Given that Ash and I talk about Doctor Who more than we talk about videogames or our own video series, it’s not particularly surprising that we get this question a lot.
“You talk about Doctor Who a lot,” the question usually starts. “Please stop doing that,” it usually ends. “That’s not a question,” I usually reply.
When it doesn’t end that way, however — when the person in question finds Doctor Who interesting but, confronted with a series that started in 1963 and is still going, simply does not know where to start — I usually have a pretty clear answer for them.
You can find that answer after the jump.
Start with the 2005 series of Doctor Who. It’s part of the exact same canon as the “classic” series, starting in 1963 and running until the 80′s, but it’s specifically written for newcomers to the show. There’s also a really cool sense of scope and myth to the 2005 series; characters will make references to people and places you’ve never seen, adventures you’ve never personally witnessed, but they all existed in the classic series. It’s not like in other fiction where a character will make a reference to something made-up that happened offscreen (“hey, Anakin, remember that time we fell into a nest of gundarks?”) and you have to pretend that the writers aren’t bullshitting — when the Doctor talks about Makra or the Cybermen or Skaro, you get the sense that those stories really exist, without quite knowing enough details about them to rob them of their magic.
The 2005 series is streamable on Netflix, as are all the subsequent series. Search for “Doctor Who, Season 1,” and so on, until you reach the end of Season 4. At that point, the numbering gets weird because the BBC is stupid — instead of a proper 13-episode series, the next season is five separate, one-hour specials: The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, Waters of Mars, and The End of Time Parts One and Two (in that order). These specials are a really, really important part of the canon, and should not be skipped under any circumstances (even though the current series that’s currently airing on BBC right this second is called Series 5, for some fucked-up reason).
“But Anthony,” you say. “Five-ish seasons of thirteen episodes-ish each? That’s a lot of fucking Doctor Who to watch.”
Yeah, fair enough. If you want to skip the absolute least interesting bits of the 2005-2010 series (I’d argue they’re all worth watching at least once, but if you’re in a hurry, then you gotta do what you gotta do), you can (somewhat) safely skip the following episodes:
Season One:
The Unquiet Dead
Season Two:
Tooth and Claw
The Idiot’s Lantern
Fear Her
Season Three:
The Shakespeare Code
Daleks in Manhattan
Evolution of the Daleks
The Lazarus Experiment
42
Season Four:
The Doctor’s Daughter
Unicorn and the Wasp
You’re still looking a pretty hefty chunk of TV, but still — that’s almost twelve hours you’ve skipped, just there.
Okay, so, Doctor Who seasons 1-4, plus the specials, comprise the Russell T. Davies era. He was the showrunner during this period, and he defined the tone and style of the show. After the specials, Steven Moffat took over the show. His run of the show just started this Easter, and will continue on semi-regularly over the next few months. Having watched the RTD era, you’ll be ready for the Moffat era (you can’t just jump into the Moffat era because certain fundamental rules about the Doctor Who universe — regeneration, the TARDIS, Time Lords, etc — are not immediately mentioned).
You’ll also be ready to go back and watch the “classic” series, if you so desire. Most of the classic episodes I’ve seen really haven’t aged all that well; they’re slowly paced and full of needless filler. For the most part, they’re really only worth watching to see the different incarnations of the Doctor and how different they were from one another. Nine and Ten never laid a finger on anyone, but Three got into fistfights and swordfights all the goddamn time.
I can personally recommend the Fourth Doctor serials “City of Death” and “Genesis of the Daleks,” though. The former was written by Douglas Adams, and the latter is just really fucking cool, even by modern standards. “An Unearthly Child,” the very first Doctor Who episode ever, is kind of boring after the first part (with all of time and space to explore, the writers decided to go to the fucking caveman era), but there’s a definite magic in its first, half-hour segment.
There’s also this list of not-shitty classic Who serials, linked to me by someone I can’t remember. I haven’t watched all of the episodes on here, but I’m working on it.
Anyway, that should settle things. Any questions?
Well I just finished listening to the latest podcast regarding doctor who and I found that it really got me wanting to say a hell of a lot about the show as a whole. In my opinion the first series had a decent ending and it had a good mix of power versus consquence, the day wasn’t just saved and everything was fine and dandy the daleks were beaten but the in return the doctor had to “die”.
