Look, if farting aliens ever show up, I expect creepy gas mask children to follow.
I’ve never seen it, though it certainly sounds like it might be up our alley. Growing up, I didn’t know anyone who watched it and while it might have been on our local PBS schedule, I don’t remember it. So it was off my radar until well after I left college, after which the legacy felt so daunting that I didn’t know where to begin, or how.
Maybe one day (fortunately for Brit TV, the seasons are all very short so it might not take that long; I just need to figure out the best way to access the older stuff).
BritBox reportedly has an exclusive deal to stream all the classic episodes. The ones that are known to exist, anyway.
I’ve seen a few DW scenes here and there, but never an entire episode all the way through. Maybe someday.
Has the concept of the Doctor’s reincarnation, or body changing, or whatever it is been around since the beginning? Or is just a means to explain the different actors?
It was introduced when the first Doctor, William Hartnell, became too ill to continue. So that’s 1966. Quite a lot of the Who background was introduced fairly ad-hoc during the early years, it’s not like there was a playbook to work from.
839 episodes so far. Catching up would take a while.
Even though there are a fair few missing episodes (particularly from the Troughton years), audio exists for all of them, and quite a few reconstructions. Dig in, I say 
If you want to start watching Dr Who, you don’t have to start in 1963. Just start with the modern era. Sure, there will be some mysteries, but they’ll be revealed. There will be easter eggs you won’t get, but so what?
He’s a time traveling alien with a magic box who makes friends with random people. It’s all about the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism. That’s the premise, you don’t need any more.
Forget the old episodes unless you’ve watched all the new ones and crave, crave, crave more.
I don’t know. I read any and all sci-fi I can find, but can never stand to watch more than a couple minutes of Dr Who. To me, it’s too much like those low-budget films they show on Mystery Science Theater, but without the entertaining kibitzers.
I have never seen it. I am unwilling to walk into a series right in the middle. Further, I do not like the idea of having to watch hours and hours of a show that has a long plot arc.
To some of us fans, this is not a bug, it’s a feature.
It’s not really possible not to, it’s over 50 years old. But the 2005 restart is a great jumping off point, and there are a few others single episodes often recommended for beginners too.
You shouldn’t feel like you’re having to, you should be wanting to. The arcs aren’t really what the series is about, they just tie the seasons into a whole. Each episode is largely stand-alone.
You may not be a watcher of the CW superhero shows like The Flash or Supergirl, or even iZombie, but they have a similar tone. If you like them, you’ll like Doctor Who.
Doctor Who consists mainly of individual adventures. For the current version, a few are in two parts, but outside of that, you can watch them in any order. There is a story arc for each season, but it usually consists of small things in each episode that are tied together for the finale.
Classic Who only did a seasonal story arc once (The Key to Time) and even that one used it as an overarching theme instead of concentrating on it (the point was to find the six pieces of the Key to Time, so they’d show up at a planet and have an adventure while trying to track it down). All the other episodes stood alone, though they would reference previous adventures in passing, especially with the monsters.
I wasn’t, either, until I asked for and received some very good advice in the other Dr. Who thread. The reboot in 2005 was a perfect place to start. I didn’t have any problem figuring out what was going on. So far each episode has been stand alone from what I can tell. If those are your reasons for not watching, as a newbie I can assure you your concerns are unfounded.
This a few days ago Comet TV aired Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. I had never seen those before, and they seem to be the Star Wars Holiday Special of the Whoniverse. (Not to be confused by the made for TV movie, which I watched when it originally aired in 1996 and again within the last year or so, and isn’t too bad.)
It’s more in the position of the original Casino Royale movie with David Niven. No one really thinks of it, but it’s not hated.
Are the missing episodes of a generally better quality than those that lived on without need of reconstruction? It feels like they are from watching a few of them (Invasion, Power of the Daleks, The Moonbase, The Ice Warriors).
I reckon the ones that the most effort has been expended on are the stronger stories, certainly. There’s probably no great clamour for an animated The Macra Terror. Power of the Daleks on the other hand was fairly consistently voted “Best Serial” by the [del]loons on[/del] inhabitants of Outpost Gallifrey, even when it existed only as audio + tele-snaps.
I love the whole concept of Doctor Who and I pretty much hate the execution. My husband’s been a lifelong fan, and he introduced me to it in the Ecclestone season, and then I watched through most of the Tennant era (also dipping back into Tom Baker, etc.) The best of it reminded me of why I liked the X-Files (bad production values and all)–and I’m a diehard Douglas Adams fan, so getting socked with some of his old Doctor who stuff was entertaining–but, I just can’t. After Tennant, it just stank, and the earlier shows couldn’t hold my interest. And it isn’t as if I’m averse to the genre/era–I love “The Prisoner,” for example. Anyway, it seems I just enjoy the show’s concept a lot better than the execution. I can’t put it any better.
P.S. I thought the early 90s comedic special with Rowan Atkinson was brilliant, if that gives you any idea.