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Talk about it here.
The Doctor's regular attire often featured hats. (COMIC: The Forgotten)
In many of their lifetimes, the Doctor wore hats, either as an occasional style or as regular attire.
The First Doctor was wearing his favoured hat, an Astrakhan, when he met his first human companions, Ian and Barbara. (TV: An Unearthly Child) The Second Doctor had an early tendency to don and remark upon any hat he came across in the course of an adventure. (TV: The Power of the Daleks, The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace)
Later, the Fourth Doctor had a particular hat, a fedora, which he wore quite regularly, (TV: Robot et al.) and the Fifth (TV: Castrovalva) and Seventh Doctors (TV: Time and the Rani et al.) both favoured panama hats, each to their own style.
On noticing the Fifth Doctor actually kept a hat on his hat stand in the TARDIS, the Tenth Doctor noted that he couldn't remember the last time he actually wore a hat. (AUDIO: The Gates of Hell)
The Eleventh Doctor would later find renewed enthusiasm for hats, which he would regularly pick up and don in an adventure, (TV: The Big Bang, The Impossible Astronaut, Let's Kill Hitler) like the Second Doctor. (TV: The Power of the Daleks et al.) The Thirteenth Doctor also expressed fondness for fezzes, (TV: Kerblam!) a particular favourite of the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: The Big Bang, A Christmas Carol, The Day of the Doctor)
First Doctor[]
The First Doctor wearing an Astrakhan. (TV: "An Unearthly Child")
The First Doctor's usual hat of choice was an Astrakhan, or what one account called an "oddly shaped fur hat". (PROSE: Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child) It was this hat he was wearing when he met Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, as well as during his first and at the start and end of his last adventures with Ben Jackson and Polly Wright. (TV: An Unearthly Child, The War Machines, The Tenth Planet, Twice Upon a Time) . He also possessed white version which he wore briefly on Vortis. (TV: The Web Planet) He also owned a kind of Panama hat, which he wore in hotter climes. (TV: The Chase) He donned a white Panama hat when he was on the hunt for the Daleks' taranium in Egypt and while sunbathing on the planet Aridius. (TV: "Escape Switch")
This incarnation was not averse to occasionally playing dress-up. When in Revolutionary France, he obtained period-appropriate wardrobe. Because the costume was that of a regional official, his hat was particularly elaborate, bearing a strong resemblance to an early 18th century French army officer's hat. (TV: The Reign of Terror)
Second Doctor[]
The Second Doctor in a hat that he happened to find in Scotland. (TV: The Highlanders)
Early on, the Second Doctor was particularly obsessed with hats. One of his very first acts after regeneration was to rummage through a trunk in the TARDIS to find a stovepipe hat to wear. He wore the hat throughout his first adventure on Vulcan. (TV: The Power of the Daleks)
He sometimes uttered the phrase, "I would like a hat like that (or this)" if he saw a hat he particularly fancied. (TV: The Power of the Daleks, The Highlanders) In fact, when he arrived in Scotland in the 18th century, he happened across a hat on a field of battle and immediately donned it. Later in the same adventure, he wore a British Army tricorn as a disguise.
