Just a review: The Doctor is an alien who travels through time and space using the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space). A time machine that looks like a police box but is bigger on the inside. Righting wrongs and exploring the universe, he cheats death through the process his people call "regeneration". Every time he get's injured to near death, every cell in his body get renewed, giving the Doctor a new body and a new personality. It's a concept used for almost 50 years every time the show needs to replace the main character with a new actor. A new personality though means new taste in clothing. Here, we will discuss the clothes the Doctor has worn through every actor incarnation.
By
Jon David Garcia
This Doctor is a stern grumpy figure who's cold and patronizing towards his companions and treat them as lesser beings. As the series went on he mellowed down a bit and eventually his next incarnations became less difficult to hang around with.
An old- fashioned black frock coat, and tie with a slick combed over white hair, makes him look like a stern figure out of a Dickenson Novel. I think the concept is that he is an old Edwardian scientist that invented a time machine. A man out of time feel. Not my favorite outfit, but it works well with what the production was trying to do at the time with the Doctor's character. Except for the checkered pants, I'd keep it.
Patrick Troughton had some big responsibilities to fill back then. After all, this is the audience's first exposure to regeneration -- a plot device that lets the show change the actor of the title character in every few years. Critics must not have been kind. Either way, the gamble worked and a lot of it is due to Patrick Troughton's performance as the Doctor. More fun uncle than stern grandfather he brought to the role a lot of the defining traits of the Doctor that is still visible today.
A "Cosmic Hobo," he enhances the image of the Doctor as a guy who travels around the universe without a home except for a Telephone Box he calls a TARDIS.
The second Doctor essentially has almost the same set of clothing as the first Doctor has, only with slight alterations. He has a bow tie instead of a tie, no waist coat, and more baggy pants with slightly different patterns. The difference is in the attitude. Instead of wearing his suit formally, he wears it with little regard on appearance. His bow tie is never worn properly, and his shirt and pants are always wrinkled. He looks like a hobo and that's the point. Enhancing his hobo theme he usually plays a recorder and has an affinity for weird hats. It completes the ensemble.
This Doctor came around exactly the time when his people, called the Time Lords, banished him on earth. Because of this, this Doctor is impatient and sarcastic, looking at humans as irritations. Think how House or Sherlock treat their associates and you have a pretty good idea on how this Doctor acts around people.
Unlike the first two Doctors, this one doesn't have just one set type of outfit. What was consistent was that his outfit would have the same frilly shirt, a bright colorful suit that is usually purple or maroon. At times he even had a cape. It sort of looks like a 70's vampire costume. But since this Doctor knows martial arts and works with a high tech organization, the costume was maybe inspired from James Bond. Whatever the case he looks extremely pompous. It certainly has charm and definitely memorable.
Now we come to the most famous Doctor of the classic era, the fourth Doctor, Tom Baker. Of all Doctors this guy is the weirdest. He will give you some 'jelly babies' at the most inappropriate times. He will change the subject of the conversation out of nowhere and will spout out random thoughts and talk to himself aloud. Tom Baker wanted to emphasize the more alien aspect to the character. So how he behaves towards us might seem weird, to him it's probably just a natural behavior on his planet.
This also translates to the clothes he wears. He looks like a whimsical hobo in a story book, a man with a multicolored 10 feet scarf. He has a long trench coat with a vest and an unbuttoned white shirt that sometimes has an old fashioned tie. The word of the day is weird. Again, maybe its just too alien for our understanding. Coupled with his bushy hair, wide eyes, wide green and eccentricities it's no wonder that people remember this guy.
At age 29, Peter Davison was the pre-internet, controversial, and youngest actor to portray the Doctor at the time. Less of a mysterious alien figure and more of a sensitive handsome young man but with wisdom of a parental figure. Weird is not the word here... at least not over the top weird. The producers wanted a version of the character that will not invite comparison to the famous fourth Doctor.
His outfit is a stylized beige cricket uniform with red question mark symbols on his collar, and for some reason, a stick of celery on the left side of his chest. So they abandoned the more alien fashion of the character and is now just an eccentric young rich man with a passion for cricket. The outfit makes him look relaxed, while his sneakers make him youthful. Also, he wears glasses when reading to look smart.
The red question marks are an attempt of the producers to put an instant recognizable logo on the Doctor and it's a tad excessive. It gives a more uniform feel to the attire rather than a fashion choice. Besides, he's not a superhero... or the Riddler. And the celery is distracting, in a tacky way, not in a charming eccentric way. I'm seeing too much light colors for my liking, and orange and red aren't combinations I'd choose to balance things out, but that's just me. Works with his light personality but it's not my thing.
