Doctor Who - Season 14 (1976)

'The Masque of Mandragora'

Costume Design by James Acheson

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'The Deadly Assassin'

Costume Design by James Acheson

This serial introduced the most iconic costume designs in the series' yet: the ceremonial robes of the Time Lords on the Doctor's home planet Gallifrey. The reimagined Time Lord costumes show his predilection for historical outfits clearly, replacing the monochrome style of clothing they had sported in their previous appearances. Now the Time lords all sport a variety of long gowns with v-patterns across the middle, completed with robes over them, and skullcaps on their heads. This story established that the Time Lords are differentiated by ‘chapters’ (in a way not too dissimilar to public schools and their ‘house’ systems) and so the colours and patterns of their robes displays that. The higher ranking Time Lords such as Borusa (Angus MacKay) and Goth (Bernard Horsfall) having thick lines around theirs. Goth's gown would be reused for Hedin (Michael Gough) in 'Arc of Infinity' a few years later, but Borusa's gown would be would just be relegated to being worn briefly by an extra in the same serial.

Past Goth and Borusa, other Time Lords wear usually more crude and less ornate robes, with no gowns worn underneath them, with the exception of the one doddering one in a two-tone gold gown that is sadly never seen fully in this serial.

This story also introduced the role of ‘Castellan’ for Time Lords in the form of Spandrell (Goerge Pravda), whose dark gown and golden-lined brown robes would be a constant recurrence in future serials set on Gallifrey such as 'The Invasion of Time', 'Arc of Infinity' and 'The Five Doctors'.

There are also more drab outfits for the more mundane members of Gallifrey society, such as the technician Engin (Erik Chitty) in his black gown, as well as Runcible (Hugh Walters) in his cream gown which has brown sleeves and double chevrons - these two outfits, like most of the Time Lord costumes in this serial, would get reused in future serials set on Gallifrey, in particular 'Arc of Infinity' and 'The Five Doctors'.

The President of the Time Lords is dressed the same as his people, but his robes are instead cream with golden lining, and he also sports the presidential sash, or rather ‘Sash of Rassilon’ - the gold usher behind him wears a robe of golden coloured robes, with again a more ornate collar piece.

This story also introduced the Chancellery Guard, Gallifrey’s internal police force, whose red and white-lined tunics and helmets also became some of the more known designs from the original series. Their commander Hildred (Derek Seaton) is distinguished by his helmet having gold lining, as well as the bronze armor piece he wears. The standard guard outfits would be reused in every serial set on Gallifrey after this one, with the only alterations (by Dee Robson, who was costume designer on 'The Invasion of Time' and 'Arc of Infinity') being the placement of the cape as well as the boots being silver, and the gloves being white rather than red.

'The Face of Evil'

Costume Design by Ann & John Bloomfield

This serial focused on two ‘tribes’ of humans descended from a crashed spaceship’s crew, the first of which, the Sevateem, had reverted to a tribal way of life, wearing tattered outfits taken from the old uniforms. This story also introduced new companion Leela (Louise Jameson), a member of the Sevateem who decides to travel with the Doctor. The costume designer of this story, John Bloomfield, would later find more fame from being the costume designer of such films as Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, and Waterworld, which is rather fitting as in a way, the tribal costumes of this story feel like a prelude to the rather tattered and tribal costumes in these films!

The Sevateem’s shaman, Neeva, always makes sure to sport the tattered remains of what was supposed to originally be a spacesuit in his rituals, and then for the rest of the serial sports another 'shaman' outfit - consisting of a spacesuit glove over his head, and a 'cloak' made of tattered wiring and plastic junk, a sort of prelude to his costume designs for the infamous Waterworld, in particular the tattered outfit worn by Dennis Hopper in that movie.

The second tribe of humans are the Tesh, who have been under Xoanon’s control to the point that it has helped them develop psychic powers. The Tesh have the most memorable outfits of the story (and in a season that’s full of memorable outfits), with lovely pink and white lining across their uniforms, and stripes belts. The little shoulder ruffs are a nice touch too. Their leader is only distinguished by the darker hue of his shirt, as well as his hat having speckles on it. There is also a guard in a spacesuit, in the same colourscheme as the Tesh uniforms, with pink stripes down the front, and the helmet having wires on the top almost akin to a mohawk.

'The Robots of Death'

Costume Design by Elizabeth Waller

Another costume-heavy serial set on a ‘Sandminer’ vessel in the far future, with perhaps some of the most striking costume designs the show would have, every character in the story sporting extravagant outfits. The outfits in this serial consist of a lot glittery shiny materials, something that Waller would do again in some of her costume designs in For Your Eyes Only and The Company of Wolves. The most wild of these has to be the outfit of the mining commander Uvanov (Russell Hunter) whose outfit is in line with most of the other characters (gowns with starched chest-boards seem to be the uniform of the ship’s higher ups) but then has the ornate head-dress to complete it. Almost all the outfits are so ornate that even the behinds of the shoulder boards have their own patterns.

The navigator Zilda (Tania Rogers) also has a unique outfit of striped skirt and spiked shoulder piece, with a headpiece that has a slightly piscine design to it.

This slightly marine design motif for the women members is seen also with the design of the headpiece sported by Toos (Pamela Salem), with a crest that looks a webbed fin, and the rest of her outfit is pretty memorable too.

Poul (David Collings) has a lovely outfit of cream and gold trim with a shoulder piece slightly resembling Uvanov’s but shorter and with less patterns (showing his lower rank?). It also has to be said how all the crew of the Sandminer are sporting eyeliner, it being more pronounced on the men.

A similar outfit to Poul’s is sported by Cass (Tariq Yunus), only instead of beige and gold, his is purple and silver.

Borg (Brian Coucher) has a slight departure with the design to his outfit, with is a shiny pinkish jacket with a pronounced collar.

The chief engineer Dask (David Bailie) has an outfit that can rival Uvanov’s for the ornateness of its design (admittedly, almost all the designs in this story are ornate), but which sadly doesn’t get enough full shots showing the baggy striped underclothes. The hair being combed into a slight point is an interesting touch…

Toos also is seen wearing a cream shiny nightgown, as well as the silvery tunic worn by the doomed Sandminer crewmember who is the first to die in the story.

There is a reason that Dask had his hair combed into a single point – to signify that he iss actually the villainous Taren Capel, a renegade scientist reprogramming the robots into attacking the crew. When the robot revolution is underway, he sports the robots silver jackets over his striped underclothes, and paints his face green and silver, so he can resemble a robot more.

The Voc robots are the most famous design from the story and frankly have every right to be, with the face mask not only being uncanny to a degree, but the pointed cut of their jackets topped off the green colour scheme and silver trim is striking. The Voc robots have a colour code system to their design too, with the ‘Super Voc’ command robots being silver, the standard ‘Voc’ robots being green and the menial ‘Dum’ robots being black and silver.