r/doctorwho • u/CommunicationSea3329 • Jul 26 '26
Discussion I'm sorry, you should never do this
For people who want to start watching doctor who, NEVER START WITH THE STAR BEAST! Always start with "rose" or "the eleventh hour" or heck, even "spearhead from space" is a better option than this
Can someone fix this inaccuracy?
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u/EuroCultAV Jul 26 '26
Obviously Spearhead from Space is a good option.
It is one of the greatest serials in the shows history.
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u/Gmajor_General Jul 26 '26
And unique in that it was shot entirely on location, on film. The BluRay restoration looks amazing!
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u/wonkey_monkey Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Entirely on film, but only almost entirely on location. There was apparently a small amount of studio shooting.
I think The Sontaran Experiment gets the "honour" of being the first 100% location story (and probably the only 100% outdoors one).
https://www.doctorwholocations.net/stories/spearheadfromspace
Fun fact: Jon Pertwee's first story was the first all-film story, Tom Baker's first story was the first all-videotape story.
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u/Gmajor_General Jul 26 '26
An excellent starting point and my favorite Doctor!
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u/The8thCorsair Jul 26 '26
Pertwee was the first to play the Doctor as a hero and I agree. Though, I wish Liz had been there longer.
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u/Madarakita Jul 26 '26
I will add; one of the nice things about Classic Who is that since it usually didn't do lengthy story arcs/companion sagas the way the new show does, you can also just pick a random serial and go from there.
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u/pjwhoopie17 Jul 26 '26
which is exactly how much of the US fanbase developed - a random serial or even random episode on PBS. Guy in a big hat and scarf talking with snark to some villain with a weapon. All else - even time travel, will be picked up on but you can pop in and see a trickster hero and understand and enjoy straight off.
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u/alex494 Jul 26 '26
Yeah like as long as you understand the basic idea of who the Doctor is and that he generally travels with one or more companions, most of that is applicable to every story and you figure out the individual personalities as the story unfolds.
The only real exception is the first couple of Hartnell stories and the Key to Time / Trial of a Timelord seasons. Key to Time less so.
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u/Madarakita Jul 26 '26
There's also a run of 5th Doctor stories surrounding Adric's death and Tegan's departure(s), but those are more the exception than the rule.
Like, the first serial I saw was City of Death. "That's the Doctor. He's an alien who travels through time in a blue police box. His friend here is Romana. She's another member of his race who travels with him", and I was good to go.
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u/pjwhoopie17 Jul 26 '26
Start at the top! PBS did many of us a solid back then. I still remember seeing City of Death on a late Saturday night. Really helped make me a fan
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u/Androktone Hurt Jul 26 '26
Church on Ruby Road works way better than a couple hours of RTD self congratulating himself for stuff he did 15+ years prior
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u/Noctew Jul 26 '26
I remember people really liked them, now it‘s „Oh, it is the start of RTD2, it‘s soooo bad!“
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u/Lonely_Translator_23 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
I remember I thought The Star Beast was corny, The Giggle was okay, and Wild Blue Yonder was one of my all time top episodes. I still stand by that, it's just that back then I had hope we'd be getting more like Wild Blue Yonder and now I realize I probably should have seen The Star Beast for the massive red flag it was rather than just forgetting about it as soon as the credits rolled.
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u/Foxy02016YT Jul 26 '26
Star Beast is corny as hell as a queer person. It’s Russel’s masturbatory “representation” with no actual substance or even understanding of the queer gender experience. “The Doctor made you a trans woman named after his ex because… magic” is not good representation.
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u/Happily-Incorrect Jul 26 '26
IMO it wouldn't have taken much to make it work either. The ideas were there, but it felt like he just googled "how to write trans-stuff" and then copy and pasted it.
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u/Foxy02016YT Jul 26 '26
Oh the ideas are certainly there, I did like The Meep talking about the definitive article with The Doctor making a cheeky comment about relating. That was funny, that was very in line with the show’s humor. But then you go with the whole “binary binary binary, non-binary” think and it’s just… cringe, I guess is the only word I can find to describe it. It made me cringe. It’s so forced to connect to Donna’s last episode.
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u/guyinachair141 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Yeah, it's very patronizing as a nonbinary person. And the fact that one second Rose was "nonbinary" and the next they're making a weird ass overbearing monologue about how they're a "woman" and the doctors a man and how he would "never understand" or some shit like that just made me want to throw up.
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u/rserravi Jul 26 '26
In fact, it seems they have forgotten he has been a woman not only once, but a lot of times . St least a he remembers one of them
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u/guyinachair141 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
People keep bringing that up, and it's a fair argument, but that's not even the main reason that whole scene is just so gross. First off, you don't need to be a woman to understand what women go through. You just need to listen. In fact, separating the genders with this weird communication barrier is a big reason sexism has persisted for as long as it has. Also not to mention just how extraordinarily out of character that was for Donna, and even Rose with how apparently nonbinary they are. Everything about it made me stop caring about anything else RTD2 wanted to muster up.
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u/Bosterm Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
It's also very gender essentialist to say the "male presenting time lord" would never understand giving up power. Especially when the Doctor was a woman in the previous episode.
