Where to Start (and Stop) Doctor Who

Doctor Who's modern iteration is approaching its 14th season, which is a lot. But do you need to watch all 14 seasons to get a satisfying experience? Absolutely not. So dive in and find out where to start and stop watching to get the best experience possible.
If you want to see a more detailed breakdown of modern Doctor Who, check out my complete watch order for the series on my website, ReadThingsRight: www.readthingsright.com/readthingsright/television/doctor-who.html
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:29 Seasons 1-4
02:55 Seasons 5-10
04:50 Seasons 11-13
06:21 Present Day
06:49 The Full List
Music from Clipchamp
This video is intended for audiences teenage and up

[@raventreye2326]

Thank you so much for all the views! I predicted that Season 14 would be a good place to start, and now that it's out, I have some updated thoughts on the topic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qX_Ci6ugfJmKiLM

[@sisterjesscah]

Dont skip anything. Just watch. There are series I dont like, but I would never dream of telling someone to skip any part of a show I love so much.

[@berger-films]

Capaldi was the Doctor when I started watching; and even though I started the series from season 1 he is for sure my favorite Doctor

[@TheArchieTheory]

All of the important episodes (RTD era only): -Rose -The End of the World -Aliens of London -WW3 -Dalek -The Long Game -Father's Day -The Empty Child -The Doctor Dances -Boomtown -Bad Wolf -The Parting Of The Ways -The Christmas Invasion -New Earth -Tooth and Claw -School Reunion -Risw of the Cybermen -Age of Steel -Army of Ghosts -Doomsday -The Runaway Bride -Smith and Jones -Gridlock -The Lazarus Experiment -Human Nature -The Family of Blood -Blink -Utopia -The Sound Of Drums -Last of the Time Lords -Partners In Crime -The Sonatarn Startagem -The Poison Sky -The Doctor's Daughter -Silence in the Library -Forest of the Dead -Turn Left -The Stolen Earth -Journey's End -The End Of Time

[@davidbray5982]

Good video, I agreed with your points and I'm very surprised you only have 23 subscribers. Keep up the good work! One niggle though, I don't know HOW you pronounced "Christopher Eccleston". To correctly pronounce Eccleston, say the phrase "Heckle Stone", then remove the first and last letter - "eckleston". This much closer to how it should be said.

[@raventreye2326]

whoops! thank you for pointing out my mistake, and for providing the correct pronunciation!

[@LapisAndroid17ParkRanger]

Or you can do what I did, watch ALL of it. Including all the old doctors. Yes I even watched the Black and white stuff and the Lost episodes with only sound and a few photo's. I'm crazy like that.

[@Lemon_Bandana]

I'm in the process myself. Just got to Tom Baker's first season. And as much as I loved 60s Who and Hartnell and Troughton's doctors, 70s who has been so much easier to binge and digest

[@LapisAndroid17ParkRanger]

@@Lemon_Bandana Same here, from the 3th doc on I watched in one go. ( no other series). Had to take some time off with the first two. I really liked D2 but soo mutch missing eps with just sound. D1 was a dragg for me. D3 with Unit was great, D4 is peak, D5 is ok, D6 takes time to get used to but I liked him, olso I lisend to his final adventure with big finish otherwise he has no ending. D7 is ok, for D8 saw his movie and lisend to alot of his big finish audio adventures.

[@raventreye2326]

You absolutely could, I just haven't seen the Classic Series so I didn't talk about it lol. I've heard good things though. I imagine finding stopping points would be more interesting because companions tend to stay between Doctors, at least from what I remember reading on the wiki

[@Lemon_Bandana]

@@raventreye2326 thats mostly true yeah. Every single doctor has a companion that stays between doctors except for the Second Doctor Patrick Troughton. He is the only doctor who's companions left before the regeneration and only picked up new companions after the regeneration. And with that you go from black and white to colour as well and a whole revamp to the format of the show. Although thinking on it, the 7th doctor regenerating into 8 also didnt have companions but, thats a special case being the TV Movie and all.

[@xcviij7045]

What about the audio episodes?

[@leebiggs7755]

I always start with the series 1 episode Rose and continue chronology from there.

[@CameronKiesser]

Season 1 is the proper start, though Capaldi has to be my favorite Doctor.

[@lewisfrisby5673]

Personally I think every episode has some good points and bad points and I don’t think there is 1 terrible episode

[@julieeverett7442]

Um, what have you been watching? Most of 13's run was BAD episodes with a few tolerable ones thrown in, and the less said about sleep no more and blue yonder, the better. And dont get me started on classic. My first story was the three doctors back in 1973 and I have watched every story up to the 60th anniversary on first broadcast and went back and watched, 1st 2nd and the beginning of third on reruns!!

