Following the revelation of the Twelfth Doctor's outfit SFX looks at how the Time Lord chooses his clothes.
"People on Earth attach a very great deal of importance to appearances," - wise words from the Second Doctor, but where does the Time Lord get his (sometimes) impeccable sense of style?
When the Doctor first hit our screens waving a handkerchief in 76 Totter's Lane he was already wearing his trademark Edwardian get-up, including a cloak and Astrakhan hat. During his run the First Doctor would get a walking stick from Kublai Khan and sport an atmospheric density jacket (complete with a pair of nifty metal breast cups), but overall his look would remain unchanged.
The Doctor regenerated for the first time because his body was "wearing a bit thin" and, by the looks of it, so were his clothes. As the Doctor turns into a younger man in "The Tenth Planet" his costume miraculously alters. Secret of the Time Lords or production error? We'll let you decide.
After being forced to regenerate the Doctor is exiled to Earth and winds up in a hospital where he decides to take a cheeky shower and steal a medical practitioner's togs. That's right, there was another person on planet Earth brave enough to try and pull off this look:
Pertwee's Doctor wasn't the only light-fingered incarnation when it came to hospital clothes. Both the Eighth and Eleventh nabbed clobber from real doctors who presumably had to wear scrubs home. Out with the raggedy!
If he's not lifting clothes from medical lockers the Doctor turns to the TARDIS for fashion advice. Thanks to an expansive wardrobe brilliantly realised in "The Christmas Invasion", the Doctor has clothes from all of space and time to choose from.
The TARDIS can be pretty forceful when it comes to decking out her Doctor; she plonked a hat stand full of cricket gear in front of the Fifth Doctor, who wasn't really left with any alternative. The Fourth, Sixth, Seventh and Tenth Doctors also got their garb from the TARDIS, sometimes accompanied by self-aware gags where the Doctor dresses up as his previous selves.
We never see on screen how the Ninth Doctor settles on his range of v-neck sweaters - perhaps he went for some retail therapy after the Time War in Rose's clothes shop? Even shopping isn't peaceful for the Doctor though as the store was swarming with Autons...
The Twelfth Doctor's costume has been the talking point of the internet and has already been compared to Jon Pertwee's ensemble. However, while the Third Doctor was a dashing dandy, Capaldi's seems to be more brooding.
We've heard this Doctor will be a beast; with his jacket's lining flaring like magma beneath his cool exterior, he certainly looks ready to take on the universe.
Trend setter: In "Gridlock" we learn the Tenth Doctor got his long coat from Janis Joplin. There's an adventure that should have made it in front of the cameras.
Fashion victim: Question mark lapels, everything the Sixth Doctor wore, decorative vegetables... the Doctor's had his fair share of clothing catastrophes.
Dominic Carter
