As with any show of its scale, costuming is a big part of the production of Doctor Who.
When watching science fiction shows and movies, one will notice that most have a particularly significant focus on costuming. Franchises such as Star Trek and Doctor Who are prime examples of this. And as both have spanned decades, they have gone through many stylistic changes over the years.
When people think of costumes on Doctor Who, their first thoughts are usually of the Doctor and his companions. There is obviously vastly more to costuming on the show than simply those characters, though.
The BBC recently released a profile of Ray Holman, who has been doing costume design for Doctor Who on a off since the Tenth Doctor. He has worked on many other shows including Torchwood, Sherlock, Wizards vs Aliens, and Broadchurch. The focus of the interview was on both the general process of becoming a costume designer and “the unique challenges” of being one for Doctor Who. Regarding the latter:
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"Doctor Who is testament to why a team of people with wide-ranging talents is vital to its success. With each new episode are new design challenges and new characters.Knowledge of period dress will always be necessary in designing for Doctor Who, but then so is an understanding of technology and modern design techniques which come from that. Creatures from new civilisations will always have tonal touchstones that influence every aspect of their design from costume to spaceships to weaponry, and a wide and varied skillset within a department is vital for capturing that."
As an example of what goes into creating period dress for the show, here is the caption they have on the image that we feature above:
"The Woman Who Lived, Series 9 Episode 6: Knightmare Highwayman outfit, as worn by Maisie Williams. The cut of the coat was historically accurate, while the cheekily heroic tone of the episode was reflected by the mask and hat with feathers."
Doctor Who will always have a charming level of camp. It has, however come a long way from where it started. With a growing budget and increasingly better technology, the show has matured into a visually slick and stunning masterpiece. This is reflected quite acutely in the evolution of the design of the Cybermen. It does not include all of the details, but here is a graphic of their basic progression:
Cybermen Through the Ages – credit: funnyjunk.com
For a more detailed reflection, here is a wonderfully informative video from Youtube user kaledmasterme. It gives us a sense of how the costuming ties into the technology of the program. He promises to do an updated version as soon as he is able.
And now to embarrass myself, here is my rather inexpert attempt in October of 2011 at cosplaying Rose Tyler from the 2005 episode ‘Boom Town.’ I definitely need a better wig and do not know where my gloves went.
Leah Tedesco as Rose Tyler in ‘Boom Town’ – credit: netflix.com and facebook.com/leah.tedesco
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What do you think of the costumes on Doctor Who? Which are your favorites? Do you cosplay any of them? Let us know in the comments.