Someone recommended that I start watching Doctor Who

[MustISO]

I checked out what Amazon offers and they have both older series and newer ones (starting at the 2005 reboot). I was thinking of just starting with Series 1 from 2005. I literally know nothing about the show. I had to Google all the series to understand which years they were even from.

Recommendations? Thoughts? Should I just skip it and watch something else.

 

[nakedfrog]

I checked out what Amazon offers and they have both older series and newer ones (starting at the 2005 reboot). I was thinking of just starting with Series 1 from 2005. I literally know nothing about the show. I had to Google all the series to understand which years they were even from.

Recommendations? Thoughts? Should I just skip it and watch something else.

Yeah, just start there.

 

[AreaCode707]

Agreed, start in 2005. Be prepared for a pretty campy few episodes. It's part of the charm of the show but the early episodes were both lower budget as they brought the show back, and an homage to the old show.

 

[Charmonium]

That's what I did, start with 2005. There might be some times when you feel a little left out but you should never be lost. They do explain everything. Sometimes it's a bit cursory and you have to pay attention, but they do give you background.

In fact later in the series you get more backstory on things like the Daleks than I think you ever got with the original series. I've watched some of the early episodes and the Daleks are just sort of dropped on you and never really explained. Although maybe you get more later on. That I can't say. You also get a lot of backstory on things like the doctor's orgins, Gallifrey and a lot of other things.

The point is that you're not really missing anything important by starting with 2005. They realize that no one is going to go back and watch everything from the 60's, especially considering that many of the first doctor episodes are still missing.

 

[SaltyNuts]

I'd skip this garbage and watch Firefly. Even if its your second or third or fourth time through it.

 

[Charmonium]

Start with the movie Serenity though. It gives you a lot of the background to the series. Although it might have spoilers. I can't remember.

The sequel to Babylon 5, Crusade I thought was also quite good and then there are also the B5 specials.

Also check out Lexx for some really off the wall sci-fi but you need to start with the 4 or 5 specials that laid everything out for the tv series.

 

[MongGrel]

2005 is good, to start, a lot of the specials on Amazon if you look even go back into the making of the show in the 60's and cover a lot of the backstory.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GO8Y36O?autoplay=1&t=2688

I'm a Firefly fan myself, but I would not consider 2005 onward Dr Who garbage personally.

The Original ones were really campy, but so were the Original Star Treks.

I want a TARDIS

 

[SaltyNuts]

Whoa, I'd definitely watch Firefly before watching the movie Serenity. Serinity picks up after the Firefly series, don't want spoilers.

 

[zerocool84]

I tried watching one episode of Dr Who and it was as campy as 60's Star Trek. At least with Star Trek, you can forgive it since it was made in a different era, Dr Who has no excuse.

 

[Imp]

I loved the 2005 season with Christopher Eccleston... The Tennant seasons didn't click with me other than the Christmas specials. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan and/or Steven Moffat won me over in 2010 and I've been watching it religiously since.

P.S. I loved Serenity and didn't care for Firefly. Seriously.

 

[Iron Woode]

I like both Old and Reboot Doctor Who.

the original series was meant for kids and it shows. Still was a lot of fun even if the effects were very low budget. Tom Baker was an amazing Doctor.

Possibly the best Old Series serial was Genesis of The Daleks. definitely worth watching.

 

[Mike64]

If 2005 was when the latest incarnation of the series started (I've lost track at this point) then yes, start with that. Unless you're old enough to have lived through at least part of the era when "special effects" (when they were used at all) were beyond laughable compared to their modern counterparts, you will all but certainly find the early Dr Who episodes incredibly lame...

As for Firefly, I liked it a lot (though I also realized, by episode two, that it was destined to die an early death), but it is in no way a "substitute" for Dr. Who. (And of course the whole thing is over in the blink of an eye.) And/but in any event, do not watch Serenity first, that'll just kill both birds with one stone. It'll ruin the progression of the Firefly episodes (limited though it ended up being), and you won't enjoy the movie as much without the series as background, or even understand three-quarters of what's going on at all... And while it was satisfying in the sense of providing "one last hurrah", in and of itself I really didn't think it was all that great. Single "episodes" created primarily to give rabid fans "one last taste" and to tie up all the loose ends and dangling references from a series that its viewers really just don't want to end, never really are all that satisfying after all...

 

[Yakk]

The Dr. Who Tom Baker years (1974 to 1981) are still my favorite. Couldn't get into the reboot.

 

[Mike64]

The Dr. Who Tom Baker years (1974 to 1981) are still my favorite. Couldn't get into the reboot.

Those might do it for the OP, too. I was thinking of the really early black and white series-es when I warned him off the pre-reboot show, at least to start with...

 

[SAWYER]

The show is garbage from the one episode I struggled to watch

 

[Yakk]

Those might do it for the OP, too. I was thinking of the really early black and white series-es when I warned him off the pre-reboot show, at least to start with...

The Tom Baker episodes had a theatrical quality to them (as in watching real actors live in theater) which I really appreciated, not something you see often on TV in any decade. At one point or another I've watched all the pre-reboot episodes including the very first black&white ones... those early episodes I'd suggest to people already familiar and invested in the series, they are quite rough to start with nowadays, but still worth watching later on as a Prequel of sorts.

