Costume Station Zero - High Council of Tweed

My good friend Bob Mitsch in the US has released the latest episode of his Costume Station Zero podcast!

EPISODE 11

25th October 2012

Ewan Anderson joins Bob to talk about conventions, glories, mishaps and dive into the 11th Doctor’s Costume as seen in Series 5.

Episode 11 - The High Council Of Tweed

London Calling!

Now I don’t normally write about the day to day filming of Doctor Who - I prefer to keep things as spoiler free on my blog as possible - but this week saw a day’s work in the capital for the travelling Time Lord and his new companion.

This is a first for the Matt Smith era. Since Steven Moffat took over everything has been shot down in Cardiff or the surrounding area, unlike during Russell T Davies time in charge, when trips to London for Rose Tyler’s housing estate, or to use The Globe Theatre were a regular highlight of a season.

In fact the recent series seven episode The Power Of Three - correct me if I’m wrong - was the first story to have scenes set in London, though a Welsh castle stood in for the Tower Of London.

But finally, after two and a half series - the TARDIS has landed!

Look away now if you don’t want to see what's been going on.

Costume Station Zero - Monster chat!

My good friend Bob Mitsch in the US has released the latest episode of his Costume Station Zero podcast!

This time it has a MONSTER flavour!

EPISODE 6

9th & 11th October 2012

Mette Hedin and Bryan Little join Bob to talk Doctor Who monster making including the Vashta Nerada, Silurians, Sutekh the Destroyer and Ood.
You can see some of their costumes in a masquerade skit from 2009 called Timelord Retirement Club.

Episode 6 - Monster Masque (part 1)

Episode 6 - Monster masque (part 2)

Mini Doctors on eBay

I’ve had a number of emails lately from parents looking for Matt Smith costumes for their children.
Working as a bespoke tailor it isn’t possible for me to make such clothes cheaply. After all a child’s jacket still has two sleeves, a collar and lapels as well as the necessary pockets and detailing.

As an answer I have always pointed them to eBay in search of bargains.

Just to show what can be found, here are half a dozen items currently available, or recently closed.

This shows the price range of options available, so keep searching – they are out there.

The first of these is actually an officially licensed dressing up outfit from UK clothes retailer, Marks & Spencer.

Boys fab DR WHO fancy dress outfit
from M&S age 5-6yrs

Cyan is the new TARDIS blue

I ended up in central London over the weekend, intending to spend the whole day at a Radiophonic Workshop event on the South Bank.
It didn’t quite shape up as I thought it was going to be (everything got way to technical for a casual listener), so kicking my heals with time to kill, I thought I’d do something I had been wanting to do for a while - revisit the Police Posts around the City Of London.

I first visited and documented them in 2010, but one I had expected to find at Liverpool Street Station was strangely missing. This I listed as missing in action.
The rest were still there, but in a pretty sorry state of repair, especially one on the Victoria Embankment.

On a passing return trip in 2011 I noticed several of the posts I had photographed had also since vanished. Being made of cast iron, I did have concerns they had been stolen by metal thieves, a crime on the rise due to commodity values soaring in recent years.

But last month I spotted a photograph on a Facebook friend's page, showing the Liverpool Street Police Post. It was back - and sporting a new paint job!

It's got me wondering if the other missing posts had received the same restoration - hence my plan to revisit them now.

I took a tour of all the posts under the control of the City Of London authority. Here is what I found.

Bow Tie and Braces anomaly

Amongst the publicity still released this week for A Town Called Mercy, there was one that caught my eye and made me sit up and look more closely.

It shows Matt Smith in character as The Doctor, but without his trademark tweed jacket.

He is wearing the striped shirt and bark effect blue bow tie, both first worn in the series six opener, The Impossible Astronaut – with burgundy braces!

Now as far as I am aware this is the first time he has ever worn mis-matching* bow tie and braces.

Throughout series five he stuck strictly to a colour co-ordinated shirt and accessories combination.

That continued during series six, and although new bow ties were regularly introduced, the were always matched by the braces.

So this is a bit of a departure from the accepted costume.

Can’t say I like it.

