Preface
Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary was not only a milestone to celebrate, in and of itself, but it came at a particularly special time in the franchise.
Matt Smith’s third and final season (“series”) had recently concluded – on a cliffhanger, no less! – and the 50th anniversary special, “The Day of the Doctor,” marked his penultimate (proper) appearance as the leading character.
Costume designer Howard Burden had previously given the 11th Doctor two different waistcoats to wear with his “season 7b” costume. Considering both the significance of the occasion and the time elapsed since the previous season finale, it seems appropriate that the Doctor would wear a third, new waistcoat for the anniversary special.
(As if the Doctor’s ever needed a reason to spontaneously appear in new clothes, though – really.)
This analysis is of the aforementioned waistcoat, commonly referred to as the “anniversary” waistcoat.
Unfortunately, because of its limited screen time (by far the least of Eleven’s three waistcoats), visual references are correspondingly more difficult to come by. Images of sufficiently high resolution to clearly observe the specific details of the waistcoat’s cut are even more scarce.
During the course of my research, I only found about half a dozen publicity/filming photos which were reasonably helpful for my analysis, so I’ve really had to get a lot of mileage out of a small number of references.
(In other words, you’ll be seeing a few particular images repeatedly, albeit in regard to different aspects of the waistcoat, so I apologize in advance for the lack of variety. We must simply work with what we have available!)
Despite its limited screen time, though, the “anniversary” waistcoat was both a delightful and memorable addition to the 11th Doctor’s wardrobe – so now let’s take a look at it!
Appearances
He also wore it for the corresponding publicity photos, although unfortunately (for our purposes), he wasn’t directly facing the camera, so very little of the waistcoat was clearly visible.
Eleven donned his “anniversary” waistcoat again early in his final special, “The Time of the Doctor,” from when he first joined Clara until he decided to stay and protect the town.
His “anniversary” waistcoat was given one last “curtain call” at the end of the special; after spending the majority of the story in his “Snowmen” costume, he changed back into his proper “7b” costume ensemble, with the “anniversary” waistcoat, for his regeneration scene.
Naturally, this necessitated his successor wear the same waistcoat, which Peter Capaldi did during the post-regeneration bit at the beginning of his first episode.
Naturally, this necessitated his successor wear the same waistcoat, which Peter Capaldi did during the post-regeneration bit at the beginning of his first episode.
There was also the 11th Doctor’s brief “phone call cameo” toward the end of Capaldi’s first episode.
For the “anniversary” waistcoat’s in-universe appearances, that’s it!
However, Matt Smith did wear the waistcoat during an abundance of behind-the-scenes footage – probably due to all the hoopla around both the franchise’s 50th anniversary and the conclusion of the 11th Doctor’s era.
These included (but are by no means limited to):