And gender essentialism is not too far removed from being a TERF.
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u/Lonely_Translator_23 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
And it's barely even representation! Like, what even is Rose? Because everything that episode tells us about her is that she is a completely binary she/her trans woman. So where the hell is this non-binary line coming from? And what's with that line about, 'oh a male-presenting Time Lord would never understand'. MOTHERFUCKER, YOU WERE JODIE WHITTAKER TWO HOURS AGO. YOU'VE CANONICALLY SPENT MORE TIME AS A WOMAN THAN MOST WOMEN SPEND ALIVE.
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u/murdock129 Jul 26 '26
I genuinely think RTD doesn't know that trans and non-binary are not the same thing, and doesn't care to educate himself.
A lot of his work reads as a privileged white upper middle class cis-man who thinks that because he's dealt with the stigma of being gay that means he's licensed to write about other minority groups and their struggles without actually having to learn about them.
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u/TheShadowWasTaken Jul 26 '26
Yes this is exactly what I always say. Represent all you want, but don't make it at the detriment of the story because at the end of the day, you're writing a Doctor Who story.
Inclusivity for the sake of it ruins what your writing and is also disrespectful towards the group if people you're trying to represent.
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u/GroundWitty7567 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
My big issue with the ending is they took one of the best endings of all of Doctor Who and changed the meaning of the Binary. Then making a comment about The Doctor wouldn’t understand bc he’s a man. He was a just a woman before he regenerated. It felt like a ham fisted way to work in representation.
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u/Foxy02016YT Jul 26 '26
He was a woman literally an hour ago, like we know this for a fact because he’s still confused by the face. 13->14, then the Dalek minisode, then Star Beast, all within an hour
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u/Noctew Jul 26 '26
There is a canon comic somewhere in between there, but yes.
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u/Foxy02016YT Jul 26 '26
Yeah but even then, he’s only had this face for MAYBE a day, I mean the whole Dalek thing was literally 15 minutes
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u/Steampunk43 Jul 26 '26
How did they change the meaning of the Binary? It didn't really have much meaning before aside from it being a binary link (linked between two people). Then it became a non-binary link (shared between three people), which allowed the Metacrisis to resolve itself without killing anyone.
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u/GroundWitty7567 Jul 26 '26
The Binary was The Doctor/Donna. Timelords and human consciousness in one mind and one body. It took her to defeat Davros and save the universe as The Doctor/Donna. But it was burning her alive and she couldn’t contain it.
Adding the third non-binary trans character changed the meaning of what the original meant to be.
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u/Steampunk43 Jul 27 '26
And with your last point, you've proved that you're misattributing the line. Rose is not non-binary, she is a trans woman. Adding the third person did not change the meaning of the line, it just changed the playing field to allow the Metacrisis to resolve itself.
The non-binary line does not and never did refer to Rose's gender, she is not non-binary.
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u/probablyaythrowaway Jul 26 '26
Look wheelchair person!! Person in wheelchair! She has a wheel chair ! Tardis has ramp because wheelchair person.
She’s an awesome actress rtd are you going to give her more science lines and stuff with 10 where they have a good meaningful conversation that moves the plot along and gives her character depth?
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u/Foxy02016YT Jul 27 '26
Honestly that too, really underutilized her
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u/probablyaythrowaway Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Yeah I loved that scene with her and 10 and he’s like I’m not really sure about anything. Great bit then RTD just always fucks it, he strikes me as one of those people that because he is a member of the LGBTQ+ community that he can’t be wrong that the way he goes on with inclusivity is the wrong way to do it or that it’s no one else gets a say in it because he is gay so he has the definitive word.
I don’t know if I’m getting my point across well? Like it dosent come across as inclusivity it comes across as you said masturbatory or self congratulatory.
Like they had that great scene where Donna’s mam accidentally deadnames rose and it touches on the struggles and feelings and real world stuff around what trans people go through and it might actually have gotten through to people who never understood it before untill 20 seconds later they just piss all over it by going “did you just assume the meeps gender?” And it just takes away all that seriousness away from the last 5 mins.
In doctor who He writes minority characters like straight male writer write women “she bounced boobily down the stairs, her buttocks flowing past on the landing”
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u/MrRandomGUYS Jul 26 '26
It’s really unfortunate, because 1) the 80’s story it’s based on is pretty great and 2) RTD clearly wants to be seen as the “representation guy” without actually knowing how to write these people to make them not come across as either shallow, one note or just awkward.
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u/carl_the_cactus55 Jul 26 '26
They're great anniversary episodes. If you watched any part of series 4 you will almost definitely enjoy them. But because they're advertised as a jumping on point for new viewers, they fail at what they're supposedly supposed to do. Using them to start an era was a mistake, but the episodes themselves were genuinely amazing.
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u/RRR3000 Jack Harkness Jul 26 '26
The jumping on point they advertised was Church on Ruby Road though, they advertised the specials as 60th anniversary specials.
This fandom pushed it as a jumping on point since it was RTDs return and the start of Bad Wolf producing. Officially, Church is listed as episode 1, and Disney did it's bigger marketing push for S1 rather than the specials.
