'The first thing you notice about the Doctor of War is that he is unarmed.
For many, it's also the last.'
For many, it's also the last.'
Of all the modern Doctors,
John Hurt’s War Doctor outfit is arguably the most difficult to truly replicate
well. Precious little of it has been identified as off-the-shelf and the
unusual design of many of the pieces forces people to either go custom or
heavily compromise with accuracy. Here I’ve put together a guide to help others
putting together their own version of the very underdone War Doctor costume. Nothing in my outfit is technically
screen accurate however I’m pretty happy with the end result:
My outfit
Coat:
The War Doctor wears a
double breasted ¾ length coat made of very heavily distressed thick brown
leather, the design has many names and is sometimes known as a car coat or a
barnstormer. I’ve heard rumours that the original is a vintage (of course)
piece by a well-known exclusive brand, although which manufacturer it is from I do
not know.
Promotional picture
Most of the design can be
figured out by looking at a couple of photos so I’ll just talk about the more
obscure details here. The coat has a plaid body lining (likely wool or cotton)
made up of green, pink and white whereas the sleeves are done in an off-white
satin. A collar tab hangs freely from the left-hand side where it can button to
a under-collar four hole button on the right side. The buttons are leather
football type although the bottom right hand one has been replaced with a black
plastic pin shank button. The leather itself seems very thick and heavy,
vegetable tanned horsehide is both very thick/heavy and looks particularly characterful
when weathered compared to other leathers although a heavy cowhide might also be
appropriate. I'm fairly sure my coat's made of veg-tanned horsehide given its appearance, weight, age and origin and I'm very happy with the appearance.
Close up of the leather on my outfit
This is by far the hardest
and most expensive piece of this costume. Magnoli do a decent replica although
they struggle with wide vintage-style lapels meaning that the design is a
little off. With any custom commission though the most challenging aspect is to
make a newly created coat look like it’s been through the Time War and it would
take a very talented hand to distress it to look so genuinely old.
As screen accuracy is
practically impossible with this item I decided to settle on a similar coat
from eBay that already had over half a century of wear to it. It started as an
unbranded 50’s/60’s German motorcycle coat made to the same design as the old
Nazi uniform. I enlisted the help of a local tailor who I've used before to modify the coat, the belt loops were removed along with the excess body length and
cuffs were added to add accuracy make the arms long enough for me. Overall I think the tailor did a fantastic job on this.
Before and after modifications, shout-out to my flatmate Tom
for modelling it
Waistcoat:
Unfortunately, John Hurt
never removed the coat during filming resulting in much of the waistcoat being
obscured by the coat and bandolier. Despite this I have managed to piece
together a pretty good representation of what it looks like based on high
resolution promo pictures, Doctor Who Experience photos, indistinct behind the scenes photos between takes and a single picture from the Doctor Who Magazine.
Original outfit on display at the Doctor Who Experience
The War Doctor wears a
double breasted (6x2) waistcoat with peak lapels. It is made out of a bronze
silk velvet and shows little distressing compared to the rest of the outfit
suggesting it was a more recent addition canonically. Note that the official magazine calls the colour green however every single picture of it (taken in many different lighting conditions) shows it as bronze and even people who've seen it in person call it bronze so that's the colour I'm going with.
Article from the magazine
The lapels have been cut separate to the body similar to McGann’s 1996 waistcoat (note the curved opening) without this they would be absurdly large. There are two varieties of 15mm brass domed shank buttons present with slightly different patterns on them, the left hand column of buttons hang slightly from the waistcoat as the shanks have not been recessed. The rear uses a matching bronze satin (likely with a belt) and the shoulder seam is swept diagonally back as it gets closer to the arms. There are two welt pockets present just beneath the third row of buttons from the base and another two just beneath the fifth row. The upper two welts are slightly narrower and thinner than the lower pockets and are placed further away from the centre meaning they are only visible when the coat is fully removed, the waistcoat itself is not very form-fitting allowing these pockets enough space to be placed so far from the centre.
