The Best Way To Watch All Of 'Doctor Who'

[This article was originally published in advance of the 2017 'Doctor Who' Christmas Special. Series 11 of 'Doctor Who,' starring Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor, premieres on Sunday, October 7th, 2018.]

Welcome to Fan Service, a guide to engaging with gargantuan, lore-heavy franchises. In each volume, we'll recommend a watch/read order to approach the given series with and dissect our argument for it. Today: 54 years in a blue police telephone box.

Trying to articulate what's great about "Doctor Who" can be pretty difficult — I should know, because I've been trying to since I was about four years old. Local Whovians never let down our local public television station when "Doctor Who" pledge drive season rolled around in the '90s. Classic episodes were a Saturday evening staple in my house. I still have a soft spot for the show, but when taken all together as a decades-spanning work of television, nostalgia simply won't cut it. To understand what makes "Doctor Who" a beloved show, you've got to understand that "Doctor Who" is uniquely set up to fail… and fail a lot.

With the possible exception of the longest running soap operas, there's no other show that's had to reinvent itself as many times as "Doctor Who". That's not just because The Doctor "regenerates" and is replaced by a new actor every few years, or because The Doctor's cast of companions turns over about as frequently. Behind the scenes, "Doctor Who" has undergone the production changeovers common to any long-running show, and the show's been pushed to chase trends and respond to cultural and political moments while repeatedly posing the question of what really drives The Doctor.

"Doctor Who" is about to make its biggest change since returning to television in 2005: after 54 years, Jodie Whittaker will debut as the first woman to officially play The Doctor in this year's Christmas Special. For most, casting Whittaker is a welcome (if overdue) move. For a regressive portion of the show's viewers, the move is unconscionable. Time will tell if "Doctor Who" goes too far in trying to please both sides — it could easily squander the rich potential of the change and Whitaker's talents by second-guessing itself and falling into gendered tropes. No matter the outcome, it's likely that next season will be the most talked-about and analyzed season of "Doctor Who" ever. What better time to get on board the TARDIS?

In this edition of Fan Service, after presenting our recommended (and hopefully not too controversial) watch order, we'll walk through the history of "Doctor Who" and take stock of what the show has added, changed and jettisoned over its long life. With more than 800 episodes and over 50 years of history, let Fan Service help you get oriented in space and time.

This is where I'd say "allons-y" or "geronimo," but I don't want to pick a side in that fight. Hm.

Untangling The Adventures In Space And Time

The nature of "Doctor Who" makes the task of cobbling together a watch order incredibly tricky. Very few hardcore fans today started at the very beginning. Hell, most probably haven't even tried to watch all of it. Here, for the sake of simplicity, the watch order is dividing into chunks by each lead actor's televised eras. This means every episode they appear in as the latest incarnation of the Doctor, as released in chronological order (this means the occasional off-season Christmas Special or feature-length episode shouldn't be shuffled into the order differently).

Though we'll start our look at the series from its beginnings in 1963, if you're a newcomer to the show you should start by watching all the episodes of the "Doctor Who" revival launched in 2005, as Christopher Eccleston's inaugural run provides the best introduction to the show's core concepts while bridging the stylistic gaps between what the show is now in 2017, and what it was back in the '70s and '80s:

• Christopher Eccleston, 9th Doctor, 2005
  
• David Tennant, 10th Doctor, 2006-2010
  
• Matt Smith, 11th Doctor, 2011-2013
  
• Peter Capaldi, 12th Doctor, 2014-2017
  
• Jodie Whittaker, 13th Doctor, 2018—
  

---

• Tom Baker, 4th Doctor, 1974-1981
  
• Paul McGann, 8th Doctor, 1996 (The TV Movie)
  
• William Hartnell, 1st Doctor, 1963-1966¹
• Patrick Troughton, 2nd Doctor, 1966-1969
  
