So I want to start watching Dr. Who.....

scotty91

I decided yesterday after sitting through a friend praising all things Dr. Who for an hour that I should start to watch the show.

My question is, with ~30 seasons to go through where should I start? Should I start at Season 1 Episode 1 or should I pick a Doctor and start watching from whenever he started?

Is there continuity throughout all the seasons? like if I started watching lets say when David Tennant became the Doctor would I understand what was going on or would I need the background information from the previous seasons?

superb choice of username

The show was relaunched in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the Dr. That would be a good starting point!! It's referred to as Season One.

There are very minimal running themes throughout the seasons. You won't struggle to pick up anything.

The Dr Who's from back in the day are funny to watch - I've watched a few seasons (note to self to watch more!). They have cheesy effects, although I imagine when they were first broadcast, they were state of the art. There is also undertones of being un-politically correct which can be humorous (just the general way the Dr plays his role with the female assistant. All in good taste though.

Average-Ro

I'd suggest you start watching new season 5 onwards (Matt Smith's first season as the doctor) Its a bit of a reboot from David Tennants doctor so you can pick it up from there without getting confused about previous storylines.

That's how I started watch the show, and after I caught up, I went back and watched Eccelston's and Tennant's runs. I love the show, but I don't know if I would have stuck with it if I started with Eccelston and Tennant as I find those storylines very soap-like. I much prefer the approach taken with Matt Smith as The Doctor and its what lured me into the show in the beginning.

FloatingVoter

Funny - I'd start with Eccleston then follow from there. Eccleston and Tennant provide a lot of the back story to the Doctor coming up to the 50th anniversary. Matt Smith ....well hopefully the franchise will survive him.

mike65

I'd start with series (Americans have seasons as they only do long series formats) one - 1963. Good luck!

crazyderk

I started with christopher eccleston when Doctor who was changeing from tennant to smith and I was hooked instantly, I tried to watch the very first episode of doctor who but i wasnt to interested, plus theres some episodes missing from the very early 60's doctor who which are never to be seen again so that also put me off.

Id start with eccleston and go from there!

Average-Ro

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Funny - I'd start with Eccleston then follow from there. Eccleston and Tennant provide a lot of the back story to the Doctor coming up to the 50th anniversary. Matt Smith ....well hopefully the franchise will survive him.

To each their own. I prefer Moffat and Smith's "dark fairytale" style more than Davies & Eccelston/Tennant's more bombastic and soapy style.

Eccleston onwards is what I'd recommend

stevenmu

I only started watching late last year and started with Ecclestone (2005 series 1). I'm glad I did, some of it is cheesy and soapish, but there's some fantastic stuff in there too.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Start with Eccleston and work your way up to now. Once you're all caught up, start watching Classic Who.

Go Harvey Go

mike65 wrote: »

I'd start with series (Americans have seasons as they only do long series formats) one - 1963. Good luck!

Good luck indeed - most of Hartnell's and Troughton's episodes no longer exist.

Tape was expensive back then, you know...

Mr. K

I started watching the Eccleston episodes recently, it's a good place to start. A few people have told me that it improves greatly with Tennant, but I said I'd start at the (rebooted) beginning. It hasn't blown my mind yet, but it's quirky and entertaining.

pixelburp

If you're approaching the series from scratch, you're best starting with the 2005 relaunch starring Chris Eccleston & working forwards from there (the 7th series of this run just finished on Saturday). It assumed most of its viewership knew next to nothing about the series so it acts as a good launchpad for anyone going in cold.

The Classic series does consist of 26 years worth of episodes of sometimes varying quality - by anyone's estimation that's a helluva commitment to take. The new series slowly brings in a lot of continuity from that original run, but in a digestible way that doesn't alienate too much. That said, there's a good whistlestop selection of Classic stories that can be made to give a good account of itself though, without going through the whole thing.

Mind you, talking as a Who fan & someone who loves both the New & Classic series, the first season of the relaunched show can fairly ropey in places, bordering on sub-children's TV tbh; but if you stick with it, get past the first series & then once David Tennant comes along in series 2 the show starts to find its feet & confidence in itself. It can still be fairly silly in places, but it's all good humoured & oftentimes witty

And when you're done watching the series, pop over the Dr. Who forum if you have any questions cos they're a fairly friendly welcoming bunch & love trying to pull apart the sometimes-wobbly continuity of it all (spoiler, you can't; it's a big 'aul mess )

ixoy

Start with "An Unearthly Child" of course! And then watch them all, as I have. Since some of the stories are lost, you'll need to watch painful reconstructions of poor photo stills in some cases with a crackling audio track. It's a commitment but persevere because there's some gems in there (as well as a lot of crap).