The second series finale wasn’t bad either apart from a few of the blatant cock ups like having Freema Agyeman cast in a largely forgetable role in which she dies and the only answer to this is a brief mention in series 3 mention as a side note that this happend to be her cousin…yeah try twin -_-. Anyway the finale…well one thing it did tell us is four daleks really can kick the cybermen’s robotic arses from here to Pluto which I wont complain about because to be fair I don’t want to get into some big discussion about dalek shielding versus cyberman weaponary. However certain points that did grind my gears were the fact Yvonne, director of torchwood, could be made into a cyberman and seemingly still have recollection of her previous existance and have the ability to seemingly act of her own free will against the cybermen…preach the will power argument if you like but I’m certainly not believing it. Finally as the void is opened and a vacuum of power comparable to that of Godzilla taking a deep breath is drawing in every dalek and cyberman from not only London but across the world we see one of the cult of skarro hovering in mid air as if it were nothing but a breeze O.O and although these daleks are clearly not run of the mill physically they appear to have no enhancement to explain this.
So series 3, if your still with me XP, I adored the Master he was amazing, I loved the actor who played him as much as the character…but I have to agree entirely with Anthony on this wishing the doctor back to his normal self? and then giving him some freaky dragonball z like aura that protects him from laser fire? I mean I don’t know about you but it just felt like a massive commercial for the power of positive thinking…I mean doctor is just a word the majority of these people have never seen or met him so I’d have thought there would be more chance of the local GPs flying around the place than them actually being able to empower a time lord.
Series 4
the question now is will this actually fit on here XD, but seriously this for me is the single worst finale ever…not for the villain no infact Davros was quite a treat to see…the Daleks being brought back again then? No because even that I could have dealt with… No it was simply the utter absurdity of the story…first there is the fact that a single dalek has penetrated one of these infamous time locked events and single handedly rescured davros…even though it was apparently in the middle of a vicious time war at the point where davros himself was about to die…but anyway wind forward to the conclusion…catherine tate flips some damn buttons on a control switch and renders the daleks completely useless before david tennants clone, or as I like to call him the “David’s back up if his decision to leave goes tits up”, obliterates the entire dalek fleet with a few button pushes…I mean who builds a control station with that kind of functionality! I honestly watched this episode with my jaw open and my fist clenched with the only thing consoling me being the fact that this was going to me Russell’s last series.
Series 5, ho boy you must hate me by now
, but in my opinion it’s been the best ever series I loved the continuous threat and mystery posed by the crack and it really made each individual episode tie together so much better and for this I give Steven Moffat a very big applause…however the weakness for this series, as I think most people agree, was the awful finale…now don’t get me wrong I liked the pandorica opens they emphasised that something terrible and destructive was inside the prison so deliberately and repeatedly I never guessed in the end it would be the Doctor Who it was meant for not to mention the fact that I personally had my mouth hung open in aghast when I watched this gathering of some of the doctor’s greatest foes appear before him to say a final mocking farewell. However the final episode…I was beyond disappointed with for one this whole idea of time being circular not linear may be the case but how on earth can you ever have something without a beginning…the first time the doctor needed to get out of the box how did he do it? and if he did manage it then why didn’t he just do it that way every time? it made absolutely no sense…Moffat stated that the universe was collapsing and all bets were off but that still doesn’t give you any idea as to how the doctor was out of the box…then as for the alliance themselves this 105 or 150 AD right? now I don’t know exactly when the daleks and cybermen and the other creatures were born / created but luring the doctor to this time and the ability to be able to travel to Amy’s time and take her memory suggests that they have the capacity to time travel so why the hell didn’t they go and actually find out what the f**k caused the tardis to explode and then come up with way to stop IT rather than the doctor, not to mention find out if the doctor was actually piloting the damn thing…I really wont go on anymore as I dunno if this will even post but I am just hoping that series 6 will be more intelligently written just because it’s sci fi and your playing around with time doesn’t excuse you for using cheap get out clauses to solve your problems…
Carl I completely agree
I wasn’t too fond of RTD era Who and alot of the time Tennant’s potential was completely wasted, by the end he was a bit of a whiny bitch.
