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[Bjoern the Smexy]

Sooooo...

I guess you can add another name to the ever growing list of Doctor Who fans.

I started the series roughly a month or two ago. I always liked time travel stuff, I always liked Sci-Fi stuff, I liked British productions for quite some time but I never came around to watching this series.

So "Fuck it" I said and started watching it on Netflix (via Smartflix).
At first I thought it was a bit too weird as it felt a bit cheap (I always knew that the series was supposed to have a cheap look to it, though). I mean, mannequins coming to life, that's neither scary nor interesting.
But then the Doctor appears and everything became quite cool.

I would LOVE to point out specific episodes in the series that I liked, but describing those would simply be way too complicated for me.

I slowly went forward with the series, watching maybe one or two episodes a week at most.
The episode that really got me over binge watching the rest of it was the episode "Dalek". I always knew that the Daleks are supposed to be to the Doctor what the Joker is to Batman basically, so yeah. You probably should've seen my face when that Dalek started speaking with this monotonous voice all aggressively and stuff. It being the last of the Daleks while the Doctor is the last of the Time Lords opened up a VERY interesting parallel between both characters (which was of course thrown overboard at the end of the episode and more Daleks being introduced as the series went on).

Chris Ecclestone was a GREAT Doctor. I'm just a little bit sad that he apparently never reprised this role. But hey, he was replaced by DAVID FUCKING TENNANT and he is AWESOME!
I'm sad that, as I'm writing this, I'm watching the last few episodes of Season 4 of the new series, which means that he will be replaced soon. But I enjoyed it so far.

So yes, I'm only at the end of Season 4, but OH BOY WHAT A RIDE!
I read quite some stuff about Doctor Who long before I started watching the series. I knew about Daleks, I knew about the Doctor regenerating and taking on a different appearance when he's about to die, I knew about the Master, many episodes of the old series being lost, etc.
But that didn't hamper my experience with the series at all.

Even though I'm not even half-way done with the new series for now I already feel the urge to watch/listen to the old series once I'm up to date with the new series. Sadly I haven't found any way of watching them legally, either online or on DVD. Hopefully that will change some time in the future.

So...yeah, that's all for now, I guess.

TL;DR: Doctor Who is an AMAZING series and I could kick myself in the ass for not watching it earlier. And you should, too.

 

[Magwik]

Glad you enjoy it so far. Don't let anyone discourage you from watching the rest of the show though as I'm sure one or two people will try to tell you how terrible Moffat is as a show runner.

 

[breakfuss]

I'd love to give it a try as well but there are so many episodes. I don't know where to begin lol. And the seasons are called 'series'?

 

[Magwik]

I'd love to give it a try as well but there are so many episodes. I don't know where to begin lol. And the seasons are called 'series'?

Start at Series 1. Watch until the episode 'Dalek'
If you don't like it but want to try again start at Series 2 or Series 5. Series is the same as season just the British term.

 

[Bjoern the Smexy]

I'd love to give it a try as well but there are so many episodes. I don't know where to begin lol. And the seasons are called 'series'?

I'd just call them Seasons, it's easier to distinguish them by that term.
Also I guess Season 1 of the new series (from 2005 onward) would be a good way to start.
It should still be up on Netflix Canada (and is readily available on Amazon Video as VOD).

Read a little bit about it, just so you know who the good and the bad guys are. But beware of spoilers (even TV Tropes has currently unmarked spoilers for the complete series).

EDIT: Or what StaticJam said. I think it's a good idea to watch until "Dalek" (which is a REALLY strong and amazingly good episode).
Also, try not to think badly about the Doctor's first companion Rose. She is a bit ditzy in the first few episodes but she's getting better very quickly.

 

[mclem]

If you're Netflixing it, I believe there's a couple of specials between series 4 and 5 which were missing once upon a time; don't know if they still are.

The sequence should go:

Journey's End (Last episode of Series 4)
The Next Doctor
Planet of the Dead
The Waters of Mars
The End Of Time (Parts 1 and 2)
The Eleventh Hour (First episode of Series 5)

If any are missing, I'd recommend seeking them out to fill in the gaps. Particularly Waters of Mars and End Of Time.