 

[nakedfrog]

Start with the movie Serenity though. It gives you a lot of the background to the series. Although it might have spoilers. I can't remember.

I'd recommend going into Serenity with very low expectations, after watching Firefly. Very low.

 

[Mike64]

The Tom Baker episodes had a theatrical quality to them (as in watching real actors live in theater) which I really appreciated, not something you see often on TV in any decade.

Certainly not on American TV, but I've found many/most British shows, at least the ones that end up over here, that way, too. But then, in general, I find most British TV - at least the shows with any pretensions to any sort of "drama" at all - has always focused much more on actual acting than merely "displaying pretty people saying stuff"...

At one point or another I've watched all the pre-reboot episodes including the very first black&white ones... those early episodes I'd suggest to people already familiar and invested in the series, they are quite rough to start with nowadays, but still worth watching later on as a Prequel of sorts.

Agreed. I only got to see seemingly random "re-runs" on PBS stations when I was a kid in the 70s, but I've seen a lot more of them over the past 10 years or so years. But then, I'm also old enough to have seen a lot of TV (though often as re-runs) and a few movies with special effects that even at the time didn't seem very "special" and at this point are basically cringe-worthy...

The Dr. Who Tom Baker years (1974 to 1981) are still my favorite. Couldn't get into the reboot.

It's very different (but then each "re-boot" has been) but I think it maintains (reasonable) continuity with the basic premise and even the "tone", and I the think acting and writing are (still) great, and the special effects, really excellent...

 

[BurnItDwn]

Go with classic Tom Baker. The man has a HUGE scarf

 

[Spydermag68]

I like all versions of Doctor Who. Tom Baker was the first Doctor I watched and still is my favorite. I like #9 and #10, but cannot stand Matt Smith. Peter reminds me of Hartnell and Pertwee.

 

[MongGrel]

Still wonder if the latest Douglas Adams adaptaion will be worth taking a look at, he was involved in several Dr Who's in the past I believe.

http://www.indiewire.com/2016/10/di...ctive-agency-bbc-america-premiere-1201739313/

 

[DigDog]

just get the first and second series, Cristopher Ecclestone and David Tennant; there is some really great stuff in there, but then the series went to the dumps with Smith, and hasn't really recovered. New writer, less ideas, more formula.

regarding early Who, i personally do not like Baker at all; his shows were cheaply made and the stories were absurd; i'd much rather watch the 3rd and 5th doctor. The 2nd and 3rd doctor where about acting, in a vein similar to War Of The Worlds (the Orson Welles thing); the 5th doctor had more production money and they started building a canon which made some sense and had a hint of "science" to it. The 4th doctor was a shovelware fest of puppets and bad sets.

you should start with The Five Doctors (you can find it on Vimeo) to get an idea of what the early Doctor Who shows were like.


And also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do-wDPoC6GM The Curse Of Fatal Death

 

[MongGrel]

I liked the Matt Smith iteration of The Doctor myself, having Karen Gillian in them was a major bonus in my mind.

David Tenant was great also, if someone isn't a Dr Who fan to begin with it can be a bit hard to explain the whole show begin with.

Time Lords etc.

It is a bit of an acquired concept if you start getting into the show eventually.

 

[DigDog]

i politely disagree.

let me ask you, did you like that scene when Gillian rips her police hat off and yells "i'm a kissagram!" ?

Yes, of course you did. We all did. She's easy on the eyes. But her character disrupts the way the Doctor shows are set up.

1. premise 2. the doctor waders around like a retard, stumbles into the premise 3. doctor and friends act scared, they run, try to solve the problem by talking or something 4. the bad guy does something bad or corners the doctor 5. the doctor rips a new asshole on the bad guy 6. conclusion "oh shit, we didn't know the doctor was so awesome".

The formula is that the doctor is this awesome alien who will deus ex machina everything at the last second, and the dumb sidekicks are the public, so he has someone stupid to explain the plot to.

In the Pond / Clara era they made the doctor into an actual incompetent idiot, and the sidekick into the hero. Because women's liberation, 2016, safespaces, whatever. Let's mix the formula and give the audience someone to relate to.
But it doesn't work that way, you can't feel anymore that the doctor has saved you from the daleks, because 9/10 we are the ones saving him from the daleks.

I also really did not like the post-Tennant era because while with Ecclestone / Tennat they sought to explore the psychology of this tormented soul who has lost everything, and who has this enormous power to destroy, while being the only one who can stay his own hand, with Smith and Capaldi they seem to have found themselves incapable of moving forward with the character, so they re-wrote it, making first Smith childish and incompetent, then Capaldi into brooding but incompetent.

Changing the formula is like changing the taste of Coke. I don't want Watson solving crimes and Sherlock being the one who asks "But, how!?", because the formula is what makes the show what it is.

 

[MongGrel]

i politely disagree.

let me ask you, did you like that scene when Gillian rips her police hat off and yells "i'm a kissagram!" ?

Changing the formula is like changing the taste of Coke. I don't want Watson solving crimes and Sherlock being the one who asks "But, how!?", because the formula is what makes the show what it is.

It is all supposed to be a bit of mindless fun to begin with, as far as I'm concerned

The Doctor usually was still rescuing everyone normally, the Impossible girl was another iteration of canpanions over time.