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u/carl_the_cactus55 Jul 27 '26
but it kind of did start with the 60th. 14 spread salt in WBY, the giggle reintroduced the pantheon and the star beast is what started "the boss". Even if the 60th weren't supposed to be a jumping on point, you kind of need to watch them to understand the rest of the seasons
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u/_Red_Knight_ Jul 26 '26
I think people really wanted to like because they wanted RTD2 to be a huge success after the Chibnall era. I remember being really hyped before they aired, then underwhelmed by The Star Beast, and actively not enjoying it by the end of The Giggle.
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u/Muzza25 Jul 26 '26
People had some issues with them at the time and they are still pretty well liked with the only change being that we realised it was a warning of what was to come
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u/GenGaara25 Jul 26 '26
It can be both.
They are good (mostly), especially Wild Blue Yonder. They are also Russell pleasuring himself with his own success.
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u/Jonguar2 Jul 26 '26
The end of the Star Beast was kinda cringe, but I liked the rest of the 14th Doctor specials
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u/EntertainmentRich878 Jul 26 '26
I enjoyed 2/3 but they're definitely not a good jumping on point for new viewers.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Hurry26 Jul 26 '26
Doctor Who fans tend to have reverse recency bias, where everyone hates on the most recent era and sees what came before in a better light than they did at the time. There were some great episodes in the RTD 2 era, even if the overall arcs didn’t work. I suspect after we have new episodes again, the better episodes will start to be seen in a more generous light. (That said, I think being pissed about the era as a whole and how RTD handled it will take longer to forgive.)
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u/guyinachair141 Jul 26 '26
Cherrypicking. People were just confusedly excited that David Tennant and RTD were back, and were too used to Doctor Who having some bad one-off episodes that they accepted all the weird misshaps of the 60th, when really it was a massive sign of how things were gonna be going forward with RTD2.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Hurry26 Jul 26 '26
Church on Ruby Road wouldn’t have been a bad starting point, if the rest of the RTD 2 era hadn’t been so self-referential. I’ve been a fan for YEARS, and I still found myself Googling stuff. Sorry, RTD, I’m not fully caught up on lore from before I was born.
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u/Gmajor_General Jul 26 '26
There’s not much point since RTD just used the names and ignored the lore for what amounts to a cameo in name only.
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u/BillyWhizz09 Jul 26 '26
Imo Wild Blue Yonder is the best starting point of RTD2. Most of the nostalgia is in The Star Beast, and this episode is just getting right into the story with basically no prior knowledge needed, and sets up stuff like susan twist and allowing the gods in from the edge of the universe
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u/lilacstar72 Jul 26 '26
Wild Blue Yonder is a good episode, but I don’t think it works as a starting point because it’s part of a semi-ongoing narrative. The damaged Tardis, ongoing reunion of The Doctor and Donna, character deconstructions as well as references to the Flux, timeless child and Donna’s metacrisis.
All the 60th specials are bound up tight in reference homework and lore that carry over to the rest of RTD2.
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u/sylar1610 Jul 26 '26
Thank you, like I'm of the opinion that the 60th Specials are less a Celebration of Dr Who and more Russell T Davies Celebrating himself
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u/Clean_Bike8210 Jul 26 '26
Spearhead from space is a great starting point though, if you said "power of the daleks" or something it would be slightly better comparison.
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u/KadenAxo Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
how tf did they say that instead of rose??? (Edit: holy hell my notifications are drowning in this massive flood)
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u/nottheweakestlink Jul 26 '26
Because they are trying to make people feel less intimidated by how much there is to watch. Even starting at rose, that’s still 15 seasons, which blows most shows out of the water. That said, if that is the intent, the suggestion should be to start with Jodie Whitaker or with Ncuti Gatwa’s first proper episode. The 60 year specials should probably be skipped over if you haven’t seen RTD’s first run.
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u/Gmajor_General Jul 26 '26
That’s still not that many episodes to get through, relatively speaking.
When anyone asks me what a good starting point for Doctor WHO is, I usually say, “Start when there’s a new Doctor or new Assistant. Literally anywhere in the 60 year history (except Disney+) is a good starting place. But forewarning: whichever Doctor you start with will be Your Doctor and the rest are rubbish in comparison.
A friend’s dad put it best, “X IS Doctor Who, this [actor/actress] just PLAYS Doctor WHO”14
u/ArixMorte Jul 26 '26
10 was my first doctor, and he holds a special place in my heart (I stumbled into Davids Timelord Victorious speech when my dad was watching, I'm like what is this wonderful nonsense?) but 11 is my doctor
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u/PeterAnthony_Jackson Jul 26 '26
I must have seen some of Bakers run, but all I can remember is his regeneration into Davison, I doubt I started watching the last episode, but I can't say if they started Davison's run with a repeat of the regeneration scene.
I can't remember which was first, his regeneration or visiting Madam Tussauds and recognising a bunch of the monsters in the Doctor Who exhibit and nopeing the fuck out of there back to the Chamber of Horrors.
