I would forgo the old ones and start with the Eccleston restart.
Reasons:
The restart is easier to find it’s entirety.
The old shows, while lovable, are way more campy and low production values. I feel one would be like - what? This isn’t as good as I expected.
Do come back to them. Tom Baker is still my first.
I would even almost say skip right to Tennants first season, but the back story with Rose and even Capt. Jack is important. And there really are some great episodes like The Empty Child which are destined to be classics.
So - I have been killing brain cells with Trailer Park Boys. It is a great show to just have on in the back ground while trying to look productive playing Final Fantasy Brave Exvius on my phone.
Two questions:
WHERE is it supposed to take place?
WHY is it always warm enough for short sleeved shirts, never raining, and never snowing? Does it not get winter time in Canada?
Where, google to the rescue Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Which is right next to Halifax.
Why, they are in jail while the weather sucks. That is the running gag each season begins with them getting out and ends with them going back. There is a Christmas special that takes place before the first season and they are not wearing short sleeves in that one.
I’m gonna second Eccleston. It’s the start of the reboot, so production values are good and it’s introducing the new viewer to what it’s all about. There’s’ not hours of tedious backstory or exposition and there’s still enough to keep old fans interested.
Then, if you dig it, Tom Baker gets some of the best stories. Genesis of the Daleks is perfect oldWho. Some of the other stuff dates a bit and suffers from the 1970s a bit, but personal favourites of mine would the “Horror of Fang Rock” (Victorian era locked-room mystery and The Brain of Morbius* (Hammer horror) Stuff like “Talons of Weng Chiang**” has dated and suffers badly from yellowface and Asian sterotypes, but is a fun Sherlock Holmes thing.
And I’ve got some love for Davison, too. Castrovalva, Kinda and Snakedance were all fun. But even with this, it still is a kids program and the cliffhanger episodic nature can make it drag if you binge it.
That is a good one.
However be warned the pacing isn’t great even in some of the good stories. Lots of corridor running and the 6 show stories like that one can feel drawn out.
Yeah, it’s much better if you drip-feed rather than binge. There’s a really solid hour of telly in there,but with recaps, filler and corridors the 2+hours can get a bit much.
Start with Tom Baker, for the classic series. Keep in mind that the classic series isn’t necessarily contiguous, so you can jump in at most points and do okay (not get too lost). The Key to Time season was a continuous story and it was kind of great (the script editor was Douglas Adams and he wrote some great episodes during that run, like the Pirate Planet, which is such an amazing episode).
And if you start with the reboot, just start with Eccelston and go from there. The stories build on each other more than they do in the classic series.
Personally, I’m also a big fan of the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and the Third Doctor (John Pertwee). The Pertwee era had some great political stories and he was essentially stuck on earth for some of that. The Mutants was a great sort of anti-imperialist story:
But 3 can be a dismissive dick at times, though. But it’s worth it for some of the stories they tell in that period.
I feel bad for Slyvester McCoy and the show runners for that era. It seems like from some of the documentaries there was just lots of anti-doctor who sentiment at that time… I’m sure it didn’t help that they had a stated aim of overthrowing Thatcher’s government (which if you didn’t know that, often felt a bit misogynistic, with all these evil women coming for the Doctor). That era was just shot thru with issues like bad pacing and bad editing…
They tried, though. I mean, they even attempted a Ballardian story:
I kind of like the Rani and feel she didn’t get good enough stories. She could have been great.
I agree with all of this except your 4th point. I think Chris was a great doctor. I realized this rewatching with my daughter. Upon first watch I thought that Tennant and Smith were way better. Going back there’s something they never quite captured the same way.
I guess that’s one of the wonderful things about Dr. Who. So many interpretations.
Me too. He just got some bad material and I get the sense (again, from the documentaries on the DVDs, at least) that the BBC was really wanting to just get rid of the show by the time he came along. I don’t think they liked the political angle that the show runner had and I don’t think the show was getting great ratings at the time.
As for Colin Baker, I think the problem there was less him, and again, more of the writing/production end of things. If you remember, it was during C. Baker’s era that they wanted to kill the show and there was a general outcry about it. He was basically shit canned and didn’t even show up for the regeneration. Also, having poor Peri with her terrible american accent did not help.
Ace kicked ass, for sure. She was clearly meant to appeal to the punkers in the audience!
MORBIUS! I will defend… 
