Wotcha!

The page that no longer even has any clothes sense.

BY THE WATCHER

A History of Doctor Who in 100 Objects…

THE DOCTOR’S PANTS

Readers with short memories and long legs may need reminding that a few months ago we paid tribute to the TARDIS wardrobe, that Aladdin’s cave of intergalactic couture which, when open for business, offers all manner of advantageous apparel for the fashion-conscious traveller in the fourth and fifth dimensions but which, at other times, remains stubbornly closed, forcing our heroes to remain stuck in the same old outfits for adventure after whiffy adventure. This syndrome is never more acute than in the early 1980s, when the Fifth Doctor goes two whole seasons without so much as a change of shirt save for a brief spell in fancy dress after a much-needed shower in that most civilized of tales Black Orchid.

Things tend to be a little more hygienic when the show beds down on Earth for a while. Sarah Jane works her way through no fewer than four costumes in Planet of the Spiders (five if you include a brief flirtation with a fetching Metebelian shawl), and a whopping eight in K9 and Company (or twelve if you include those immortal opening titles). Admittedly this is at the unusual end of the scale, but it’s by no means unique. I suspect that the record for the largest number of changes per story must be either Donna in Turn Left or Amy in The Power of Three, but I’ll leave it to you to count those montages, because I’m still busy thinking about Sarah who, sad to say, doesn’t always fare so well. Throughout Terror of the Zygons she sticks (perhaps literally) to the same outfit which, when you think about it, is a trifle gruesome: several days in Scotland, followed by interludes in a spaceship and a messy sandpit, and then a trip to London and finally back to the Highlands by train and all in the same trouser suit and sweater combo. Eww.