[@lewisfrisby5673]

@@julieeverett7442 the same show as you but with a more positive outlook yes I have to admit series 11 was not the best but it still had some good episodes such as Rosa the woman who fell to earth and if your counting it as part series 11 then resolution then series 12 personally I really liked the timeless child arc yes I feel like it could have been developed a bit more but it was good the spyfall two parter was great and fugitive of the judoon was ok I felt the judoon were side lined compared to the fugitive doctor but for me that reveal was mind blowing and obviously seeing captain jack was great two and revolution of the daleks was ok the highlight was Jack but could be better however I was never a fan of Ryan so I didn’t mind when he left but I really liked Graham series 13 was great considering it was made in a very short time in lockdown and we almost didn’t get a series at all so I think we should be lucky for it I personally thought it was ok 13s best series and I liked Dan as a companion and I re watched it recently and enjoyed it more this time around and as for the specials Eve of the daleks great concept but could have done better the supporting cast was really good legend of the sea devils is overly hated in my opinion and 13s costume in that story is flawless and power of the doctor apart from the cameos still is a good episode with all the forced regeneration stuff they could have explained the 1916 segment but it’s still a great episode I think the reason most people don’t like it is that the stories were different to what we had seen before and yes I agree that not all of them worked out but good on them for trying And sleep no more I think the ending was spine chilling and the found footage idea was really good and I think it should be done again And wild blue yonder I think the only reason people look down on it was because it was kept a secret and many people theorised that it was gonna be this grand multi doctor special and when it wasn’t people were let down but with the monsters the not things and the concept of the edge of everything is something so big so different that I love it And also what’s wrong with classic

[@Comicbroe405]

​@@lewisfrisby5673 Not worth taking a WBY hater's opinion seriously.

[@leebiggs7755]

Would you do a where to start and stop for classic Doctor Who?

[@raventreye2326]

I would if I ever get around to watching classic Doctor Who lol

[@musicman8270]

Dr Who began and ended with the fourth DR. End of debate. Thats it.

[@thetimeshadow6769]

Watch Series 1-7, skip Series 8 and 9, watch Series 10, skip Series 11, watch Series 12 and 13 for the sake of canon, carry on as normal.

[@aquaticsz6714]

skipping 8 & 9? Capaldi is a goated doctor, I mean sure some episodes in his early days as the doctor aren't the best but what? Some of them still are really good and worth watching.

[@thetimeshadow6769]

@@aquaticsz6714 Capaldi is an amazing actor. But the writing rlly screws him over a majority of the time. Not to mention “Clara Who”

[@Altaira17]

I was highly allergic to Clara. I wound up skipping almost all of season 9 (thankfully I caught the awesomeness that was “Heaven Sent.”) But I really liked Bill so that gave me the space to truly appreciate Capaldi.

[@thetimeshadow6769]

@@Altaira17 Yh Bill was rlly great. And I do rate Series 10. I just cannot get behind Series 8 and 9.

[@raventreye2326]

I'm not a big fan of Series 8, but I do think 9 has some bangers. If you want to abbreviate the Chibnall era, you could do the Series 11 opener and then skip straight to "Haunting of the Villa Diodati" towards the end of Series 12. It pretty much covers everything of note. You could watch the Master two-parter that opens Series 12, but I don't think you have to

[@darransykes3406]

Watch series from 1963 to 1989, followed by the 1996 tv movie and stop watching Doctor Woke after Peter Capaldi's stint. From then on, Doctor Who became Doctor Woke...

[@Comicbroe405]

Jesus Christ man you ppl are like weeds... DW has always had "woke" stuff in it especially the RTD era if you actually watched it. Even Capaldi's last season.

[@seankelly8432]

It's always been 'woke' but you do you I guess

[@Comicbroe405]

Cringe comment. It's always been "woke" & it was very much apparent in the RTD era & did you not see Capaldi's last season? Lmao. After that it literally became Doctor Unwoke cuz they never made the show that explicit again. Forgot the pro captalism ep?

[@julieeverett7442]

@@seankelly8432 not quite its always been political, but that's not the same thing

[@Farsight-nc1ib]

​@@seankelly8432it always had subtext but very rarely to the same extent as nowadays which has been to the detriment of the show, that's why it's getting cancelled.

[@Valeyardos]

You don't need to watch season 11,12 and 13. Only 60th year specials would be enough.

[@Comicbroe405]

S11 & 12 have some bangers & Flux is important for lore.

[@julieeverett7442]

SERIES not season. SEASON 11,12, and 13 are 3rd and 4th, these three seasons in particular are known as the golden age of doctor who and leaves almost everything in the modern era in the dust. Dear jodie is not worthy of kissing the great Ones toes!!!!! (and that's Tom if you haven't worked it out!!)

[@theodor2877]

Or... and hear me out here... but if you like the show, you just... keep watching.

[@seankelly8432]

Yeah but for some newcomers, watching almost 200 episodes of a show (not including the classic series) can be jarring. They may only want to watch for a specific Doctor or era

[@theodor2877]

@@seankelly8432 Watch the first season. If you like it enough, watch another one. And keep going. If you ever get to a point when you don't wanna watch anymore, then stop. It would suck if you really love Davies era, but then you decide to just stop cause here's an endpoint and it's long. Take your time if you actually like something. Only stop when you stop liking it.

[@saner2832]

great video for the newbies of the show. keep up the good work!

[@raventreye2326]

thank you for the kind words!