At long last, we finally have our Twelfth Doctor’s outfit confirmed, and my word, what an outfit it is! See below, for Peter Capaldi’s new, very minimalistic take on our favourite Time Lord:
Naturally, with that outfit reveal comes no small amount of speculation! What does the Twelfth Doctor’s outfit tell us about his character? Is there much we can take from that sort of thing?
Well, there is precedent, of course. Even if we only take the modern series into account, when Matt Smith’s classic tweed-and-bow-tie ensemble was first announced, it instantly gave off the image of a scatterbrained professor, an old man in a young man’s body. Tennant’s swishy coat and rumpled suits quite clearly gave off the image of a younger, more heroic Doctor, just as much as Eccleston’s worn leather jacket and otherwise-unremarkable attire suggested the idea of a more modernised, less flamboyant “action” Doctor.
With all of that in mind, what does Peter Capaldi’s costume tell us, in advance, about the Twelfth Doctor?
We’ve been told, whether by Steven Moffat or Capaldi himself in interviews, that the Twelfth Doctor is going to be quite a different man to Smith’s, more irritable, much more of a genuinely cranky, more aggressive old man, and this is something that his chosen attire carries across well. It’s all business: dark colours, shiny black Doc Martens, classic cardigan, Crombie coat. As Capaldi puts it, “Simple, stark, and back to basics. No scarf, no frills, no messing, just 100 percent Rebel Time Lord”.
That said, it still retains the Doctor’s signature touch of flair, most obviously in the bright red lining of the coat. Indeed, the outfit bears a marked resemblance to that of the Third Doctor, something which would suggest that Capaldi will have more than a touch of the Classic series about him. This isn’t too surprising, of course, given the notable shift towards the tone of the era in the latter parts of Smith’s run, but it’ll be welcome nonetheless.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether any parts of this costume will change over the course of the show, or indeed where it will come from in the show itself, but for now, Capaldi’s costume serves as a definite addition to the few glimpses of his character we have seen thus far: Darker. More intense, less flamboyant. Classy. Suffice it to say, I can’t wait to see it in action come August!
