An American Reacts To Doctor Who For The First Time!

[@calfitz-simmons3231]

20:58 I'm not a fan of Doctor Who my whole life or anything like that, but I never seen a single soul complain about that. The Doctor has had emotional moments since the classic and I don't remember seeing anyone complaining about any other until Disney's season 1, because there they overdue the emotional thing to a point that lessens the impact and actually hurts the narrative

[@Avatar_Obi]

It was a talking point in a lot of fan communities www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/1ee0atd/how_many_times_did_the_10th_doctor_cry/ ^just one example, other discourse on places like Twitter were not as civil about it.

[@calfitz-simmons3231]

@@Avatar_Obi, maybe it's because that happened in fan communities and that made me not aware of any of it. The biggest haters will always be the fans, because they are the ones who care the most about the project

[@Avatar_Obi]

@@calfitz-simmons3231 it's usually a vocal minority too

[@joshuajoshua2732]

He had emotion moments in Classic Who but never once did he cry like a big sook.

[@calfitz-simmons3231]

@@joshuajoshua2732, that's why it's not really surprising that people would complain about 15. The emotion has to be earned or it won't work. I think 10 earned his moments, for example, and he had some big ones that I never seen people complaining about

[@kingsora6352]

I now need to see this young lady watch the series in ordee

[@timothymcinvale8852]

I must say,as an American I have been a Dr Who fan since the mid 70's. There were ways to watch it. Our local PBS station aired some of the episodes staring Tom Baker.

[@TrillianSwan]

When I was a kid my PBS *only* had the Tom Baker ones (in the early 80s), and when they got to his regeneration at the end of his run, they’d just start over from him regenerating into Tom Baker again. I loved it (Tom’s my Doctor!) but I was really confused and had no idea about the other Doctors or the larger story! 😂

[@lunarharpy]

I have some fellow American friends that are also big Dr. Who fans, I believe they got into it more in the late 2000s when it was starting to get streamed more! I'm just very sheltered 😂

[@TheFireMonkey]

Why does the Doctor need a companion? There are different thoughts on that, my favourite is, The Doctor needs a companion to remind him to stop.

[@joshuajoshua2732]

My thought on it is just for the adventure and a thrill with the Doctor but I'm speaking on Classic Who terms.

[@TheFireMonkey]

@@joshuajoshua2732 well, that's why the companions would want to be with the Doctor - I was speaking about why the Doctor needs a companion, which is a bit different. That said, you do point to a significant issue: if you look at early Dr Who, the companions tended to be unwanted by the Doctor - the first story had the 2 teachers push their way into the Tardis and accidently activate it ... of course, back then they had no rules or ideas for how the Tardis worked or anything about the Doctor - originally he was intended to be an eccentric inventor who created the Tardis and he and his granddaughter along with 2 of her teachers ended up lost in time and space because the Doctor had no idea how to control where they went. The creators of the series decided that was not the way to go and they changed things over the first few stories. But then, Dr Who had been expected to be a single season with the hope that if it did really well, perhaps a second. Nobody expected it to be as popular as it ended up, so not a lot of background was planned. After they decided the Doctor was an alien and then added the regeneration concept, the reasons for a companion got altered and the Doctor started wanting companions and I think at that point it was just that he liked sharing the adventure and maybe a bit of showing off. I'd say though that the feel for the relationship between Doctor and companion changed a bit a couple of times. The point of him needing a companion to remind him to stop - that is, to not take things too far - is really more later, perhaps the last bit of the original series but definitely in the New Who.

[@charg1nmalaz0r51]

The doctor needs a companion so the doctor can use them as a sounding board to the audience who can relate to a human. Thats the real reason

[@TheFireMonkey]

@charg1nmalaz0r51 true, but that is not the in world reason, and sometimes a story might not bother with an in world explainable, but since Dr Who had given a couple observations from characters to explain it, it seems reasonable to use them.