On a trip to Atlantis, he briefly returned to the stovepipe but continued to show his penchant for disguise by temporarily donning a gypsy headdress to appear as a merchant. It was here, too, that Polly noted his fondness for hats. When he began enthusiastically eating food made of plankton, the Doctor's praise was effusive. When Ben wondered why the Doctor was so excited, Polly replied, "I don't know. I've never seen him go for food like this before. It's usually hats." (TV: The Underwater Menace)
After being turned temporary into a Androgum, both he and Shockeye wore top hats when they were going to eat. (TV: The Two Doctors)
Third Doctor[]
Like his predecessor, the Third Doctor almost immediately donned a hat after his regeneration. He found a trilby amongst a physician's clothes at the Ashbridge Cottage Hospital. When he tried it on and looked in a mirror, he seemed to give it a look of approval. However, he wore it for only a short time and generally was without a hat. (TV: Spearhead from Space onwards)
Fourth Doctor[]
The Fourth Doctor's sombrero. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Star Beast)
Just like his previous selves, the Fourth Doctor's initial clothing instincts were to reach for a hat after his regeneration. His outfit was supplied entirely from the TARDIS wardrobe and he tried on a variety of outfits, most of them with hats. Amongst the rejected hats were a Viking helmet and a tall clown's hat. Finally he settled on a wide-brimmed brown fedora. (TV: Robot) Unlike in his two previous incarnations however, he used this hat fairly consistently for a period of his life, before replacing it with green felt fedora. (TV: The Brain of Morbius) Over time, he began to use the two hats alternately, until he replaced them both with a burgundy felt fedora. (TV: The Leisure Hive)
On occasion, he substituted his regular hat with another, such as when he donned a tam o' shanter whilst in Scotland, (TV: Terror of the Zygons) a sombrero when he thought he was arriving in Benidorm, Spain, (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Star Beast) a deerstalker while visiting Victorian London to go along with his Sherlock Holmes-styled outfit, (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang) and a bowler hat whilst investigating Fang Rock lighthouse. (TV: Horror of Fang Rock)
Fifth Doctor[]
Like his previous incarnation, the Fifth Doctor had a regular hat. From his first adventure, he carried with him a roll-up Panama hat with a hatband of the same colours as the rest of his outfit. (TV: Castrovalva) He tended to wear it upon first exiting the TARDIS in a new location, but often quickly rolled it up and put it back in his jacket.
Sixth Doctor[]
The Sixth Doctor's cork hat. (COMIC: War-Game)
The Sixth Doctor eschewed hats throughout most of his life. However, he once sported a cork hat while traversing the desert of Actinon. (COMIC: War-Game).
Seventh Doctor[]
The Seventh Doctor's Panama hat. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
Like the Fifth Doctor, the Seventh Doctor also wore a Panama hat, though it was of a different design, with a red Paisley hatband. He wore it regularly, even when indoors. He initially wore an extensively battered hat, (TV: Time and the Rani - Dragonfire) but replaced it with a much less damaged example prior to his encounter with the Daleks in 1963. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) He typically removed it from his head to greet others or in respect of someone recently deceased. (TV: Time and the Rani - Survival) When he took to wearing a darker jacket, he also changed his hatband into a burgundy one. (TV: Battlefield)
Whilst in the vault underneath Windsor Castle in 1988, he briefly donned a fez. (TV: Silver Nemesis)
During his time as Time's champion, he wore a paisley banded white fedora (PROSE: White Darkness) that he had had made especially for him. (PROSE: First Frontier) He also wore a grey fedora when he spent time in Chicago during 1929. (PROSE: Blood Harvest)
Eighth Doctor[]
The Eighth Doctor's Stetson. (COMIC: Bad Blood)
After his regeneration in San Francisco on 31 December 1999, the amnesiac Eighth Doctor ransacked the lockers of the hospital staff for a new outfit. He decided against the Stetson that went with the "Wild Bill Hickok" costume which he chose to steal. (TV: Doctor Who)
The Doctor once emerged from the TARDIS wearing a fez when he believed that he had materialised in Egypt. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game)
On another occasion, when visiting the Lakota Sioux Nation in 1875, he wore a Stetson which was given to him by Samuel Clemens. (COMIC: Bad Blood)
The Eighth Doctor wore a bowler hat. (PROSE: Endgame)
Tenth Doctor[]