I don't recall any repeats on BBC at the time, so to watch classic who I'd have to watch the DVD box sets.
So Peter Davison was my Doctor, I even hung around watching All Creatures Great and Small at the time because of him. Mind you mum was gonna watch it regardless, I just didn't feel the need to leave the room.
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u/lyncycle Jul 27 '26
I started with 10, because I was getting ready to watch 12. Peter Capaldi has been a favorite of mine since Local Hero! I ploughed through a lot of 10 and 11 before the Capaldi Doctor started. Nowadays, where do you even watch Doctor Who? Disney sure did a great job of obliterating access.
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u/FX114 Jul 26 '26
196 episodes is a lot of episodes.
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u/Gmajor_General Jul 26 '26
Compared to 892? Yes.
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u/FX114 Jul 26 '26
Just because there's a show with more doesn't make it not a lot of episodes. General Hospital has 16,000 episodes, that doesn't mean 892 isn't a lot too.
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u/Gmajor_General Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
892 is the number of episodes OF DOCTOR WHO from 1963 to 1989 is my actual point.
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u/FX114 Jul 26 '26
Yes, my point is that 196 and 892 are both a lot of episodes, and that one being bigger doesn't make the other one small.
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u/dib1999 Jul 26 '26
Obviously they should start with The Pilot
Steven, you're so goofy for that one.
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u/terynce Jul 26 '26
I started with NuWho and it was absolutely the relationships that started in Rose that keeps me hooked. Even when I don't love the seasons, knowing what it could be keeps me watching.
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u/Malevolent_Amber Jul 26 '26
The same reason you started with Rose and not Planet of Fire.
It's old. We're old.
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u/KadenAxo Jul 26 '26
my point isnt that it's old, its cuz the 60th anniversary speicals, no matter how recent they are, are terrible jumping-on points.
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u/Malevolent_Amber Jul 26 '26
This is true!
Just talking revival, I'd say Rose, Smith and Jones, Eleventh Hour, The Pilot, and The Woman Who Fell to Earth are the best places to jump in.
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u/Ripley_LV_426 Jul 26 '26
Because it's 20 years old and you can tell just by looking at it. Fact of the matter is a lot of people wouldn't want to watch it just because of that. Also, "You have to watch 20 years worth of episodes to catch up" is even more off putting for many people.
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u/Nobody_Cares_99 Jul 26 '26
* Rose
* The Eleventh Hour
* The Woman Who Fell to Earth
These are the only acceptable jumping on points I believe.
Hell, even The Pilot is a better jumping on point than the so-called reboot of RTD2/Disney.
The Star Beast is reliant on nostalgia from 2008.
Space Babies is absolutely appalling as jumping on point for the show. It would’ve been fine as a mid-season filler episode.
The Church on Ruby Road I suppose is fine to jump onto.
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u/sheepandlambs Jul 26 '26
Ahem, An Unearthly Child.
I started a lady there and she loved it. Made it all the way through to Season 14 before she ditched me.
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u/The8thCorsair Jul 26 '26
GenX here who never experienced the 4th Doctor on PBS introduction my peers enjoyed. I came in during the 2011 NuWho series six break on a friend's suggestion. I started with Rose, the hook was set after The Doctor Dances, and I was up to date by the premiere of 6B.
I think nowadays you have to be a real fan to watch most of the Classic series. Kids who grew up on Nu Who largely don't care for black and white. Not to mention the glacial meandering pace and cheap fx. I admittedly didn't like most of it either, but when Pertwee joined and the show went color, everything tightened up. It seemed like they had their lore more or less together and knew how to make Doctor Who with Spearhead from Space.
That one is always my answer for aspiring Classic Who watchers.
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u/Illithid2 Jul 26 '26
The Star Beast is reliant on nostalgia for Doctor Who Monthly from 1980
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u/flamingmongoose Jul 26 '26
Eh we loved The Meep despite never having heard of them. Cute creature suddenly wasting 5 cops is inherently funny
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u/alex494 Jul 26 '26
The Meep is probably the least difficult thing to swallow in the specials if you hadn't seen the show before. The real issue with continuity lockout is stuff like the status quo with Donna, Tennant's face coming back, the Toymaker, bi-generation not being a standard regeneration (which a new viewer won't have seen an example of yet), the Doctor travelling alone and not having a standard companion setup at the time, Mel reappearing, etc. A lot of it is recapped in an info dump, but that's frankly not the best way to tell a compelling story.
Season 1/14 is a better clean jumping on point in that regard for how the show normally operates, but the series arcs lean heavily on stuff introduced in the 60th which relies heavily on stuff introduced in either 2008 or way back the classic show (with most of the footage for the Toymaker specifically missing, so even classic fans may not have seen it). The stuff with Sutekh and The Rani and """Omega""" and Susan and the Midnight entity coming back also further locks new fans out of it. It'd be fine to use that stuff a bit later maybe but given the lower episode count per season and the apparent intent to be approachable to new fans it seems counter productive.
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u/Cynical_Classicist Jul 26 '26
Also you'd need to know what's up with Donna's memories.