[@jameshawkins6201]

Story-wise, the companions serve as surrogates for us viewers. They ask the questions we would like to ask. They see the events we would really like to be a part of. And, probably most importantly, they get to fly through time and space with Doctor Who. However, especially with Tennant, they served as a brake for his bad behavior (i.e. interfering with the election of Harriet Jones).

[@SinisterPixel]

Adding on to your point at the end about where to start, I think I'd more divide it by showrunner rather than actor. Only because in both RTD and Stephen Moffat eras, they had plotpoints that spanned throughout their entire run as showrunner (e.g. the Bad Wolf, and River Song). I'm glad she enjoyed it! I think if you're starting with this era, it's better to start with The Church on Ruby Road, since The Giggle kinda ties up the past 20 years of Doctor Who. And RTD said that Ncuti Gatwa was meant to be a soft reboot of the show, hence why they labelled it as "Season 1". This is considered a new era of Doctor Who. This does unfortunately mean we need a new name for "New Who" lmao

[@Avatar_Obi]

I chose the giggle specifically because I felt the church on ruby road would be much easier for a new comer to get into and if she wanted more she could go back to previous doctors. I do get what you mean about the story arcs though! There are some fantastic ones that work as stand alone self contained seasons.

[@mz5458]

Smith & Jones, or 11th Hour are pretty good places to start too.

[@therealpbristow]

Isn't it GREAT to have so many caring and devoted DW fans joining your comments section, just to help you understand how you're "doing it wrong". Must make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside... =:o?

[@bougorom]

I finally catch up on my watchlist ! I love this video !!!

[@beanybun6110]

Bit weird to jump in at this point. Better to start at the beginning of the “New Who” Eccleston Era (Rose) then take it from there. Will make way more sense.

[@richardbradbury3658]

Even better to start with An Unearthly Child.

[@SoTOreo]

except 69% of americans dont watch past rose because its fricken awful and full of cringe. so if the doctors explanation of how he sees the universe combined with wtf is this weird blue box time machine?!? the cringe is so heavy most people just like yea hard pass

[@mxrdersimulator]

@@SoTOreo rose is FAR from awful imo, but to each their own ig

[@joshuajoshua2732]

Why does no one ever start with Classic Who the proper beginning after all that came first.

[@joshuajoshua2732]

@SoTOreo That's your opinion alot of other people like it.

[@omgitgiovanni]

3:46 that’s exactly what me and my dad thought

[@csmadisun]

While I enjoyed this, I don't think it was the best introduction to the show, given it's VERY continuity heavy (The Toymaker, Mel, all the references). As you say, it's best to start with a Doctor's first episode, and for Ncuti I would say that's really The Church on Ruby Road. Ideally though, I'd say starting with Eccleston and going from there is the best place to start. Not sure if those episodes are easy to watch in the US though!

[@Avatar_Obi]

I'm planning on having her react to every doctor's first episode

[@csmadisun]

@Avatar_Obi Oh, that's an EXCELLENT plan. 100% do this.

[@Miscellaneous_Minx]

16:20 Ah, yes, Graham: the POC representation the world needs

[@Avatar_Obi]

Do you think Yasmin and Ryan were white, or do they not count as companions for some reason??

[@Miscellaneous_Minx]

@@Avatar_ObiI was joking 😭

[@Avatar_Obi]

@@Miscellaneous_Minx haha my bad, I'm usually good at spotting sarcasm but you haven't seen how many filtered comments are on this video saying exactly this unironically

[@alchemist743]

Hi there first time watcher and love that u showed lunar the 60th. I'm a 10th doctor cosplayer and I've watched lunar when she started out but never new she never seen doctor who. Well done, my friend

[@Avatar_Obi]

Thank you! 🙏🏾

[@thenationaltimelyactionhou9328]

I've been a fan of the show since I was a kid, I've been rewatching the original series and love it so much!