The Tenth Doctor showed little interest in hats. (AUDIO: The Gates of Hell) He did once, near the end of his life, briefly sport a fez that fell out of a time fissure, before it was snatched off of his head by his future self. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Soon afterwards, he also wore a straw hat, along with sunglasses and a lei, implying he had just finished a relaxing time at a beach. (TV: The End of Time) He also donned a sombrero on the beaches of Centuria. (COMIC: The Power of the Cybermen)
Eleventh Doctor[]
The Eleventh Doctor tries out his fez. (TV: The Big Bang)
The Eleventh Doctor wore a variety of hats, always seeking to acquire unique ones. Much like he did during his second incarnation, he possessed a rather obsessive desire to wear a hat; he would get distracted by a hat he liked even while running away from enemies. (TV: The Big Bang, The Curse of the Black Spot) He considered damaging a hat to be offensive. (TV: A Town Called Mercy) Unfortunately for him, River Song did not share his taste in hats, at least twice shooting them. (TV: The Big Bang, The Impossible Astronaut)
While in the National Museum, he found a fez which he became instantly fond of. He would claim, like his bow ties, that "fezzes are cool". The fez was later removed by Amy Pond and destroyed by River Song. Undeterred, he noted to himself that it would be easy to buy another one. (TV: The Big Bang) He wore another fez while acting as an extra in a film which Rory and Amy were watching, (TV: The Impossible Astronaut) and even acquired one previously owned by his old pal Albert Einstein. (TV: Death Is the Only Answer) He later wore one on a Christmas trip with Kazran Sardick and Abigail Pettigrew to Egypt (TV: A Christmas Carol) and had one in 2013 London. (TV: The Bells of Saint John) When he and Clara Oswald investigated the National Gallery, he spotted a fez inside a display case and immediately put it on. When Clara noticed, she commented that one day, he was going to be able to just walk past a fez. The Doctor declared that was never going to happen. He later used it to test the safety of a time fissure. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) His obsession with obtaining a fez even lead the Doctor to place on order for one to Kerb!am. (TV: Kerblam!)
The Eleventh Doctor/Teselecta relaxes in Utah with his Stetson. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
The Doctor also showed a fondness for Stetsons, being given one by Craig Owens as a gift for his trip to Utah. (TV: Closing Time) He wore his gift during his investigation to find out why the Silence wanted him dead. The Teselecta copied the Stetson along with his form while impersonating him. The copied Stetson was shot off the copy's head by River. (TV: The Impossible Astronaut/The Wedding of River Song) On another occasion, the Doctor borrowed a Stetson that had been damaged by a shot fired by the Gunslinger. (TV: A Town Called Mercy)
The Doctor also owned a top hat, which he wore at Amy and Rory's wedding, (TV: The Big Bang) after having been poisoned by River in Nazi Germany (TV: Let's Kill Hitler) and again to conceal a device that allowed him to lure The Squall back into their dimension of origin. (PROSE: Paradox Lost) He also wore one as part of his Victorian Era clothing while brooding over the loss of Amy and Rory. (TV: The Snowmen)
While posing as Sherlock Holmes, he also wore a deerstalker hat similar to the one his fourth incarnation had during a previous visit to Victorian London. (TV: The Snowmen) Later, the Doctor wore a bowler hat. (TV: The Crimson Horror)
Twelfth Doctor[]
The Twelfth Doctor did not usually wear a hat, but at Clara's insistence donned a fedora when visiting Las Vegas in the 1960s. (COMIC: Gangland) He also wore a top hat when visiting the Frost fairs with Bill Potts. (TV: Thin Ice)
Thirteenth Doctor[]
The Thirteenth Doctor did not regularly wear hats, but she did briefly try on a fez. (TV: Kerblam!) She also briefly donned the witchfinder general hat belonging to King James' previous witchfinder, (TV: The Witchfinders) and a plumed helmet found in Villa Diodati. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati)
Fifteenth Doctor[]
The Fifteenth Doctor wore a bolero hat (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, adapted from The Church on Ruby Road (Russell T Davies), BBC Books novelisations (BBC Books, 2024). Chapter Three; Page 15.) whilst watching Ruby Sunday performing with a band at a pub. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023 (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)
Behind the scenes[]
Video games[]
In the video game The Eternity Clock, the Doctor's collectable items are various hats (including the fez, top hat and Stetson).
Merchandise[]
Of the fifteen Doctors (including War and Fugitive) featured in the Doctor Who: Figurine Collection, only the Fourth Doctor and Seventh Doctor have figurines which include their signature hats.
