I've only just discovered Dr. Who. Can I start watching it from the middle of the 3rd season, or should I look for the first season and start from the beginning?

Me too. GQ. I really like the show.

Start from the Christmas Invasion, the beginning of Tennant’s run. I will pm you a link.

I think anything works.

You don’t have to start at the beginning, or even at the beginning of Tennant’s run (season 2), but if you want to get the larger story arcs and relationships and not just the episodic plot, I would start at the beginning of a season, in this case season 3.

I guess I would just be a jerk if I pointed out that the first season happened in the 60s, huh… I’d recommend starting with the Christopher Eccleston Doctor, just to get the whole modern picture. That’s where we first get Rose and all that entails.

I suggest starting out with season 1 of the new series (2005, starring Christopher Eccelston). A lot of the things that happened in seasons 2–4 were set up in that first season, even though the new Doctor in those seasons is arguably more popular than the season 1 doctor.

If you don’t want to go back that far, you can start with season 5 and the new-new Doctor (Matt Smith), where most everything kinda reset itself.

The way the new series is written, there is a lot of build-up, and jumping right into the middle will cause problems. For instance, the third episode of Season 3 (before the middle) gives you a hint about the Season 3 finale. You will miss Rose, not know the deal with Captain Jack Harkness… basically you really should start with Chris Eccleston’s first episode or you will miss quite a bit.

@JilltheTooth Not really. There is a lot of stuff in the new series that doesn’t make total sense if you don’t know the first two decades of the series. Stuff like Daleks, The Master, Sarah Jane Smith, regeneration, etcetera; stuff that is kind of glossed over in the new series. You don’t need to watch the first 26 seasons, but understanding the new series is much easier for those of us who grew up during the Tom Baker years.

You don’t really have to start from the first season, but I think it would definitely be more interesting. They refer to a lot of things in later episodes that you will appreciate a lot more if you’ve seen all of the series from 2005. I really recommend watching Eccleston’s season first.

@jerv : I was being a little facetious, there…

@JilltheTooth I know. I was going to make a crack about how hard it it’s to track down some of the Hartnell and Troughton episodes, but you beat me to it.