*For the purposes of the posting, I’m taking the striped braces seen last week in Asylum Of The Daleks out of the equation, as they were at least blue to match the bow tie.

Deputy Doctor

This week Doctor Who returns to the Wild West – the first time since 1966 when William Hartnell sought out a dentist in Dodge City during The Gunfighters.

As part of his Wild West adventure, it seems The Doctor picks up another Stetson (though it is not quite the same as the one seen in Closing Time and The Wedding Of River Song) and a Marshal badge! (see left)

It’s a nice simple addition to an Eleventh Doctor costume, so I’ve been looking around and have found some Marshal badges close, but not quite the same as The Doctor’s.

The first place I looked inevitably was eBay, where I found the follow.

This one’s quite nice, but a bit flat and without a boarder.

MARSHALL STAR BADGE BW - 70

Not badly priced at US$13.99

The lettering of this one is more central, but its a brass badge rather than white metal.

MARSHAL OLD WEST BADGE

Cheaper at US$9.99, but the metal is the wrong colour

This one has a boarder, though the lettering is a bit higher. Overall I like this one, and ordered it today.

MARSHALL STAR BADGE BW - 45

Also priced at US$13.99

WATCH: Impossible

One of my Christmas presents last year was a complete DVD box set of Mission: Impossible, the original 1960s series.

I’d seen a lot of episodes, but I’ve wanted to see it right through from start to finish – plus it stops me going mad while tailor jackets and coats!

So imagine my surprise when I’m watching The Freeze, an episode from series three. There is a tense moment while Jim Phelps and the team are watching their target over CCTV. Up against time, Jim looks nervously at his watch, and we see it in a close-up insert shot.

And it’s near identical to The Doctor’s current timepiece!

It’s an distinctive face, with the 2-4-6-8-10-12 in numbers, where most watches only have 3-6-9-12

If you look closely the logo under the 12 has been removed, but it would have been Buler, the makers of the watch.

And here is a screengrab from The Lodger, showing a good close-up of The Doctor’s wrist watch.

The Eleventh Hour photoshoot

The new series of Doctor Who started this week, and I thought I’d bring you some more pictures from my massive Cardiff photoshoot earlier this year.

After finishing in Cardiff Bay where we visited Eddie’s Diner as seen in The Impossible Astronaut; and The Millennium Centre as featured extensively in The Girl Who Waited as well as New Earth, we packed up and headed towards Southerndown Beach.

Literally on the way to the beach is the village of Llandaff, which has popped up several times in the new series.

In 2006 it was used in Human Nature and Family Of Blood where it was the setting for the Farringham School for boys; in the same story the cathedral was where John and Joan get married; the cathedral was used again in 2010 as the church in Vincent And The Doctor.

But its most recognisable appearance was in The Eleventh Hour, when it was used as the principle location for Amy Pond’s home town of Leadworth.

So we thought we’d have a bit of fun.

We already had our superb Eleveth Doctor look-a-like, Matt Elliott; plus our Amy Pond, Lisa Baxter - so the obvious thing to do was to recreate the scene where The Doctor tries to placate an irate Amy Pond!

Lisa has her own Amy Pond kissogram outfit, so that was easy; I was able to quickly pull together the Doctor costume by providing the tie and a pair of genuine GAP trousers. Matt supplied a cheap shirt from Primark, which Lisa appropriately distressed.

Shooting with a sports setting on my camera, we did half a dozen takes of the pair walking up the hill away from the cathedral.

We attracted a small audience, wondering if it was the real thing!
They soon realised it wasn’t, but a couple of school girls asked if they could have their photo taken with our look-a-likes, which was fun.



Our plans for some further shots had to be curtailed, as we realised the Olympic Flame - as referenced in Fear Her - was due to come right through the village on one of its early stages. (The following day Matt Smith carried it a few hundred yards in Cardiff city centre).

Xmas Special to Pond Life costume index

The first half of Series Seven is due to start soon, so it’s time for a Costume Index to catch up on various mini episodes leading up to the new series!