• Jon Pertwee, 3rd Doctor, 1970-1974
  
• Peter Davison, 5th Doctor, 1981-1984
  
• Colin Baker, 6th Doctor, 1984-1986
  
• Sylvester McCoy, 7th Doctor, 1987-1989
  
• Various (Books, Audio Dramas, Spin-offs², Comics) 1963—

You'll notice that after the revival series, this order recommends starting "classic" era "Doctor Who" with Tom Baker's run before checking out the TV movie and the rest of the Doctors in chronological order. Really, if you've watched through all the new episodes, there are plenty of "best-of" guides that'll help get your feet wet with the older episodes. The advantage of watching some Tom Baker episodes before seeing the '90s TV Movie is that you get a look at the original show at the height of its popularity followed by the attempted revival that failed to recapture that appeal — with those and the Eccleston season under your belt, you'll know first-hand how the 2005 revival succeeded where the TV movie failed.

The Doctor, The Debut, And The Daleks

"Doctor Who" was created to fill a gap. The gap in question was the half hour between Saturday afternoon sports and a panel show called "Juke Box Jury" — the BBC originally played children's programs adapted from books between the two. The children's programming couldn't hold onto the sports audience, prompting newly-minted BBC Head of Drama Sydney Newman to greenlight a replacement. Newman, a Canadian, had previously worked at the Canadian Broadcasting Company before moving to England for a job at the Associated British Corporation (ABC)³. In 1961 Newman created "The Avengers" at ABC, a smash-hit spy show that helped prompt the BBC to poach him. When Newman decided to replace the BBC's Saturday afternoon children's program, a number of internal reports investigating the potential for a new science fiction serial involving time travel had already been written. Newman liked the concept decided to tool the serial as a Saturday afternoon show for the whole family.

Early treatments for "Doctor Who" toyed with a sinister background for The Doctor…

Newman had lots of help, of course. Script writers C.E. Webber and Donald Wilson penned early treatments of the show to which Newman gave strong correctives. Verity Lambert, a producer tired of being sidelined over at ABC, joined as the serial's lead producer once the name had been settled upon: more commonly "Dr. Who" then. When she joined, Lambert was the youngest television producer at the BBC and the network's only woman in the role. Once a debut story was settled upon — a four part story featuring a trip back to the year 100,000 BC. They still needed an actor for the lead role, which had (over multiple revisions) become a wizened old alien man known only as "The Doctor."

"Doctor Who" found its Doctor in William Hartnell, an actor then-known for playing a string of tough cops and soldiers. Early treatments for "Doctor Who" toyed with a sinister background for The Doctor, but by the time Lambert approached Hartnell the scripts called for a more grandfatherly figure as the lead. Hartnell was more than ready.

Hartnell's Doctor first embarked in the TARDIS (The Doctor's spaceship/time machine, shortened from "Time and Relative Dimension in Space") on November 23rd, 1963. Three actors joined Hartnell: a pair of teachers, Ian and Barbara, played by William Russell and Jacqueline Hill, and 23-year-old Carole Ann Ford taking the role of The Doctor's teenage granddaughter⁴ Susan. Compared to The Doctor, these more ordinary characters were easier for audiences to relate to, which Newman and Lambert knew was necessary for easing people into the fantastical situations they were creating.

The premiere of "Doctor Who," ending on a soon-to-be characteristic cliffhanger, was overshadowed by the news cycle. Just a day earlier, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The lukewarm reaction to the premiere's first airing threatened to derail the show, but Verity Lambert successfully petitioned the BBC to reair the first installment right before the next week's. Ratings recovered.

While the first serial⁵, "An Unearthly Child," established the premise of "Doctor Who," it was the follow-up that established its popularity. Sydney Newman had initially resisted the idea of leaning too far into pulpier science fiction but agreed to go ahead with a script by Terry Nation called "The Daleks." Pitting The Doctor and company against the titular genocidal race of machine-ensconced aliens — each armed with a death ray and an unexplained plunger — "The Daleks" caused a stir in the BBC audience. By the end of the eight-part serial, ratings for "Doctor Who" had doubled and the Daleks, though perhaps a little silly looking⁶, were a sensation. The show had found its primo villain.

