The Meaning Behind Ace's Badges: Interview with Doctor Who's Sophie Aldred

I sat down with the amazing Sophie Aldred who played Ace in Doctor Who to hear the TRUE stories behind the various badges and patches on her iconic bomber jacket!
00:00 Intro
01:48 The origin of Ace’s costume
05:03 What do all the badges mean?
15:00 Why is the Dragonfire jacket so different?
17:27 How many jackets are there?
21:07 Sophie’s bits & bobs box
23:44 The Power of the Doctor & Tales of the TARDIS
25:56 Cosplay comparison and more badges
29:28 Outro
Every Badge Ace Wears in Doctor Who (The Complete Cosplay Guide): • Every Badge Ace Wears ...
Ace McShane (played by Sophie Aldred) is a companion to the Seventh Doctor (played by Sylvester McCoy) in classic Doctor Who.
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Acknowledgements
A big thank you to Sophie Aldred for offering to chat about the jacket.
A big thank you to best pal Harry for letting us film in his kitchen for the day!
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[@Penfolduk001]

Interesting to find out that the Blue Peter badges were Sophie's own ones pre-Who, and not ones that were donated for the character.

[@RopeDrink]

Sylvester & Sophie (7+ACE) will always be my No.1 TARDIS team. They're very generous with their time, very kind to fans, and have lots of wonderful stories to share. It was a pleasure to see them once more in Power of the Doctor, and then, we get another lovely moment in Tales from the TARDIS. They've even been providing audio stories for fans long before Big Finish was a thing, and it's great that they still get to go on more adventures via audio and books. It's a shame how BBC treated that era of Doctor Who as a whole, but Sylvester & Sophie went all in - and are still firing on all cylinders today.

[@ceecoursian]

I made my own Ace jacket at the time . I got most of the patches and badges from the Science Museum and Army surplus stores . Still have it all these years later .

[@kyrauniversal]

Thank you for doing this interview. As an American Whovian, seeing Sophie in that jacket again made me cry. Americans like my father had reruns of the classic era until that got trashed. I then grew up with Series 1 onward on Netflix until the corporate fallout. I never thought I'd see these sights again, to be honest. Ace is an amazing character, and Sophie is clearly an amazing person. Also, seeing clips in Tales of the TARDIS just gave a lot of closure that has been truly needed. I am making costume variations for each TARDIS to match The Doctors' personalities (blame Neil Gaiman's episode for that one) and knowing about the badges makes me believe that the TARDIS would've been making more ideas of badges for Ace if she ever returned home. And she definitely kept the secret of her carrying the Nitro-9 with her. I mean, the TARDIS and her state of temporal grace could potentially lead the inner conscience to be as rebellious as Ace.

[@carls7860]

At 5.13 Sophie demonstrating the correct use of bought and brought 😂🎉

[@foxscully8744]

Thank you so much for this amazing interview! One day, 3 years ago, the classic Doctor Who series and especially Sophie Aldred inspired me to learn English and believe in myself to make incredible changes in my life which helped me to save my future. I like Sophie Aldred's voice and I took it as a reference for pronunciation training and listening exercises. I remember how it seemed to me that I would never be able to learn this bloody English, but every time at such moments I turned on different interviews and audiodramas with Sophie's voice and immediately found the desire to learn how to speak just as beautifully. Subsequently, this saved my future, because serious problems began in my native country and thanks to the English language, which I learned very quickly, I was able to pass serious English language exams and received a grant to study at the university of my dream country and left extremely cold Siberian city to make a new life. Doctor Who, and all the people involved in creating this incredible world, will forever remain in my heart ❤❤

[@warrengraham5145]

She's fantastic, met her last year in Scarborough at a convention. Warm, lovely and I got a signed copy of her book! Absolutely great read.

[@ChristelDeeOfficial]

Wonderful!

