February 2012
Delta and the Bannermen, part 2: The rest of the aliens.
Okay, so we’ve covered two of the three main groups of aliens: the Bannermen, and Delta’s green army men guys. That leaves my favorites, the alien tourists. The Doctor and Mel first encounter the tourists when they land on a planet and this guy awards them a free trip to Disneyland:
He looks like Willy Wonka took Prince shopping. Very 80s, very sparkly, mild overtones of Elton John and train conductor for some reason. I am impressed that they managed to find a cummerbund that matched the lapels of the jacket so perfectly. Presumably someone in the BBC costume shop had the job of making the glitter hat match the glitter jacket.
When they’re at home, apparently the aliens look like this:
But they disguise themselves as 1950s humans so they can go to Disneyland in 1959. And they all look FANTASTIC. Here’s purple tentacle guy in human guise:
Pretty much the guy I’d want for my tour guide in 1959, pin-covered lapels, bolo tie, captain hat and all. The rest of the tourists are also pretty fabulous. Here are some of my favorites:
All the tourists are getting off the bus after they crash-land in Wales due to hitting Sputnik. (Yes, Sputnik. I KNOW. Also the bus is a space bus.) The lady on the right has totaly faboo hair and a great tilt hat, and I loooove the chevron stripes on her dress.
He’s wearing a hot pink shirt and bright green shoes with his gray sharkskin suit. The great thing about the costuming on the alien tourists— and it’s subtle, but incredibly well-done— is that the colors are all a little too neon for the actual 50s, and the styles a little too 80s-pretending-to-be-50s, so the tourists all look slightly out-of-place next to the real 50s people. It’s totally brilliant and I hope to God it was on purpose, because that means I have someone to congratulate for outfits like this:
Lime green with stars is so, so 80s, but the shape and trim is all 50s. I love it.
Also, for no reason that is ever explained, one of the tourists wears a sombrero with a loud Hawaiian shirt for the entire serial. BRILLIANT. Here he is again, and also note the hot pink dinner jacket, the bright yellow dress peeking out on the lady second from the right, and the electric blue number under the red coat on the far right:
Oh, and skipping ahead a little here’s the one alien tourist who gets any lines:
Choice sideburns, dude. I also love your giant 1980s cell phone. What makes his outfit perfection is that he has color-coordinated it down to the shoes:
Black-and-blue creepers! SO PERFECT.
Next time, we chronicle the human characters, who are pretty uniformly adorable, and I also show you Delta’s AMAZING 1950s dress.
January 2012
“So I sent an email to 7 of my friends, including Sarah, and I said, ‘Does anyone want to go see ‘Lost in Translation’ tonight?’ and then I sent an email immediately afterwards to the 6 of my friends who weren’t Sarah and I said, ‘NOT YOU.’”
—John Green, on how he asked out his wife for the first time. (via imaginecomplexly)