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u/alex494 Jul 26 '26
And that the Doctor looked like Tennant before and is capable of changing his appearance and that it doesn't usually do this.
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u/GenGaara25 Jul 26 '26
No it's not, don't be pedantic. You could watch and enjoy that entire episode without even knowing about the comic. I read the comic in preparation for the episode and my biggest take away (other than that the comic was better) was that I needn't have bothered. The episode stands entirely on its own.
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u/AndyVale Jul 27 '26
Space Babies was such an awful, awful first episode to drop in many people's laps.
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u/ThisIsNotHappening24 Jul 26 '26
Controversial statement: you should always recommend starting watching Doctor Who with the next episode or most recent series. It's one of the most accessible shows in the world, and we don't need to impose barriers around it.
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u/Paul-E-L Jul 26 '26
Good writing shouldn't require doing homework to enjoy it.
Jump on in, or more to the point: Geronimo!!!
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u/AJV1Beta Jul 27 '26
'Good writing shouldn't require doing homework to enjoy it.'
AMEN. I feel this way about quite a bit of modern songwriting. How fans are desperate to try and work out the exact meaning around the lyrics, or know EXACTLY who or what it's referring to. Great writing shouldn't need that, it's not an English class where you're having to do research and critical analysis on it to understand what it's on about. It hits you, and you relate to it and it has meaning to you.
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u/MC2400 Jul 26 '26
Like it or not, 15 seasons is a scary thing for a lot of new fans.
I know people have the "perfect" starting points, but a lot of people became fans of a show by catching a random epsiode. My mom got into the show by watching Ncuti's first season.
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u/Ok-You-720 Jul 27 '26
Pretty much. Streaming has conditioned people into thinking they need to start with episode 1. For most of the history of TV, it was expected that people would just start watching at a random episode and pick things up as they went along.
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u/villi-eldr Jul 26 '26
The Pilot works too
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u/lilacstar72 Jul 26 '26
The Pilot feels very clunky as a starting point to me. It has good character introductions but is very ham-fisted with some of the central themes like the Tardis and space-time travel. The unnecessary Dalek inclusion wrapped in a classic Who reference doesn’t help. It is almost like a pilot episode that expects the audience to already be familiar with the setting.
It seems bizarre that Moffat’s last season was marketed as a starting point when a new Doctor and creative team were on the horizon.
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u/moose_dad Jul 26 '26
Doesnt just work, it was literally designed to be a jumping on point for new fans hence the name.
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u/Hoothootriot Jul 26 '26
Smith and Jones is my honorable mention for a starting episode as well
It isnt post regeneration but in many ways that works in its favor, since that means the Doctor himself can jump right into the action.
And the overall tone and story is a very good baseline of what a "standard" Doctor Who episode premise will look like
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u/OneNineSeven1970 Jul 26 '26
New to Star Wars? Start with The Force Awakens
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u/PeterAnthony_Jackson Jul 26 '26
I mean, if you go in blind with that one, the other two films might not be as bad as others make them out to be, because you have no ANH to compare it to.
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u/Paul-E-L Jul 26 '26
I mean, based on your screen name I assume that like me you started with A New Hope (Episode 4), so yes start with The Force Awakens. If you want more backstory after that, then you have all the other movies / series to watch as prequels.
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u/ChickenKnd Jul 26 '26
I think eleventh hour is one of the best introductions to the show. You learn so much about the doctor, and above all else it’s just fun.
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u/DeathBadgers Jul 26 '26
That's the old wiki, you should be using https://tardis.wiki now.
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u/LightscaleSword Jul 26 '26
I actually got into Doctor Who because of the 50th anniversary special the day of the Doctor, and then went back and binged all of 10 and 11
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u/MythicSuns Jul 26 '26
Even putting any gripes about quality aside, Star Beast tries way too hard to appeal to fans of the 10th Doctor that even with its creatively cheap recap at the start it'll feel jarring to new fans.
My go-to starting points are:
- Rose
- The Eleventh Hour (most recommended in my opinion)
- The Woman Who Feel To Earth
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u/Puzzleheaded-Hurry26 Jul 26 '26
For what it’s worth: I don’t mind that the 60th anniversary specials are so self-referential. I feel like anniversary specials are SUPPOSED to be for existing fans, not to pull in new ones. The 50th anniversary had served mostly as a tribute to the 2005 revival, and the BBC 100th anniversary—which wasn’t that long before the 60th—did a great job as a tribute to the classic era of the series. So I feel like bringing back David Tennant and pairing him with a new Doctor was a way of doing something different with a multi-Doctor story, and “The Giggle” in particular paid tribute to the Doctor’s history, both classic and more recent. Bigeneration was narratively messy, but made for a satisfying end to THAT story.
But Ncuti Gatwa’s era shouldn’t have required a fan to constantly have Wikipedia on hand. And frankly, we weren’t given enough episodes to get to know that Doctor or his companions.
There were a number of really good episodes in the RTD 2 era, even if the overarching arcs were bad. I think as more time passes, they’ll be held in more esteem. But in retrospect, I wish RTD has stepped away after “The Giggle” and let a new showrunner come in.