[@TheFireMonkey]

Dr Who started November 23, 1963 in the UK - January 1965 in Canada where I am. I watched it from the very beginning and have seen every episode, both the ones which were aired [a few episodes never aired for various reasons] and the ones which were only released on video tape, up to the 12th Doctor, then life got in the way of a lot of stuff so I have seen sum but not all of the 12th Doctor and bits and pieces since then - and I am currently working on bringing myself up to date now, but it will take a while. It is an amazing ride, some Doctors are a lot better than others, but I never regretted any of it

[@dwfan91-]

please, please do more this was great

[@Avatar_Obi]

We're actually planning to sit down and record more next week! There's a few shows we plan on covering together 😁

[@briancarlosgreen]

Its so interesting to see people share Doctor Who with friends and start them with the most bat shit insane/lore heavy eps 😆. Don't get me wrong, the show is always a little crazy but it does a pretty good job of easing you into the crazy and getting you used to the show. The show has many great jumping on points but Series 1 (2005) is a great choice. Series 5 (2010) is another good option. Series 10 (2017) is supposed to be a jumping off point but honestly wouldn't recommend it for that. As a long time fan, I appreciate seeing the show through new eyes. It can be heartbreaking, optimistic, horrifying and awe inspiring. At the same time, you can get eps with bad cgi, silly villains, or dumb concepts. As a whole, DW has 75% good episodes, 10% bad episodes, and like 15% forgettable episodes. Personally, my favorite Doctor is Peter Capaldi!! My favorite companion is Clara.

[@Avatar_Obi]

Capaldi is underrated! He didn't have the best of episodes like some of the Doctors got spoiled with, but I loved his chemistry with Missy and thought she was a fantastic villain!

[@sighberspook2021]

The best comparison for doctor who in Japan would either be ultraman or Kamen rider, both shows date back to he 60s with ultraman being almost as old as doctor who and both are live action Sci-fi adventure shows regularly recast their main character and follow aliens who protect the earth and other planets from villains and monsters Ultraman also has an often talked of but rarely depicted lore event called "the ultimate wars" wherein ultramans race fought to save the universe, very similar to the time war in doctor who

[@margretrosenberg420]

I'm in my seventies, and to the best of my knowledge I've seen *every* _Doctor Who_ episode (not to be confused with remembering all of them). The last couple of seasons have been seriously disappointing. Which means this is the place for me to insert a spoiler alert - do *not* read if you're planning to watch the two most recent seasons of _Doctor Who._ Jodie Whittaker had so much possibility as The Doctor, until she was given horrible scripts. "The Timeless Child" didn't bother me; it was a way to explain why The Doctor can keep regenerating even though they've already had more than the normal Time Lord limit. But The Flux? That was just ugly, and totally unnecessary. Tecteun was already an evil child abuser and a mad scientist; turning her into a super-villain out to destroy the universe was without purpose. And then we got "The Giggle," and Ncuti Gatwa started out so *well,* the first Doctor ever to begin by healing himself. And The Doctor meets Ruby Sunday, and acquires an amazing companion, a young woman with a great mystery around her birth, a mystery that results in snow falling around Ruby every time hope is needed. This is the great mystery of the season - who was Ruby's birth mother, and why did she abandon her baby? But first, we had to get through "73 Yards," which presented us with another mystery - who was the unrecognizable figure who always stayed exactly 73 yards away, and what was so horrifying about her? What did she say to Ruby's loving adoptive mother that made her disown Ruby and refuse to even speak to her? And how did she scare Roger ap Gwilliam into resigning? And the only answer we got was that she was Ruby's elderly self, from the future. But *finally,* at the very end of the season, we find out who Ruby's mother was. A frightened, abused teenager who wanted her daughter to grow up safe. A good answer, but it doesn't explain the snow. Yes, I'll watch the Christmas special. Yes, I'll watch the next season. But I'm not holding my breath for the big revelation about Mrs. Flood, because I'm already virtually certain that it will be another cheat.

[@TheFireMonkey]

Dr Who is actually Science Fantasy, not Science Fiction - that's a distinction that most people don't make, but I think it is significant. Think of it as a fantasy story that is dressed up in the garb of science - the Tardis is a magic carpet, the sonic screwdriver is a magic wand and most of the science is magic.