[@septimusxv9668]

Tom Baker was my Doctor, until Sylvester McCoy came along... and Sophie Aldred as Ace was what the Doctor's companion should always have been. She was her own woman, and confident, and yet damaged... and McCoy's Doctor was working to repair the damage, without compromising her self-ownership or it turning into a frustrated one-way romance. Brilliant stuff (carried through with aplomb in the novels) that the new series writers could learn from. Also, their work in the Big Finish audios is... well, ... Ace.

[@martinjames6838]

Love Sophie, she’s so nice, I once,on a Doctor who event was asked to pick her up and drop her back to the train station (think cos I had a nice-ish car at the time) and we had the opportunity to chat. Lovely lady, very down to earth. Also had to pick up Katy Manning the previous day, she was amazing as well.

[@phillipchallis966]

What a fantastic interview! Ace is my favorite companion of all time, and Sophie is a treasure.😊

[@aurorasky47]

This is amazing! Ace is my favorite Doctor Who character, and it's always fascinating to hear interviews with Sophie Aldred. I had wondered about the different jackets and pins, especially during the water scenes. This was very illuminating and well-made. This video should be a bonus feature on The Collection: Season 25 when it comes out.

[@MrsMoores]

It's great to see how much passion there is with the story behind the badges, it makes it so much fun! My favourite badge would have to be the spiral flowerchild badge, and seeing why each badge was on there was really interesting.

[@fuzzluvver69]

Absolutely loved this, so fascinating to find out the history behind the badges. And Sophie really is a gem isn't she!

[@LukeNyul]

Excellent video Christel! I love that Sophie got involved and gave us some lowdown on the development of the Ace jacket! It's really fascinating how the jacket has changed over the years and I love what they did with the badges for Ace in Power of the Doctor/Tales of the TARDIS!

[@ivechang6720]

This was sweet of both of you. I'm not much into fandom of any kind but I have loved classic Dr Who for a long time. I look forward to watching the nu stuff and finding out about the future tales of the Dr and various companions. Much better I think to have younger folk be the knowledgeable and well versed, so I can take my turn awing over your favourites. Take care and be well.

[@oldsouplegs7384]

Hi all, off of watching this, I headed to the scribbler in Leeds City Center. They have about 12 or so, of the lighting bolt card, left... they are in fact discontinued as they are from last year and aren't on the shelves, but they were nice enough to search the stock room, and when I nodded in an hour ago, they had them waiting for me. And that's 12 left after I've bought 2... I hope this helps some Yorkshire Dr Who/ Ace fans.

[@timlemmens1087]

Seeing Ace in 2022 was like a dream come true.

[@rogerkeleshian2215]

Lucky! I'm a yank but a major Doctor Who fan with the 7th and ace, being my favorite classic duo.

[@FITTMANN]

Best companion along with Rose

[@timeywimeybrony]

YAY! Christel is back! I thought you were gone! Nice to see you again (=

[@ftumschk]

3:32 That brought back memories. I used to live in student accommodation near St Christopher's Place, and would head there when the bakeries/patisseries closed. I'm not ashamed to admit that we'd scrounge cakes, pies and pastries that were about to be thrown in the bins. Well, we were poor students after all, and the staff didn't mind! Oddly enough, I just realised that I lived there in 1987/88, which is presumably when Sophie was shopping for bits of Ace's costume :)

[@ChristelDeeOfficial]

Love this story!

[@JoshRazauskas]

Crystal, this was absolutely amazing what a way to find out for the first time that you have your own solo channel! Ace is my favorite companion, and it was so generous of Sophie to sit down and tell the stories with you and share with us! I’m gonna have to go back and watch you make your original attempt now! I’m wheelchair bound so it’s a bit difficult for me to cosplay, but I do love living vicariously!

[@jrcoyle]

Loved it! Thanks, Christel and Sophie!

[@timescales]

This is great. I knew that they changed but did not know there were over 50.

[@plagiarize]

This was lovely!

[@Cybernautz]

this interview was fantastic!

[@merman1974]

As a badge collector and a Dr Who fan, I loved this video. Great to hear direct from Sophie herself.

[@gillloteen9475]

Those earrings are so cool!

[@jaytops]

She's so amazing. Love Sophie.

