Département des Études du Monde Anglophone (DEMA) Mémoire de Master 2 Recherche (2019-2020) “Oh, never mind about the clothes, they're easily changed.” – Costumes and identities in Doctor Who (1982-1989). Yorick Sarrail-Dupont Sous la direction de M. le Professeur Laurent Mellet Acknowledgments My utmost gratitude goes to Laurent Mellet, for his support and his faith in me. Under his guidance, I grew up a tremendous amount, both as an aspiring researcher and as a person. Without his patience, I would not have been able to make it through. I would like to thank Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant who agreed to help a person they had never met before and share some of their first-hand knowledge. My gratitude also goes to Matt West, who let me access some of the sources he had collected throughout the years, and to Nathalie Rivère de Carles and her sources on the Commedia dell’arte. Finally, I would like to thank the DEMA department, their encouragement, their feedback, and for the nurturing environment built by the various members of the department. Page 2 sur 110 Table des matières Acknowledgments...................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5 I. Doctor Who: Around the Show ........................................................................................ 12 a) An overview of the history of Doctor Who .................................................................. 12 a) Classic Doctor Who (1963 – 1989) ....................................................................... 12 b) The hiatus (1989-2005) and derived products (books, audios) ............................. 16 c) Modern Doctor Who (2005) .................................................................................. 19 2. Troubled times: the 1980s ................................................................................................ 23 a) Michael Grade and the BBC administration .......................................................... 23 b) Internal difficulties in the 1980s ............................................................................ 26 c) The budget limitations and the consequences for Doctor Who ............................. 29 3. The main character(s) of the show: the Doctor ................................................................ 31 a) The character of the Doctor ................................................................................... 31 b) The wardrobe scenes ............................................................................................. 34 c) The (lack of) evolution .......................................................................................... 39 II. Unexplored settings and unknown characters, and how to introduce them ..................... 44 1. Militaristic societies and hippy circuses: strong visual identities ................................. 44 a) “The Happiness Patrol” ......................................................................................... 44 b) “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy” ...................................................................... 48 c) Vengeance on Varos ............................................................................................... 52 2. The recognition of guest characters on Earth and in space ........................................... 57 a) “Ghost Light” ........................................................................................................ 57 b) “Four to Doomsday” .............................................................................................. 61 c) “Terror of the Vervoids” ........................................................................................ 65 III. Identification of the main characters and the antagonists ............................................. 70 1. The Doctor’s foes .......................................................................................................... 70 a) The Doctor’s rival: The Master (1971-1989) ........................................................ 70 b) A female antagonist: The Rani (1985-1987) ......................................................... 74 c) One time only: “Four to Doomsday” (1982) and “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy” (1988)................................................................................................................. 78 2. Character growth: the Doctor’s companions ................................................................ 81 a) The male companions: Adric and Vislor Turlough ................................................ 81 b) Sexualised young women: Tegan Jovanka and Peri Brown .................................. 85 c) Adults and children: Nyssa, Mel, and Ace ............................................................ 88 Page 3 sur 110 3. Costume ball and identity theft: ‘Black Orchid’ ........................................................... 92 a) Is ‘Black Orchid’ a historical serial? ..................................................................... 92 b) Twin sisters from different worlds: Ann Talbot and Nyssa ................................... 95 c) Usurpation of identity in ‘Black Orchid’ ............................................................... 99 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 103 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 106 Primary sources .................................................................................................................. 106 Secondary sources .............................................................................................................. 106 Books and articles on Doctor Who ................................................................................ 106 DVD bonuses and news articles .................................................................................... 107 Costume theory, cinema theory, cultural elements ........................................................ 109 Page 4 sur 110 Introduction The field of film studies has been steadily rising in the academic world in the last few decades, with more and more academical books and articles being written on its various facets. Some of the theories are similar, or inspired by, parallel literature theories that exist as well; due to the difference between the two mediums, there are also ideas that are specific to film studies. Most of these specific works tend to concentrate on the structure of films, such as narratology for instance, rather than on the aesthetics. This difference is even more visible in works on television studies, where the focus seems to be on characters and their evolution within a given show; recent works have been focused on the relationship between a fandom and their favourite show. However, the visual look of a television show is very rarely discussed, even to support the points given above. And, when it is discussed, there is one topic in particular that is often left behind: the study of the costumes the various characters are wearing, and the meaning of these particular outfits, their evolution, or their destruction and sometimes replacement by a different outfit. It does not mean that the study of costumes, or the study of clothing, has never been tackled before. On the contrary, there are authors that have discussed the subject before, with most of the study focusing on clothes in a particular frame, most of the time in a given historical or social setting. Alison Lurie, in her book The Language of Clothes, discusses what she calls “the language of dress” on the back cover. She looks at clothes in a linguistic fashion, writing that “[...] if clothing is a language, it must have a vocabulary and a grammar like other languages”1. The Language of Clothes proceeds to analyse this language based on previous fashion theories (such as what is called Laver's Law, a theory crafted in 1937 by James Laver to define how a given costume will be seen throughout the years2) or adapting Thorstein Veblen's theories of “conspicuous consumption” and “conspicuous leisure”3. However, this book focuses only on outfits and clothes in history and real life. The depiction of clothes and fashion in arts is seldom, if ever, mentioned, and only kept to paintings; characters in films and the outfits they are wearing are never studied. 1 Alison Lurie, The Language of Clothes, London, Hamlyn, 1982, 4. 2For instance, a given costume will be “Daring” one year before its time, or “Indecent” ten years before its time. The same costume will be “Dowdy” one year after its time, or “Hideous” ten years after its time. 3See The Theory of the Leisure Class, T. Veblen, 1899. Page 5 sur 110 If Alison Lurie concentrates on real life clothes and outfits, Anne Hollander's work concentrates on outfits as represented in art – Seeing Through Clothes deals with art and its history. Two chapters of this book, in particular, can be considered for the theoretical framework of this essay. “Costume” focuses on costumes within the worlds of theatre and opera; Hollander puts an emphasis on how important they are, as “the human beings must appeal personally to the spectator so that the drama has meaning. This is the only way an audience can be transported to mountain heights