JUST WATCH IT

Start with the newer ones with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor.

Don't worry. I've never seen Doctor Who before either. People keep telling me to see it, but I just don't see why it's so good.

The show is 50 years old. Most of the originals don't exist anymore sadly.

You can see new seasons (the ones that starts at 2005) and enjoy as well as you dont see the original show, but IMO tenth doctor is better than nine, but as a friend of mine says... you´ll never forget your first Doctor xd

This is the best show besides Fringe (canceled awesome show) and the walking dead (The most awesome show)

Except when they bring in characters from the old serials you won't be missing out on much from the classic Who series. The Doctor is never anyone different, it's always the same Doctor, just different actors like James Bond. Storywise they say when he dies he regenerates his body. He looks different, but he's more or less the same guy.
I got into it myself from the 2005 series and have caught bits and pieces of the older serials but unfortunately like was stated some no longer exist because the BBC didn't take good care of them.

Jellybabies and running

EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE

Who?

Lost episodes

ok now that I have stopped twitching... Sorry, I'm a big fan, its hard for me to imagine no one liking or at least not watching the show. :)

I know others have answered but here is a more detailed answer that will hopefully answer your question.

Doctor Who is a very long running British SciFi show. In fact this year is its 50th Anniversary. It ran from 1963 to 1989, tried to restart with an american based movie in 1996, and then the series started up again 2005 and has been going ever since.

There has been many actors who have played the Doctor over the years. We are currently on Doctor 11. When the doctor dies he "regenerates" into a new body, new personality but with the same mind.

He has had many different traveling companions over the many years.

I have been watching the doctor since I was a kid, my grandfather got me into watching it. While I think you should try to watch all the previous season/series of Doctor Who, that could be expensive and very time consuming. The show started in black and white and has changed quite a bit over the years.

I think you would be safe starting with the 9th Doctor when the show started up again in 2005. You really don't need to know of all the previous stuff. But if you can do watch it but remember the times when the show was first out. The show was campy back then, in a Adam West Batman kind of way, where as the one we are watching now, would be somewhere between a Michael Keaton and Christian Bale kind of Batman.

There are some name drops from the early episodes and such, and even a few of the people from the early episodes show up a few times.

But heres what you should do..

WATCH IT!!!

I don't care much about the classic episodes but I'm still highly enjoying the new series.
At the forums old fans are finding references from the old series all the time, but it didn't matter that I didn't know them.

Just start watching from the 9th doctor.

Yeah, you can start with the 2005 series and you won't be missing out on any details. I personally think it's an extremely overhyped show. It's so cheesy. Even the fan-favourite episodes that I've had recommended to me as some of the best were dull and corny. It's a kid's show, plain and simple. Some people like it because it's nostalgic or campy but I just found it stupid.

Having said that, the theme song is AWESOME.

Yeah. Starting with 9 is alright. Go through until current and then start in on the older ones. Hartnell (1) can be a difficult doctor to start with.

tl;dr, but here's the answer: The Doctor wears bowties. Bowties are cool.

naw, you can start with the reboot and catch on just fine. they did a great job of reintroducing the doctor.

Dr. Who is all about Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey...Stuff.

tldr: Start with Eccleston/ninth doctor/2005. Enjoy.

I started on 2005 (in 2012). The 2005 episodes, into the present, are pretty darn good, though I'm a little "eh" about the current season.
I also went back and started watching the old ones after I caught up with the modern ones.
If you're a completionist, it's kind of a pain... many of the older episodes were destroyed and no longer exist as film. There's also a ton of official-ish material in books, radio plays, actual plays, audiobooks, comics, spin-off series, etc. that I plan to never get to.
Right now, I'm up to the episodes that aired in 1980 (fourth doctor) with 157 episodes left to go. Aside from the modern episodes, so far, the second doctor has been my favorite, but has very few episodes still in existence. I wouldn't put anyone but a die hard fan through viewing as much as I have. Two or three episodes from each doctor would be enough to get a sense of how the doctor has varied over the years. But... you might also miss some of the better "companions" who are the people who travel with him (generally speaking... there's no cut-and-dried definition). They're just as much important characters as the doctor himself and they don't often switch out at the same time the doctor does.

Doctor Who is great IF you see the right episodes.

There are some serious powerhouse episodes that will leave you emotionally drained and weeping, or leaping out of your seat and cheering, (or sometimes both in rapid succession), but ONLY if you care about the characters AND fully understand what is happening to them.

Which means that the best episodes DON'T hold up on their own. (Except maybe Blink)

Journey's End is a great episode, but if you haven't watched the preceding season and have all the birdcrumb clues in the back of your mind, the final revelation is going to do nothing for you. It's GREAT, as part of a complete season; it's nothing on its own. The triumph isn't as triumphant if you don't realize they've been telling you all season long, and the devastating loss isn't so devastating if you don't know/care about the characters.

And that's kind of the problem, because Doctor Who is at its hearts a kid's show. It is. So there are a lot of childish cheesy stupid kidstuff episodes to sit through. It's not all gold. (But even then, the childish cheesy stupid kidstuff episodes can have little gold nuggets in them, if you know the Doctor Who lore and history)

Long story short: When it's great, it's REALLY GREAT, but you can't skip to the great parts. You have to endure the meh episodes too.

And as for where to start, you can even just start with The Eleventh Hour (season 5). New Doctor, new companions, it's a semi-reboot. You can always go back to first season if you run out of episodes and want more, but it's not necessary.

Here's some good explainations for you, if you can understand them.

Also, any excuse to drop in a link to sfdebris. Comes complete with the Doctor Who 101 for you. He got me interested in Doctor Who, Babylon 5 and lately Madoka Magica.

what i never understood about doctor what, is why he travels, i mean is he like some kind of superheroe or he has a more secret purpose or something.

yeah i have only watched like 4- 5 episodes

I think the best Doctors are Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, and Tom Baker, though I can see a lot of people are partial to the new series. (Which still feels strange; I'd been watching the old series for years before the new series started, since I was a little kid.)

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