The Doctor, the Widow
and the Wardrobe

Jacket Shetland Tweed jacket, with three-button fastening

Shirt Window pane dress shirt with mitred cuffs and tabbed collar

Trousers G-Star RAW Broncho jeans in black (matt look)

Bow Tie Self-tied burgundy with twill

Braces Narrow burgundy with small silver clips

Boots Black, custom made

This is the last episode appearance of the window pane shirt before its sale on eBay in aid of Comic Relief.

Good as Gold
viewer-written Blue Peter minisode

Jacket Shetland Tweed jacket, with three-button fastening

Shirt Blue dress shirt with mitred cuffs and tabbed collar

Trousers G-Star RAW Blade jeans in Spark Denim (waxy look)

Bow Tie Self-tied burgundy with twill

Boots Black, custom made

Notes The Doctor also wears an Olympic Gold medal, though not a accurate version as the design for the London 2012 medals had not been revealed when the minisode was shot

Pond Life
5-part red button minisodes 

Episode one
Jacket Shetland Tweed jacket, with three-button fastening
Trousers G-Star RAW Blade jeans in Spark Denim (waxy look)
Boots Black, custom made

SONTARAN and TARDIS SCENES
Shirt Blue dress shirt with
Bow Tie Self-tied burgundy with twill
Braces Wide burgundy with leather connectors and brass clips

MARTA HARI and RAPPING SCENES
Shirt Pale mauve striped shirt
Bow Tie Blue bark effect
Braces Narrow blue with metal clips

Episode two
Jacket Shetland Tweed jacket, with three-button fastening
Shirt Blue dress shirt
Trousers G-Star RAW Blade jeans in Spark Denim (waxy look)
Bow Tie Self-tied burgundy with twill
Boots Black, custom made

Episode three
The Doctor does not appear in Episode three

Episode four
Jacket Shetland Tweed jacket, with three-button fastening
Trousers G-Star RAW Blade jeans in Spark Denim (waxy look)
Boots Black, custom made

WHEN IN GOOGLES
Shirt Pale mauve striped shirt
Bow Tie Blue bark effect
Braces Narrow blue with metal clips

WITHOUT GOGGLES
Shirt Window pane dress shirt
Bow Tie Blue bark effect
Braces Narrow blue with metal clips

Episode five
Jacket Shetland Tweed jacket, with three-button fastening
Trousers G-Star RAW Blade jeans in Spark Denim (waxy look)
Boots Black, custom made

EXTERIOR SCENES
Shirt Window pane dress shirt
Bow Tie Blue aztec key
Braces Narrow blue with metal clips

INTERIOR SCENE
Shirt Window pane dress shirt
Bow Tie Blue bark effect
Braces Narrow striped blue with metal clips

Asylum Of The Daleks - spoiler-free teasers!

I’ve see a few other reviews do a list of spoiler-free teasers, so I thought I’d have a go too!

But for those who really don’t want ANY hints - I’ve put it under a spoiler tag!

Asylum Of The Daleks -
TEN SPOILER-FREE TEASERS

The Daleks’ catchprase takes on a whole new meaning

There are shades of Dalek from 2005 at one point

Where DOES the milk come from?

The Doctor meets yet another Prime Minister

Spiridon, Exillon and Demons Run all get a namecheck

Swat up on your Bizet before watching

Rory plays with fire

Someone forgets WHO The Doctor is

Remember that periscope Daleks eye in the trailer? You’ll never guess WHO operates it!

Who killed all the Daleks?
NOT quite who you think

Asylum Of The Daleks - BFI Q&A session

As if having the chance to see an amazing preview of Asylum Of The Daleks, we also got to see a question and answer session with matt Smith, Karen Gillian, Arthur Darvill, Steven Moffat and Caro Skinner!

It was hosted by Richard Bacon - an ex Blue Peter presenter who now has an afternoon show on Radio 2.
Earlier the same day he had Steven Moffat in his studio chatting about the new series as a prelude to tonights screening.

The first things he did was reprimand Steven for lying  to him about certain details of the season opener! He had categorically stated one thing - which when you see the episode is totally untrue!

Here is a selection of photos I took from our near front row, but far left position.