Doctor Who is literally the hardest series to get into.

[Matthew Jabour]

When I wanted to 'get into' Attack on Titan, I went online and watched all the episodes in order. When my friends suggested I 'get into' House of Cards, I watched an episode in the middle of the season and immediately got it. When I decided to check out My Little Pony just to see what all the fuss was about, I just checked Youtube and watched a couple episodes. (Still not getting it, by the way, unless there's some sort of golden entry episode I'm not currently aware of.) All of these were fairly easy to look up and enter.

Now the largest internet fanbase generator I have not yet examined is the Doctor Who series. But I'm completely stumped. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Check a random episode of the current series? The first episode of the series? Maybe the previous series? The very first series? Was there something that happened in the middle that reset the timeline I can start at? (Like that 'war' thing that apparently did something significant that nobody ever talks about?) Where do I start? Where would I finish?

I mean, the series has gone on for 50 freaking years! It's been around almost as long as TV itself, and they're still making more. What the hell am I supposed to do to even begin to understand it? Unless some deranged madman locked me in a room for 6 weeks with only a television and a stack of VHS tapes halfway to the moon, I could never possibly get through all of it. And somehow, I don't think this series is one of those 'start wherever you want, it's all basically contained in each season' shows.

I'm lost. If there's anyone who could make sense out of it for me, by all means, speak up, but until then, let me just say this: When your entire continuity consists of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, don't be so surprised when your colleagues can't figure out what all the damn fuss is about.

 

[JoJo]

The beginning of the revived series, in 2005, is undoubtedly the best starting point for a newcomer. The first season came after a very long gap of no television episodes and so reintroduces the Doctor and the basic lore for newcomers to understand. It obviously has shout-outs and references to older material but you don't need to know about them to make sense of it, I'd recommend just watching the seasons since 2005 and if you really like them, then consider digging around some of the older episodes.

 

[Ninjamedic]

I've posted this several times at this point, I made a list of good places to start:


-First Doctor (William Hartnell): An Unearthly Child : Start with the very first and go from there, however you should know that the pacing is very slow, and episodes from the first and second doctors tenures are still missing.

-Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee): Spearhead From Space : First story in Colour, you can start here without having to see the first or second doctors. The first few seasons are mainly set on contemporary Earth mind, but there is also The Three Doctors which lets you see the First and Second as well.

-Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker): Robot : Baker's era, need I say more? Said to be the best of the Classic Era.

-Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) : Rose : Start of the New Series, if you intend on watching the Tennant(Tenth Doctor) episodes at least, I strongly advise starting here.

-Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith): The Eleventh Hour: Latest Doctor, you only need to see two (three as of now) seasons to catch up. You don't need to see any of the Eccleston/Tennant episodes prior either. (Although I recommend seeing Blink and Silence in the Library/Forest of The dead at least)

 

[Mangod]

If you want help getting into Doctor Who, I'd recommend this guide by SF Debris: http://sfdebris.com/videos/doctorwho/dw101.php

It goes over all of the doctors up to that point, with introductions, recommendations of episodes and good jumping-on points for getting into the series.

 

[Jusey1]

I randomly got a DVD of David Tennant (My friend said he is one of the best Doctors) and got into it from there.

When I decided to check out My Little Pony just to see what all the fuss was about, I just checked Youtube and watched a couple episodes. (Still not getting it, by the way, unless there's some sort of golden entry episode I'm not currently aware of.)

Oh and to point this out... The cartoon isn't for everybody and if you hadn't really gotten into it within the first 6-8 episodes then you might not like HOWEVER for some people it takes a very specific episode for them to really get into it, which could be the case for you.

Btw... Isn't the MLP fanbase the largest internet one? (I thought the MLP fanbase won the majority of those fanbase polls)... Though I wouldn't be surprise if Doctor Who is truly the largest or at least up there.

 

[omega 616]

Pick the start of a series and just go.

Whats the plot of all the Dr. Who? Shit goes down and the doc saves the day, just the characters change every so often. To get really into the back story read a wiki or something, doubt it would take long.

Hell, you could just say "I don't like the look of this doc, whats the next series doc like? ... Oh, this one looks good, I'll watch this one".

 

[skywolfblue]

The beginning of the revived series, in 2005, is undoubtedly the best starting point for a newcomer. The first season came after a very long gap of no television episodes and so reintroduces the Doctor and the basic lore for newcomers to understand. It obviously has shout-outs and references to older material but you don't need to know about them to make sense of it, I'd recommend just watching the seasons since 2005 and if you really like them, then consider digging around some of the older episodes.

/Agree.

