Dinosaurs On A Golf Course!

This past week I have had a very welcome house guest in the form of Kevin Coppa, who I made the Ultimate Tennant suit for last year.
He’s here for a top secret project, but while in the country we have some special photoshoots planned. But more on that later.

Just to get us warmed up, we visited a local golf course. Why? Cos it’s got dinosaurs!
Look closely and you can just see a T-Rex on the right side of this picture (see right).

My inspiration for doing the photo shoot comes from the Radio Times 10th Anniversary Special, which had a picture of Carole Ann Ford at the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.
I’ve always wanted to see them myself, and as yet I still haven’t, so this will be a fun second best!

Now these aren’t your typical fibreglass static statues, these are rubber-skinned animatronic versions, though they do move a little ponderously.

These’s a number of dinosaurs around the course and I sought special permission to have a photoshoot with them. Here’s what we took.

First we took some shots with an unidentified planet eater (see above), though The Doctor wasn’t taking any chances!

Creeping away, we are soon being threatened by a Tyrannosaurus Rex (see left).

A meeting of Doctors

Wow - have I got something real cool coming up for you!

I’ve just returned home after an amazing day down in Cardiff doing an all-day photoshoot with two of my favourite Doctor cosplay look-a-likes, with a superb Amy Pond to moderate.

Many of you will know US-based Kevin Coppa (see left) from The Ultimate Tennant Suit I made him, something he proudly wears to many US conventions; you will also have hopefully seen UK-based Matt Elliott (see below), who is the most awesome Eleventh Doctor look-a-like.

Well, I wondered what would happen if I could get the two of them together in the same photo – and now I know!

It didn’t take much persuading to get these guys in the same place together, but it took several weeks of planning to make it happen.

Here’s a little teaser photo for you, with more to follow soon.
We shot about a dozen scenarios, some just portraits; others are hilarious, so watch out for them in this and my Eleventh Doctor blog.

Spoilers!

Louise Page has been back to visit me this week, this time to answer all your questions submitted for the Ask Louise Page competition.

We had lots of great questions, and I took the opportunity to get a few more of my own answered, as well as a couple I spotted which were being debated on the forums.

She gave some great and interesting replies, plus identified some previously unknown Tenth Doctor costume accessories . . . . but you’ll have to wait a little while before we prepare the videos for posting.

In the meantime, Louise is keeping those spoilers tightly under wraps!

Louise Page - SB6 Space suit special

As well as talking to costume designer Louise Page at length about the ties worn by David Tennant during his time as The Doctor, I also had the chance to discuss he work on a number of other items for his wardrobe.

We chatted about the suit and over coat, but first I thought we’d look an increasing popular focus for cosplayers - the Sanctuary Base Space Suit.

Louise tells us the background story to how the suits were made and assembled.

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Louise Page - Time Crash special

If you’ve been following the Louise Page interviews on my suit recently, you will have heard all about ties David Tennant wore.

I’ve been limiting my questioning to the costumes worn by The Doctor, and there are still some more interview bites to come, so watch out for those.
But before we hear more about David Tennant costume, I thought we’d discover the full story behind the dressing of another Doctor: the Fifth, played by Peter Davison.

In 2008 when Doctor Who participated in that year’s Children In Need of appeal, they approached Peter Davison to return to the role of The Doctor.

At first glance assembling the original costume was a relatively easy job, but Louise found nothing is ever really that simple.

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Louise Page - The Tie Twelve story

Today is the last time we will hear from costume designer Louise Page on her choices of ties worn by David Tennant.

The final tie is by Massimo Dutti, and was only ever seen in one episode, The Doctor’s Daughter.
It does briefly appear in the closing scene of the previous episode The Poison Sky which runs directly into the next adventure, thus keeping continuity between the scenes.

Louise tell us about this final tie.

This was Louise’s final interview about the Tenth Doctor’s ties. But never fear, she will return very soon to tell us about several other aspects of The Doctor’s wardrobe, including his suit, overcoat and space suit!

Check back so to hear what she has to say.

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Louise Page - The Tie Eleven story

The penultimate tie in The Doctor’s wardrobe is a bit of an odd-ball in my mind.

It is made by Massimo Dutti, and features predominately in The Next Doctor, the 2008 Christmas Special (see left).

However, it had first appeared back in Partners In Crime, the series four opener, although it shared screen time with Tie Two, the Daniel Hechter tie, making it less memorable.

Costume designer Louise Page remembers the tie.

Check back VERY soon to see Louise Page talk about the final Tenth Doctor tie - and in an EXCLUSIVE - she reveals the label behind the tie . . .

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Louise Page - The Tie Ten story

We are getting down to the last few ties in my tie index, and costume designer Louise Page is on hand today to tell us about Tie Ten, the St George by Duffer.

It was first seen in Utopia, and the subsequent episodes The Sound Of Drums and The Last Of The Time Lords.

Louise had explained to us that for the series two double episode, The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit, she had chosen a new tie (Tie Six) for a one-off use in that story, thus reducing the the chance of over exposure of her more favourite ties.

So when it came to the season finale story arc to series three, she put the same principle into practice, using a brand new tie that after this story was never seen again.

Louise explains the background to this unique tie.

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Louise Page - The Tie Nine story

The second tie to be worn with the blue suit was made by Japanese label, Kenzo.

With its appearances in lots of publicity stills, as well as being seen on display at exhibitions, you would be forgiven for thinking the previous Nina Ricci tie was worn more, but you’d be wrong.

