I know nothing about Doctor Who but want to start watching it. Netflix has tons of episodes available for instant streaming. Where should I start?
Start with “Rose,” the first of the new series. Then watch them in the order they were made.
If you want to go back and see the earlier ones, that’s fine. They’re not as good (though I love them), and really aren’t necessary to catch up. The new series did a good job of filling in the gaps.
With the first episode of the 2005 run of the programme: Rose. There was a very long hiatus in the show prior to this so it’s designed for people who don’t know anything about the history of the show from 1963 - 1989.
A caveat: Doctor Who is a family programme, broadcast at around 7pm on a Saturday on the BBC’s main entertainment channel. It’s not childish, but there are certainly elements added occasionally for the little 'uns. I just mention this because there’s a bit of this in a couple of the early episodes, but stick with it if it grates (you’ll know what I mean when you see it). There’s a load of fantastic stuff to come.
Most of the stories are standalone, with a couple of two parters per 13-episode season, plus Christmas Specials, but there is usually an overall season arc, which may not be immediately obvious, so I’d watch in order. There’s been 4 seasons since the revival, with the fifth starting in a couple of months time.
Good luck!
Doctor Who has been running for a zillion years in the UK. It went off the air & was revived recently: I’d recommend starting with Season 1. (That is, Season 1 of New Who–not Original Who–some of which has been lost.) Christopher Eccleston was The Doctor for this season; he’s quite excellent.
[spoiler]Then he died & regenerated (as Timelords do) into David Tennant; if you liked the first season, definitely continue watching. He had four full seasons plus a handfull of “specials” for the last year. Some episodes are not so hot; some are great. The Doctor has Companions & Companions have families; certain themes continue throughout the different adventures in Time & Space.
Now we have a new Doctor & new show-runners. I’ll be tuning in. [/spoiler]
Some true fans will more information about Original Who. I haven’t seen them all but especially like The Pyramids of Mars & The Talons of Weng Chiang. These feature Tom Baker, The Fourth Doctor. He was the First Doctor for many of us in the US, since PBS showed most of his stuff. Just for historical purposes!
What everyone else said: start with Rose, the first episode of the new series and watch the rest in order from there.
Old Who is very much an acquired taste. I actually like it more, on the whole, than the new one, but it’s dated badly in a lot of aspects and the quality of the stories and acting is erratic. It’s really a different show with the same main character and a similar premise. If you do want to give that a try I think something like Genesis of the Daleks, a 70s story starring Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor, would be a good place to start.
P.S.: The two stories suggested by Bridget Burke are also great and highly recommended. Talons in particular I regard as some of the best television ever produced. But again, acquired taste.
Might be an idea not to have honking great spoilers in this thread.
Sorry. I should have been more specific. I completely forgot that there’s a new Doctor Who series. I was thinking of the older shows from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s. That’s what I’m interested in. I watched an episode a few years ago (I have no idea which one it was but I think it had Tom Baker in it because I remember the curly hair) and I liked it, but didn’t completely understand it. I felt like I was missing a lot of back story. So I want to start watching it but I don’t want to watch every single episode from 1963 on, I just want to watch some good episodes that I can understand and I need a good starting point. Thanks!
Rose is still a good starting point. It’s the same show and the revival gives you all the backstory you need in much more concise fashion than you would glean from watching from the beginning. From 1963 it’s years before some of settled back story is established.
I’ve got Netflix and I’m a casual fan of the “old” Doctor Who, so I decided to watch “The Pirate Planet” written by Douglas Adams of Hitchiker’s Guide fame. It was a Tom Baker-era story I had always wanted to see but never did.
It should give you a good idea if this show is one you would enjoy.
I’ve also seen a bit of the “new” version and it looks terrific.
Is **An Unearthly Child **available on Netflix? That’s the very first, original episode and it sets up the basic premise. After that, I like the multi-doctor episodes, especially **The Three Doctors **and The Five Doctors. You get more Doctor for your time, and a visit to Gallifrey.
