Beginner's Guide to Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a franchise that has been going on for over fifty years. It started in the 60's and became something of a pop culture icon. There were books, movies, radio dramas, and the show itself became one of the longest running series out there. To an outsider, it can all be very intimidating as there's a lot of stuff. It seems like it would be a complicated mythos with a lot of back story, making it hard to jump in. The fact that the classic series has missing or lost episodes did not help matters. I thought this myself, but in actuality, it isn't all that hard once you get the gist of it.

Who is Doctor Who?

The show follows a character known only as "The Doctor" (as opposed to Doctor Who). He's a centuries old alien from a race that referred to themselves as "Time Lords". He travels through time and space in a ship called the TARDIS (an acronym for Time and Relative Dimension in Space). Despite being a space ship, the TARDIS resembles an old police box. This was explained as the ship having a sort of "mask" feature to allow it to blend into its surroundings. Unfortunately, the device jammed and the ship is stuck in that form, making it an apparent oddity in most settings. He uses the ship to visit different planets and historical eras, going on adventures and saving people from various threats.

The Doctor frequently brings one or more people along for the ride. This allows the show to have an audience identifier, but it also gives the Doctor some company on his journey. This became a bigger deal in the re-launch when it was revealed that The Doctor is now the last Time Lord in existence.

Tell me about the numbers, David

You'll probably notice that Who fans refer to the Doctor by various numbers. This is because the Doctor has gone through many iterations over the years. When William Hartnell, the actor who originally portrayed the Doctor, left, the writers came up with an in-canon reason for his changing appearance. As the Doctor is an alien, he can regenerate. This allowed the writers to "kill off" a Doctor and introduce a new actor to play him at the same time.

Thus far, there have been eleven forms of the Doctor. It is generally believed that Time Lords only get 12 regenerations, meaning that the Doctor only has 2 "lives" left. Given the popularity of the show, it stands to reason that the writers will find a work around at some point.

OK so, where do I start?

Well, anywhere really. I started with the first episode of the re-launch, and that did just fine. You could also use the second and fifth season premieres as those both introduce new doctors. Five is especially effective as the entire cast is brand new, allowing newcomers to get acclimated. The holiday specials are also nice introductions as they tend to be self contained and allow you to get a taste of what you're in for with the series. Really though, despite the long history, the show is pretty straight forward. You can sit down to watch any episode and have a pretty decent grip on things by the end of the hour.