Doctor Who - Season 21 & 22 (1984 - 1985)

Costume Design by:

- Judy Pepperdine ( notable efforts: The Chronicles of Narnia (1988 - 1990) )

- Anushia Nieradzik ( notable efforts: The Trial (1993), Madame Bovary (2000), Belle (2013) )

- Janet Tharby

- John Peacock ( notable efforts: The Winter's Tale (1981), Richard III (1983), Alice in Wonderland (1985) )

- Andrew Rose

- Pat Godfrey

- Annie Hardinge ( notable efforts: Blackadder II (1986), Blackadder the Third (1987), Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), The Mighty Boosh (2004) )

- Dinah Collin ( notable efforts: Edward II (1970), A Tale of Two Cities (1980), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1983), Pride and Prejudice (1995) )

- Jan Wright

- Alun Hughes ( notable efforts: The Avengers (1961 - 1969), Twelfth Night (1980), The Tempest (1980), The Taming of the Shrew (1980), Antony & Cleopatra (1981) )

'Warriors of the Deep'

Costume Design by: Judy Pepperdine

Doctor Who‘s twenty-first season opened up with this serial featuring the the return of the Sea Devils and Silurians, who were attacking the military installation Sea Base 4 in a dystopian future where the Earth is once again on the brink of nuclear war. The crew of Sea Base 4 are all in identically-cut polyester jumpsuits, but with every ‘notable’ character having theirs in its own colours scheme - costume designer Judy Pepperdine apparently done this to avoid the confusion that arised when multiple characters were in identical uniforms.

The commander Vorshak (Tom Adams) has a dark blue suit, the security officer Bulic (Nigel Humphreys in orange, the double-agent Nilson (Ian McCulloch) in blue-grey, Maddox (Martin Neil) and Karina (Nitza Saul) in different grey uniforms, and Preston (Tara Ward) in a tan suit lined with green and red. The ‘generic’ crew members meanwhile all have tan suits with yellow lines. Almost all the uniforms have a grey strip on the shoulders and white triangular pieces on the back.

The exception to this uniform cut is the base’s doctor and Nilson’s fellow traitor, Solow (Ingrid Pitt), who sports a labcoat cut at the top in the same way as the rest of the crew’s, with a blue line running down the front.

The base is attacked by the reptilian 'Sea Devils', who wear samurai-inspired black and silver armor with shoulders pointed upwards.

'Frontios'

Costume Design by: Anushia Nieradzik

This serial was set in the far-future, where some of the last remnants of humanity have formed into a militaristic society ruled by the 'Plantagenet' (Jeff Rawle) who wears a prim red and grey buttonless uniform vaguely inspired by the Empire uniforms from the Star Wars films, that themselves were inspired by Prussian uniforms.

The serial is full of tatty jumpsuits and dull grey uniforms; past the Plantagenet's uniform the only slightly interesting ones are the red-panelled jumpsuits worn by the soldiers under his command, especially the patterned leather vests they wear over them. The helmets themselves were reused Federation trooper helmets from Blake's 7, with the flip-up mask removed.

'Resurrection of the Daleks'

Costume Design by: Janet Tharby

This serial's plot involved the Daleks breaking Davros out from the prison station he was confined to after ‘Destiny of the Daleks'. The human crew are all dressed in identically cut jumpsuits specially cut at the hips and with peaked caps, the colour presumably denoting what branch – white and black for medical, orange and red for engineering and two-tone green for security.

The exception to the prison station's dress code is the ship's doctor Styles (Rula Lenska) who wears a short-sleeved white shirt with black lining around the collar and sleeves.

The Daleks are this time using human soldiers, the ‘Dalek Troopers’ all in black and jumpsuits with coloured lines across the pockets on the trousers and torso, and a certain amount of lines denoting rank on the shoulders – single yellow for soldiers, double red for officers and triple gold for the commander Lytton (Maurice Colbourne).When not in combat, the troopers remove their armor and helmets and instead wear pointed caps with the jumpsuits, the hats again having coloured stripes to show rank.

'Planet of Fire'

Costume Design by: John Peacock

This serial set on the desert planet Sarn, the titular 'planet of fire', are just clad in vaguely 'ethnic' garb, particularly Middle Eastern or Native American (mostly likely all reused), and worship the god ‘Logar’ who in actuality is just based on their memories of the hazard suits worn by Trion technicians working near the volcano - the suit is definitely a highlight, designed to resemble a volcanologists protective suit, but with piping around the front and sleeves.

At the end of the serial, a taskforce sent by Trion itself is sent to rescue the people of Sarn, with the crew in beige jumpsuits fixed with boards over the chest – only the officer’s outfit is seen in full, with an average crewman just glimpsed – the crew have cyan lining whereas the officer has magenta.