Sketch of the waistcoat's design
Nothing off the shelf can
really replicate this well, meaning custom is the only way to go. Magnoli take
custom commissions for their version of the waistcoat, although the pictures of
their offering on the site are inaccurate they’ll be happy to make corrections
providing you give them the specifics. It is a rather pricey option though and
costs significantly more than their other waistcoats, likely because the colour
has to be custom dyed due to the surprising rarity of bronze velvet. I’ve also
seen some pretty decent offerings by eBay tailors for a lot less though they
have some accuracy problems too.
A third option is to make it yourself or have a local tailor make it. Mine was done by my usual tailor however it suffers from some accuracy issues due to the lack of reference material available at the time of creation, it still looks pretty great under the coat and bandolier though. If you can’t find any bronze velvet you could always settle for brown, alternately mix up some brown and orange dyes and try and do it yourself though practice on swatches first. Note that silk velvet is very difficult to work with and even experienced tailors may struggle with it sometimes resulting in slight permanent creases, even the original had one or two of these. For the rear material ‘The Lining Company’ offer a suitable fabric (product code 512-50203) on their website.
Shirt:
This is a bit of a weird one, the fabric is available for sale somewhere suggesting it is custom however an identical shirt was worn by Robert Downey Jr. in the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. The material is a
stripy tan cotton fabric that has been lightly distressed and the buttons are a
slightly darker brown. In terms of design, the collar is fairly standard, the
cuffs are rounded barrel type with a single button fastening and there is no placket
around the front opening. Interestingly it appears to be an old fashioned pullover type shirt with a small horizontally striped panel towards the base with two darts coming up from it forming a V-shape. A tan coloured stripy shirt might be difficult to find
so it might be easier to find a cheap, second-hand, white stripy dress shirt, tea dye it to the correct colour and add some brown buttons. I used a tan coloured Timberland shirt from eBay for my costume.
Original outfit on display at the Doctor Who Experience
Article from the magazine
Robert Downey Jr. wearing an identical shirt.
Poor image quality, but you can just about make out the small panel with horizontal stripes.
Trousers:
Possibly the most enigmatic
part of the costume, all that is known is that they are a regular or loose fit
and made of a dark brown cotton twill. As the pockets are never seen it’s
difficult to say exactly what sort of trouser they are although it is likely
they are an off-the-shelf pair of jeans or chinos given the fabric. My outfit uses some regular-fit brown jeans from Next.
Promotional picture
Footwear:
This one’s easy, Magnum
Classic boots in black. The ones used in the show used the older Hi-Tec soles
whereas newer ones have the magnum logo on the heel instead, this is a fairly
minor point though it technically means that the newer ones like mine aren’t 100% screen
accurate. Truthfully though any chunky combat boot would do the job and they’re
pretty cheap in military surplus stores.
My outfit's Magnum Classic boots
The spatterdashes that go
over the boots are yet another custom item; these are made of distressed brown
suede leather and are uncommonly tall meaning that they are often mistaken for
gaiters. The spats have a nine button fastening along the outside with two
varieties of buttons with some missing. The original button type is a brass
four hole button about 18mm in diameter with a slightly darker centre, there is
a solitary Légion Etrangère (French Foreign Legion) on the left spat
where a button has been replaced. Discrepancies exist with the actual amount of
buttons that were done up for each scene although the bottom two were never
fastened for an easier fit over the boots. Displays of the costume after the
episode’s filming show that some of the buttons have been replaced inaccurately
so do not use any of these photos as a guide. The following table summarises
the spat’s buttons:
Button Number (From
Top)
|
Left Spat
|
Right Spat
|
1
|
Légion Etrangère
|
Brass 4-hole
|
2
|
Brass 4-hole
|
Brass 4-hole
|
3
|
Brass 4-hole
|
Brass 4-hole
|
4
|
Brass 4-hole
|
Brass 4-hole
|
5
|
Brass 4-hole
|
Brass 4-hole
|
6
|
Brass 4-hole
|
Brass 4-hole
|
7
|
Brass 4-hole
|
Brass 4-hole
|
8
|
Missing
|
Missing
|
9
|
Missing
|
Brass 4-hole
|
Promotional pictures showing the spats
Magnoli do some very good-looking replicas though aren’t that cheap. If you can’t afford these you
might be able to find someone on Etsy who can make them cheaper, alternately use
a local leather-worker and an off-the-shelf spat pattern. These are the last
item I need for my costume so will likely go with Magnoli eventually.