I remember once reading that Douglas Adams wrote a Doctor Who episode but I’d completely forgot about it - that one seems perfect for me. I think I’ll start with it. The Pyramids of Mars & The Talons of Weng Chiang are available for instant watching but alas, Genesis of the Daleks, is not. I’ll have to wait for the DVDs in the mail, but the others should keep me 'til then.
Thank you. 
Feel free to keep posting other episodes that I might like! 
luvtinayothers,
Hope you enjoy The Pirate Planet.
If you’re a fan of DNA, there is a much lesser-known book of his callled “Last Chance to See” about endangered species. It’s well worth looking for.
Ok then.
There not a lot of continuity between the stories in the old show and all stories are pretty much stand-alone. All you need to know is that the Doctor is a Time-Lord, an alien from the planet Gallifrey who travels through time and space in a ship called TARDIS. The TARDIS looks like an old police box because it’s chameleon circuit malfunctioned and locked it in shape. The Doctor usually travels with companions (more commonly humans but robot dogs, other aliens and a Time-Lady have been companions). The Time-Lords are isolationists and usually don’t interfere with the universe at large but sometimes they (usually the CIA - Celestial Intervention Agency) send the Doctor on missions, a fact the Doctor resents greatly.
I’m not too familiar with William Hartnell’s (the first Doctor) tenure, but I’d recommend An Unearthly Child and The Daleks. The Daleks is the second story of the first season of the show and introduces the Doctor’s greatest enemies. An Unearthly Child is the first episode of the show’s first serial and is wonderful but the rest of the story (100.000 BC) although not as bad as some fans claim it isn’t too good. As I’m not more familiar with this period, I won’t go on, but I have to say that if you do have the patience for it The Daleks’ Master Plan is incredibly epic (13 or 12 or 11 parts, depending on how you count). Unfortunately some of the episodes have been lost and if you decide to watch this prepare for a few episodes of stills along with the soundtrack.
The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) was a favorite of mine. During most of his tenure the Doctor was exiled on Earth and worked alongside UNIT (the United Nations Intelligence Task-force) and his stories tend for more of an action movie vibe. From the first season of his stories go with Inferno or Spearhead from Space. Hardcore fans rate those stories highly but I prefer stories from later seasons. My favorites are probably: Terror of the Autons -first appearances by both the Master and Jo Grant, a recurring villain and a companion, respectively-, Day of the Daleks, The Curse of Peladon, The Sea Devils and Carnival of Monsters. The Time Monster is a very good story that introduces fan favorite companion Sarah Jane Smith.
The Fourth Doctor had the longest run and many of the best stories in the show. Genesis, Pyramids and Talons, mentioned above are all great as are The Ark in Space, The Deadly Assassin (very important episode for the show’s mythology) and many others. The Pirate Planet was written by Douglas Adams, as was City of Death, which many people think of as the best story of the show’s history. Also check out the last three stories by Tom Baker’s Doctor, all three of which are among his best.
The Fifth Doctor had a very uneven run. I think he started off with some great stories (Castrovalva, Four to Doomsday, Kinda, Earthshock) but later on had a run of mediocre and terrible adventures. Some of my favorite serials of this era are hated by many fans (Doomsday and Kinda and its sequel Snakedance), some serials are unanimously regarded as terrible (Timeflight, for example) and some are liked by a considerable number of fans though I thought all of them were boring and unimaginative (Ark of Infinity, The Five Doctors and Resurrection of the Daleks). The Caves of Androzani, however, is unanimously considered one of the shows best offerings and is the last story starred by Peter Davison.
The Sixth Doctor was played by Colin Baker who tried for a portrayal of the Doctor very controversial among fans. I think that Colin did a great job but that the stories he got were almost all garbage. Vengeance on Varos is the only one I unambiguously like, but I like it a lot. The Two Doctors is the only other story of this era I’d consider, but despite some good points is very flawed.
The Seventh Doctor was played by Sylvester McCoy. His first season (season 24) is pure trash. From season 25 try Remembrance of the Daleks which most people, me included, adore and The Greatest Show on Earth which is good. The Happiness Patrol is hated by many but I love it despite egregious flaws.
