Odd confession for a geek, perhaps, but I have never watched an episode of DR. WHO. I’ve tried, but it’s a damned near impossible show to watch a single episode of when you don’t know the series.
So what DVD should I start with? The first DVD of the first series, or is it okay (by which I mean coherent) and better to start with a particular DR. WHO or the latest incarnation? Which would you recommend?
I think the best place to start would probably be with the 2005 series starring Christopher Eccleston. Since it was a revival of the programme after a long absence, it’s written with new viewers in mind, and introduces all the central concepts of the show for those not familiar with them. Follow that with the more recent ones with David Tennant.
After that, if you like, you can dip at will into the archives – aside from the central concepts, there’s usually very little important continuity between stories in the old series. Some enemies (and a few friends) turn up several times, but you don’t really need to know anything much about them beyond “he’s a baddy” or “he’s a goody”.
And, of course, if you do have any questions, there are always people on here ready and willing to tell you far more than you really want to know.
The new Doctor Who relies on story arcs to carry the season, but most stories are wrapped up in an episode or two at the most, making it easier to get into. The writing, directing and acting also helps of course 
After that, if you find you like those newer seasons, there are plenty of older longer stories to entertain.
Don’t forget that you need to be 8 years old and have a sofa with big cushions so you can hide behind them! 
But yes, start with Christopher Ecclestone’s Doctor.
Another vote for starting with Ecclestone. Enjoy!
A number of my friends and I started with Tom Baker; I think that’s because the local PBS station might have started carrying the season then. However, it’s probably not the best for a newbie who doesn’t know anything about the show and has to get past the tiny special effects budget compared to this day and age. The effects were a bit cheesy and dated when I saw the shows in the '80s, so I shudder to think what someone would feel about it now. I will heartily encourage seeing the Tom Baker (4th Doctor) series as soon as possible, though, and then follow-up with the 5th Doctor, Peter Davison.
I was lucky and caught one of the earliest surviving episodes when a local PBS station started running through them again and I got to see pretty much everything straight through over the course of several years. Of course, I was ten at the time which is the ideal moment to start watching Dr. Who.
I’ll agree with everyone who said start with the modern series. Despite nods to the old one you don’t need to know a thing about the original series. If you then want to go back and sample some of the older shows the Tom Baker episodes are almost always cited as the height of the series (he’s the one with the curly hair and long scarf). I think some of the Jon Pertwee stuff is well worth watching (his first episode is when the show switched from black and white to color); the Doctor is confined to then modern earth for the bulk of that period and I think it gave the show a tighter focus that can help viewers not used to the concepts get into it.
I watched the Tom Baker Doctor Who as a kid and enjoyed it. It was a fun show with low budget effects even for the time. Now an adult and a parent, I have been watching the new series with my kids. The shows have overall been very good to occasionally great. My kids love it.
When the 3rd season finished on Sci-Fi; I ordered most of the Tom Baker shows from Netflix and queued them up. We got through the first two and my kids suggested that I cancel the rest.
Based on this simple analysis, I would agree strongly with WotNot and start with season 1 of the new series starring Christopher Eccleston.
Jim
Don’t forget the rest of the Whoniverse. There are novelizations of all the shows as well as newer books of superior quality. For arguably the best show in the universe, Doctor Who really isn’t that good. I was utterly delighted with the Eccleston programs but still feel the it is Tom Baker who defines the role. His charisma (and perhaps some self induced chemical imbalances) can help one overlook the special effects and silly dialogue. Start with his first program, Robot, and run with it if you are still interested after the new ones.
Kuboydal, not a Doctor Who fanatic, but a really really big Doctor Who dork
Except the newer spin-off, Torchwood. There’s really no reason to watch that one.
But another vote for starting with the Eccleston series. That’s where I started watching Dr. Who (although I had been aware of the whole shebang, I b=never had a chance to see any of it.)
I’m another fairly recent Who convert, and I’d agree with everyone suggesting you start with Chris Eccleston’s Doctor (which, oddly enough, I’m watching right now! Again. For like the 40th time), as I did. David Tennant is a huge Doctor Who fan in real life, and channels a lot of the quirks and traits from former Doctors, whereas Eccleston never really watched the show growing up and totally put his own spin on it.
I’ve also read a great deal of the newer novelizations, and they kinda vary in quality, but they’re fun. Particularly enjoyed The Monsters Inside, The Stone Rose and The Feast of the Drowned. If you go search on YouTube right now, there’s a collection of audio of David Tennant reading one of the novels, The Ressurection Casket, which is totally fun as he reads very well and does all the different voices.
What nearly everyone else said…start with the Eccleston season and work forward from there. Then, if you’re feeling adventurous, try some of the older stuff. It has a very different flavor – and budget. Like, you and your friends could replicate them at home with a Handicam, but they had a lot of imagination, and hoped you’d use yours too. I’ve only seen clips of the older shows at this point, but I’m so crazy about the new series that I’ll probably end up watching at least some of the old shows for fun.
Don’t start with Robot, it was terrible. I would aim for something in the middle of the Tom Baker years.
Jim
SPOILERS ABOUT SERIES FOUR!
Oh, I don’t know. Robot might be bad if you start it with no context, but I wouldn’t go anywhere near calling it terrible.
I think this topic came up a month or two ago. Yeah, start with the 1st Series of the new episodes, but if you want to go back to the classic series, I suggest you start with the final 3rd Doctor adventure - Planet of the Spiders and then watch the first season of Tom Baker…you get a regeneration story, the Dalek origin story, a Cyberman story, the (IMHO) fantastic Alien precursor The Ark in Space, and
a Sontaron story, who will be villains in the 4th series, I’m led to believe, so you can get a sneak peak at them here! Not to mention rumors of Davros showing up!!!
My personal favorite is the 5th Doctor, but I think there’s enough mythology in his stories that you need to start considerably earlier.
I just watched it last week. I had watch and enjoyed probably 70% of the Tom Baker run as a kid and I still found Robot terrible. My son was bored and wandered off. Outside of a few scenes by Tom Baker it was awful.
Jim
I can’t stand old Doctor Who, and I blow hot and cold on New Who. But, on a tip from a thread like this, I watched a couple of old Tom Baker stories on YouTube, City of Death and Talons of Wang Chieng. The latter was actually pretty good, the old cheesy effects aside. Good stuff with the cavewoman sidekick Leela. City of Death was downright excellent - very tongue-in-cheek, sparkling dialogue, good actors having a whale of a time. Co-written by one Douglas Adams, apparently, although they used a group pseudonym. I hear that some hardcore fans don’t like it, too frivolous and not Who-ish enough or something. I say ignore them.
I began watching Tom Baker on PBS, too.
But Hello.
He lived for thousands of years before he began regenerating? Why the big start, then? Going through lives a dime a dozen, he is.
No one has mentioned the Fox Movie (one of two places that the 8th doctor showed). It has its own flavor, seperate from both the first series and the second. I’d suggest watching it after you’ve made the aquaintance of the 4th and 5th Doctors. Fox started the Doctor kissing (which has been continued, in a properly restrained way) and announced him to be half-human (which has been ignored, and should be).
In between the 8th and 9th (Eccleston) Doctors, The Time War happened. We do not know what that actually entailed other than the complete distruction of the Time Lords. This is the main difference in flavor between the earlier and the recent series. Every Doctor has been adapted to our times, as our times ran along; but since the Time War, the Doctor has picked up this brave, wounded sadness that he didn’t have before.
I thought I’d heard of that before. Was it referred to as happening in that time period and not covered in a story?
I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Jon Pertwee was, is and always will be Dr Who.
Start with *Spearhead from Space * and work forward… 