While "Dalekmania" in England guaranteed the Daleks and other baddies a permanent place in the show, under Hartnell "Doctor Who" established its rotating supporting cast. Susan was the first to leave the TARDIS, with Ian and Barbara leaving together not long after. New travelers took their places. These casting shake-ups were a risky storytelling move, but they became an accepted part of the show's formula that reinforces The Doctor's role as a roaming cosmic caretaker.

A few years into the show it was plain to the production (now sans Verity Lambert) that Hartnell would have to leave as well. His health was getting poorer and he frequently had trouble remembering his lines in moments which often made it to air since television productions were not conducive to reshoots in that era. Eventually a plan was hatched: they'd recast the role and, after a traumatic event, explain the Doctor's change in appearance as a "regeneration" process unique to his alien biology. Patrick Troughton was cast as the second Doctor, and at the end of the serial that introduced the inhuman Cybermen, Troughton took Hartnell's place as The Doctor.

Regeneration And Continuation

The unexpected transformation of its main character could have cost "Doctor Who" its audience, but the idea worked. Troughton's era, lasting from 1966 to '69, expanded on the show's lore and streamlined its format. The Doctor was explicitly identified as a member of a species commonly called "Time Lords." Earthbound "historical" serials sans cool monsters were dropped in favor of new planets and aliens, and the future "Doctor Who" tropes like "base under siege" episodes⁷ flourished during Troughton's run.

The introduction of Jon Pertwee as the third Doctor brought further changes: "Doctor Who" ended up grounded on Earth, both due to budgetary constraints and the popularity of UNIT, a British military and science organization encountered by the Second Doctor. Without the use of the TARDIS, the Third Doctor worked alongside UNIT to defend the world against alien attacks and schemes hatched by a newly introduced villain: another mysterious Time Lord known as The Master. The Earth exile wasn't to last — the show's tenth anniversary was celebrated with its first multi-Doctor story, bringing together Pertwee, Troughton and Hartnell in a story that ends with the restoration of The Doctor's ability to travel in time and space.

In 1974, Tom Baker took on the role of The Doctor, beginning a record-setting seven-year run⁸ that established his Fourth Doctor as most iconic incarnation of the show's original era. Baker's curly mop of hair, impish grin and absurdly long scarf also made a successful leap across the pond: in the late '70s, public television stations in North America started to air "Doctor Who," making Tom Baker many Canadians and Americans' first Doctor.

The staging and camerawork went from being predominantly "theater-like" to a more kinetic and filmic style.

Aside from being the longest era, the Fourth Doctor's time also played out under the guidance of a handful of different producers. The last producer in charge of the show during Baker's tenure was John Nathan-Turner, who ended up remaining "Doctor Who" producer for another nine years, the longest of any producer or showrunner in its history.

While "Doctor Who" had established a formula and a malleable attitude for The Doctor in the '70s, along with a commitment to a very British kind of camp and theatricality, John Nathan-Turner wanted to push the show in a slightly different direction. One of his first acts as producer was to scrap the show's original theme song recording by electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire for a modernized, synth-driven recording. By the end of Nathan-Turner's first season, there was a new Doctor (Peter Davison), a new trio of companions and the look of the show was largely revamped — as prolific "Doctor Who" scholar Philip Sandifer points out, the staging and camerawork went from being predominantly "theater-like" to a more kinetic and filmic style.

Unacceptable In The '80s

By the time Peter Davison was The Doctor, the show was old enough that some of the people making the show had been young fans in its early days — and whenever a series gets to the point where the fans are now in charge, that familiarity with the source material can be a boon or a liability.

An abysmal song called "Doctor In Distress" gave a shoddy recounting of the show's history alongside a plea to bring the show back from hiatus…

The seeds of "Doctor Who's" eventual cancellation were sewn in the transition from Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor to Colin Baker's Sixth. John Nathan-Turner and others wanted to pursue the idea of a troubled regeneration resulting in a harsher, arrogant incarnation of The Doctor. This abrupt shift in The Doctor's basic attitude was a tricky idea in concept and mostly terrible in execution — Colin Baker could play the part well, but a Doctor who routinely mocks his companion and smugly addresses villains and victims alike went against the heart of the show.