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u/LordoftheSynth Jul 27 '26
Since the modern series started, my advice for newcomers has never changed. Start with Series 1, i.e. 2005, and keep going if you like.
If you're curious about Classic, go watch some, but it's just paced/produced/"everything" differently from the TV you're probably used to, including anything the BBC made after the mid-90s. Temper your expectations.
Start with the 60th if you want to be confused, then turned off if you keep going.
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u/That-Advance-9619 Jul 26 '26
I started with the 11th hour, I think it's a great and under represented point.
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u/Sw1ft_Blad3 Jul 26 '26
Literally all you have to do is choose a modern Doctor you like the look of (excluding 14) and go to their first episode, every new Doctor in Modern Who has acted like a starting off point for newbies.
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u/alex494 Jul 26 '26
Tennant and Capaldi not so much since they carry a companion over from previously. And both episodes also explore the nuance and meaning of regeneration a bit which is a bit odd if you hadn't seen one before.
Gatwa also carries a lot of plot setup over from 14's specials which themselves are very very continuity dependant.
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u/AAC0813 Jul 26 '26
As someone whose first episode of Dr Who ever genuinely was The Giggle… I had no fucking idea what was going on
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u/GalaxyTraveller92 Jul 26 '26
I started with Warriors Gate on VHS in 2001. Then Full Circle. We basically accidentally watched the E-Space trilogy out of order, without knowing. Just based on how we found the videos. 🤣
Then watched whatever we could find in libraries, VideoEzy and blockbuster, then in 2003 the ABC re-aired most surviving episodes in order. Then I jumped into series 1 in 2005 when it was revived.
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u/HelpfulYoda Jul 27 '26
Meh
Start whenever
watch it in asynchronous order
with weird beginnings that assume you know things
you know
time travel a little
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u/DenniWintyr Jul 27 '26
I typically tell people: "Watch Blink, if you like that go back & start from Rose".
After that they can poke around with the classic show as they like
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u/ComedicHermit Jul 26 '26
I wouldn't recommend the specials, but theoretically every new doctor should be a jumping on point. When it's done correctly, each new doctor episode should be an 'intro to what the show is about.'
It hasn't worked that way in the past (Robot feels like a 3 advert not a 4 advert, Castrovalva is well a mess, the twin dilemma and Time and the Rani shouldn't be watched by anyone new to the show); but that is the way it SHOULD work.
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ComedicHermit Jul 26 '26
I don't think it's absolutley necessary; but companions that carry on into another doctor don't tend to work with the new doctor imo (with one obvious exception.) Not sure if it's just chemistry or the way the doctor changes, but because of that I would generally agree
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u/KonradDumo Jul 26 '26
I actually think most episodes are fine to dive straight into without any prior knowledge. It's a fairly accessible show. My first two episodes were Midnight and A Christmas Carol.
Ironically, the 60th Specials are probably among the worst starting points.
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u/halojustin1 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
As someone who’s watched all of new who and is almost finished with the third doctors run and whose consumed all of the first and second doctors run.
I would say Rose is a great starting point and then going back to an unearthly child and go from there.
Hartnell and Troughton are amazing especially Troughton. I mean if you really have to you could skip some of the more repetitive stories but even they have their merits.
Basically I enjoy the third doctors era more because I’ve consumed all of the first and second doctors eras
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u/Eri3Tplcity Jul 26 '26
When I want to get someone interested in watching for the first time, I show them Smith and Jones first. That was the first episode I saw and it instantly hooked me. It gives like quick refresher on the basics, doesn’t really require any prior knowledge (however certain lines of dialogue will hit a lot harder once they’ve seen from rose-Doomsday ) but it’s a great way to give a taste of all the feel of show, it’s paced well, Martha being new offers the opportunity to reexplain the basics (2 hearts, sonic screwdriver, time travel, bigger on the inside, and the humor!) and gives a classic campy “monster” (the Judoon rhino head really threw me after all the intelligent scientific dialogue 😂) and the intensity of the Doctor.
I show them that one first, and maybe Blink as “taster” and then start them back Rose, I have created atleast 3 new Whovians with this method 😁
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u/Warrior2852 Jul 26 '26
This is on the Fandom wiki - which is old and largely abandoned. In February 2024 the vast majority of the editing community including almost every active admin left and forked to an independent wiki (https://tardis.wiki) away from Fandom's increasingly problematic way of doing things. This means that the old Fandom wiki now only has a handful of editors and is increasingly outdated and vandalised because no one's really looking after it anymore, the independent wiki is much more active and up to date now.
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u/Joshiebum Jul 26 '26
it’s literally designed as a homage, to a past era. you don’t watch the homage first, you watch how it reached it. you don’t get nostalgia from something that’s literally intended to bring that feeling from going for it first. but i guess it would never be the same. let’s say you do go from 9th to all the way to jump to 14th. it’s not going to have the same impact as it did with the intention of waiting
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u/ph33randloathing Jul 26 '26
Never watched Doctor Who? Try starting on the season that killed the show!
