Final Thoughts
Miscellaneous Costumes
There’s a handful of other Tenth Doctor costumes, which don’t really fit within the Costume Catalogue, but are still of interest when looking at the history of the costume.
The first of these is the ‘babygrow’ worn by the Tenth Doctor when he’s been rapidly aged by the Master in Last of the Time Lords (2007). It’s not technically a costume worn by David Tennant for Doctor Who, as it only appears as part of a CGI creation by The Mill, who provided computer effects for the programme during the Tennant years.
It appears to be designed based on the Doctor’s brown suit, but as his suit is entirely intact when the Doctor is restored at the end of the episode, perhaps the Master simply had an extra roll of fabric laying around on the Valiant?
Next up, we’ve got the outfit sported by the Doctor in The Infinite Quest (2007), a thirteen-part animated adventure which was later collected together for broadcast (and DVD release) as a complete 45-minute episode.
The animation style of this story unwittingly creates an entirely new outfit variation for the Doctor — the blue suit, a light blue shirt, a pair of Maroon Converse, and a plain red tie. It could be argued that the tie is intended to represent Tie Eight, but I like the idea that the Tenth Doctor has some unique ties for his animated outings because…
Dreamland (2009) also introduces a brand new tie for the blue suit. In this case, the pattern is that of Tie Seven, but it’s been coloured in shades of red, instead of the usual brown and blue.
It could be that the original intention for Dreamland was for the Doctor to be wearing his brown suit, hence working on the Tie Seven pattern for use in the episode, but that plans were changed last minute without desire to lose the work already done on the tie.
Certainly, early production designs for The Infinite Quest feature the Doctor in his brown suit, so it’s not totally out of the realms of possibility that plans changed for Dreamland too.
A brand new live-action costume variation, worn on TV by David Tennant himself, has been introduced in 2020. For an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden in June 2020, Tennant pulled out his Tenth Doctor costume and put together a variation consisting of the brown suit, a light blue shirt, and Tie Eleven.
The Future
Could we see more outfits added to the Tenth Doctor’s roster in the future? It’s possible! Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary is only a few years away, and if Tennant were to return to the role again for that, then who knows what costume they might choose to give him?
Fifteen years on from the creation of Tennant’s costume, Louise Page is pleased to see that it remains popular. ‘I attended the Gallifrey convention, and I guess the biggest compliment I could have got is that there were men and youg boys there all dressed up as the Tenth Doctor. And girls had created their own brown suit fabrics and coats and made ladies corsets and female outfits based on my design.’
‘The icing on the cake, as someone who played with Barbie dolls as a child, is that there’s nothing more exciting than seeing your own 12" Tenth Doctor doll in your design!’
‘It’s unusual for a costume designer’s work to be exposed to so many different mediums other than on screen. To have created a look that’s been so well received, and will remain in the Doctor Who history books forever, is a great honour.’
Who Am I?
Hello. I’m Will. I’m a Norfolk-born freelance writer and designer based in South Wales.
Lots of my day-to-day work is Doctor Who related — between 2015 and 2019, I provided the photo covers for Titan Comics’ Doctor Who and Torchwood ranges (with the occasional dip into the world of Sherlock). I’ve also produced a number of covers for Big Finish, and have previously been responsible for exclusive products at the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff Bay.
I’ve also written a lot of nonsense about monsters and spaceships for the Adventures in Time and Space role playing game by Cubicle 7.
There’s examples of my work in my portfolio, and if you enjoy this blog, you may also like my History of the 21st Century TARDIS Props.
You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram, where I promise I don’t just post about David Tennant’s suits.
Special Thanks
I’ve got several people who’ve been invaluable during the creation of this blog, and I’d love to thank them here in writing. Of course there’s Louise Page, who designed the costume, and who was kind enough to answer all my questions. I wouldn’t even be here writing about all this without her!
Greg Hammond and Rob Purslow on Instagram, who helped to identify a number of the more obscure elements, Tom Newsom for putting up with me banging on about the costumes for months and months, and Neil Corry for assistance with one of the more obscure combinations!