Audience's distaste for the new direction put the show in crisis mode. The BBC was more than willing to suspend production for over a year, hoping that the time off would do the show some good. Amongst hardcore fans, the threat of cancellation loomed large. In 1985, piggybacking off the popularity of charity singles like "Do They Know It's Christmas," an abysmal song called "Doctor In Distress" gave a shoddy recounting of the show's history alongside a plea to bring the show back from hiatus. The show came back with a softened Sixth Doctor for a high-concept season arc with The Doctor on trial… through no thanks to the groan-worthy single.

In 1987, John Nathan-Turner and company decided to cut their losses and recast The Doctor. Sylvester McCoy (who you might know better as Radagast the Brown in "The Hobbit" movies) took on the role of the Seventh Doctor, who the producers and writers knew couldn't be as overtly antagonistic as the Sixth Doctor. Instead, still guided by a fan-inspired impulse to deepen the show, after debuting with a fun, quirky take on the character they gradually revealed a more calculating side to the Seventh Doctor. Combined with scripts that could actually balance the light and dark, including one thinly veiled and wildly campy takedown of Thatcherism, the show started to rebound in quality during McCoy's tenure.

Still, television viewers just weren't having it. No matter what element or person you try to lay the blame on, the simple fact was that "Doctor Who" had fallen far from its ratings peak. Though the hardcore fans stuck through the good times and bad, the wide audience that once dutifully tuned in after Saturday sports in the '60s was nowhere to be seen. "Doctor Who" had made its place as a pop-culture icon in England but had lost its claim to remaining on-the-air.

The last episode of "Doctor Who's" original run, 1989's "Survival," ends with a short monologue written and dubbed-in once the show's producers knew there'd be no more "Doctor Who" for quite some time.

Finally, A Real (TV) Movie!

One of the Americans who fell in love with the show after it made the trip overseas was none other than Steven Spielberg. Spielberg was involved in talks to adapt the show for American audiences in the '80s, and almost as soon as it was canceled, the idea of an American "Doctor Who" production started to get kicked around in earnest at Spielberg's Amblin. After many false starts and abandoned scripts, a backdoor pilot TV movie⁹ set to debut on Fox in 1996 entered production. Spielberg and Amblin were no longer involved — instead, Fox, Universal and the BBC co-produced the feature.

Initially conceived as a complete reboot, over the many rewrites a number of elements were added or tweaked such that the story worked more as a continuation of the original show than a fresh start. Chief amongst these changes was a regeneration scene for McCoy's Seventh Doctor added at the top of the film. Despite this major commitment to old canon, something that stuck around in the movie from the earliest reboot pitches was a plot point about The Doctor actually being half human. The result? Not only were new viewers put off by the death and transformation of the lead character in the feature's opening minutes, but some returning fans were upset by the story choice of making The Doctor half human (which has since been dissected, retconned and rebuked countless ways).

For all its strengths — a charming Eighth Doctor in Paul McGann, a gorgeous Jules Verne-esque TARDIS set and higher production values than the original had ever known — the movie still vastly underperformed the expectations of its American producers. The series, it seemed at the time, would not get a second life…

Meanwhile, in the years after the show's cancellation a number of "New Adventure" novels starring the Seventh Doctor trickled out from Virgin Publishing. These new stories, along with later novels featuring the Eighth Doctor and audio dramas with Paul McGann reprising the role, came to constitute what's known as the "Wilderness Years" — the term for all the questionably canonical non-television "Doctor Who" stories released between 1989 and 2005.

How To Revive A Time Lord: Very Carefully

In 2005, the BBC beat the world to the reboot trend by bringing back the show they had cancelled 15 years earlier. This new "Doctor Who" effort was fronted by Russell T. Davies. He wanted the revival to be accessible to new viewers, and set out to mix the more modern and progressive aspects of his previous television shows like "Queer As Folk," with the unique sci-fi formula established over "Doctor Who's" long history.

