Where Should Doctor Who Newcomers Begin?

If you weren’t brought up on a healthy diet of custard creams and British television, you may only know Doctor Who as some vague thing about a guy who wears a big coat and travels around in a blue box to fight off whisk-handed pepper pot monsters. You wouldn’t be entirely wrong, but you may be more curious about Doctor Who since the announcement of Jodie Whittaker as the thirteenth Doctor, though you’re also probably quite overwhelmed at where to start with a show that spans over fifty years. Here’s our quick, comprehensive guide on where to begin your journey through time and space:

 

Good Lord! Colour television!

When beginning your viewing journey with Doctor Who, most people will tell you to start with the “revamped” 2005 series, which introduced Christopher Eccleston as the ninth Doctor. Though the first few episodes can be a little tough to get through in 2017 (the early 2000’s had a strange aesthetic), I’d still recommend Eccleston’s run as the best starting point for someone watching for the first time in 2017. At the time of writing, it’s available on both UK and US Netflix, but is also widely available on DVD and Blu-Ray. Though Eccleston is the ninth Doctor (the Doctor can “regenerate” his body, which was basically the BBC’s answer to being able to switch out the actor when one of them wanted to move on from the show), the series was the BBC’s way of reintroducing a TV series which hadn’t aired in years, meaning that Eccleston is tasked with explaining a lot of the themes and “rules” of Doctor Who. Perfect for new viewers who need a jumping-on point!

 

Nine hundred years

Should you watch the Classic (pre-ninth Doctor) episodes of Doctor Who? If, like me, you love questionable SFX and surprisingly philosophical plotlines, then yes. Yes, you should. “Classic” Who usually refers to anything before the 2005 series (though there’s some debate about the Eighth Doctor, who starred in a TV movie which gained mixed reviews on its release back in 1996) and you can start all the way back with the first Doctor, who appeared on television screens back in 1963, in glorious black and white. Of course, this means there’s a lot of Doctor Who to go through (if you watched every single episode and serial, you’d be watching almost 850 episodes of Who!), but New Who references a lot of the old episodes, and you might even find yourself with a new favourite Doc, considering that each actor brings something different to the role. All of the old episodes are available on DVD for most regions (with uniform covers, for all you collectors) and you can find multitudes of listicles online which’ll tell you which Classic episodes are considered the best, if you don’t want to commit to every single episode.

 

Timey wimey…stuff

As well as the show itself, the world of Doctor Who spans comic books, video games, board games, novels, animated shorts and much, much more. It is an insanely large franchise and even listing the categories of products that Doctor Who encompasses would merit an entire article in of itself. The current run of comics are very good if you’re a comic reader; Titan Comics publishes Who comics which are available in physical formats or online via comiXology. They have a lot of #1 issues which are great for new readers (and new Who fans!) so you won’t have to get lost as you try to navigate your way through 400+ issues of backstory.

If you’re more of a gamer than a reader, Doctor Who has you covered there as well. There’s a plethora of BBC-made family friendly Doctor Who games available online, a bunch of which teach kids how to code. And if you’re more of a console gamer or a Lego fan, Lego Dimensions have a whole bunch of Doctor Who sets for you to sink your teeth into.

I can’t ignore all the fan produced content out there either, of which there is (as you would expect) a huge amount of. Fan content spans fanfiction, fanart, cosplay and pretty much every creative medium you can think of, most of which is incredibly creative and well-made. Doctor Who fan bands even exist, where musicians create songs based around the characters and world of Who (spoilers below if you haven’t watched the Tenth Doctor’s run!):

 

Bloody Torchwood…

If you’re not dead (and regenerated) by now, Doctor Who has also inspired a bunch of spin-off shows, most notably: Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Class. Torchwood is aimed at an older audience–sex and death galore made this post-watershed show a bit of a controversy when it first aired, considering its ties to the family-friendly Doctor Who. The Sarah Jane Adventures were more in the style of the original show, with journalist Sarah Jane (played by the wonderful late Elisabeth Sladen) investigating alien occurrences with a team of young adventurers/alien hunters by her side. Class is the BBC’s latest offering, it aired only last year and centered around a group of sixth formers who had to deal with “youth issues” like sex and exam stress, as well as trying to cope with all the monsters and aliens that the Doctor had accidentally unleashed during his meddling with time and space. There’s only eight episodes so far, so you don’t have to dedicate much of your life to it, and it’s available on iPlayer.

All of the spin-offs shows are aimed at a different audience and so each have something unique to offer…they also all reference the main series at some point, so you can feel clever when you understand that little nod to the Autons.

So, have you been tempted into watching? Or are you still very, very confused? Let us know in the comments below, or leave your own recommendations if you’re a die-hard Whovian!