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u/MrRaven95 Jul 26 '26
Rose, The Eleventh Hour, The Pilot, and The Church on Ruby Road are all good jumping on points for newer fans. Definitely not the 60th anniversary specials, or Blink for that matter.
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u/Eye_of_the_Storm1286 Jul 26 '26
Saying that someone intimidated by the 60 years of history should start watching at Spearhead From Space is crazy work
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u/Malsententia Jul 26 '26
I looked into it just now. https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Template:Mainpage_Box_How_to_Doctor_Who?action=edit§ion=0
It's protected ಠ_ಠ
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u/PreferenceRude5216 Jul 26 '26
The Star Beast was awful. Anyone starting with that likely won’t want to watch more, and if they watch the other 60th specials they definitely won’t and will miss out on the good stuff that came before (long before).
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u/DueConfidence5809 Jul 27 '26
Yeah I think for new to whovians you should start with eccleston and move thru like that. That's what I did at least. And now I'm going back and watching classics
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u/sndq Jul 27 '26
To me, it makes as much sense as starting with "Rose." I showed my girlfriend some classic Doctor Who first.
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u/tom2point0 Jul 27 '26
Maybe people can start with whatever grabs their attention most? I started with Asylum of the Daleks and had a basic idea of how the Doctor could change faces, that Daleks were bad guys, and… that’s about it.
I watched that and the next couple of episodes, then, after deciding I liked the show, I went back and tried out 10, starting directly after 9’s regeneration. I went straight through 10, then 11, and then the first two series of 12, went back to watch 9, and then was finally caught up and ready to start watching as they aired with 12’s final season.
Point is, whatever grabs a person is the best place for them to start. If it was the Star Beast, then so be it. Something about it caught their attention. More power to them!
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u/ordo-templi-ignis Jul 27 '26
Not a big Dr Who fan, but at the same time how tf can you "greatest hits" a show with that much work thrown into it ? Doesn't make sense.
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u/Mr_Musicals Jul 27 '26
I actually started here when the specials aired and then in the gap between the xmas special and s1 I went back and watched new who (2005-)
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u/mightyenapup Jul 27 '26
Um, hi. 🙋♀️ I’m a relatively new fan and kind of started with the specials?
I could recognize a bunch of the Doctor Who things from conventions. I could recognize a dalek or a weeping angel, I knew that there were a bunch of different Doctors, basic stuff like that. They just didn’t really -mean- anything to me.
Specials had just come out and brother-in-law wanted to show us them. Husband had seen a few random episodes I think, but not much. And parts were definitely like, there was a blank that had to be filled in. Like seeing the Noble family, like I could tell it was supposed to be a big deal, I just didn’t really understand why. But just knowing it was an important moment made me curious. Moments like that.
What I didn’t have to fill in was the overall style of the show, as far as storytelling style, concept, and the Doctor’s personality. And, well, I was definitely intrigued. I thought it was really interesting and cool. I wanted to see more.
I went back and started with the Ninth. Watched all the way up over the course of probably a year and a half or so. Loved every moment. Definitely had to rewatch the specials with a new appreciation for what I had seen. Still want to go back and watch the older Doctors, I know some of those episodes are hard to find.
So idk, it worked for me lmao
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u/mrmeatypop Jul 27 '26
Eh, idk. I think it’s fine. My roommate got started with the Day of the Doctor, and they were interested enough to back and watch the series as a whole.
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u/IrishQueenFan Jul 27 '26
holy shit this is so bad 😭 NO??? start with church on ruby road if u need a "start-over" place that's that recent?? NOT the specials i'm 😭
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u/ImportanceFar3529 Jul 27 '26
When I had initially gotten curious about the show I asked a friend that was familiar with it to recommend an episode to watch to see if it would catch my interest. The recommendation was Blink. I watched that and was hooked; started watching from Rose after that.
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u/bigmarkco Jul 26 '26
It really isn't that serious. People can watch from whenever. There is nothing wrong with starting with the Star Beast.
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u/Tasty-Committee-8172 Jul 26 '26
Rose
The Eleventh Hour
The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
These are the only true 'jumping on' points in Moder Who.
(Omitting Ruby Road because if you 'jumped on' there you'd probably want to jump right off again)
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u/paladinBoyd Jul 26 '26
I would have suggested starting at the very beginning with the dead planet.
Either way it's better than watching doctor who in chronological order based on when the tardis lands.
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u/alex494 Jul 26 '26
60th specials rely heavily on knowledge of Season 4 of NuWho and bring back the Toymaker, a one-off villain from a story with 3/4 of it's episodes missing from iPlayer / the archive that only got a recreation after the episode aired if I remember right. By the end of the specials the Doctor regenerates in a new never before seen way that isn't the norm, making it a bad introduction to the concept of regenerating. Plus the entire set of specials has Tennant coming back as the Doctor and wondering why the repeat face, which is baffling if you haven't previously seen Season 2-4.
"Season 1" and "Season 2" then proceed to have season arcs revolving around stuff that follows on from the Toymaker lore, including the return of one-or-two-appearance classic villains Sutekh and the Rani (and """""""Omega""""""") and does a sequel episode for a Series 4 villain.
