After the first Geek Chic post on fashion inspired by Star Trek, the comment box was inundated with requests for an inspiration post about another long-standing bastion of the science fiction world: Doctor Who.

How do I begin to describe the magic that is Doctor Who? All I can say is that last summer, my best friend convinced me to watch the first episode of the revived program. Six days later, I had watched all six seasons. It’s a family-friendly show with something for everyone: there’s adventure, comedy, romance, horror, drama, and of course, lots of wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey…stuff.

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Know Your Geek: About Doctor Who

• BBC program Doctor Who is the longest-running science fiction show of all time and originally ran from 1963 until 1989. After a made-for-TV movie in 1996, there were no new episodes until 2005, when producer Russell T. Davies revived the show; this “New Who” has been incredibly successful and is now run by Steven Moffat. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the program.
• The eponymous character’s name is simply “the Doctor”, not “Doctor Who”: the title comes from a running gag where he introduces himself with “I’m the Doctor!” and someone inevitably responds, “Doctor who?” He’s a900-year-old Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey (meaning that, yes, he’s an alien, and no, he doesn’t look human, we look Time Lord; they came first) and he travels in a blue time machine called the TARDIS. For the most part, the Doctor is opposed to violence, so instead of wielding weapons, he carries a sonic screwdriver, which is kind of like a futuristic lockpick/Swiss army knife.
• When Time Lords are mortally wounded, they don’t die, but instead undergo a process called regeneration, where their physical appearance and personality change, but their mind and memories stay the same. (This is a major reason why the show has run for so long: when the actor portraying the Doctor leaves the show, he can be replaced by a different actor without destroying continuity.) The classic series included the 1st-7th Doctors, the movie the 8th, and the new show began with the 9th Doctor; the current Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the character.
• Since all of time and space can be lonely, the Doctor generally travels with at least one companion (typically a young human female). With the past, present, and future at his fingertips, their adventures can vary wildly: one episode they’ll be in the year five billion and the next they’ll be paying a visit to Charles Dickens!

Outfits Inspired by the Doctor

Whether you’re a long-time fan of the classic show or a recently converted Whovian, there’s plenty of fashionable inspiration to be found in a journey through the Time Vortex. Allons-y!