Later an older Peter Davison returns to the show in a short called "Time Crash", where he meets the 10th Doctor.
If Tom Baker was the most popular Doctor, then Colin Baker must be the other guy. Colin Baker is a terrific actor who has the potential to be one of the best Doctors, but questionable choices made from behind the scenes are what drove the sixth Doctor to the bottom of popularity contests.
This version is arrogant and stubborn. He's the kind of guy who loves to tell you that what you said is wrong and loves the sound of his voice when he corrects you.
But what made him even more memorable to hate is his terrible attire. It looks like they took a clown outfit and ran with it. Too many random colors at too many places. Also, with an over sized colored tie. Worst, the Doctor thinks it's a good outfit and will defend it whenever questioned about his fashion choices. An attempt to go whimsical and quirky gone wrong.
While at the surface, He looks like a clumsy old fool, in actuality the seventh Doctor is a cold calculating man who has no problem lying to his companions if it means for them to act a certain way for his master plans to come fruit. Deeply manipulative, seeing everyone as chess pieces in the battle of good versus evil. Overwhelming his enemies with complex plans and at one time even tricking his enemy in to blowing up its own planet.
He wears a sport Jacket (either brown or beige), paisley scarf, a straw hat, a sweater with numerous small question marks on it and a question mark handle umbrella. All seems to paint him as a light-hearted gentleman who is just walking by, probably so to be underestimated. Ridiculous is probably the point but the question mark sweater is a tad over the top. I'll keep the umbrella though. Overall if taken in the context of his persona, it's a very effective contradiction.
The eighth is an adventurer. Charging at danger head first with over enthusiasm and can see beauty in everything he sees. A dashing and romantic figure of adventure books.
Like the first Doctor he has an Edwardian style suit but with a greenish hue. The fabric of his suit looks high-end and shiny, creating a regal quality to him. Put him in his mansion-like TARDIS interior, he looks like a well-made man of Victorian times. If he looks like he's always ready to mingle in a party then you can buy that he is always in a good mood.
Fast forward to 2013, the eighth Doctor appears again in a short film. The prequel leading up to the 50th Anniversary of the series called "The Night Of The Doctor", bringing with him a different alteration of his attire.
The war between the Time Lords and the Daleks has already began, known as "The Time War", where it spans across countless galaxies with creatures of different planets are at the brink of extinction. While the Doctor is apprehensive at participating in the war at this point, the effect of countless deaths is in front of him and it's taking at toll.
He's pretty much wearing his usual attire but with little regard of self image -- dirty, unbuttoned, crumpled-- obviously, universal apocalypse is not the time to look at the mirror. The only real difference is a cheap looking belt he probably found lying somewhere, tighter brown pants and leather brown boots.
Seeing this over enthusiastic version of the Doctor reduced to a ragged, dirty, hopeless individual really makes you feel the effects of the war without even seeing any elaborate CGI world.
After the eighth Doctor reluctantly agrees to participate in the time war, he asks to become a warrior. He was given an elixir that will force a regeneration, emerging this version of the character. Knowing he was about to do unspeakable things, he rejects the title of Doctor. Although never mentioned by name, title credits reveals his name as the War Doctor.
Like the eighth Doctor at the end of his run, the War Doctor's clothes are grizzled by war. He wears a black leather overcoat over a multi-buttoned waist coat, a red scarf, brown pants, boots reaching his knees, and to finalize, a bandolier (sash of pockets for ammunition seen in action movies) taken from an innocent victim of the war to remind himself that his participation is in the name of them.
The black coat might be effective in hyping this incarnation as a dark version of the Doctor, but it looks too big for him, and frankly, John Hurt is too old for it. Also Leather jackets don't go with a waist coat. Red goes with black though so the scarf works but with the black coat already looking over sized, you wouldn't add a scarf. Add that to the knee-high boots, he looked like a dwarf. I might commend the bandolier but it's barely visible and he doesn't even use it onscreen so it might as well not be on him.
I realize that at a time of war, he probably just took whatever clothing he could get, but I'm also supposed to buy him as a bad ass. There is an idea but the execution comes out awkward. And what's up with his hair? Is he having a midlife crisis?
Being born in battle after destroying a planet, killing billions of people in the war, the Doctor gets filled with survivor's guilt. Adopting a brooding personality yet still friendly enough to be lively when meeting people.