[@user-et6pj4db9s]

7 and Ace were my first team (I was 7) so thanks for the nostalgia trip. Ace's look was very much the 80s with flight jackets, soviet themes and bike shorts being popular, two other examples would be Dave Lister in Red Dwarf who dresses similar in the 80s eps (has a Russian style furry hat) and Neneh Cherry in her Buffalo Stance music video comes to mind, wearing both a flight jacket and bike shorts. I remember a character in Grange Hill also covered his blazer in badges too.

[@glynjones3875]

Love this chat, thanks Christel! Such insane detail. I never knew about the Tintin watch before!

[@lanternsown3525]

Awesome Interview! Ace is favorite companion and Sophie Aldred is such a charming actress.

[@HenryDorset]

That was just wonderful! Really nice get together with one of my favorite companions, the just adorable Sophie Aldred 😀

[@ChristelDeeOfficial]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@margarethall1625]

Thanks for this. Ace is my favourite of the Doctor's companions. Sophie is truly amazing.

[@chriss5461]

Wicked video!! Well done!!

[@ChristelDeeOfficial]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ocean8754]

that was an aweomse interview

[@Hawkins011]

This is so cool!

[@notuptome]

This video was just Ace!

[@stanceymackenzie]

Loved hearing you and Sophie talking about your jackets. I have had three over the 25 years that I have loved watching Doctor Who each one slightly different and customised as I found different pictures of the originals or badges I felt added to the theme. I was so great to hear the true story.

[@leninsmummifiedbodyonyoutu9063]

Fantastic video

[@theloyalorderofclassictv5435]

Fantastic!

[@MadDragon-lb7qg]

Great Interview. I found your channel by chance, it's been such a long time since I saw you at a con last, haven't been to a London one in ages.

[@ChristelDeeOfficial]

Welcome aboard!

[@akshaytrayner1960]

Great interview

[@DeanBeadleuk]

Loved that, thank you

[@ChristelDeeOfficial]

So glad!

[@lizziewhit]

That was brilliant! Love Sophie…have you interviewed Janet Fielding? She’s so funny…

[@EmberEvermore]

OH MY GOSH I CANT WAIT

[@clugzo]

This video is Ace!

[@jeffdunne1299]

This is Ace

[@whiterobot77]

Wow! I dropped everything to watch this - love you both! Fab interview - so many new snippets of info! Wicked!!! 😁

[@berliner0]

So cool

[@Grayvorn]

Wicked! 😊

[@Andy-wl6xy]

ACE!! ❤

[@davidturbitt7070]

Such a great video. Love to see Sophie continuing to love the series. Weirdly I watched this video and then one of the next ones up was boygenius doing their recent BBC sessions, where they are all wearing a variation on the Ace jacket! Brilliant stuff.

[@redorzed]

Saved in my Doctor Who folder

[@Gibson1976uk]

It reminds me of the Aliens movie! the marine characters had some freedom to do stuff to their outfits! nice when you get to customize!!! and make something personal with a story to tell

[@dametrot]

Awww magnificent and magical what a lovely interview and so much I didn’t even know ❤❤❤

[@craiglightowler2991]

Wicked!

[@zakreilly7619]

Awesome interview Christel!

[@Tencentsthetug]

Apt yes I love trains and doctor who

[@Hawkins011]

WOAH

[@berliner0]

Love Sophie

[@gloryhornet]

Absolutely fantastic interview, Sophie is amazing and clearly loves the show.

[@5thbabylonian]

Brilliant. Thank you.

[@mikescrazycomedy7362]

The 11 doctor used her line

[@purefoldnz3070]

Ace was well fit.

[@lennygrindler7697]

So love this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@dylanlarge11]

We need you back on the official doctor who podcast!! The new presenters are dreadful!

[@ShadowTreasurer]

Shouldn't the card info be digitised by now.

[@BodiesandBricks]

I hope someone can fix the poor Tintin watch, it looks wicked!

[@BigBrosFilms]

OH SHIT THE HYPE IS REAL