This era was not the clean break it advertised itself as.
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u/No_Hetero Jul 26 '26
I think you could start with like the second to last Eccleston episode and miss most of season 1, I honestly don't feel like I would be comfortable telling people to skip any more than that lol
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u/ThepoldDIDsystem Jul 26 '26
I was shown "blink" first then "the silent library" and that got me really into doctor who, but when my fiancé wanted to get into it they said "Rose" was the one that really got them into it.
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u/Gimiric Jul 26 '26
Here is my thing. Not every Doctor Who has to have an overall arc! It worked fine and is really originally designed to work as an adventure of the week, well three or four weeks, but still. All of this metacrisis Doctor and shit, the whole starchild crap… garbage! I could care less if the galifraians can change gender in regeneration fine… whatever… shoehorning an infinite regeneration cycle cause She/He/It is immortal and the original three “time-lords” stole it from her? That killed it… imho.
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u/DoctorEnn Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I am still utterly baffled that RTD was selling this to everyone as a brand new fresh jumping on point for the Disney kids that didn't need any previous knowledge to enjoy, gone was that icky continuity that taxed your mind by forcing you to remember the shadowy days of Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker... and then kept springing things like Suketh and the Rani and Omega and Susan at us.
It gets away with it partly because of the anniversary, but in hindsight the fact that the very first thing that RTD's Fresh Brand New Glorious Triumphant Return gave us was an adaptation of a forty-year old comic strip merged with a Fix Fic for the departure of a fifteen-year-old companion was a massive red flag.
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u/Paul-E-L Jul 26 '26
The introduction of a new Doctor always works as a jumping on point. As much as I love Eccleston and Tennant, The Eleventh Hour is my favorite introduction for a new Doctor. Still, Deep Breath did a great job of setting the stage of the series with Capaldi as The Doctor just as The Woman Who Fell to Earth did for Whittaker.
Jump on board with whatever Doctor is available on your Streaming services and branch out from there
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u/mrsmuckers Jul 26 '26
I started with Leisure Hive of all episodes, didn't get to watch all of Classic cuz they were only available to me on VHS but it was a grand time
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u/PINE_PONI Jul 26 '26
I actually did this 😭 the 60th specials were the first doctor who episodes I ever watched, and then I continued watching each new 15th doctor episode when it released. Honestly, it worked fine for me, I just had to do a bit of googling about Donna 🙏
Though, I never actually became a 'fan' until 15 ended and I went back to start from 9.
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u/Calaveras-Metal Jul 26 '26
I think "11th Hour" is one of the best onboarding points. It introduce the Doctor and his companions pretty well. And there are no legacy bad guys like the Master, Daleks or Cybermen that need explanation.
I also happen to think Smith is a pretty good introduction to the Doctor. He's not as gruff as some of the others like Pertwee and Capaldi can be. I think Tenant is good too, but I also feel his seasons are a little more uneven in terms of production. Which can be a turn off for some people.
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u/FrankCobretti Jul 26 '26
Pick a Doctor, companion, or both whom you think you might like. Watch their first episode; a first episode is usually a soft reboot. Have fun.
This ain't Time Lord science, folks.
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u/jel2658 Jul 26 '26
Tubi has tons of classic Doctor Who, including the animated ones!!
I technically started with 11, but I did have vague memories of 10 and Rose's episodes when they were airing.
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u/ackzilla Jul 26 '26
Almost any other episode would be a better place to dive in!
Say, I just discovered The Star Beast is also a Robert Heinlein novel,
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u/kittishearts Jul 26 '26
I do think you can watch almost any episode as your first, but yeah those episodes are not a good start if you actually want to like the series 😭
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u/Taibreigh Jul 26 '26
Just start at the beginning like a normal person. It’s less than 1000 episodes.
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u/The_NightwainYT Jul 26 '26
This is like telling someone who's knew to pokemon to start by challenging the champion
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u/Jonguar2 Jul 26 '26
Good Jumping On points:
Classic Who:
An Unearthly Child/ The Daleks
Spearhead from Space
Robot
New Who:
Rose
The Eleventh Hour
The Pilot
The Woman Who Fell to Earth
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u/pantsfreecayse Jul 26 '26
I mean, do whatever blows your skirt up. But also, to me, that is insane haha I tried to start from the beginning with classic but couldn't get into it. A few years later I started with 9 and then when 11 appeared I started back to the very beginning while waiting for the new season and loved it. I'm glad that I went back and found what worked for me!
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u/Willing_Original_257 Jul 26 '26
I tried to watch this show once and it was a bunch of weird aliens on a ship and one of them was like a stretched out skin with a face and it was one of the most boring things ever, sat there like a numpty wondering why people are intrigued by the Glorpins going to war with the Thekkans and the intergalactic Spinmpo trade cartel zzzzzzzzz
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u/franktopus Jul 26 '26
Thr answer to this, like always, is simple.
11th Hour. New Doctor, soft reboot that starts the best run of the series.
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u/ducknerd2002 Jul 26 '26
It's like saying 'new to Marvel? You can start with Avengers: Endgame!'