Doctor Who - Season 8 & 9 (1971 - 1972)

Costume Design by:

- Michael Burdle ( notable efforts: The Borgias (1981), Macbeth (1983), The Tragedy of Coriolanus (1984), The Importance of Being Earnest (1988), )

- Barbara Lane ( notable efforts: Out of the Unknown 'The Machine Stops', Blake's 7 'The Way Back' to 'Project Avalon' (1978), Heat and Dust (1983), Willow (1988), Dungeons & Dragons (2000) )

- 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) )

- Mary Husband

Costume Design Genre: contemporary, futuristic, period (various eras, most notably ancient Minoan)

When Doctor Who carried over into the 1970s, a good few changes hit the show including Patrick Throughton being replaced by Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, an increased amount of serials set on present-day Earth, and a bit more influence from the 'spy fi' film genre, such as the James Bond movies and more importantly The Avengers television series produced by the BBC's rival ITV

'Colony in Space'

Costume Design by: Michael Burdle

‘Colony in Space’ was the first Pertwee-era story that had him finally travel to the future again, after almost two seasons of entirely Earth-bound stories, and a fairly dystopian tale as well, about a group of starving colonists being forced out by an unscrupulous mining corporation. The colonists on the planet Uxarius for the most part are clad in drab earth-toned clothes, though there are various leather vests, patterned aprons, and even one or two rough jumpsuits (most likely reused!) worn among them. The exception is the agitator Winton (Nicholas Pennell) who wears a pink jumper and purple leather vest.

The natives of Uxarieus aren’t dressed in anything too worth noting, as with the alien priests just in plain white sheets with large collars covered in little pebbles. The main antagonists of the story are the troops of the unscrupulous Interplanetary Mining Corporation, or IMC, who also happen to have the most visually striking outfits, clad in uniforms of red and black with striped helmets and boots.

The Doctor’s nemesis, the Master (Roger Delgado) appears in this story, masquerading as an ‘Adjudicator’ sent from Earth to determine whether the colonists or IMC who have a legal right to the planet. His legal robes are also one of the more memorable outfits of the story, especially with the collar and pattern.

The Time Lords are also briefly seen in this serial, albeit not seen very clearly - they seem to be black and white, with circular collars.

'The Daemons'

Costume Design by: Barbara Lane

This particular serial, being a pastiche of such films as The Devil Rides Out, had the Master running a Satanic cult to help awaken a demonic alien and for the occasion wears this rather striking red robe with a Greek key pattern, with a slightly raised collar and golden lining around the sleeves.

'Day of the Daleks'

Costume Design by: Mary Husband

This serial involved the Daleks (you don't say), who had taken over Earth in an alternate timeline - here they use the ape-like 'Ogrons' to bolster their forces, the Ogrons all clad in grubby shirts worn under leather vests with tubing around the collar and shoulders. Barbara Kidd would reuse these costumes in the serial 'Frontier in Space' as well.

The security forces of the human collaborators in this serial are dressed in similar uniforms to the Ogrons, albeit with a shirt of a brown patterned material under their leather vests, and worn with a rounded helmet - the commander is distinguished by having a padded red shirt underneath instead.

As for the civilian members of the puppet regime, they are dressed far more plain, with the 'Controller' (Aubrey Woods) wearing a forest green nehru-style jacket, and his underlings in grey jackets with v-collars.

Resisting the regime are a group of guerilla fighters in slightly futuristic uniforms consisting of greyish camo-patterned pocketless nehru jackets and large sash belts, with their squad leader Anat (Anna Berry) distinguished by her jacket having a deep v-collar.

'The Curse of Peladon'

Costume Design by: Barbara Lane

The titular Peladon is a fairly medieval planet so naturally the costumes are a bit of a riff on medieval fashion, which is most obvious being the regal dress of the King of Peladon (David Troighton) dressed in shorts, doublet and ridged cape, fixed together with the emblem of Peladon. At some parts in the story, he then sports a large bulbous collar over his shirt, which seems to have been adorned with bubble-like stones (or at least, supposed to be stones).