Season 26 was the last of the old show and ends well: Battlefield has a good plot and some great scenes but is killed by the production values; Ghost Light is one of the smartest serials the show aired (some fans find it incomprehensible and dislike it), The Curse of Fenric is recognized as a classic and Survival does a decent job as a show closer. The 1996 TV movie should only be watched by hardcore whovians, but I think Paul McGann did a great job as the Eight Doctor in the audios later on.
Hope this was useful and not too long.
I got into the show by watching Christopher Eccleston’s season first. As my husband (a Who fanatic) said, Eccleston played The Doctor differently from Baker, et. al., and for someone who needs an introduction, you can’t do better.
I’m happy I took his advice. If I had started watching in the middle of Tennant’s tenure, I would have been completely lost as to back stories and such.
He also co-wrote “City of Death” and was the script editor for “The Armageddon Factor” through “The Horns of Nimon”.
“The Pirate Planet” is the second of a six-part story arc called “The Key to Time”.
As mentioned by others, its very much a family show, and parts of it are definitely for kids. Its also fairly uneven, as its written by quite a few different writers. At its worst, it is terrible, with plots that make no sense and badly developed characters. However, at its best, it is enormously enjoyable.
Don’t analyze it too much, just let yourself be dragged along by the plot (most episodes have a huge amount of energy about them, so its not that difficult to do). For my money, the first series (of new Who) starts with a few mediocre episodes, but stick with it, because the series really kicks in around episode 6.
If you’ve got kids, watch it with them, and they will love you for it.
I’ll probably get piled on for this, but here goes:
The old Doctor Whos are, overall, better than the new ones. Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker were probably the best Doctors, although I like them all except William Hartnell and Sylvester McCoy. Hartnell was okay, but the stories tended to be dull. McCoy was just irritating. Colin Baker and Peter Davison both got bum raps: they were quite good, although the writing was uneven during their tenures. Patrick Troughton was a bridge between the dull Hartnell series and the much more eventful Pertwee years. He was an excellent comic actor, but the shows still plod a bit. He had Zoe, though, and that makes up for it.
The series was revised by Russell T. Davies. All hail Davies for doing it. The problem is that he wrote maybe 80% of the new Whos, and he’s the worst of the writers for the series (he’s much better, I think, with Torchwood). So I’d advise you to go for eps written by anyone but Davies. Stephen Moffat, who supposedly will be the head writer for the next season, is very good (I say supposedly, because if Torchwood gets dumped, Dr. Who may end up saddled with more Davies scripts).
BTW, and IMO, the principal problem with Davies is that he always wants to put some half-assed, sophomoric moral in his stories. He’s actually capable of writing a ripping yarn, but at some point the moralizing takes over, and it all goes down the tubes. It’s generally a “Caine Mutiny” kind of moralizing: we’re supposed to suddenly feel for the bad guys. No, Russ, we’re not. They’re bad guys.
I will give the new Who props for trying to do something with the helpers other than have them say “What are you doing now, Doctor?” That was tried some in the past (the Romanas, Turlough, etc), but they didn’t try hard enough.
I’m not going to pile on anybody. But I still recommend those wanting to get into “New Who” start with the first Eccleston show & watch them all in order. Some episodes are better than others–but not everybody agrees on which ones are which.
Watching a subpar episode won’t cause permanent damage. You’ll just know not to watch it again–even though it may have been worth seeing once, since it advances the series-long arc. If you’ve got time to watch the show, don’t take somebody else’s word about what is not worth watching. Use your own brain!
Most of the next season has been filmed. The new season starts in a couple of months time. Steven (not Stephen) Moffat wasn’t just the head writer of the new season, he’s head writer and executive producer, with the same level of control that RTD had. RTD’s involvement ended with the special broadcast on New Years Day 2010. The new series filming started many months before this, and Moffat has been commissioning and writing scripts since long before that.
Good to know. Thanks. Although I assume that the new series will start here in the US in the summer, per usual.
I thought I might press my luck by recommending a few of the “new” episodes. I agree that one should first see “Rose,” and if you like that you should just watch them in order. If you find your interest flagging, though, you might skip to “The Empty Child,” with Eccleston, and “Blink,” with Tennant, which are about as good as they get. Both are written by Moffat, BTW, and so should be a taste of things to come this season.