Neckwear:
Gone are the days of Tom
Baker’s wondrously eccentric scarf, the War Doctor elects to wear a simple red
and white herringbone scarf slightly reminiscent of a Shemagh. Apparently this
item was a cheap find by the costume designer in a market stand; the artificial
fabric was then dirtied and distressed with a cheese grater. Despite this
knowledge the original has never been identified and the best options for
cosplayers is to either buy Magnoli’s replica (which is actually much higher
quality than the original) or cut up a throw rug to make a scarf out of it. In
the future I intend to lightly tea dye my Magnoli scarf and rub a little dirt in it just to
make the white look a little less brilliant compared to the rest of the outfit. If you're unsure how to tie it check out Magnoli's tutorial video.
Close up from 'The Day of the Doctor'
Bandolier:
This
was the only piece of the costume owned by the War Doctor throughout his entire
lifetime, having inherited it from Cass. The DWE sometimes displays it over the
right shoulder however this is wrong as in the episode it’s always over the
left. I’ve seen a few okay attempts at this through Etsy however the obvious
choice for this is Magnoli who’s really done an outstanding job with this item.
It’s not cheap but I own it and can honestly say that it’s worth it, even the
slightly dimpled texture of the metal plates has been replicated though I think
the plates are slightly larger than the original's.
Original outfit on display at the Doctor Who Experience
Belt:
In a similar style to
McGann’s final outfit the War Doctor wears a heavy duty belt visible below the
waistcoat but not threaded through the belt loops, the excess length is tucked into the waistband. The belt is a tan leather three hole
variety made by Fat Face, it’s a pretty uncommon design but there are options
out there on the internet if you search hard enough. Mine is also from Fat Face but has some top-stitching not seen on the original (shown below) so is only semi screen accurate. It's never seen but it's possible that the trousers are held up with braces given the belt is worn too low to be properly functional.
Original outfit on display at the Doctor Who Experience
Watch:
Although a fob watch is
never actually seen in the episode there is a double Albert watch chain attached through the
fourth button up the waistcoat with chains leading into either pocket. The
chain is made of a slightly oxidised white metal and features a short central
chain where a medallion would hang, although Hurt wore it with nothing
attached. I purchased a cheap chain from eBay, attaching an equally cheap
silver plated pocket watch one side and an old naturally distressed AA
telephone key the other. Hurt’s Tardis key is never seen so I just used a
slightly different type of Yale key that I thought fit his Doctor’s character.
Original outfit on display at the Doctor Who Experience
There is a magazine which shows the watch itself to be a white metal, open face variety with roman numerals and a separate seconds dial below the centre. See the previous waistcoat section for a scan of the image.
Sonic:
Ironically, the sonic used
in the episode was a modified plastic toy sonic meaning that the officially licenced
toy is technically more accurate than a much higher quality aluminium replica.
The toy is relatively easy to find, for an aluminium collector’s piece it might
be worth searching the RPF for a sonic maker.
Officially licensed War Doctor sonic screwdriver
Sources:
This information has been pieced together from many different sources however these have been particularly useful:
- pertweesfrills (special thanks, provided magazine scans with new information)
- RPF thread
- Tony Wilk
Some pictures from the Experience have been taken from elsewhere (the exact source I can't remember) so credit for them goes to the the original poster.
