We here at the Tour have always been admiring of BBC Publicity and what appears to be, from a distance, their impeccable sense of timing regarding Doctor Who.
Given that we are in the tenuous state of having two Doctors in our thoughts, the incumbent and the insurgent, that must both be served, and the overall timing being close to the 54th Anniversary which in turn really starts the countdown to Peter Capaldi’s finale in Twice Upon a Time, the moment was right to ‘unveil’ Jodie Whittaker’s get-up for her first series next year.
The reaction was, to be charitable, varied.
Here we must confess that our thoughts went straight to Robin Williams of ‘Mork and Mindy.’ We doubt this was a deliberate choice but once you see it you simply can’t un-see it.
But others weren’t as sparing in their comments. It has to be a particularly daunting task to dress this most distinctive of potential Doctors as there are to be so many pitfalls to potentially avoid, but the Tour does hope we are not veering uncomfortably back into the range of having the Doctor dressed in a ‘costumey’ type of way as happened back in the 80’s.
Eccentricity is one thing. Wearing a TV test-pattern is simply wearing … for the viewer.