(Note: As I am still going through older articles and fixing them up with newer images, once again expect to see several 'new' articles that are just redressed old ones in the next few weeks, especially for
Doctor Who. There may be some entirely new articles on other productions in the next few months though, so watch this space.)
'Four to Doomsday'
Costume Design by Colin Lavers
Alhough this was the second serial of the season to be broadcast, I opted to put this one first on the article as it was filmed before 'Castrovalva', and Colin Lavers was tasked with designing Peter Davison's new costume as the Doctor, thus establishing his 'look'.
The following quotes are sourced from an interview with Lavers that was published in two parts in issues #582 and #583 of Doctor Who Magazine.
The DWM articles included not just Lavers' recollections of the costumes he designed for the four
Doctor Who serials he was costume designer on -
'The Power of Kroll', 'Four to Doomsday', 'The King's Demons' and 'The Five Doctors' - but also include scans of selected design drawings Lavers did for the serial's costumes.
The DWM interview with Lavers also totally disproves a lot of bogus assertions from the fanzine In-Vision, a publication infested with baseless inaccuracies with regards to Doctor Who's costuming!
About Davison's costume, Lavers gave a detailed recollection in DWM #582. One of the major challenges was from producer John Nathan-Turner's insistence to evoke Tom Baker's style of frock coat, but not copy it;
“The third time, John said, ‘What about a cricket umpire?’ He knew Peter from working on All Creatures Great and Small, and one photo in his office was of that series’ cast playing cricket. Well, one of my designs was based on a classic photograph of mid-Victorian cricketers wearing striped fl annels, fl oral shirts and caps. A cricket umpire could only wear a plain white coat, by the way, which would have caused horrific lighting problems. I pointed out a frock-coated man in that picture, having realised John really wanted Tom’s look all over again: a lot of coat, double-breasted, huge lapels."
“I proposed abstracting it from Tom’s look: keep the coat, make it single-breasted. (...) No scarf but perhaps an umpire’s straw hat, with stripes in its hatband. (...) I thought of Clark Gable wearing a single-breasted frock coat in Gone With the Wind and said: ‘He’ll look like Rhett Butler!’ That went down well."
The interview confirmed that Davison's coat, trousers and shirt were all tailored for his role as the Doctor, with two pairs of trousers being made. Lavers discussed the trousers in detail in the same interview;
“I continued drawing, saying: ‘It could be beige, but depends what fabrics we can get...’ I was trying not to commit myself. Then I went away and found some end-of-line striped trouser material, resembling 1850s cricketing wear, from a cloth house. There was just enough for two pairs. If they ever needed to destroy one pair in a story, I thought Peter would end up in some variation on the colour theme, as Tom had.
Everyone has hated me since, because they could never reproduce the Doctor’s trousers. Sorry, everyone: I’m afraid I did that deliberately, so people couldn’t copy it."
Lavers confirmed that the colour scheme of Davison's Edwardian-style frock coat and shirt were also based on the trouser's patterned fabric. The trousers' suspenders and shirt's collars were printed with question marks. I believe the panama hat was also tailored for Davison, but the cricket jumper could have been bought.
Lavers also modified the 'look' of the Doctor's companion Nyssa, making a set of plum-coloured trousers to go with the tunic originally designed by Amy Roberts for 'The Keeper of Traken'.
Lavers was busy with the serial's supporting cast, who wore a variety of contemporary, historical and futuristic clothing. For contemporary costuming, Lavers had to design the set of 'modern' clothes worn by the aliens Enlightenment and Persuasion in their guise as humans.
Lavers designed a bottle green double-breasted suit and gold patterned waistcoat for Paul Shelley to wear as Enlightenment, and a bottle green dress with shiny green cuffs and belt for Annie Lambert to wear as Persuasion. The costumes were designed to evoke their alien guises, especially the cuffs on Lambert's dress.
Next for Lavers' duties were the various historical costumes. In-Vision's issue on the serial, as usual, incorrectly asserts that the historical costumes were all reused wardrobe stock, but this was NOT the case.
An Ancient Greek costume was made for Philip Locke to wear as Bigon - the garment was designed specifically that it could be opened up to show the circuitry underneath in blue-screen shots.
A pair of Ancient Greek warriors are also present - judging by how Lavers photocopied reference material for the helmets, the leather vests opening up in the same fashion as Locke's robe, it can be surmised that the white shirts, leather studded vests and helmets were custom-made for the serial as well.
Lavers also designed and made the historical Chinese costume worn by Burt Kwouk as Lin Futu was made from a quilted fabric, and Lavers recalled drawing over it in felt-tip pen for three hours!
Lavers also designed and made a set of tunics for the extras playing Futu's servants, in a orange-red colour scheme with white-lined black panelling around the collar.
Costume Reuse Note: Burt Kwouk would wear his 'Four to Doomsday' costume again in the 1992 comedy film
Carry On Columbus.
Lastly for the historical characters, Lavers designed and made a set of yellow Mayan dresses. Nadia Hammam, as the Mayan leader Villagra, was distiguished by her dress having a short cape and golden markings. Lavers also made loinclothes and headbands for the extras playing the Aborigines.