'The Caves of Androzani'

Costume Design by: Andrew Rose

Following was ‘The Caves of Androzani’, perhaps one of the most famous stories of Peter Davison’s run partly in fact that it was his last. The story involves a small war waging on the planet Androzani Minor which has became the base of the renegade scientist Sharaz Jek (Christopher Gable) who has managed to gain the control of ‘spectrox’ – the most valuable substance to the Androzani Major elite. The costume designer for this story was Andrew Rose, who also contributed some of the more memorable designs seen, especially the masked outfit worn by the villainous Jek.

The forces of the official Androzani government are all in grey jumpsuits with their rank being displayed by the colour their jumpsuit’s top half is – a clear riff on Star Trek’s Starfleet uniforms, and in a weird way a forerunner to the the Starfleet uniform designs designed by Robert Blackman for the ostensibly darker Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series. Fighting off the army forces are a group of mercenary commandos wearing beige uniforms fitted with large epaulettes that also double as extra pockets, worn with berets and belts; it should be worth noting that the Doctor Who fanzine In-Vision claims that these were just industrial suits that were minimally altered.

The conflict on Androzani Minor has partly been instigated by the intergalactic tycoon Morgus (John Normington) who in his quarters is always wearing a ridged brown tunic topped with a tubed collar - this was a sort of similar design trait to Rose's costumes for the serial 'Planet of Evil' in the thirteenth season, with the piping over the uniforms.

A very similar outfit being worn by the President (David Neal) albeit with a patterned collar and golden colour, as well as elbow pads of the same pattern as his collar, with piped sleeves just like Morgus' outfit - this tunic design would be repeated by Rose when he designed the costumes for the twenty-third season's 'Terror of the Vervoids' a few years later.

Morgus’ secretary Timmin (Barbara Kinghorn) meanwhile is in a blue dress with very large ridged shoulders, as well as a triangular cut for the collar - a very 1980s design, certainly!

The most iconic outfit of course has to be the black leather outfit sporting by Sharaz Jek, with an outfit inspired by equal parts BDSM and the Phantom of the Opera, with the actual mask pattern inspired by Sudanese tribal makeup - Andrew Rose, who designed the mask, said he got the pattern from a photo from Leni Riefenstahl's Africa. Notable mention to the fake eye having eyelashes molded on the mask, as well as the large piece on the chest that eventually goes round the neck. Once again, I have to question In-Vision's validity; it states that Jek's sleek black bodysuit is just a motorcycle jumpsuit, despite the fact that it obviously is the same material as the chest panel down the front.

There are also Jek's android soldiers who are clad in rudimentary padded armor, with the most distinctive aspect of the design being the cyclops mask helmet - technically not really a 'costume' but I'm including it anyway.

'The Twin Dillema'

Costume Design by: Pat Godfrey

The serials last season didn’t feature Peter Davison, but was the first for Colin Baker, now the Sixth Doctor, infamous partly for his ultra-colourful coat designed by Pat Godfrey, who also designed the rest of the colourful costumes of this story. The Doctor's new outfit was intended to be 'totally tasteless' and by goodness it is, being a garish mish-mash of different fabrics, with even the waistcoat being asymmetrical.

The serial's threadbare plot centres on the super-intelligent twins Romulus and Remus (Gavin and Andrew Conrad) who are kidnapped by Azmael (Maurice Denham), who sports an ornate costume consisting of a white patterned robe coated in golden lining across the tabard, as well as on the gown underneath, with brown lining around the sleeve openings.

The twins and their father aren't dressed the most flashy either in terms of design or construction, as they are just coloured tunics with bands of lined material over the waist and shoulders.

Azmael is in league with the bird-like Jacondans, who wear similar outfits to Azmael but made of black leather, with the higher-ups having studded lining and the grunts having none.

Leading the Jacondans is the ‘Chamberlain’ (Seymour Green) in a white and black feathered wig and long black gown adorned with silver lining.

Sent on the trail of the missing twins is Hugo Lang (Kevin McNally), an officer of the 'Interplanetary Pursuit', who upon finding himself on the TARDIS, ditches his bland, cheap and unfuturistic uniform (which just consists of a blue tunic worn with police cap and breeches anyway) for a wonderfully gaudy jacket of coloured stripes – almost as if intentionally made to rival the Sixth Doctor’s own coat!

'Attack of the Cybermen'

Costume Design by: Anushia Nieradzik

The first serial of this season involded a war between the Cybermen and the 'Cryons', humanoid aliens made of ice - whilst it could be an example of the line blurring between 'costume design' and 'creature design' (on BBC shows, the costume designer would handle both if the creature was played by an actor in a suit), but the obvious jumpsuits, and glittery cloak, make me go for 'costume' - of note is how the shiny jumpsuits even have high heels!

