Random, possibly noncanon, Who musings...

[Volpone]

A little over a year ago(?) RetroTV got classic Dr. Who. I learned this because I eat in my living room (that's another story) and click on the TV while I'm eating. Channel surfing and I happened to catch the iconic surge of the "howlaround" of the Hartnell credits, launching into "The Keys of Marinus."

I think I went through the stages of grief but as stages of joy. Disbelief, denial, etc. I'd watched Who as a kid and it was a big part of who I am today. One of my regrets was when I went to college I moved to a town where the local PBS station didn't show who, so I missed most of Colin Baker and all of McCoy's episodes.

As it happens, that's a good thing. For that matter, "my" Doctor--Peter Davison--hasn't aged well, so to speak. I liked him because he was polite and blonde. And his first season or so isn't completely unwatchable, but the series had turned the corner (arguably as early as the end of "Horror of Fang Rock," but I digress). I had the pleasure of meeting Colin Baker. (I mean, at a convention, so it isn't like we got together for beers) and I've got to say no one did what the boss asked more than that man. And no one got more sorely shafted for it than he did. I'd like to buy him a drink.

Anyways, I'd heard good things about the McCoy episodes. Lies. Watching them after all these years had me banging my head on the coffee table and shouting at the TV the way I yell at idiotic motorists.

On top of that, a lot of good and important episodes are missing from the syndication package: Susan leaving. "Spearhead from Space." Arguably my favorite story, "Pyramids of Mars." "The 5 Doctors." Etc.

Anyway, they show a rotation for an hour on weeknights and they do a 2 hour bloc Saturday afternoons. Weeknights is just getting into "Planet of the Spiders" while Saturdays just wrapped up "Image of the Fendahl."

I vowed that, having made it through the rotation, I'd stop watching after "...Fang Rock" but I've revised that. I've decided to watch until weeknights "laps" Saturdays. Soon we'll be all "teeth and curls" all the time. And once the weeknight episodes pass up the Saturday rotation, I think I'll have more free time.

And if you've read this far, you should probably receive a No Prize.

 

[Volpone]

A'ight. I'm halfway through my variation on a zombie, so this will likely ramble. But I'll try to get to the point.

I have a TARDIS. So naturally I post at a TARDIS board. But they're very focused on TARDISes and props. No cosplay. No hypothesizing. Only props.

Well, when you have a TARDIS, it is only a matter of time before you need a Doctor costume. But I didn't want to do a specific Doctor costume. That would be silly.

I'm either some later Doctor or (as I prefer) a younger 1st Doctor.

So as an OCD kind of person, I've spent FAR more time than any sane person would, thinking about what the Doctor wears.

How many Doctors wear ties? How many don't? Bow? Long? Long coat? Short coat? Overcoat? Cape? Long hair? Sideburns? Plaid pants?

Eventually I settled on my costume. Grey checked trousers with a midnight blue vest and a patterned blue shirt with mismatched cufflinks (one of which has a "?". But that's another story). Black textured wider tie. Black raincoat.

Heck, I even grew my hair out for a time because The Doctor tends to have longer hair. Finally cut it last week.

Anyway, vests are miserable. One that fits fine standing up is a straightjacket sitting down. One that is comfortable sitting looks like a tent standing. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Mmmm....rum....

Most Doctors favor loud trousers. And it turns out people wore plaid pants for a reason. I wear wool plaid pants to the dog park and I can slog through mud and have doggies jump up on me and plaid hides dirt. And a tasteful plaid is effing classy. And Dockers makes a couple pairs of neat plaid/checked cotton trousers so I've been wearing more plaid pants to work.

And lately they've been letting me work from home.

When I work from home I wear a velvet blazer with the checked trousers. This is to keep me warm. But it looks nice with a bowtie. So I'm much fancier dressed when I work at home than when I'm at the actual office.

But I don't wear a vest.

At one point I decided you need a vest with a bowtie. Otherwise there's too much open shirt. But all my vests are too short for regular pants. And too tight to wear on a day to day basis. So I do a hybrid 2-3--checked trousers with a polka dot bowtie and a velvet jacket. I've gotten quite attached to it.

Where was I going with this?

Oh, yeah!

Tonight, while walking The Dog, I realized that, truth be told, not a lot of Doctors actually wear waistcoats. Obviously, there's 1. But 2 doesn't ever wear one. And most of the time 3 doesn't. Of course during the golden age of 4, he wears the plaid one, but for the second half of the Baker era it isn't buttoned and is barely visible. 5? No vest. 6 has one. 7 has a sweater vest. 8 has one. But he's only in one TV movie. 9? No. 10? No. 11? Not until the last season. 12? A cardigan. So really you could argue that only 1, 6, & 8 out of 12 wear a vest.

And there's the long flowing coat. Truth be told, the Doc wears a relatively short coat until the Hinchcliff era of 4. Then there's 5, 6, 8, and 12. So one could argue that 8 of 12 Doctors wear a short coat. Of course 3 has his cape. 10 has his raincoat. And there are other longer coats. So again, inconclusive.

Where was I going with this?

Oh yeah. I'm crazy. I've thought about the Doctor's clothing/hair choices far more than any sane person would, and Gummy Bears are superior on every level to Jelly Babies. I'm sorry, but Jelly Babies are horrible.