The presence of the Mayan characters especially disproves In-Vision's assertion that the costumes were merely reused stock. How many British or American productions at the time even focused on Mesoamerican cultures anyway? What few films that do, did not have costumes that match those in the serial!
Lavers was tasked with the designing the futuristic costumes worn by the Urbankan aliens. In the script, the Urbankans were described as humanoid frogs, an element that translated to Lavers' costume designs.
“With any monster, you want to lose the human shape. The easiest way is to alter the head and neck: the shape built up around Monarch’s head made it hang forward. When Stratford Johns was cast, I decided on something easy to wear, as his make-up on head and hands would be so elaborate, so I used the markings from an obscure American toad with different greens and textures to catch the light on his long, regal robe.”
The costume worn by Straford Johns as 'Monarch' constructed from velvet and curtain fabric, and the collar was lined with iridescent fabric. Two other robes were made for Paul Shelley and Annie Lambert as Enlightenmnt and Persuasion, their robes lacking the embroidered lining on Johns' Monarch robe.
Lavers also designed an Urbankan spacesuit, realized as shiny jumpsuit with ribbed panelling around the collar. The shoulders, elbows and knees had silvery material embroidery. According to In-Vision, the spacesuit's 'hard parts' - the collar and helmet - were made by Richard Gregory's freelance firm Imagineering.
In-Vision is often more accurate when it comes to the specialty props and special makeup effects, although in his interview with DWM, Lavers remembers it being handled by the BBC's Visual Effects Department..
'Castrovalva'
Costume Design by Odile Dicks-Mireaux
As it was Colin Lavers who was tasked with the new Doctor's look, Dicks-Mireaux was able to focus on the supporting cast portraying the denizens of the idyllic city Castrovalva. Dicks-Mireax designed the Castrovalva costumes in light, translucent materials and soft pastel colours, evoking a 'heavenly' image.
Anthony Ainley's costume as the Portreeve, Castrovalva's ruler, was very much designed in this image, wearing a wispy white robe. The rimmed plastic hat was for the futuristic flourish. The costume was designed to conceal Ainley's lean frame, and not give away the twist that he was the Master in the disguise.
Similar plastic hats are worn by the other men of Castrovalva, who wear kimono-like gowns - Michael Sheard wears a pink wispy garment as Mergrave, Derek Waring a black robe as Shardovan and Frank Wylie an orange robe as Ruther. Similar costumes were made for the male extras.
Underneath the kimono-like gowns are vests made of a ribbed material, which must have also been custom-made for the serial.
The women extras in the Castrovalva scenes wear dresses of similar material to the men, with skirts made of chiffon, and ribbed vests with padded sleeves. Dicks-Mireaux's inspiration partly came from paintings of Dutch peasants. The women also wear hoods and flat transparent plastic hats as well. A smaller version of the dress was made for the a child actor as well.
Dicks-Mireax also designed a set of 'primitive' hunting costumes for the Castrovalvans, made of colourful fur-like material. The furs were worn with futuristic 'tribal' masks adorned with feathers. The masks were made by Richard Gregory's Imagineering.
Note: While Odile Dicks-Mireaux was also costume designer on the serial 'The Visitation' of this season, the bulk of its costuming budget went to the aliens and android. Presumably all the historical costumes in it were hires, not made for it and thus I have neglected to include it here.
'Kinda'
Costume Design by Barbara Kidd
Barbara Kidd had to come up with two main 'styles' of costume for the serial; the futuristic uniforms worn by the Earth survey team, and the primitive costumes worn by the tribal Kinda people.
The uniforms worn by the survey team's military officers were a futuristic spin on safari gear, with leather lining around the collars, trousers and sleeves. The jackets have panelling going over the shoulders and chest.
The chest panelling was a design motif Kidd had previously used for futuristic uniforms sh designed for the
Doctor Who serial 'The Ark in Space' and several episodes of
Blake's 7 Judging by
this auction listing, the uniforms were made at Morris Angel & Son costumiers.
Kidd designed a futuristic labcoat for Nerys Hughes to wear as the survey team's scientist Todd, with ahort sleeves and dark blue vinyl lining around the shoulders and collar.
For the tribalistic Kinda, Kidd made unique costumes for Mary Morris and Sarah Prince as the tribal elder Panna and her protege Karuna. The Panna and Karuna costumes consist of black tabard-like robes with red straks trailing to the bottom, with custom-made necklaces.
A deliberately tattered cloak was also mad for Morris to wear in Panna's first scene, as well as an elaborate hat with red fabric trailing from the back.
For the other Kinda cast members, Kidd designed a look inspired by the fashions of Peru's indigenous peoples, made of yellow-green fabrics that evoked snakeskin patterns. The female extras had yellow shirts made, while the male extras went topless.
All the Kinda performers wore specially-made necklaces of a yellow and black design evoking both snakes and the DNA helix.
A shaman-like costume was also made for Lee Cornes to wear as the Kinda's 'Trickster', a jester-like character wearing a fake grass skirt and collar, with a scowling mask also made for him.