The only other costumes in this serial were the uniforms of the Cybermen's partially-cybernetic slaves, who just wear the Cybermen costume's silver jumpsuits with tatty work jackets and caps over them.

'Vengeance on Varos'

Costume Design by: Annie Hardinge

This serial was set on a dystopian colony planet Varos, and being a dystopian serial this meant an abuse of period-pastiche uniforms. The Governor (Martin Jarvis) of the regime wears a grey and black leather uniform, whilst his chief scientist Quillam (Nicholas Chagrin) wears a similar uniform but with red lining, worn with a Phantom of the Opera-inspired mask as well. These uniforms are included thanks to being made out of the uncommon material, which is an almost kinky touch; the other security officers' black outfits feel much cheaper, with only a vinyl panel down the front, too cheap and generic to warrant covering properly.

The other members of Varos' downtrodden society aren't dressed too spectacularly, with the only notable outfits being the baggy brown vinyl uniforms worn by the women, which consist of baggy trousers, a double-breasted tunic and a wide black belt. The various soldiers on Varos are either in dull grey double breasted uniforms, or equally dull single-breasted black uniforms. The one exception to the militaristic dress code are the alien Sil's guards, but they were just in trousers, gladiator harnesses and cheap Trojan helmets, no doubt all reused from the period wardrobe.

'Mark of the Rani'

Costume Design by: Dinah Collin

'Mark of the Rani' was one of the few historical serials of this season, but there still had to be an extremely 80s outfit in this serial, worn by the titular Rani (Kate O'Mara) in 'The Mark of the Rani' - this story had its costumes designed by Dinah Collin (in her last outing on the series), and whilst a 'historical' story, the Rani's outfit perfectly fits the conception of near-future fashions being an extension of the then-present, with the large-shouldered patterned top (and matching sash!) worn with leather pants!

'The Two Doctors'

Costume Design by: Jan Wright

Here was another serial that really hammered home that it was made in the 80s, with shiny and colourful outfits a plenty! The villain of this serial is the conniving Chessene (Jacqueline Pearce) is in a long gown of silvery material with a ‘splash’ pattern on the front and back, which has more lumpy pieces at the bottom of it. There is also her brutish assistant Shockeye (John Stratton) but his outfit is just pretty tatty and only notable for the golden plate around his neck.

The duplicitous scientist Dastari (Laurence Payne) is in a no less outlandishly shiny outfit of patterned blue and silver, which coupled with these glasses make him look like he's at least from a decade before the serial aired!

There is also the Sontarians making a comeback in this serial, wearing new, and more glitzy uniforms consisting of a shiny jacket and trousers with silvery bands around the elbows and knees.

I also don't usually count the outfits worn by the various companions in these entries, partly because I'm sure they are by and large bought, but this shiny colourful top worn by Peri (Nicola Bryant) was made for the production; not only does it match the design of the other outfits in the serial, but a shirt of similar material was made for the producer John Nathan-Turner by the serial's costume designer!

'Timelash'

Costume Design by: Alun Hughes

An infamously derided serial, most of the cast in the story, set on the planet Karfel, are in loose white gowns, with what appear to be streaks on the legs, and the senior ‘Maylin’s distinguished by their dark blue cloaks.

The exception to this is Vena (Jeananne Crowley) who is in a burgundy dress with tubed shoulders and gold threading going down the top.

There are also the various rebels who wear darker versions of these gowns in a two-tone brown colourscehem, with grey hooded scarves.

Serving the Borad are his ‘Guardoliers’ all in beige coveralls and rounded helmets fixed with mesh (making them resemble beekeepers frankly) and his androids which are in multicoloured coveralls fixed with triangular shoulder pads – out of these I much prefer the androids outfits.

'Revelation of the Daleks'

Costume Design by: Pat Godfrey

The last serial of the season, where the Doctor and Peri travel to the funeral planet of Necros, a planet used as a sort of funeral home for the elite of the galaxy. Necros has became a base for the Daleks' creator Davros, who uses the planet's massive mortuary 'Tranquil Repose' for his own ends. The costume budget for this serial was minimal, with the staff all just wearing dentist jackets dyed blue, sometimes worn with sashes and caps. Tranquil Repose's security guards also wear dyed dentist jackets, worn with streamlined helmets; the helmets are the only interesting part of the costume.

One of the few costumes actually made for the serial is this dress worn by the entrepreneur Kara (Eleanor Bron), which is made of plum-purple velvet, and fitted with a pointed collar and streaked turban. In interviews, Bron described herself as looking a bit like an evil queen from a Disney film! As you can see from the images, her aide Vogel (Hugh Walters) is just in another dentis jacket, dyed brown!

Another highlight is was this blue cloak worn by Colin Baker over his infamous technicolor coat, with the darker and lighter fabrics separated by golden lining some of which is formed in the shape of question marks!