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Okay, I'm going to lose geek points here. I don't watch Dr. Who. No real reason, I just never have.

But I'm ready to start. The problem is that there have been several incarnations of the Doctor since he began. I mean, I used to watch an episode or two years and years ago but nothing in decades. In fact, the Doctor I watched was this guy:



So where should I start watching? I'm certainly not going back to the beginning.

Dave said:

So where should I start watching? I'm certainly not going back to the beginning.

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Start with this season. New Doctor, new companion, new director, you'll catch up quick enough.

If you want to bite off a larger chunk, start where the series restarted in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston.

Yep. You can jump on either with the new season that just started, starring Matt Smith, or as the Figster said, with Eccleston. Either would be fine, thought I'd recommend the latter. That's where I started.

*waits for a furious mexican to arrive with a grudge against incorrect usage of dr.*

We can give Dave a pass for three reasons:

1) He's new to the mythology.
2) He's old, therefore wouldn't remember, anyway.
3) He's our head mod and will ban the hell out of all of us.

I take it you are not supposed to abbreviate Doctor. Like never forget the hyphen in Spider-man.

Personally, I'd start with the Eccleston season and go from there, as it contains a couple of the best episodes of the entire new run. Definitely do not start with the newest season, as it's the weakest of any of them so far (in my opinion).

Start with Eccleston, luxuriate in Tennant, enjoy the surprising new flavour of Smith.

For the record... I... I've never seen any of the old series

I started with Eccleston and that's as far as I've made it (free time is not my friend). I caught up quickly enough.

Dave said:

I take it you are not supposed to abbreviate Doctor. Like never forget the hyphen in Spider-man.

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British media have abbreviated it to Dr. Who for decades. Afterall, 'Doctor Who' isn't even his name so shortening 'Doctor' before 'Who' isn't really an inaccuracy.

Veteran said:

Dave said:

I take it you are not supposed to abbreviate Doctor. Like never forget the hyphen in Spider-man.

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British media have abbreviated it to Dr. Who for decades. Afterall, 'Doctor Who' isn't even his name so shortening 'Doctor' before 'Who' isn't really an inaccuracy.

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High Five!

As to where to start, I'd definitely start with the Eccelson Doctor as it was built on pulling in a new audience who's really not familiar with the show.

Though, If you'd like to see some good older episodes, I have some I could recommend to you.

Bowielee said:

Though, If you'd like to see some good older episodes, I have some I could recommend to you.

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I would like to know that myself, I interesed in the old series, but at same time, it is a rather a turn off that I will never be able to watch all episdoes and that there is so many of them.

As promised, here are some suggestions. Now, when watching them, you do need to keep in mind that they were made quite a while ago, so yes, there are tons of cheesy rubber suited aliens.

Tom Baker: I highly recommend The Key of Time series. It's the first time that they had a running theme through the entire season. It's currently available on DVD as a boxed set. (I'm still waiting for them to introduce the White and Black guardians in the new series)

Also, if you want to learn more about Galifrey, I suggest The Deadly Assassin.

Genesis of the Daleks is also a great episode that gives the full origin of the Daleks as a race.

I could dig around and find a ton more Tom Baker, but those are my top picks.

For Peter Davidson, I'd say Earthshock was his finest hour as the Doctor, but if you aren't familiar with his companions at the time, it may not be as great an episode.

The Infinity Arc deals with Omega, a renegade ancient timelord.

I really didn't watch much after those 2 doctors.

I should also mention that in the earlier Doctor Who series, the majority of the episodes didn't have running themes. The Doctor would show up, have his adventure and move on to the next thing the following week. Sometimes there were callbacks to other episodes and recurring characters, but for the most part, the episodes were self contained.

Bowielee, what is your opinion of Dr. Who and the Daleks? (which is currently available on Hulu) Is it worth watching? Is it really Doctor Who? I've heard that it was made between the times of the old and new series, and that it doesn't really fit in with either.

figmentPez said:

Bowielee, what is your opinion of Dr. Who and the Daleks? (which is currently available on Hulu) Is it worth watching? Is it really Doctor Who? I've heard that it was made between the times of the old and new series, and that it doesn't really fit in with either.

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This was actually made way before Tom Baker's stint as the Doctor. It is wholly and absolutely not a part of Doctor Who cannon in any way, shape or form, and should be shunned like the abortion that it is.

A good portion of the original run is now available for streaming on Netflix. I decided to check out The Armageddon Factor a couple weeks ago. The differences are quite jarring. The Shadow is about as cringe-worthy a villian as I have seen in quite a while. Today's six-year-olds would be more than a match for that cackling fool. They'd kick him in the shins and be done with him before the first ep was halfway done.

If only I had a credit card so Netflix loved me again.

Dave said:

If only I had a credit card so Netflix loved me again.

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*cough*debit card*cough*

Yeah, that's how I'm watching them. I can't make myself start the Tennent ones yet. I'm...I'm just not ready.

Well, if you want the all encompassing, start with Season 1 from 1963

If you want to jump ahead some, start with the Tom Baker era stuff from the 70's.

Personally I started with the 2005 incarnation that was Season 27, with Eccleston as The Doctor. It slow rolls itself for new viewers to catch on, very easily, and appeals to older fans too.

DarkAudit;382022][QUOTE=Dave said:

If only I had a credit card so Netflix loved me again.

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*cough*debit card*cough*[/QUOTE]

*cough*Don't have one.*cough*

Dave;382929][QUOTE=DarkAudit;382022][QUOTE=Dave said:

If only I had a credit card so Netflix loved me again.

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*cough*debit card*cough*[/QUOTE]

*cough*Don't have one.*cough*[/QUOTE]

They make these newfangled cards that you can use like credit cards, but the money comes out of your bank.

It's like checks, but electronic.

I know. But they also have these wonderful fees that we were racking up each month to the tune of $30 a pop. Some months we had nearly $700 in fees alone. So I took a garden shears to them.

Dave said:

I know. But they also have these wonderful fees that we were racking up each month to the tune of $30 a pop. Some months we had nearly $700 in fees alone. So I took a garden shears to them.

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That's when you tell your bank to shove a harvesting combine and all their free toasters up their ass and find someone whose mission statement doesn't involve fucking over their customers.

Dave said:

I know. But they also have these wonderful fees that we were racking up each month to the tune of $30 a pop. Some months we had nearly $700 in fees alone. So I took a garden shears to them.

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Then you just have a REALLY, REALLY crappy bank. I can't think of a bank I ever had that charged a fee for debit cards.

And yes, my original post was just to poke fun at you.

Dave;382929][QUOTE=DarkAudit;382022][QUOTE=Dave said:

If only I had a credit card so Netflix loved me again.

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*cough*debit card*cough*[/QUOTE]

*cough*Don't have one.*cough*[/QUOTE]

dude. Walmart. Prepaid credit cards. Buy one. Enjoy.

They also charge money to fill and refill and also for each transaction. In addition if you don't use them in X time they start to degrade. ALSO, a lot of online places won't take them. Like Netflix.

I really gotta check out the Tom Baker years at some point. I watched one episode of it a couple years and he was great.