[@joshuajoshua2732]

No it was always science fiction always there was always scientific explanations for magic or the supernatural even the Third Doctor stated this in "The Daemons" that everything was done by science it was science fiction all the way from 1963 to 1996 it's only people like RTD or Moffat who introduced that fantasy crap because it's a lazy written solution so they don't have to explain things in storylines "Dr. Who" was never a fantasy.

[@charg1nmalaz0r51]

It has always been referred to as science fiction. It is fictional science, it always comes across as magic, because its fiction. However like all science fiction, they try to give it rules and pseudo science. It has only been referred to as fantasy since season 1 of the new show where the showrunner has stated he is taking it in a fantasy direction but please dont make up that it has always been a fantasy show because it hasn't

[@TheFireMonkey]

@charg1nmalaz0r51 i started with Dr Who when it first aired and watched it as it aired, so i an well familiar with what it is and was from the beginning. The ten science fantasy is a distinction used to distinguish between fiction that has the appearance of science without actual scientific foundations as opposed to fiction in which there is a firm foundation in science. When the term science fiction was first coined, the contents of the story was supposed to be 100% scientifically accurate to the best of the current knowledge. So things for which there was no known science to back it did not appear in the stories, over time that was relaxed somewhat, but in general it is limited to 1 piece of fake science and perhaps a couple things that are not known to be possible but which don't violate known science, like time travel. Dr Who has never worried about scientific accuracy, it has always been about the story and the messages and concepts that the story carries. This is not a bad thing, it is just a technical distinction. The inside is bigger, it's not science, the regeneration, as presented, is not science, the psychic paper is not science, the sonic screwdriver is not science - i could go on and on, but none of that matter for the stories, they are elements of fantasy dressed up as science, which defines it as science fantasy. Not, not everyone bothers with the distinction and a LOT of what is really science fantasy gets labeled as science fiction these days, so if you want to call it that it is your choice, but there is a difference and it doesn't make a story less just because it is science fantasy.

[@therealpbristow]

@@charg1nmalaz0r51 ...Except that various production people have been pointing out that it's really science fantasy since the 1970s, so... [HAND-SHRUG]. (I rejected the term when I first heard it, but came to accept it. Let's face it, DW has always had a much looser approach to the "rules" of it's universe than, say, Larry Niven, or Lois McMaster Bujold.)

[@zemoxian]

I like to call 14 the Doctor Emeritus. 😊

[@Biozene]

oooh shit! this is gonna be fun

[@jameshawkins6201]

"Somewhat screed up" is an understatement! But it started before Disney. Chibnall ruined it for me by adding so much non-canonical thing to it. Every showrunner does add thing to the story but never as much as Chibnall did. The actors who played Doctor Who during the Chibnall era did the best they could with the stories they were given but salvaging junk was impossible. I have watched every episode from the classical and modern period multiple time. In fact, I would watch a new episode (of the modern era) multiple times the day it was first broadcast... that is until Chibnall's era. Since RTD and Moffat's return, I hoped we would just call the Chibnall seasons as non-canonical. But, alas, they did not just forget the past.

[@AutisticSciencyalien]

casually forget the existance of the doctor marrying and kissing River,

[@Avatar_Obi]

She was asking about sex, not kissing

[@mithrasrevisited4873]

Should have shown Blink as her first episode.

[@joshuajoshua2732]

No that's the worst place to start because it's Doctor lite.

[@mithrasrevisited4873]

@@joshuajoshua2732 Well there are better episodes than this one.Blink is the best episode of Dr Who. Doctor lite????? The story is the show..

[@Avatar_Obi]

I am planning on showing that to her

[@joshuajoshua2732]

The Talons of Weng-Chiang or Pyramids of Mars would be the better ones to start.

