June Hudson

Ooh, the first post of space-year 2011. Thrills!

A while back I wrote an article on the Doctors’ costumes (here), on the basis that it's something that never receives any more than passing comment. 

As I said there (albeit in a rather more longwinded fashion), the way the Doctor(s) dress is an important signifier of his status as a hero somewhat removed from the norms of that archetype (in an action-adventure context). I'd love to be able to say this function has never been overstated... but it quite obviously has. Perhaps surprisingly though, it's the Fifth's outfit which I find most heinous. 

The Fifth Doctor's costume never looks like real clothing, either in design or realisation (it's both flimsy and contrived), and is rather too concerned with being recognisable and 'iconic' in an overly forced way. Interesting then that this, June Hudson’s original design, is entirely without garish piping and the elongated jacket which suggests an irritatingly box-ticking approach to ‘Doctorishness’ in this incarnation. 

Simpler, brighter, and, at this point, relatively unprecedented (in stepping away from the frock coat silhouette), I’d... not kill, but at least maim to have seen Hudson’s unsullied design realised on screen. An effectively youthful, Brideshead-inflected look - rather than the beige and pyjama-striped monstrosity Davison ended up saddled with. Just sayin’.

Anyway, check out June Hudson's website. There's also some alternate Sixth and Eighth designs which she did for some university course, here. None of them are that unprecedented, but it's interesting nonetheless.