Doctor Who is a British science fiction television program produced by the BBC. The series follows the adventures of mysterious time-travelling adventurer known only as "The Doctor", a Time Lord from the planet of Gallifrey, who explores time and space with various companions in his ship, the TARDIS.
On 23rd November this year (2013) Doctor Who celebrates its 50th Anniversary, making it the longest running science fiction television series in the world.
THE ORIGINAL
When Tom Baker was cast as the Doctor, costume designer James Acheson picked up a load of wool and asked a knitter Begonia Pope to knit a scarf for Tom. Perhaps legendarily, she inadvertently used all the wool Acheson had given her resulting in a scarf that was some twenty feet long. This unusual scarf was well received by the cast and crew, and after being shortened slightly, it was worn by Baker in "Robot." The scarf in its original form was only seen in "Robot" and "The Sontaran Experiment," which was recorded right after "Robot." This particular scarf continued to both stretch and lose stripes due to wear and stunts. A stunt duplicate was also created that was shorter and had subtle color and pattern differences.
SEASON 15
An alternate scarf was introduced and only used in "Image of the Fendahl," "Underworld" and "The Invasion of Time." The pattern seems to have been based on the stunt duplicate but is appended on the end with around 50 percent more stripes. The colors are similar but mostly darker than the original. It was used in lots of publicity photos including those from location work on "The Sun Makers" even though the stunt duplicate was used in recording of that story.
SEASON 16/17/Shada
The original scarf (with more sections removed) was attached to the stunt duplicate to create the longest scarf to date. This was worn for all stories in season 16 and 17, but received further transformation, including new tassels, sewn-on patches and one rearranged section for the untelevised story "Shada."
SEASON 18
Costume designer June Hudson created a new scarf design - and the longest - in the subtler guise of thicker chenille in a burgundy color scheme. It was worn for the remainder of Tom's tenure as the Doctor.
Every Doctor Who fan wants their own scarf and what better way to get one than to knit it yourself. I had several people send me the color references for the yarn to buy, but I mixed them up and need help determining how many stripes and rows to knit of each color.
Remember to record the Gallifrey symbols found in the log book, they are needed to determine the coordinates of the bonus cache of this series. After conversion, 29 are labeled North and 29 are labeled West followed by a number. The bonus cache, The Best Idea Ever Invented, provides the instructions how to determine its coordinates.