If for some reason you don't have time for over 600+ episodes, begin with Season 33 (or Season "7" as it's lazily referred to by the BBC ). Much like Pixelburp says, there's some very ropey ones earlier on and a good few childish ones (particularly, IMO, for Seasons "1-4"). Overall though it's a worthy commitment.
If you want to fill in the blanks with some references then we can recommend a few classics. I certainly think it's worth watching a few from the Baker era so that "School Reunion" is given better context for example.

Conall Cernach

I would recommend watching key serials from the early days and then skip straight to Matt Smith. I'd even suggest only watching this current series of Smith episodes as his previous companion, Amy Pond, was tedious beyond belief.

Here's the classic series I'd recommend (one from each Doctor)
William Hartnell - The Beginning/An Unearthly Child/The Daleks/The Edge of Destruction - available on Amazon for a tenner
Patrick Troughton - Tomb of the Cybermen - my favourite from the black and white era.
Jon Pertwee - Inferno or I have soft spot for the Time Warrior and as Sontarans pop up so often in the new era this is a good place to see their first outing.
The Three Doctors - 10th Anniversary series starring all three original Docs but mainly 2 & 3
Tom Baker - Genesis of the Daleks or Pyramids of Mars for the Gothic feel that prevaded much of Tom Baker's tenure.
Peter Davison - Earthshock - a must for Doctor Who fans.
Colin Baker - The Trial of a Time Lord - takes place over and entire series so maybe that's cheating a bit.
Sylvester McCoy - The Curse of Fenric - really the best of a bad bunch from McCoy but this is suprisingly good.

Skerries

I think you should forget Dr.Who and check out Inspector Spacetime

ixoy

Conall Cernach wrote:

Jon Pertwee - Inferno or I have soft spot for the Time Warrior and as Sontarans pop up so often in the new era this is a good place to see their first outing

'Inferno' also brings in the Master who features in the new series.
Also "The Silurians" introduces.. The Silurians who show up in the new series.

Conall Cernach wrote: »

Tom Baker - Genesis of the Daleks or Pyramids of Mars for the Gothic feel that prevaded much of Tom Baker's tenure.

Both excellent episodes. It's criminal to leave out "City of Death" which shows the humour the show could reach.
The two mentioned above also bring in Sarah Jane Smith, who ended up with her own spin off series.
'Assassin of Death' would be another must too: Ties in with Sarah Jane's arc (as brought up in the relaunched show) as well as gives a good insight into Gallifrey, which is the Doctor's home and mentioned frequently in the relaunched series.

Peter Davison - Earthshock - a must for Doctor Who fans.

Add in "The Caves of Androzani" for some of the show's darker moments and more complex plotting.

Sylvester McCoy - The Curse of Fenric - really the best of a bad bunch from McCoy but this is suprisingly good.

"Remembrance of the Daleks" is worth a watch too.

Richard

Conall Cernach wrote: »

I would recommend watching key serials from the early days and then skip straight to Matt Smith. I'd even suggest only watching this current series of Smith episodes as his previous companion, Amy Pond, was tedious beyond belief.

Here's the classic series I'd recommend (one from each Doctor)
William Hartnell - The Beginning/An Unearthly Child/The Daleks/The Edge of Destruction - available on Amazon for a tenner
Patrick Troughton - Tomb of the Cybermen - my favourite from the black and white era.
Jon Pertwee - Inferno or I have soft spot for the Time Warrior and as Sontarans pop up so often in the new era this is a good place to see their first outing.
The Three Doctors - 10th Anniversary series starring all three original Docs but mainly 2 & 3
Tom Baker - Genesis of the Daleks or Pyramids of Mars for the Gothic feel that prevaded much of Tom Baker's tenure.
Peter Davison - Earthshock - a must for Doctor Who fans.
Colin Baker - The Trial of a Time Lord - takes place over and entire series so maybe that's cheating a bit.
Sylvester McCoy - The Curse of Fenric - really the best of a bad bunch from McCoy but this is suprisingly good.

IMHO, I'd say that from the Pertwee era, I liked Spearhead from Space and Ambassadors of Death, from the Tom Baker era, Ark In Space, the Talons of Weng-Chiang and the stories surrounding the Baker/Davison handover.

From Peter Davison, I'd recommend the Five Doctors and the Caves of Androzani. For Colin Baker I liked the Two Doctors and I like several episodes of McCoy, particularly Rememberence of the Daleks and Battlefield.