Doctor Who - Season 10 (1972) & 11 (1973)

Costume Design by:

- James Acheson ( notable efforts: The Prince and the Pauper (1976), Time Bandits (1981), The Meaning of Life (1983), Brazil (1985), Highlander (1986), The Last Emperor (1987), Dangerous Liasons (1988), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), Restoration (1995), The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), Spider-Man (2002) )

- Barbara Kidd ( notable efforts: A Christmas Carol (1977), The Serpent Son (1979), Blake's 7 'Trial' to 'Star One' (1979), No Country for Old Men (1981), The Cleopatras (1983), Tender is the Night (1985), Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015) )

- Hazel Pethig ( notable efforts: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), The Singing Detective (1986) )

- L. Rowland-Warne

'The Three Doctors'

Costume Design by: James Acheson

This serial was the first story of the tenth season, which also marked the tenth anniversary of the original show’s creation, and so featured a story reuniting the actors to have played the first three incarnations of the Doctor onscreen. This serial also marked another appearance of the Time Lords, whose costumes had changed again. Whilst keeping in with the black and white colourscheme laid out in previous iterations, this design was more ornate, with a lined curved chest plate over a black shirt. The plates seemed to have a rank system, as the commanding Time Lord has three lines down the middle (in addition to his necklace), his deputy has one, and the technicians none. The higher-ups also have blue robes (that look suspiciously like they were cut from curtain fabric) fixed together with white foam.

The antagonist of this story was the powerful and ancient Omega (Stephen Thorne), one of the most memorable designs in the original show’s history, with his pointed helmet carved into a grimacing expression - funnily enough, the design of Omega would seem to be a forerunner of later designs by Acheson, who would later go on to design similar metallic ghoulish visages, such as the metal suits in Brazil, or the Green Goblin suit in Spider-Man.

'Carnival of Monsters'

Costume Design by: James Acheson

This serial had its costumes once again designed by James Acheson, and was a more light-hearted story, mostly focusing on the two alien entertainers Vorg (Leslie Dwyer) and Shirna (Cheryl Hall), clad in pastel-coloured outfits, with Vorg having the much more outlandish outfit, wearing a blue and black patterned jacket over a pink striped waistcoat and shiny lined shirt, finished off with a bowler hat made of a see-through plastic material.

Shirna meanwhile is a multicoloured leotard of green and pink, with blue leggings, and like Vorg also has various multicoloured bits stuck on the outfit, especially around her hair - she also sports a necklace of shiny material as well.

The story is set on Inter Minor, whose officials are all clad in striped grey tights and silver armor pieces, which together with the grey makeup is intended to match their dull bureaucratic characterization. The immigration control chairman is distinguished by his chestplate having more lines (in a similar manner to the Time Lord uniforms from ‘The Three Doctors’ before) and a robe cut from a suspiciously curtain-like fabric.

The downtrodden ‘functionaries’ of Inter Minor are all clad in identical dark grey uniforms that consist of a sloping double-sided plate that makes the outfit resemble a wedge shape.

'Frontier in Space'

Costume Design by: Barbara Kidd

This serial was in some ways a riff on Star Trek, featured a spacefaring human civilization in a diplomatic crisis with a competing empire of humanoid aliens. There definitely is a lot of influences from much more comic book takes on the future, as the president of the Earth Empire is dressed mostly in an orange dress with a large collar, in an obvious touch added to make it seem more futuristic - her aides are in similar dresses, but in pink or lilac, also wearing long gloves the same colour as their dresses.

One of the humans pushing for war is the irascible General Williams (Michael Hawkins) is dressed throughout in an olive green tunic with a similar collar design and chest plate. When he journeys on the surface of the Ogron planet, he adds on olive green versions of the armor pads and helmet his troopers wear.

The soldiers of the Earth Empire wear what appear to be fencing jackets that have been dyed and altered with large shoulder pads (and on attack missions, red attachments which are may be supposed to be ammo packs?) and gloves, topped off with streamlined helmets. The navy crew uniforms are the same, but with less pronounced shoulder pads and no helmets, and the fencing uniforms have been dyed green rather than blue. These same gloves and boots are worn on the spacesuits, which are worn with a helmet reused from Pathfinders to Mars that have been altered with the tubing around them.

The Master once again appears in this story, disguised as a police commissioner, dressed in a silver-black tunic with the logo on his chest, and with a collar similar to Williams’ uniform design - another very 'comic book' design, like most of the futuristic fashions seen in this story.

