The new season of Doctor Who breaks a great tradition

Every new era of Doctor who starts with a new doctor. That’s always the most exciting part: as a near-immortal alien whose personality changes with his appearance after being restored to a new form, meeting a new Doctor is like meeting a best friend all over again. Then come a few other things: a new companion, a facelift for his spaceship/time machine, the TARDIS, and finally a new costume. A signature look that defines this version of the Doctor – from a celery stalk on the Fifth Doctor’s (Peter Davison) lapel to Eleven’s (Matt Smith) affection for bow ties.

Not so with the fifteenth doctor of Ncuti Gatwa. One of the most striking things about this new era of Doctor who is that Fifteen does that not have a distinctive look – in fact, he is continual changing clothes and having so much fun doing it. According to showrunner Russell T. Davies, this was part of the plan from the beginning.

“I started thinking, why does he wear the same clothes all the time? The companion never did that!” Davies says this in a recent interview with Polygon. “To be honest, it was partly a budget issue. So with a bigger budget – because remember, no matter how much we talk about how extraordinary his clothes are, we keep forgetting to say in interviews that the most important thing about the clothes is that he can fly, he can do stunts, he can jump. out the windows, run from a monster. It must be possible to sew cushions, threads and harnesses into the assembly. This has always made it a lot easier to keep the doctor in the same clothes.”

But for the first time in the program’s very long history, Doctor who is (relatively) the same as cash. And that means greater ambition from Davies and the rest of the crew when it comes to spectacle, but also their freedom to tell stories through costumes.

“Pam Downe, our costume designer, had a lot of discussions about trying to explore – in a subtle way – the subcultures of Britain sartorially,” says Ncuti Gatwa. “Because (the Doctor) is a character who exemplifies Britain. Throughout my seasons we will explore different subcultures of British fashion.”

Of course, once Doctor who with Ncuti Gatwa as the new doctor, the show certainly leaned on what he looked good wearing.

“The coincidence is beautiful,” Davies continues. “We were already thinking in that direction, and then we cast a man who can just carry something. He puts on a T-shirt and jeans and he looks extraordinary. As programmers we would be angry if we didn’t look into that. It was a real pleasure and I love it.”