. It’s time for us to check out ‘The Keeper of Traken’, a four-part story by Johnny Byrne, starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Matthew Waterhouse as Adric. It also introduces us to my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion – Sarah Sutton as Nyssa of Traken. This story also features the Melkur, voiced by Geoffrey Beevers and we’re introduced to Anthony Ainley as Tremas, Nyssa’s father. ‘The Keeper of Traken’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and Britbox.

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘Full Circle’

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

We now begin ‘The E-Space Trilogy’ (or ‘The E-Space Season’, depending on how you judge these stories with there being more made by Big Finish recently). Today, it’s the third story of Season 18 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series called ‘Full Circle’, a four-part adventure by Andrew Smith. In this story, Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Lalla Ward as Romana and K-9, voiced by John Leeson, end up in a pocket universe called E-Space where they visit the planet Alzarius and meet new companion Matthew Waterhouse as Adric. This story also features George Baker as Login and we have the Marshmen as our monsters. ‘Full Circle’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and Britbox.

‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon – ‘The Leisure Hive’

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

The 1980s have arrived! Welcome to the seventh and final season of Tom Baker’s era as the Fourth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’ – Season 18. 🙂 This is also the first season of producer John Nathan-Turner’s era of the classic TV series. We start off Season 18 with the four-part story ‘The Leisure Hive’ by David Fisher. It features Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and Lalla Ward as Romana. K-9 briefly appears in this story and is voiced by John Leeson. There’s also special guest star David Haig, who also appeared in ‘The Moon Stallion’ with Sarah Sutton. ‘The Leisure Hive’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and Britbox.

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

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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.

DVD Review – ‘It’s a Boy!’

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

For my final weekly full-length Christmas review this year, let’s take a look at the 2005 CGI animated short film called ‘It’s a Boy!’ This film is about the Nativity told from the point of view of three quails. It features the voice talents of Steven Berkoff, Joe Pasquale and the comedic duo of Cannon and Ball. 🙂

Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’ with Tom Baker on Blu-ray #6

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

And we’ve come to the end of Season 17 of ‘Doctor Who’ on Blu-ray with Tom Baker. To finish off, we’re taking a look at the lost story called ‘Shada’, which was meant to be the season finale to Season 17, but was cancelled due to strike action happening in 1979. My review on the original ‘Shada’ is based on the 2021 ‘definitive version’ of the story in the Season 17 Blu-ray box set. I’ve combined both my reviews on the 1992 VHS version and the 2017 movie version of the ‘Shada’ story for this review.