Doctor Who?

[BroSCFischer]

Ok, I am a nerd. I like Star Trek, Star Wars, Comic books (and their movies), etc.

But I have never seen an episode of Doctor Who.

I have seen David Tennant as Hamlet, and thought he was excellent in the role. That coupled with the amount of references/discussions by the various Whovians (Whoverts?) on this site, piqued my interest.

So, I was wondering if you might be able to give me some direction.

As some one who has never seen any of this show (not even the odd commercial/clip on YouTube) where should I start? Should I start with the very 1st series, or the revival from 2005? or somewhere in between?

FYI, I don't like starting something in the middle, and ending up wondering "What the heck is going on?".

What say you?

SC

[Jetfire]

The 2005 revival with the 9th doctor (Christopher Eccleston) would probably be a good start. It has some of the history, but it is by far the easiest jumping on point since it was effectively a relaunch of the series.

You'd be bypassing the Tennant era, but you could also start when Eleven took over; they had a full companion reset when Matt Smith took over so everything is new; but a couple of older story arcs have continued from 9 and 10's era, which may be confusing.

When Tennant took over, there wasn't really a smooth transition, so I would advise NOT starting with his era; they were in the middle of a lot of story arcs that continued between Eccleston's and Tennant's periods, so it can be confusing to try and start from there. "Luckily" 9's period was only 1 season (series) so you don't have long to wait.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Agreed with Jetfire. I got into Who starting with the Ninth Doctor. Start with him (the first ep of the revival is called "Rose") and work your way forward. Netflix streams the revival series, but after "Journey's End" you may need to track down the Specials ("The Next Doctor" "Planet of the Dead" "Waters of Mars" and "The End of Time" -- ESPECIALLY those last two) which are listed separately. (Or they were the last time I checked.)

[PepperElf]

I started back when I was a kid - my first was the 4th with that crazy scarf, lots of hair, and giant teeth. I eventually watched it from the start.

These days though I don't know if I'd want to spend the money to do that. I caught them all on PBS so I didn't have to shell out a lot of money.


So as the others have suggested, starting with 9 can work well. They make references to the past, but not so much that you'll end up feeling lost.


And whatever you do, don't do what I did... I started off checking out some youtube clips and then launched off part way through season 2 (S2, ep 3: School Reunion), and then went immediately to the end of the season 4 (S4, ep 12: The Stolen Earth & ep 13: Journey's End).

The result was ... not knowing who any of the other companions were and rather disliking some of them. When I finally got around to watching them in order it made more sense and the companion I disliked ended up being my favorite - well after Sarah Jane of course).

[KiaKat]

One thing to remember, if you do decide to start with the originals (which I recommend)...

There are a lot of missing episodes from the early bits. BBC did a terrible job of archiving the early episodes, so many of them were purged without backup. They're trying to reconstruct them from bits and pieces that various fans have kept, but that's not going very well, from what I understand.

Still worth watching.

Just... remember the movie sucks. Bit of a gut-punch, that was.

[Kheldarson]

Personally, I'd start with the Ninth Doctor and work on watching those consistently, especially if your intent is to catch up in order to see the upcoming season. The earlier works you can pick and choose to watch to an extent as the story arcs are rather self-contained and tend to be sold as such, whereas the current series has an overall plot line for the whole season.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Personally, I'd start with the Ninth Doctor and work on watching those consistently, especially if your intent is to catch up in order to see the upcoming season. The earlier works you can pick and choose to watch to an extent as the story arcs are rather self-contained and tend to be sold as such, whereas the current series has an overall plot line for the whole season.

Very much this.

Series 5 (Matt Smith's first series) had the one that still gives me chills. "Silence will fall."

Although I'm fond of Series 3's "Mister Saxon" arc. VOTE SAXON

[ArcticChicken]

Start with Nine, watch in order. Many of the episodes can be watched out of order without too much confusion, but it's better in order. If you are going to watch them out of order, I'd start with Blink. It's mostly from the point of view of someone who's not an ongoing character, so there's less confusion there. I warn you, though, you'll never feel entirely comfortable in a churchyard again.

[XCashier]

I'm old-school. 4th Doctor was my first Doctor. 1st and 2nd are missing a lot of episodes and some of them are rather slow-moving. I'd start with the first 3rd Doctor serial, "Spearhead From Space" and go from there.

The writing and performances are where it's at. Pay no attention to the crummy special effects.

[csquared]

I think they did an excellent job with the reboot. A noobie can easily follow.

However, If you get the chance, you should go back and watch the old ones. I think Pertwee and Troughton were fantastic. Even better when you get both in the same show (Three Doctors).

Also, get you hands on The Curse of the Fatal Death. It is a Must See parody.

[Shalom]

I'd start with the first 3rd Doctor serial, "Spearhead From Space" and go from there.

Seconded. This was the first episode I ever saw, and people tend to prefer the first Doctor they saw (not to be confused with the First Doctor, who was very much of an anti-hero).

This was back in the early 1980s. The occasion was that they'd found a lot of Third Doctor episodes that had been thought lost; the tapes were in fact gone, but they turned up some 16mm B/W telecines that had been created for areas of the world (Australia, Hong Kong, one even showed up in Cambodia, I think) who hadn't started broadcasting in color yet. They're trying to recolorize them, but results are mixed. I wonder why they bother, what's wrong with B/W?

[Kheldarson]

Because who wants to watch black and white?

My main issue with the first few Doctors is the story telling style...My parents picked up the first William Hartnell DVDs from Barnes and Noble and they just about made me fall asleep. So that'll be an issue in going back to the original series. I will admit I do enjoy the bits I've seen from the 5th Doctor though.

[Andara Bledin]

They're trying to recolorize them, but results are mixed. I wonder why they bother, what's wrong with B/W?

They were directed for a color release, so a lot of the cinematography and effects would be less in black and white (there's a lot of things you do differently that a lot of people don't realize).

This is part of why colorized B&W features look so strange.

^-.-^

[Kheldarson]

My mom had an interesting opposite problem growing up to the B/W vs. Color thing...

They had a B/W TV. It wouldn't be until years later that she understood some of the awe of Wizard of Oz. Especially with the multicolor horse.

[dragon_wings]

I'm also gonna suggest start with Nine. David Tennant as Ten is my absolute favorite of the new series of Doctors.