[@StephanieMaireFaith]

U should of showed her BLINK

[@Avatar_Obi]

We're going to watch each doctor's first episode and best episode, Blink would probably be the one for 10th

[@Dreams4U2]

Well, you can't just hop in to watch Dr. Who after 60 years, more or less, and expect to get everything all at once. Start at the beginning when the budget was so low, the BBC used metal trash cans with plungers for the Daleks. Tom Baker (the one who wore the long scarf) is my favorite Doctor, perhaps because he was in the role the longest. He was the fourth Doctor Who and his reincarnation lasted in the series from 1974 to 1981. I recommend watching the very first season, which began on November 23, 1963, and then going straight to the Tom Baker Doctor. 🙂

[@joshuajoshua2732]

If this your first ever time watching "Dr. Who" this is not the best place to start your on on what's considered one of the worst eras in fandom which we call "The disney era" I would had either started with 2005 Who or 1963 Who which i call proper Dr. Who or a Tom Baker episode atleast.

[@uttula]

Well…there were the ”Worthless child” and ”Flush”-storylines (or whatever they were called) before Disney, which … frankly I don’t remember a single episode’s plot :-/

[@Legendary3Dgamer]

STOP SAYING WOKE 😒

[@Avatar_Obi]

It might not be something that effects you but it's an issue that impacts us both every day

[@gamerkane1813]

You would not have liked it more if you understood the past you would like it less. You picked the absolute worst part of the franchise to come in on. Changing canon, constantly referencing the past, ruining old stories, some of the worst dialogue the show has ever seen, not explaining basic things, not understanding characters, trying to make THE DOCTOR one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable characters with some amazing plans an idiot.

[@Avatar_Obi]

Considering she enjoyed it more than you did I'd summarise it was to her benefit

[@charg1nmalaz0r51]

@@Avatar_Obi Hes not wrong, you should have started with rose, or possible the eleventh hour or the one with bill which was a semi soft reintroduction.

[@Avatar_Obi]

@@charg1nmalaz0r51 we're watching it next

[@josefschiltz2192]

@@Avatar_Obi Of the more recent years, I would have considered Human Nature and The Family Of Blood. There is a far deeper look into the character of The Doctor and was originally written for a Classic Doctor - Sylvester McCoy. I've been watching the series since 1964 and William Hartnell. The Doctor has a companion simply because he is so familiar with space and time that he needs another's perspective in order to experience it all anew. His age dulls his 'eyesight' and ability to appreciate. The companion tells him the story and also is a guide for the audience. A translator. The latter years, post-Moffat, have been somewhat troublesome and that is partly due to some writing that has not been top notch and ineptly presented. A wall of sound and effects does not compensate for solid character building, muddled and rushed unbelievability when too much is crammed into a 45 minute slot. Something that I was worried about when the non-serialized format was introduced in 2005. It took longer to deteriorate simply because the main writers seemed to be able to grip and hold structure to a story. Lately, not so much. An audience's attention to any composition needs decent pacing and space to breathe, not to be bombarded. Doctor Who also isn't plain SF or fantasy. That is simply because of the massive dose of Surrealism that was in place at the very beginning. mainly, the juxtaposition of distant realities - as stated by André Breton. One of the earliest stories actually referenced melted clocks - The Edge Of Destruction - written by the then script editor David Whittaker, referencing Salvador Dali. Also such a juxtaposition is clearly there most predominantly with the TARDIS itself and The Doctor's clothing for most of the incarnations being at odds with the ultra-modern surroundings. Further, of course, is the fact of entering the TARDIS and ending up somewhere completely different and the ordinary Police Box shell is exactly the same in a completely alien environment. Steven Moffat played up the Surrealist side of the series, much to some fans angst who didn't realize it's significance in the show anyway and couldn't follow what he was doing. The problem was that the freedom that Moffat injected made the following writers believe that they could do any damn thing they wanted and were lead into careless abandon. Completely losing sight of the ground is not a good idea if you want the audience to follow your storytelling and Chris Chibnall was, frankly, careless.

[@SeeJay81]

Oh there's so much tragedy to keep @lunarharpy occupied for a while 🤣

[@lunarharpy]

I'm excited and scared 😂