I have never seen more than a few minutes of Dr. Who. I was thinking of starting at the very beginning, but might starting at another point be better?
Also, is there a good free, or at least cheap way to see the whole thing?
If you mean classic episodes, some of them have, somewhat ironically, been lost to time. But most are available streaming on BritBox. Not free, which is unlikely to be an option.
If you mean the revival set of episodes from 2005 onward, it will depend on what country you are in. In the US, they’ve been available on HBO Max, though there was an announcement today that Disney+ got the rights for the new episodes starting next year. Neither of those are free, but I am not aware of a legal and free option for watching them in the US.
I don’t think it is possible to watch from the very beginning, as roughly 100 episodes scattered throughout the first 6 seasons are gone forever. In the 1960s it was common practice for the BBC to wipe the tapes of their shows and reuse them. I believe from Jon Pertwee on (my first doctor on the local PBS affiliate) the series is intact. There are box sets available, but they’re not cheap.($55-70 per season for Tom Baker era sets)
My local library has DVD sets of most of the stuff starting with the 2006 revival, and a few of the older ones, including one early black & white set.
I’m not aware of any option to stream the pre-revival shows. I’d be interested to find out if there is one.
“Starting at the beginning” is literally impossible - about 100 episodes from the show’s earliest seasons have been permanently lost, as back then the BBC would discard or reuse tapes since there was little perceived value in reruns at the time and home video didn’t exist yet, and there are some episodes that only exist as audio recordings.
Classic Doctor Who (I.e. 1963-1989, before its long hiatus and latter-day revival) aired in a serial format, where one whole story was made up of typically four to six half-hour episodes. If you want to appreciate classic Who, I recommend picking some of the highly recommended serials from the Third and Fourth Doctor eras and watching those via whatever medium they are currently available on. Netflix used to have most of the classic serials available by mail, but I have no idea whether they still do.
Also, a minor point; it’s “Doctor Who”, not “Dr. Who”; “The Doctor” is their name, not their title (excepting the two movies from the '60s where Peter Cushing played a human literally named Dr. Who), and as such should not be abbreviated.
I watched the classics that were available on Netflix some years ago.
I’d start with the 2005 revival with Christopher Eccleston, if you can make it through that series to the David Tennant era, he is in my opinion the best of the modern era Doctors so if you don’t like it by then, you’re probably never going to like it.
Don’t start with the 1960s originals, you will probably find them very clunky, but if you become a real fan you will probably want to go back to them at some point.
I speak as one who remembers seeing the first 1963 episode live - I was 10!
Check your local library. My library has an extensive Doctor Who collection spanning almost everything ever put on DVD.
For what it’s worth, PlutoTV has a channel that’s all pre-revival all the time — they’re showing The Three Doctors as I write this — and, at times, they’ll make a serial available for on-demand viewing.
As someone who started watching first-run Doctor Who in the Tom Baker era, skip Classic Who and start with the 2005 Eccelston Who. The cardboard and tinfoil aliens of the older Who can be too campy to really get into the character.
Cardboard? Tinfoil? Pshaw.
Real classic Who aliens are made of bubble wrap.
“Protecting Earth and humans by popping one bubble at a time!”
My local library system (in suburban Houston) has a fair selection, mostly from the revival series but not all of them plus a smattering of classic Who. I’m willing to bet Houston public libraries has pretty wide availability, though.
The bigger cities and suburbs probably well covered but rural libraries are probably going to be hit or miss.
I’d suggest at least watching Tom Baker’s first season, as it’s a good introduction to the Doctor’s three biggest alien baddies, as well as his last story, Logopolis as it features his #1 nemesis, the Master (unless someone can suggest a better Master story.)
I wouldn’t write off the early stories. You should watch “An Unearthly Child”, if only because it was the first story. I thought “The Aztecs” was pretty good, even if casting European actors in Aztec roles gives people the vapors today.
You really should watch some classic Who before starting on the new ones. Consider it research. I like to say that the title really should have a question mark in it because the question Who is this guy? is an integral part of the show. Don’t expect easy answers.
Echoing the above, for sure try to watch An Unearthly Child (season 1, episodes 1-4). Also important is The Daleks (season 1, episodes 5-11). If you have to pick just two, watch episodes 1 and 5.
Doctor Who.
I believe the traditional way is “Behind the sofa”
(ducks and runs)
I would watch at least one from each Doctor.
I’m only able to recommend from the classic series, because I never really zoomed in on the new stuff. I’ve watched Eccleston and Tennant episodes, but only a single Jodie Whittaker one beyond that.
So, from the classic:
William Hartnell: The Aztecs demonstrates a familiar time traveling dilemma. Should you try to change the past? Plus it’s 4 parts, so there’s less padding.
Patrick Troughton: Tomb of the Cybermen Solid Cyberman adventure. Again, 4 tight parts.
Jon Pertwee: The Three Doctors I just love this one. Plus you get background on Gallifrey.
Tom Baker: Pyramids of Mars Excellent creepy feel. Tom has some of his best scenes in this one.
Peter Davison: Black Orchid Time travel focussed story. Only two parts, so no padding.
Colin Baker: Revelation of the Daleks Geez, all this way and no Dalek stories? Try this one.
Sylvester McCoy: The Happiness Patrol This one is just damn funny.
Enjoy!
I would definitely advise starting with either Christopher Eccleston’s Nine or David Tennant’s Ten. I’m a big Doctor Who fan, and I started with Tennant, worked my way through all Ten’s episodes and as many of Eleven’s as there were at the time (I started watching in 2011-2012, while Eleven was still the Doctor). Then I went back and watched Eccleston’s run, then a few of One’s and Two’s (I didn’t enjoy them much–far too clunky and I didn’t like the companions), all of Three’s (loved them) and all of Four’s (mostly loved them but there were some seriously low-rent special effects, including the abovementioned stagehand wrapped in green bubble wrap). I made it through a few of Five’s and Six’s run (didn’t really like either of them) and only a couple of Seven’s.
By far, my favorite classic Doctor was Three, followed by Four. They were, IMO, the most relatable of the older Doctors.
I agree with the poster who suggested watching Nine and Ten’s run (though I would suggest Ten’s and Eleven’s over Nine’s) and if you don’t like those, you probably just don’t like Doctor Who.
BTW, again IMO, Peter Capaldi’s Twelve was wonderful (plagued by a bit of bad writing in a few episodes, but also some brilliant ones including “The Zygon Inversion” and “Hell Bent”/“Heaven Sent”) and Jodie Whitaker’s Thirteen the character was wonderful but she suffered from some really awful/boring writing which made her run hard for me to watch.
I agree with those who recommend starting with the 2005 revival with Chris Eccleston unless you really enjoy the retro look of frugal production values that characterizes the original series. If that is the case, I’d start with the Tom Baker era. Those are the episodes that hooked most of us in the US, as they were the first to cross the pond. Baker was a great Doctor, the scripts were, largely, good. Oh, and they were edited by Douglas Adams who went on to other things of note. I don’t know what the best options are for watching at this point. I just checked and there are several disc options through Netflix, US. If you use VPN, you can tap into Netflix UK and stream episodes.