I realized that one of the simplest and most practical costumes for any period event is a tan trenchcoat, a pair of sneakers and a sonic screwdriver. Doctor Who, after all, is a Time Lord; he is perfectly dressed for any occasion in any period.
At the Shakespeare Festival, the Doctor was traveling with three companions, all in period garb. He stopped before the Queen arrived to have a conversation with a lovely Venetian lady who was sitting in the Queen’s chair in the pavilion despite the fact that she was not the Queen.
“Perhaps you can help me, good sir,” she was saying. “My house is over yon, across the Thames,” (pointing to the creek that runs through Ives Park). “In my basement at times there will be the oddest noise, a kind of… well, wheezing, and banging. And then there appears a… well, I must almost call it portal, from which strange tentacles emerge.”
Tentacles. Sounds like a problem, unless you are a squid vendor. The Doctor was not deterred — he drew his screwdriver and dashed off.
And from that day until this, the good lady has not been bothered by portals or tentacles. Huzzah for Dr. Who.