 

[Llyranor]

I'd love to give it a try as well but there are so many episodes. I don't know where to begin lol. And the seasons are called 'series'?

Just go in chronological order from the reboot.

-Series 1 - Eccleston
-Series 2-4 - Tennant
-There's a few special episodes after series as a transition (Complete Specials with Tennant on amazon)
-Series 5-7 - Smith
-Day of the Doctor (culmination of the last few seasons)
-Time of the Doctor (end of Smith)
-Series 8-9, etc - Capaldi

 

[Bjoern the Smexy]

If you're Netflixing it, I believe there's a couple of specials between series 4 and 5 which were missing once upon a time; don't know if they still are.

The sequence should go:

Journey's End (Last episode of Series 4)
The Next Doctor
Planet of the Dead
The Waters of Mars
The End Of Time (Parts 1 and 2)
The Eleventh Hour (First episode of Series 5)

Thankfully, I have access to these thanks to a friend who turned out to be a huge Doctor Who fan himself after I told him that I started the series

 

[Valtýr]

Watch David Tennant's run

Then watch Jessica Jones and see what actually happens to that character after his season.

 

[teeny]

I'd love to give it a try as well but there are so many episodes. I don't know where to begin lol. And the seasons are called 'series'?

Series = Seasons. Ignore the old episodes for now, start with the modern era (2005-). Series 1 is pretty rough as the show didn't really know what direction it wanted to go. However, there are some truly standout episodes and Christopher Eccelston is a fantastic Doctor. You can optionally jump in at Series 2 (David Tennant's first) or Series 5 (Matt Smith's first). If you like what you see, you can backfill the rest, including some of the old stuff (there are many lists of must watch episodes - I've done it sort of randomly myself).

There's a little bit for everyone with Doctor Who - sometimes it's silly, sometimes serious, sometimes quite dark and sometimes for kids. It's an eclectic show and you may or may not like that!

 

[Boem]

I'd love to give it a try as well but there are so many episodes. I don't know where to begin lol. And the seasons are called 'series'?

Seasons being called series is just a British thing (and I like the sound of it a bit better).

A couple of starting points: the main character (and showrunners/lead writers) change every couple of years. You can basically start with any Doctor that looks interesting to you. There may be references to past adventures that you won't get, but you can always go back to look at the earlier stuff if you're enjoying it. Nothing should be too hard to understand even if you don't get all the references.

My biggest suggestion: start at series 5 (first series with Matt Smith as the Doctor, Stephen Moffat as the showrunner). In my opinion the best season of the modern show, and the show got a pretty big boost in production values at this point as well. The writing also vastly improves compared to the earlier seasons in my opinion, but I know not everyone on Gaf agrees with that - that's down to personal taste more than anything.

Other possibilities:
- start at series 8, which is where the current Doctor (Peter Capaldi) started, if you want to be as up to date as possible.
- start at series 1, with Christopher Eccleston. This will give you the full story of the modern show, but it does vastly increase the amounts of episodes you need to watch and frankly, those earlier years have a lot of episodes that can be pretty bad. There's some good stuff in there, but eh.
- hardcore suggestion: start at the first series of the original show, which started in 1963. But that's way, way too hardcore for most - it reflects the times, so it's a slow show back in those days, more resembling of a stage play than what a modern television would be like. You probably want to start looking at the classic show only after you've become a fan of the modern show and really want to know more about its history. If you just want to watch what is probably the most iconic of the classic series (and the period most resembling the current show), watch the Tom Baker series. That's still a lot of episodes though - he had the longest run of any Doctor with 7 years.

There are also a couple of spinoffs (Torchwood, Sarah Jane Smith Adventures - both of which have finished at this point, and Class which starts later this year), but it's better to dive into those after you've gotten into the modern show.

Edit: Also, as others have said, there are a couple of special episodes each year that you might miss out on depending where you watch/buy these episodes, as they sometimes don't list them. Which is a shame because some important story stuff can happen in these episodes. There's at least 1 christmas episode every year, and other episodes here and there as well (and also shorter mini-episodes released online - never crucial apart from one released during the 50th anniversary). Use the wiki episode overview to make sure you don't miss those.