The other spacefaring empire in this story are the Draconians who have some of the best outfits in the story. Mostly we see the princes of Draconia, whose robes have the shoulder pads curving upwards and green plastic ‘gemstone’ props worn on their fronts.

The Draconian Emperor wears a similarly grandiose outfit, with his shoulder pads being more angular and higher, and the robes being a much darker shade of green. Instead og a green ‘gem’ it is a blue one, and the sash is cut differently with a gold middle.

The lowly Draconian soldiers all wear robes of a similar cut, but much loose and far less ornate, with their shoulder pads being rounded downwards instead, as well as not wearing flowing gowns, but instead smock-like garments.

'Planet of the Daleks'

Costume Design by: Hazel Pethig

Only futuristic costumes in this serial where the tan-coloured spacesuits worn by the Thal strike team trying to stop the Daleks, the spacesuits covered in ribbed panelling around the shoulders.

'The Time Warrior'

Costume Design by: James Acheson

One of the first serials to have a historical setting where aliens were infiltrating, this one was set in medieval England roughly in the Middle Ages, and was also the first appearance of the Sontaran’s in the show, troll-like space warriors clad in black and silver armor. Given the medieval setting of this story, it makes sense that the Sontarian Linx (Kevin Lindsay) featured in this story should be wearing a suit that resembles a knight’s suit of armor, especially when masked.

On the note of the historical setting, there is also the armored tunic worn by Linx's temporary ally Irongron (David Daker), which has metallic pieces arranged on different sides of the tunic, which itself is of a striped brown and green colour-scheme - one of the first few striking historical costume designs by Acheson, who would become noted for his period work decades later with such films as Dangerous Liasons, Highlander and The Last Emperor.

'Invasion of the Dinosaurs'

Costume Design by: Barbara Kidd

This serial involved a fairly convoluted plot by a vaguely New Age cult to evacuate people from the polluted present-day into outer space (or so they think), with the spacefaring cultists being led by a group of 'elders'. This being a contemporary serial, naturally it was all plainclothes, with the exception of the 'Elder' Ruth (Carmen Silvar) who wears a slightly futuristic spin on 'folk' garb, as it is made of what seems to be vinyl, with olive markings around the collar and cuffs.

'Death to the Daleks'

Costume Design by: L. Rowland-Warne

The only costumes of note in this serial are the various spacecrew uniforms; the men wear a dark blue jacket with a curved flat collar, whilst the one female member Jill Tarrant (Joy Harrison) wears a light-coloured jumpsuit with puffy sleeves and flared trousers.

'The Monster of Peladon'

Costume Design by: Barbara Kidd

This serial marked to a return to, of course, Peladon, and once again to more lovely purple regal outfits, with the story's costume designer Barbara Kidd tackling the design sense laid out by Barbara Lane previously. This time it’s the queen Thalira (Nina Thomas) running Peladon, in a shining purple and gold lined royal dress with a golden sash and crown. In some scenes, she just has purple furs over her regal dress instead.

The queen’s chancellor Ortron (Frank Gatliff) also has one of the better outfits in the story, in purple and gold robes of office, which again makes me wish this had not been filmed on something has harsh and blurry as videotape. The other members of Peladonian society aren't wearing anything actually notable, usually just dull armor or tattered rags.

The serial's drama centres on a mining dispute, which has been partly instigated by Gebek (Pex Robinson) who wears a set of armor with rounded shoulders, worn over fur-lined leggings as well - a slightly 'peplum' design but still with a slightly futuristic flair.

'Planet of the Spiders'

Costume Design by: L. Rowland-Warne

This serial was the last story not just for the season but of Jon Pertwee’s tenure as the Doctor, to be replaced by Tom Baker who would go on to hold the role of the Doctor longer than any other actor ever would. This serial also featured a group of people descended from a spaceship that had crashed, and as such the survivors had reverted to a primitive society, with their clothes seeming to take on a more Native American look.

The humans are enslaved by the mutated descendants of the spiders that had been on the ship, which had grown intelligent and took over the humans, naming themselves ‘Eight-Legs’ and the humans ‘Two-Legs’. The ‘Two-Legs’ they selected to be their servants were uniforms of blue pantaloons and sash belts, with vests lined with large furry shoulder pads, topped off with what look like blue taqiyah hats. Not what I’d call the most obviously intimidating uniform…