Can someone explain Doctor who?

It used to be good when Tom Baker played the role as only he knew how, now it’s shite!

Ok. I’m kind of a noob, too, but I know enough.

The Doctor is a Time Lord – a race of people from the planet Gallifrey who experience all of time at once, instead of in a linear pattern. The TARDIS is a living ship, one of what once was many created by the Time Lords. Also, when a Time Lord almost dies, his body regenerates. His body and personality changes, but he retains his experiences.

As far as when to start, Matt Smith is the Eleventh Doctor. You’d have to go to the late 50s or early 60s to get your start when the Doctor started.

I recommend checking out some of the old Tom Baker episodes (the 1970s) to catch some background – What the heck is a Dalek, Why do these Cybermen keep chanting “Delete! Delete!”, what the hell is with that scarf? – then catch the last couple of episodes of the Christopher Eccleston series (I thought he was boring, but at least you get to know where Tennant’s Doctor picks up), then watch, drool, and enjoy David Tennant for three seasons.

I haven’t started on Young Master Potato Head yet. I’m sorry, but he’s just a weird looking fella.

Check out this fantastically camp movie starring the great Peter Cushing, so bad it’s nearly good.

Hmmm, I don’t recommend starting with series 6 because that one is super serialized.

Personally I like the Moffat/Smith era so I’d recommend starting with series 5 (that’s where I started my dad). The Tennant era is pretty fun too, though some times the plots fall on their faces. There isn’t much serialization in the Davies era (new series 1–4) so you could skip through that a bit. Regardless of where you start though you definitely need to see Midnight, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead and Blink.

@ucme well, now I’m even more confused lol

I’m mainly trying to get into watching the newer ones, because I have a lot of friends who watch it, but they do a poor job on explaining what is about

@fundevogel Ok will do! thanks, I just started watching the 3rd episode of season 6 and starting to catch on, and I’m starting to really like the alien part. I’ll probably find myself working backwards in the seasons, but I will defiantly check out your suggestion!

@ucme I should also probably add, I do want to watch it tho, it does look horribly awesome! XD

@Dazed_and_Confused A perfect description, you should work in film promotion :¬)

It’s about a time traveler.
He’s a bit like Noah in that he’s 900 an something.
He likes earth women.
He talks bollocks.
He doesn’t like dalec’s.
He’s got 2 hearts and a robot dog.
He’s an orphan.
He’s a bad-arse mo-fo with a sonic screwdriver.

To be honest, I don’t know why I’m bothering I think it’s shite.

blasphemy!

@fundevogel – Errrr….. sorry, what I meant was, I don’t like the doctor, but I like his taste in women.

It’s the forst time I’ve ever considered going ginger…...

I watched all of the shows that were available on Comcast Demand one right after the other over the period of a month. That is the best way to see them, because then the serial ones don’t get mixed up.

Edit: The Daleks were invented by a man who hates everything and everyone and their mission is to destroy every living thing. Their vocabulary consists of very little more than the words “Exterminate, Exterminate”. They are frequent opponents of Dr Who.

In the war that destroyed the Time Lords and the Daleks, Dr Who was responsible for their annihilation, along with his own people – but many of the Daleks escaped into a time warp, and that is what one whole season covered.

The show has been running off and on for over half a century, and a lot of it draws on what has gone before, especially when we are talking stuff that happens within a single season of the New Series.

Regarding your, “I thought he was dead!” and the Impossible Astronaut, one word: Spoilers. If you want to know, you need to see the rest of the season. The season revolves around those, just as Season 1 revolved around Bad Wolf. It’s not supposed to make sense without hindsight.

And no, the “first” season (Chris Eccleston) doesn’t suck. It lays a lot of groundwork for the rest of the series though.

I’m sure the series is great, I just don’t like his incarnation of The Doctor. But I got my start with Tom Baker, so I’m used to my Doctors having a big personality.

@Seek_Kolinahr Matt Smith took a little getting used to, but trust me, be does have a big personality. Not so much in his first season, but he gets better as time goes on.

@jerv I think she meant Eccleston. I don’t think she’s gotten to Smith yet. Personally I love Matt Smith’s Doctor. I’m not very in to Eccleston’s, but that has a lot to do with my level of interest in the writing in the first series.

Yeah, I haven’t made it to Smith yet. I’m taking my Tennant slowly. Making it last.

Urhm, season 1 was the best. It’s gotten too fast-paced and complicated as the series went on, but I still watch it. lol

Got a little confused. But Eccleston had a certain manic quality that I rather enjoyed. You see it a but in Tennant and Smith, but when he got dark he got dark, as befits a veteran of The Great Time War. IMO, Eccleston was the one of the three who did the best at showing rage, and barely repressed rage is a part of the Doctor’s character, as is sadness, sense of responsibility.

@CrayCray Fast-paced? I don’t think so. But definitely complicated as you have to remember past episodes for the current ones to make sense. As someone who remembers Genesis of the Daleks, and spent my childhood studying the Type 40 TARDIS it makes more sense to me than to most people, but even I sometimes get a little lost.

@jerv I don’t know, Tennant and Smith have had some unholy hellfury as well. Smith was livid in the Beast Below.

Relevant

@fundevogel Tennant had some cold, calculating rage at times, and I cannot recall Smith ever really going off the deep end in that way, but that is merely my opinion. We all have our faves, and it’s not worth arguing.