The 2005 series is an excellent place to start.

------

A word on what to expect: Dr. Who is completely cheesy when it comes to plotline and special effects. They're just a vehicle to put people into all kinds of strange and hilarious or sad situations. The real elegance of the show comes from displaying humanities emotional response to said events. So remember to bring popcorn and enjoy it, rather then expecting it to be something logical.

 

[Matthew Jabour]

Btw... Isn't the MLP fanbase the largest internet one? (I thought the MLP fanbase won the majority of those fanbase polls)... Though I wouldn't be surprise if Doctor Who is truly the largest or at least up there.

I consider the MLP fanbase artificially inflated by people joining purely to spite logical people. I'm sure many people genuinely like the show, but some are just there because of how anomalous the whole thing is.

 

[Chris Mosher]

One of the great joys of Dr Who is how little continuity matters. You can easily start at the beginning of a season, or if want at the beginning of a new Doctor. Sure there are call backs and you may get more out of the series if you know what happened before but it won't break the story if you don;t. Also with the Doctor changing more then 10 times by now the showing not having one continuous plot line is part of the joy.

Mind you I have been watching the show for a little under 30 years so I may not have the best perspective on this.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

start with the first episode of the 2005 series, you'll be lost starting anywhere else.

My friends tried to get me into it, they didn't show me that first episode and without the set up it's just weird.

 

[TheIceQueen]

Doctor Who was pretty easy to get into for me. I started with the new rebooted series and it was pretty newcomer friendly. There were very few things that I didn't get that my DW expert friend pointed out for me.

 

[Tanis]

Having watched every episode, even those 'missing ones' (which were basically pictures with most of the audio ripped from various sources).
Read nearly every book, short story, and comic book.
Listened to nearly every audio drama, play, radio drama.

It's not that hard to get into

If you're not a fan of the old school cheesy stuff, still to the 2005 and up series.

If you're willing to take a ride on the classics, there's plenty of guides that tell you which series/arcs are MUST watches.

If you have google, it's not the hardest series to get into.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Start with David Tennant, his beauty will lead you through on the magical adventure you deserve. (I actually started with the Water of Mars episode, which was one of the last ones he was in.)

Spoiler

I mean that is just pure beauty.

The lore isn't something very hard to pick up on, at least from my experience, I've only watched one and a half seasons, and I feel like I know most of the ends and outs. But starting with the 2005 season would also be a good choice, probably, I'd imagine that's a lore encyclopedia.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I got into it recently, and I started with Christopher Ecclestone. Netflix has all the episodes of his and David Tennant on, and I think some of Matt Smith (But I am not there yet.)

The Christopher Ecclestone 2005 reboot pretty much assumes no prior knowledge and is easy to get into.

Also... everytime there is a companion change all the basics seem to be explained again in dribs and drabs, so that helps too!

 

[OneCatch]

Another vote for starting with the first episode of the 2005 reboot (Rose).

It's probably the best introduction to the series because it requires no prior knowledge, and isn't as dated as the very first episodes (which are still good, but I find are better appreciated as a historical exercise rather than pure entertainment).

 

[Auberon]

Yeah, reboot is easiest due to reasons already mentioned. Unless you really wish to dig obscure antiquarian shops for the lost 106 episodes of First and Second Doctor, followed by watching them all from Hartnell.

 

[Illesdan]

If you have Netflix, they have ALL of the 'Classic Who', as they call it. You probably shouldn't bother if you're looking for a 'jump in' point and not 'a nostalgic look back' view of the series. I honestly just don't 'get' this series, which is odd, considering I'm a big fan of 'Red Dwarf' and all incarnations of 'Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. Oh well.

 

[Phasmal]

Starting at the 2005 series is usually the best way.
I started there when it first came out and now I'm way absorbed into Doctor Who.
I'm not a fan of Classic Who, I've never seen it and I'm not really going to go back and watch it all, but you don't need to.

 

[Ratty]

The first Doctor was a grumpy old man with a nails-on-chalkboard annoying granddaughter. If you're worried about missing some important bit of backstory (like the origin of the Daleks or something) you could always look up which story arcs are important for that specifically, then watch those.

But really the lore of the series isn't complex enough that you should worry about it for the pre-relaunch stuff[footnote]This is kind of true for long running sci-fi franchises generally. I mean you don't need to know what happened in every original Star Trek episode or the movies to understand and enjoy Star Trek: TNG.[/footnote] which was pretty episodic. While as I understand post-relaunch it's more serialized so you'll want to start in 2005 as others have suggested. I'm with Illesdan on this though, just couldn't get into the franchise despite it seeming to have many of the things I love.