The high priest and chancellor of Peladon wear almost identical robes, the only difference being that the high priest’s has more of a purple hue, and lacks the fur epaulettes that the chancellor sports on his.

The various royal guards of Peladon are in vaguely Greco-Roman style armor, with segmented armor and short kilts - the chief guard is distinguished both by his kilt being grey, and his armor consisting of three pieces rather than two.

At the very end of the story we see the real Earth ambassador, who isn’t seen for very long, but has a black and silver glitter dress and hat.

'The Mutants'

Costume Design by: James Acheson

This rather dystopian serial once again involved humans colonizing another planet, with this one detailing the human colonial forces attempts to quell an alien rebellion, whilst trying to discover why the native alien 'Solonians' are mutating. The main antagonist is ‘the Marshal’ (Paul Whitsun-Jones) always clad in the same uniform showing the number of the ‘skybase’ he commands (58), except for when he briefly dons his coat or helmet.

The Marshal’s troops all have the same black frock-like uniform with silver trim, with helmets that seem similar to the ones worn by the guards in ‘The Enemy of the World’, an example of the prop reuse that the BBC was infamous for with regards to shows like Doctor Who and Blake’s 7. When outside on Solos, they wear gas masks under the visored helmets.

The Administrator (Geoffrey Palmer) wears a frock-like outfit that resembles the uniform of the Marshal’s soldiers, except with gold trim instead of silver, and during his speech to the Solos natives, wears a golden coat similar in fabric to the Marshal’s.

The investigators sent from Earth are dressed in white and gold robes, a visual indicator that they are of some extremely high authority, but also somewhat medieval-like in its design.

The investigator’s own guards are dressed in cream uniforms with bronze trim in the same pattern as the investigator’s robes, and are wearing the same reused helmets that the Marshal’s own troops wear.

The Marshal’s own scientist Jaeger (George Pravda) is in similar frock-like dress but in a more drab earth-tone colour scheme, but still with the lining around the collar patch and cuffs.

The human scientist Sondergaard briefly also wears a blue and silver hazmat suit, that even has its visor tinted blue.

The twist of the story is that the ‘mutant’ Solonians are actually undergoing a metamorphosis into higher beings, these higher beings being angel-like entities with rainbow effects superimposed over them.

'The Time Monster'

Costume Design by: Barbara Lane

'The Time Monster' was the last serial of the season, and marked a slight departure in that it involved the mythical city of Atlantis, which here was depicted very differently than how it was in 'The Underwater Menace' a few years earlier. The costumes in this serial had a more historical sense by adhering to a costume sense inspired by the Minyans - but the costumes are so beautiful, it would be a shame to not cover them, and really Atlantis never actually existed, so a perfect excuse to include them too. The serial involves the Master trying to use the people of Atlantis for his own ends, allying himself with the Atlantean priest Krasis (Donald Eccles), who wears a gown of white, yellow and red in an alternating pattern, with gold trim. You may notice this is the first 'historical' serial I have covered on here since 'The Aztecs' - that's simply because most of the previous historical serials were not really notable much, some of them easily looking like they were just from stock.

Most of the men of Atlantis are in gowns or loinclothes, but the women are in patterned dresses, with the Doctor's companion Jo (Katy Manning) in an especially lovely dress with a rainbow pattern around the waist and a diagonal striped skirt.

The costume design highlights of the serial are worn by the Atlantean queen Galleia (Ingrid Pitt), who is first seen wearing a white dress with a waistline made of a golden material, with more gold trim around the top of the dress - which, noticeably, is also cut to highlight a certain part of Pitt's physique.

Galleia's second outfit is a more ornate blue and white dress, again covered in golden trim, with the dress also having a more serrated quality with its design, such as the silver lined triangular segment at the top of the skirt piece, with the waistline again being golden, finished off with golden speckles over the shoulders (and, again, designed to highlight Pitt's sex appeal!).