C+Q - The Thirteenth Doctor's Costume
I adore the Thirteenth Doctor's costume. I adore it so much that I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, so here's my attempt to get these thoughts out of my system. If nothing else it'll be a fun way to pass the time until Series 11 starts.
Whenever there's a new Doctor, it always takes me a while to stop seeing them as 'a new Doctor' and accept them as 'THE Doctor'. Jodie Whittaker's costume is so good in my opinion that it completely bypassed this adjustment period. To me, she already is the Doctor.
When we think of traditional Doctory outfits, we tend to think about either the 1960s Hartnell/Troughton stuff or the 1970s Pertwee/Baker stuff. All you need to do is take a look at photoshops of fancast Doctors or fans dressed up as their own incarnations to play the lead in their fan films to see that the culturally accepted idea of what a Dr Who should wear is posh, tailored, and old-fashioned; waistcoats, dinner jackets, bowties, cravats, white shirts, dress shoes, etc. When we see the first image of a new actor wearing that aesthetic, it always looks like someone dressed up as Dr Who rather than someone actually being Dr Who. For me, Whittaker is already Dr Who because her outfit rejects the standard idea of what a Dr Who should wear. That being said, despite not going with the 60s stuff or the 70s stuff, her costume is still firmly rooted in the traditions of the character, harkening back to a period of the show that's never been harkened back to in a modern Doctor outfit before: the 80s stuff.
Jodie Whittaker's costume is an extension of the JNT Davison/Baker/McCoy aesthetic. She's wearing suspenders over a multi-coloured jumper which hold up a pair of trousers that are too short and have comically wide legs, like McCoy. She's wearing a light coat over this ensemble, like Davison. And the whole thing has that tailored garishness of the Colin Baker coat, where it looks overwhelming when you first see it but then you slowly realise there's some logic behind the arrangement of the colours and it's not as mad as it first looked. Jodie Whittaker looks like the Doctor rather than someone dressed up like the Doctor, because only the Doctor herself could have such a strong understanding of her own fashion sense. The outfit isn't trying too hard and it doesn't care that casual audiences don't remember the 80s version of the show as much as they remember Tom Baker's scarf. The Thirteenth Doctor dresses the way she dresses because that's what the character likes to wear, not because that's what audiences think she wears.
Because of that, she feels inevitable. She's not a new version of the Doctor I need to put effort into accommodating when I try to think about the Doctor as one unified individual. Instead, she feels like she's the Doctor and she always was. We spent so much of 2017 discussing Kris Marshall and Vicky McClure when there was really only one correct answer for who the Thirteenth Doctor was going to be: it was going to be Jodie Whittaker wearing that outfit. It was meant to be. That's the first thing I love about this costume.
Things I Love About This Costume numbers 2 and 3 are sort of linked: that it's light and colourful and silly and makes her look like a children's TV host, which is what she is, AND that the fact she looks like a children's TV host is relevant to what the Doctor is at this point in her life.
I love the Doctor as a character and I love the way the character has developed, not necessarily in small shifts in attitude and philosophy from episode to episode (although that certainly happens from time to time), but in broad strokes. Every time the Doctor regenerates, a new personality is created that references and builds on what's come before while adding something new to the character's range. The First Doctor was a scientist and an explorer, not a straight-forwardly heroic figure out to save the universe. When Hartnell had to be replaced due to his failing health, an effort was made to cast someone who was more of a 'leading man' with Patrick Troughton. This, combined with the cultural idea of Dr Who as a hero for children, transformed the character into someone who WAS more of a straight-forwardly heroic figure out to save the universe. The drama behind the scenes as well as the culture that surrounds the show has an impact on the character every time they regenerate. My favourite example of this is the Doctor's reaction to the Time War, which can be seen as a pretty clear allegory for the show's first cancellation.
Each Doctor after the show came back more or less represents one of the five stages of grief. The Ninth Doctor is Denial; not only denial of the Time War and how much it affected him but denial of his identity as Dr Who. To go from the standard cultural idea of Dr Who as someone dresses like a Victorian gentleman to the Ninth Doctor's tough everyday look when the show returned in 2005 was pretty jarring and challenged expectations over who both the Doctor, the character, and Dr Who, the character's cultural footprint, were in the 21st Century. The Tenth Doctor is Anger which is fairly straight-forward, and the Eleventh Doctor is Bargaining, mainly encapsulated by his continued attempts to be Dr Who even while the Doctor is someone who can raise whole armies at the mere mention of his name in episodes like A Good Man Goes to War. The Twelfth Doctor is Depression, again fairly straight-forward, and it's noteworthy that this whole divide between the Doctor and Dr Who on a costume level is actually made text with his wardrobe in Hell Bent ("What happened to your coat? The velvety coat. I liked that one, it was it was very Doctory"). This train of thought isn't exact obviously but it's pretty close considering none of this was intentional. These New Who Doctors are the result of two different creative teams with different writers and directors and actors all having an input on recreating the idea of Dr Who in the popular culture of the 21st Century. This whole 'five stages of grief' thing is a retcon, but it's a fun one, like trying to imagine that character played by William Hartnell in An Unearthly Child is a Time Lord.
Following this weird train of thought, the Thirteenth Doctor must therefore be Acceptance. She's back to dressing the way she did when she was McCoy, the last Doctor who didn't come into contact with the War/the last one before the first cancellation. That's not to say that the Thirteenth Doctor's look ignores the development she's had since she was McCoy. Unlike Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, Whittaker lacks a neckpiece; the last one she wore was Matt Smith's bowtie, a remnant of her attempts to be overtly Dr Whoy as well as Doctory and something she shed in the transition from Bargaining to Depression. Her new outfit also lacks the question mark motif that became a signature of the JNT aesthetic and could represent the Doctor's fun and playful acceptance of the hero role before the Time War; a form of innocence that has been removed from the character due to her traumatic experiences. The Thirteenth Doctor isn't ignoring the Time War, nor is she still in the heart of it. She's out the other end. She's made peace with what happened. She is Acceptance.
Was any of this intentional? I doubt it given that her costume is the result of a third distinct creative team working on the modern version of the show. But if we only cared about meanings that were intentional, stories would be SO fucking boring.
Am I questioning how intentional this line of reasoning is and how much it doesn't actually matter as a Get Out of Jail Free card because I can't be arsed actually backing up my 'five stages of grief' thing beyond a surface level reading? THAT's a more valid question.
Things I Love About This Costume number 4: it's blue! I've wanted a blue Dr Who for AGES. I love a nice bit of blue.