Black leather jacket, black pants, black shoes, and a red (sometimes navy blue or green)shirt. Unlike the other Doctors, the ninth chose to wear less extravagantly, but the word I'd use is "bland". I'm not pretending there isn't any story reasons here: he's a brooding man that has no time for nonesense; but does it have to be so boring to look at?
Besides, when I look at him, I don't see a doctor: I see a thug or an enforcer; someone who looks like he is connected with shady activities. Other Doctors look like scientists or professors -- when someone calls himself a doctor, looking like an academic should come with the territory, that goes without saying. I Love Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, but not his tailor.
While Tom Baker was the most popular Doctor of the classic era, David Tennant is the most popular of the modern era. The man responsible for making the show as popular outside the British market as it is today. As far as we want to deny it, it's not because he is the best to take the role, but because he so happens to be a fun loving geek with an attractive face, making him easy to market to both geeky boys and girls in this internet age. Not that he's not good in the role.
The tenth Doctor is like a child who is fascinated at everything he sees with a contagious glee. A person who sees beauty in everything, even showing astonishment at demonic creatures that are trying to kill him. Everything is a vacation and he loves having company to share it with. A great desire to make friends however, makes him vulnerable to great loneliness. Forgiving to his enemies but only to a point; cross the line and hell has no fury, especially when he is alone and no one is there to stop him.
He wears a dark brown four button suit with red pinstripes or a blue suit with red pinstripes, a light blue shirt, a tie and a pair of trainers (white shoes for brown suit, red shoes for blue suit). Worn over is a duster overcoat. His clothes are ordinary enough to not be mistaken as a costume, but enough to stand out. With the trainers and a long overcoat he can put his hands in, he gives off a relaxed, laid-back feel. It's easy to mistake his portrait as a picture in a fashion magazine with Tennant himself looking like a model.
David Tennant himself calls the outfit "geek chic", especially since he also wears rectangular frame glasses when reading, which the character freely admits he only wears to look smart.
It looks good, easy to replicate, and comfortable to wear; a fan favorite. Good job by the wardrobe department.
This incarnation is an energetic young man who's thoughts end the same moment he stops talking. Very alien, he sometimes don't understand human culture and can easily misunderstand or miss some social cues. He has an out-of-touch sense of taste in culture and fashion and is ignorant to how people view his habits and quirks. Lively and energetic but very impatient, his small temper can best him and you may never know when he's going to do something that goes too far.
"Bow ties are cool", that's the statement the eleventh Doctor always say about his signature accessory, coupled with a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows, and suspenders, he is a caricature of a university professor. Perfect for the out-of-touch sense of fashion the eleventh Doctor has and the fairy tale motif the series is doing at this time. Sometimes he wears hats he believes are "cool" like a fez or a stetson. " I wear a fez now. Fez's are cool".
I love this outfit, it's so silly it's charming, like a fairy tale or the way the eleventh Doctor is. Besides, when someone calls the Doctor an equivalent of an army or he goes out of control with his temper, there is a good contrast. A dark side behind a silly man with a bow tie.
Later after experiencing a sad farewell from his previous companions; Amy and Rory, he adopts a darker outfit. Again an edwardian outfit but with a purple and grey motif this time.
I like this outfit, I even want to have it, especially his waist jacket. But I miss the previous sillier outfit. The eleventh is the "Silly Doctor" so the sillier the look the better. Besides, now that he has a waist jacket that has the same color as his bow tie, the bow tie isn't emphasized anymore. Unlike in his previous outfit where his blue or red bowtie contrast greatly with his white shirt.
At this point in time, Peter Capaldi has just been cast as the Doctor and any episode in which he is wearing this outfit has yet to be released, so I have no story or personality reference to base by judgment on this outfit on. For now I'll just settle on my reaction on face value. And in face value, and only in face value; this outfit is dull. There is nothing that stands out, no accessory, no tie, just a dark suit with a white shirt underneath. The coat might have a red lining but that can only be visible a couple of times.
Regarding the outfit, Peter Capaldi has this to say "He's woven the future from the cloth of the past. Simple, stark, and back to basics. No frills, no scarf, no messing, just 100 per cent Rebel Time Lord." It doesn't really change my mind.
Maybe once I see it in action I'll change my mind, but for now I'll stand by it that it's dull.
Well, that's my two cents on the Doctor's wardrobe. I hope it was a good read.
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