My brother-in-law is currently visiting us, as he does almost every winter. We started watching Doctor Who from the beginning of the “reboot” (i.e. the 2005 season, with Christopher Eccleston). We got through all of season 1 and the first episode of season 2, but he just found out that at the end of this week he’s been called back to work, so we won’t have enough time to watch all of the rest, obviously.
So. He doesn’t have any problem skipping around. If you had to pick the best four or five episodes from what’s left, what would you pick? I’m thinking definitely “Blink” and then… dunno, what else? Thoughts?
I don’t think you should watch the specials without watching at least the end of Series 3. And that mult-part episode is made much better by watching the forshaddowing earlier in the season.
So I’d stick with the stand-alones. If you’re wanting unconventional ones, try the Christmas specials. I liked the Titanic one.
Thanks to cablelessness – which I have recently remedied – I missed all of Series 4. I just added those two episodes to my nifty DVR; would you recommend that I let them marinate for a while and view Series 4, or are they sufficiently standalone in nature that it doesn’t matter?
(And just so I can contribute to the thread, “Blink” is indeed excellent. Before Carey Mulligan was a rising movie star, she was our dear Sally Sparrow.)
To get a theme going, combine it with the Library/Woods ones, which let you see the idea from the other side. You can always throw in the Series four Christmas special to get an idea of how the Doctor would react seeing a later regeneration.
Thank you. I was trying to think of those two when I posted earlier. “Gridlock” was my introduction to NuWho, and seeing “New Earth” made it a lot better. It’s basically a sequel to “The End of the World”, which will help you tie in the new seasons to the one you’ve already seen.
This will also give you the full story of the Face of Boe. (No, “Last of the Time Lords” doesn’t count.)
If you’re intending to watch series 4 soon, it wouldn’t hurt to hold off…but if you’re not going to get a chance for a while they don’t depend too much on previous events - like Lute says, Planet of the Ood wouldn’t hurt, but that’s only the end of Waters of Mars, and the significance of their appearance is made pretty explicit. So it wouldn’t be a big deal if you jumped straight to them and caught up on series 4, later.
All you really need to know going in is that he’s left Donna behind - you don’t even need to know why until The End of Time (which is when the Ood appearance really comes home, too). Obviously, for The End of Time, it’d be better to catch series 4 first, though.
Edit - and I actually like Gridlock better than New Earth, but it definitely needs to be watched after New Earth.
There’s also the connection between the ends of “Planet of the Ood” and “Planet of the Dead”. Without seeing the former, the Doctor’s song won’t make as much sense until “The End of Time”.
We have already seen all of season 1, so those episodes are taken care of. I showed him Girl in the Fireplace last night, and it met with approval.
I will probably skip School Reunion just because my BIL didn’t watch any Old Who, so the Sarah Jane reunion won’t hold much impact for him. Next up, probably Blink.