But I adore the direction Moffat’s taken the series in, and despite the fact the Big Bang was slightly disapointing it’s still in my opinion the best nuWho finale =D
When confronted with someone who has never seen any Doctor Who, I always insist on showing them “Blink.” It has a taste of the Doctor and the Whoverse, it can be watched without ruining any part of the series and without needing to know much to begin with, AND it has the most brilliantly designed villains ever (SO happy they got a two parter in the latest season<3).
And I approve of your list of optional episodes.
i think your right and a tall of love and monsters is another one you can witch with out any other
that was the first episode i ever watched and it got me hooked right off the bat
a lot of the episodes you talk about that you do not have t watch are not only one of the best like tooth and claw but are needed some what in understanding the doctor and the show like The Doctor’s Daughter Unicorn and the Wasp
After finally finishing Twin Peaks, I got the chance to start watching Dr. Who. Just finished the first season and loving it. First episode season 2 mentions Torchwood, which made me think, when am I supposed to watch Torchwood? Is there any important crossover references? Should I watch them at the same time as DW, or watch certain seasons of Torchwood between certain seasons of Dr Who in order to best replicate the manner in which they were aired? Am I over thinking this?
In the braid episode when it came Out I heard the noise of a TARDIS landing and I fucking freaked out
Hey Guys, I’ve been listening to some of the old Doctor Who Podcast commentaries and thought you might appreciate this piece of pre Who, T. Davies written, Eccleston starring, TV drama. I remember seeing it when it aired, and was interesting as an RTD exploration of religion vs human responsibility (with he being an atheist) – dunno if you can get hold of it though…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_(TV_serial)
The specials are a series of specials because the producers could not get enough money for a full series.
Where do people get all these stories? Seriously, this didn’t happen that long ago!
David Tennant didn’t have enough time to do an entire series, but he did want to do a few specials. That’s all there is to it.
The first show of the new series, broadcast on Saturday, featured a kissogram, a naked Doctor along with a “sexed up” Tardis.Throughout the special 65-minute episode, The Eleventh Hour, in which Physician Who had 20 minutes to save Earth from aliens recognized as the Atraxi, his new companion, Amy Pond, was revealed as a kissogram dressed in a skimpy policeman’s outfit, complete with mini-skirt and handcuffs. In one scene, Amy, played by the actress Karen Gillan, told the Dr that her kissogram repertoire also included nuns and nurses’ outfits. Locate out far more at Sci Fi Fan.
Msyterious Pandorica exiting bullshit, the fuck was up with that?
Hello. This is kind of an “non-traditional” question , but have other readers asked you how have the menu bar to appear like you’ve gotten it? I also have a weblog and am really seeking to modify around the theme, on the other hand I am terrified to death to mess with it for fear of the search engines punishing me. I am really a new comer to all this …so i am simply not optimistic precisely how to try to to it all yet. I’ll just keep working on it one day at a time Thanks for any help you can offer here
Gah, I’m kind of sad that The Doctor’s Daughter made the list for expendable episodes of Season 4. I felt like it was a great defining moment for the whole Doctor-Donna relationship bit, and it sort of delves into the Doctor’s past (i.e. him being a father and all that). I will say though, I’m glad Blink made the cut for Season 3! =D
I wanted to mention this because it kind of blew my mind a little. Someone who’s podcast I listen to regularly pointed this out recently: Torchwood is an anagram…for Doctor Who.
Here’s a clue. Don’t. It’s the worst most overrated and overhyped show on television. No plot/message/story/moral. Lazy writing (That noisy laserpen can do anything). For children and has the worst fans in the universe.
Odd, I hear this a lot about “fans” of various things. Team Fortress 2 fans = worst fans ever, Half-Life 2 fans = worst fans ever, Harry Potter fans = worst fans ever, and on and on ad infinitum. There needs to be a conference that settles this matter once and for all because, as was stated in Highlander, “there can be only one.”
just wanted to say that I LOVE Doctor Who and when my brother first showed me Hey Ash the thing that jumped out at me was Anthony wearing a “vote Saxon” t shirt. I love hey ash but one of my favorite parts of any episode is if I catch something Doctor Who related.
Now I have to go and read the blogs and listen to the podcasts, cant wait to hear both of your thoughts on Doctor Who!
My grand father always used to watch YouTube funny videos, hehehehehe, since he desires to be cheerful always.
she Deserves to standing at the top 10 wait to next year than she is number one!!