The very first episode of the revival opens with Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), an average girl who ends up traveling with The Doctor (now Christopher Eccleston) after she helps stop an alien invasion. Rose isn't just rolled into the story as The Doctor's new companion — where many past companions were mostly just relatable to the audience, by beginning the story from Rose's perspective the new series confidently declares that she's no mere sidekick or plot device.

After a long absence, old fans' "Doctor Who" really was back on TV.

Russell T. Davies was equally careful to reintroduce other elements of the show to his revival series. The Daleks naturally had to be brought back, but their first appearance is given more dramatic heft with the revelation of a destructive war between the Daleks and Time Lords. The original show had built the Daleks up as The Doctor's greatest enemy gradually, but new viewers now had good reason to be afraid: the war with the Daleks wiped out the rest of The Doctor's race. Even regeneration was kept hush-hush until the end of the revival's first season, where a mortally wounded Doctor explains it right before an intense transformation into the next incarnation, played by David Tennant. Rather than cram every iconic element of the show's past into a tight runtime, the first revival season gracefully placed them throughout, leaving plenty of time to get to know Rose and The Doctor such that Eccleston's exit actually feels emotional.

In the revival's second season, a definitive link to the original show was forged with the return of Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), a companion who had traveled with the Third and Fourth Doctors. Prior to Smith's appearance in the episode "School Reunion," it wasn't entirely clear whether or not the new series was canon with the old. The return of a beloved character was emotional for old fans in two senses — both as a lovely mediation on the show's history, and an affirmation of the fact that, after a long absence, their "Doctor Who" really was back on TV.

The Recent Past (And The Future)

Since the heady early days of the revival, "Doctor Who" has largely chugged along much as it did in the days of the original: always imaginative, with occasional heights of brilliance and depths of banality. The advent of online streaming and the hypercharged nature of modern fandom became a perfect fit for the show during David Tennant and Matt Smith's respective turns as the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, vaulting "Doctor Who" to new heights of global popularity as its 50th birthday drew near.

This anniversary also happened to coincide with the casting of the Twelfth Doctor. There are two reasons the news was highly anticipated: First, it was an accepted bit of canon that The Doctor only had thirteen lives, and due to some fudging of the numbers, it was expected that the Twelfth Doctor would have to find some means of gaining more regenerations. Second, with the show more popular and more heavily scrutinized than ever before, a vocal set of fans argued that the show should cast a woman or person of color as the next Doctor, as all the actors who've played The Doctor have been white men. Even Sydney Newman told the BBC to cast a woman as the Doctor in the '80s, but his idea was ignored.

When it was announced that Peter Capaldi would take the role, it was easy for fans to be disappointed in the choice of another white man while nonetheless being excited for Capaldi — famously, Capaldi grew up as a hardcore fan of "Doctor Who," a fact he was quickly and playfully roasted for on the talk show circuit. While it wasn't a progressive or particularly bold choice, fans could rest assured that Capaldi had a deep and abiding love for the show that'd be backed up by the wit that made him stand out in roles like Malcolm Tucker in "The Thick of It."

Now, as Capaldi's time on the show draws to an end and Jodie Whittaker's is set to begin, more change is in the air for "Doctor Who" too. Steven Moffat, producer and showrunner since Matt Smith became the Eleventh Doctor, is giving the reins over to Chris Chibnall, creator of the critically-acclaimed detective show "Broadchurch." Surely there'll be changes in the look and feel of the show, as eagle-eyed fans have already spotted that the police box exterior of Whittaker's TARDIS has taken on a slightly different shape and shade of blue.¹⁰ Whittaker will be joined by an entirely new set of companions for a 10-episode season, but not much else is known about what's to come beyond that.

Whittaker's first proper episode is set to debut sometime in the latter half of 2018. The wait and the anxiety that comes with such a monumental turnover in cast and crew won't be so bad as long as fans remember that "Doctor Who," despite the occasional wrong turn, has always thrived on one thing:

Change. And not a moment too soon.​