The Kenzo tie was first worn in the two part story Daleks In Manhattan and Evolution Of The Daleks, but it went on to crop up extensively in The Lazarus Experiment, The Last Of The Time Lords, Time Crash, Voyage Of The Damned, The Unicorn And The Wasp, Silence In The Library, Forest Of The Dead, The Waters Of Mars – that’s almost triple the appearances of the Nina Ricci!

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Louise Page - The Tie Eight story

The next tie costume designer Louise Page will tell us about is the first to be worn with the blue suit, introduced in series three.

This beautiful tie, by designer Nina Ricci, was first seen in season opener Smith And Jones (see right), and cropped up again for the later two part story The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky.

It was notably worn in the Sarah Jane Adventures cross-over story The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith (see below).

This was the last time David Tennant went before the cameras as the Tenth Doctor.

Although it was shown before his departure in The End Of Time, due to the shooting schedules on the two series, it was actually shot after the regeneration scene had been filmed.

Louise explains her colour palette for the blue suit, as well as how it was decided which episodes it would specifically appear in.

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Louise Page - The Tie Seven story

We are now just over halfway through the Tenth Doctor’s tie wardrobe, and we come to Tie Seven, the Giorgio Armani tie.

It first appeared briefly in Love And Monsters, but had been featured extensively in Army Of Ghosts (see right) and Doomsday, which were shot first.

It also was seen in Smith And Jones, The Shakespeare Code, Gridlock, Fires of Pompeii (see left), The Family Of Blood, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth, Journey’s End and Planet Of The Dead.

Louise tells us about one of her favourite ties, and listen out for the nickname given it by her staff.

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Louise Page - The Tie Six story

Today we come to Louise Page’s story of Tie Six, a rather forgotten about tie which appeared principally in The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit.

It did crop up briefly in Human Nature and The Family Of Blood, but beyond that was never seen again.

Louise explains why she choose this tie over the more popular ties such as the Daniel Hechter.

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Louise page - The Tie Five story

We now come to Tie Five in our ongoing Louise Page interview.

The Thomas Nash tie isn’t the most popular amongst fans, but as you may have read in my blog, they seem to be the most common to come up on eBay.




Worn only in The Idiot’s Lantern, she reveals the thinking behind this tie and the reason for its solo appearance, as well as giving us a background to her methodology when shopping for ties.

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all

Christian Lacroix vs Magnoli Clothiers

You will have read recently that I manage to secure a VERY rare tie - the Christian Lacroix swirly tie, known as Tie Four in my Tie Index. Although I have found a differing colour way, the weave is 100% as screen used.

I also own both version of the Swirly Tie made by Magnoli Clothiers, so I’m in a very good position to review both of them alongside the original I now own.

But before I do so, I need to remind you of a very specific piece of background info which will explain what the ties are trying to replicate, and thus manage your expectation of how the tie should look.

When Louise Page came across the Christian Lacroix tie it was a one-off – literally the last in the shop. Whereas she would usually buy three or four identical ties for stunt-doubles and allow for damages, she fell in love with it, ignoring her own golden rules and bought it anyway.

She only featured it once in an episode from beginning to end, The Girl In The Fireplace. This was because stunt-work was at a minimum during the story, so the tie could be kept ‘safe’.

Its other appearances were deliberately brief or in self-contained scenes, such as in Love And Monsters (see left) and Blink (see below).

These appearances were specifically selected to limit its exposure to potential continuity issues, damage or loss in the more high octane scenes.

So when it can to David’s swan song and his final scenes, she choose a tie she had extra special affection for: the Christian Lacroix. Knowing she would be handing over to a new costume department, she checked that it was okay to use the tie, bearing in mind there were no back-ups or spares.
No questions were raised, so filming went ahead as planned.

However, once the script came in for Matt’s debut adventure, it became apparent the tie would form part of the plot and need to be distressed, following the TARDIS crashing into Amelia Pond’s back garden, as well as being trapped in a car door!

Reluctant to allow the precious, unique tie to be damaged, Ray Holman and his team had to make a replia of the tie so they were free to do what was required in the script.

This was done by tracing the design onto brown silk and embroidering the blue swirls to match. A couple of reddish areas were replicated by using scraps of coloured silk appliquéd on, but these didn’t quite match the original, hence the visible difference between the two versions.

Thus, there are TWO distinctively different versions of this one tie.

• The original Christian Lacroix woven-fabric tie as worn exclusively by David Tennant
  
• The hand-made replica, with appliquéd design as worn exclusively by Matt Smith

So it now comes down to which of these ‘screen-accurate’ ties is being copied.

Louise Page - The Tie Four story: The End Of Time special

Last time we heard from Louise Page, she told us the story of Tie Four, the popular swirly tie.

She explained how when she bought it, it was the last tie in the shop, so lacking repeats for stunt-doubles and damages, she used it sparingly during the Tennant era.

But the story doesn’t quite end there.

Being her (and David’s) personal favourite, it was first choice for the Tenth Doctor’s closing scenes.

Louise now shares with us the background to the Tenth Doctor’s emotionally charged departure.

Filming for The End Of Time allowed for the only opportunity for David Tennant and Matt Smith to appear together in a unique publicity photograph.

As you can see they are both wearing the Christian Lacroix tie - but how is that possible if there was only one?

Louise Page explains how sometimes the camera can lie . . .

You can now hear about how the tie appeared
in the subsequent story, The Eleventh Hour,
over on my Eleventh Doctor Blog

When is Tie Four not Tie Four?

Thanks to Kevin Coppa for giving the interview clips the polished look, and enormous thanks to Louise Page for sharing her memories of dressing the Tenth Doctor with us all