Doctor Who: The Main Inspiration Behind Each Doctor's Costume

4. The Tenth Doctor

Doctor Who David Tennant Tenth Doctor
BBC Studios

When David Tennant took over the role for the second series in 2006, the intent was to continue with the modern look that Eccleston had established in the previous year.

The combination of Converse shoes with a suit and a long brown coat sounds like a total mismatch on paper, but in practice, these elements led to the creation of a costume that had it all: sexiness, style, and the cool factor all rolled into one.

The idea for the Tenth Doctor to wear Converse came from Tennant himself, but the idea to pair them with a suit? That came from a truly unlikely source: namely, TV chef Jamie Oliver, who appeared on Parkinson in March 2005 (alongside Billie Piper, who was promoting the first series of NuWho) where he wore what can essentially be described as a white version of Ten's costume.

As for that mighty brown coat, there were originally some fears that Tennant would end up looking like "a long pencil" while wearing it, but when Russell T Davies exclaimed "a long pencil sounds marvellous!" the coat stayed.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.