Although he was the most flamboyant Doctor to date, Jon Pertwee’s outfits were relatively conventional compared to some of the other challenges facing the costume designers of 1973.

By PIERS BRITTON

The costumes worn by Jon Pertwee as the Doctor (seen here in The Three Doctors) evolved throughout his time on the series.

By the time Doctor Who was approaching its tenth anniversary, the 1960s norm of having a single costume designer cover at least an entire production block – ie, approximately a whole season – had been thoroughly undone.

The eighth and ninth blocks (1970-71 and 1971-72) had each been staffed by four different designers; only Barbara Lane was assigned to more than one serial during the eighth, and in the ninth she shared this distinction with James Acheson. In organisational terms, the use of multiple designers per year clearly made sense to the BBC Costume Department. With a much shorter broadcast season but an average of only two fewer stories per series than during Patrick Troughton’s tenure, ‘first nights’ came around more frequently. Given Doctor Who’s range of costume demands, this was no small consideration.

Yet this new approach was a doubleedged sword. While it ensured that no one designer was over-taxed, there was a risk that those who were new to the show might struggle with Doctor Who’s special requirements. And quite apart from issues of technical know-how, the continuous presence of a single designer had ensured coherence in world-building. With an array of different hands in the mix, costume lacked the kind of house style that Martin Baugh, for example, had so strongly established in the fifth production block. Starting at the end of the ninth, this was to change. A roster of regulars – Barbara Lane, James Acheson, Barbara Kidd and Rowland Warne – were to leapfrog one another, with only the odd ‘guest’ designer intervening, until halfway through the 14th season in 1976.

A new green jacket debuts in Carnival of Monsters.

Ken Trew was the costume designer for Terror of the Autons (1971).

Costumes for Spearhead from Space (1970) were designed by Christine Rawlins.

I twas really James Acheson who kickstarted a new Doctor Who aesthetic. He established stylistic precedents and ushered in new practices that other designers, notably Barbara Kidd, avowedly used as part template, part springboard for their own work. One small but telling way in which Acheson overturnedprecedent in Carnival of Monsters was in giving the series’ star his second new outfit of the ninth production block. While this may seem a minor point, it’s worth recalling that the first two Doctors had experienced very few alterations to their regular costumes; trousers and footwear were periodically replaced, there was the odd change of waistcoat, tie or hat, but that was about it. That Jon Pertwee had been allowed a whole new costume at the beginning of his second season, courtesy of Ken Trew, and another, Barbara Lane-designed ensemble in The Curse of Peladon the following year, already set him apart. With Carnival, Acheson created the conditions under which regular changes in the lead actor’s wardrobe would become the norm, not the exception. Beyond short-circuiting the costumerefreshment schedule, in Carnival of Monsters Acheson also pushed the Third Doctor’s wardrobe in a decisive new direction, while maintaining the essence of the Pertwee look. In place of the ornate, frogged, togglefastened smoking jackets the actor had worn before, Acheson came up with a deceptively simple, new style of jacket – again velvet, but warmer in tone, less formal and ultimately much more fashion-forward. With the deep notch between the tall, spreading collar