'Black Orchid'
Costume Design by Rosalind Ebbutt
Ebbutt's main tasks for this serial were the 1920s fancy dress costumes worn by the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa. Ebbutt designed a pair of beautiful butterfly-themed dresses for Sarah Sutton and her double Vanessa Paine, as a plot element of the episode was Nyssa had a lookalike in the 1920s.
The Nyssa dress was designed with an ornate mask that would obscure Sutton and Paine's faces. The butterfly motif was based on the serial's historical time period, as butterfly dresses were popular in the 1920s.
For Janet Fielding as Tegan, Ebbutt designed a dress with a floral motif, with the green torso section resembling leaves and the skirt evoking petals.
Lastly was the Pierrot costume for the Doctor, in a cream colour with red and green lining, worn with a ruff collar and a mask. Two Pierrot costumes were made, one for Peter Davison and one for Gareth Milne in the killer's scenes. Milne did not have as slim a frame as Davison, so needed a costume tailored to his size.
All the other costumes, including Matthew Waterhouse's fancy dress costume, were hires, not made. As of August 2025, I contacted Ebbutt about her work on
Doctor Who and
Play For Today, and she confirmed that the supporting cast costumes in 'Black Orchid' were either from Cosprop or the BBC's Wardrobe Department
Costume Reuse Note: The 18th century costume worn Barbara Murray as Lady Cranleight - which Ebbutt herself said was most likely hired from Cosprop - would end up being reused in the 2005 reincarnation of Doctor Who, specifically the episode 'The Girl in the Fireplace'
'Earthshock'
Costume Design by Dinah Collin
This serial's production design was heavily inspired by Ridley Scott's
Alien, with most of the guest cast's costumes being flightsuits, jumpsuits or sports clothing. In an interview with issue #103 of Doctor Who Magazine, Dinah Collin stated:
"You put something which is quite ordinary into an area where it's not quite familiar - so that it's not something we actually see every day on the street. You have to find something that is functional. (...) I mean things that we know about, but just pushed a bit beyond."
The freighter's crew and military commandos wore a variety of surplus flightsuits, with the commandos wearing bought sports armor over the shoulders and sleeves.
According to Collin, the jackets worn by Alec Sabin and June Bland as the freighter pilots Ringway and Berger were also purchased items, namely Johnson's La Rocka! leather jackets, minimally altered with insignia.
However, the leather jacket worn by Beryl Reid as the freighter captain Briggs was designed and custom-made by Collin according to the DWM interview. The jacket's oversized, curved collar is a bit of a giveaway that it is a 'designed' jacket, not a merely bought item.
I feel that the jumpsuit worn by Clare Clifford could have been a custom-made item, as it doesn't seem to match any industrial jumpsuit I have came across. The design makes me think of fencing jackets, but again it doesn't match any fencing clothing I have came across either.
Costume Reuse Note: The futuristic commando helmets were reused in the later Doctor Who serials 'The Mysterious Planet' and 'Delta and the Bannermen'. One of the helmets was then reused in the Red Dwarf episode 'The Last Day', and was used to sculpt a set of more helmets for Red Dwarf's eight season.
Costume Reuse Note #3: One of the commando flightsuits, still with bought sports armor worn over it, was reused for an extra in the opening scene of the later serial 'Resurrection of the Daleks'.
I wonder if the blouse worn by Clifford in the TARDIS scenes was also a custom item, as again it doesn't resemble any 1980s fashion I'm familiar with so far.
Collin's other major work for the serial was redesigning the Cybermen, collaborating with Richard Gregory's Imagineering. The
blog WhoSFX transcribed quotes from an interview with Richard Gregory published in Doctor Who Monthly issue #72, and Dinah Collin's quotes in David Banks' Cybermen published in 1988.
According to the interview, Collin made a set of custom-made silver overalls, adorned with segments of tubing from Royal Air Force 'fairy suits', though the gloves and boots were bought items. The chestplates and helmets were made by Gregory, who also made a set of futuristic helmets for the commandos.
Costume Reuse Note #1: The Cybermen jumpsuits, as well as the helmets and chestplates, were reused with some alterations in the following year's 'The Five Doctors', and yet again in 'Attack of the Cybermen'.
'Time-Flight'
Costume Design by Amy Roberts
The only costume that Roberts had to design was the robe worn by Anthony Ainley as the magician Kalid, yet another disguise for the Master. The costume was designed to disguise Ainley's frame, and so had padding inside to give him a more portly appearance.
The first main component was the off-white cotton gown worn underneath, with only its sleeves and collar lining being visible in the actual episode. The lining was made from silk, and decorated with studs.
Costume Reuse Note: This garment was reused in the following year's serial 'Snakedance', worn by a fortune teller on another planet.
Worn over the gown was a robe made from curtain fabric, with black floral lining aroun the cuffs and collar. The design of the gown and robe match, having the same asymmetrical cut and deep collar. And yeah, that makeup design, especially the buckteeth, does unfortunately feel pretty racist.
