Way back in the early days of this blog, I wrote a series of posts about the historical costumes in Doctor Who. I stopped at season 8, since that was the most recently aired shows at the time. Well, well, well, almost 11 years later (holy crap, we’ve been writing here for THAT long!), the show has continued, even if I haven’t always kept up with it. But I really enjoyed the most recent season, the 15th, which finished airing in May 2025, and wanted to write about it. However, being a completionist, I feel like I can’t start with that one until I finish up everything in between. So here we are.
For those just joining and not clear on what I’m even talking about, I’ll recap: Doctor Who is a British science-fiction/fantasy TV show that started in 1963 with a goal of teaching children about history and science. A curmudgeonly, mysterious time traveler practically kidnapped his granddaughter’s two teachers and took them on adventures through time and space. The BBC intended this family show to be at least partially educational, and the first Doctor and his companions visited Marco Polo, the Aztecs, the French revolution, the reign of Nero, Palestine during the Third Crusade, the St. Bartholomew’s Eve Massacre, and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
The series ran until 1989 with seven different actors playing the eponymous Doctor, who is an alien and instead of dying, he changes his face and body into a new person. While the show veered away from the educational tone, every Doctor had a few adventures back along the Earth timeline to explore specific moments in our history when, coincidentally there often happens to be some unusual alien activity happening.
The show was rebooted in 2005, with the earlier series now being called the “classic era,” and I’ve written deep-dives on a few of those episodes too. In the reboot or “revived” era, so far six different actors have played the Doctor. In my first series cataloging their historical costume adventures, I covered the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh, and first season of the Twelfth Doctors. And that’s where I’m picking up now! In the next few months, I’ll catch up with the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Doctors (not a typo, I skipped a number, IYKYK, but I’ll explain when we get there).
Peter Capaldi, The Twelfth Doctor Who Historical Episodes, Part 2
In the last part, I’d gotten through Capaldi‘s entry into the role with series 8. Picking up with series 9, there’s a two-part story arc featuring Maisie Williams in “The Girl Who Died” and “The Woman Who Lived.” Her character is a Viking-era puppet maker and storyteller Ashildr, who gets involved when aliens invade her village. She dies in the battle, and the Doctor saves her with technology that makes her immortal.
Being immortal kinda screws with Ashildr’s head, and by 1651, she’s become a masked highway robber, simply calling herself “Me.” The costumes are pretty darn good!
I’m getting a Lady and the Highwayman vibe or more accurately The Wicked Lady, since she’s both the robber and the lady.
OK, so that’s a modern embroidered taffeta for her petticoat, but it works here, and the trimming on her gown is spot-on for the period.
In the next season, the Doctor and his new companion Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) visit 1814 London for a frost fair on the Thames, in the episode “Thin Ice.” They both dress in period clothes for this adventure, which is a unusual because while sometimes companions dress for the period, the Doctor rarely does.
Later in the season, they end up on Mars in 1881 for the episode, “Empress of Mars.” For some reason (hint: aliens, it’s always aliens), human soldiers from Victorian Britain are occupying Mars. I’m only mentioning it because I already noted this ep for an MCM on Anthony Calf, and everybody loves a man in uniform!
The 12th Doctor’s last visit to Earth’s past is the episode “The Eaters of Light.” He and Bill argue about what happened to the Ninth Legion of the Imperial Roman army, and instead of believing Google like the rest of us, they travel back to 2nd-century Scotland to answer the question.
OK, now we’re caught up with 12, we’ll get started with the 13th Doctor next month!
Find this frock flick at:
Am shamefully ignorant about Dr. Who, apart from the basic premise and the fact that the various incarnations are played by cool performers. These episodes look like great fun.
Of these episodes, I favor “Thin Ice” just for the Regency era costumes, despite it appearing that Bill dressed herself without a clue as to which order the pieces were meant to be layered in, etc. I was just happy for an early 19th century ep, so Jodie Whittaker’s visit with Mary Shelly et al is another favorite. Didn’t care for the character of “Me.” Annoying. I think my all time favorite Capaldi episode has to be “Robot of Sherwood Forest.” If you’ve seen it, the immortal words “I have a spoon” will make you smile.
This is Ferdinand Kingsley erasure: he too was in ‘Empress of Mars’ having a delightfully caddish time as a British army officer and antagonist to boot!😉
The 12th Doctor and Bill era (season 10) is one of the periods of modern Who where I stuck with it (rather than watching a few episodes then giving up) and was consistently entertained. Bill was one of my favourite companions and it was a relief having zero romantic subplots/subtext/tease/whatever between her and the Doctor.
I stopped watching again after the first Jodie Whittaker season, which I watched most of and enjoyed intermittently but felt had gone back into “broad and wacky” territory like some of the earlier seasons. There were also too many companions to develop properly and a seeming indecisiveness about whether the show was for kids, adults or both.
Whoops, double posted, please delete.