On the occasion of
Doctor Who
’s return, we offer our simplest advice for newcomers to start watching it.
First, though, a confession: only one of us watches Doctor Who. We won’t say which one — but it’s pretty obvious from our contributor’s photo. It’s a tricky show, Doctor Who. On one hand, it’s really not for everyone. Doctor Who is a crazy science-fiction show with time travel, space aliens, and it’s in British. It’s about an alien who saves the world from evil R2D2 lookalikes, vampires from Venice, and headless monks, who all happen to speak with a British accent.
On the other hand, it really is for everyone. It has action, drama, comedy, horror, and it’s all in British! And who doesn’t love British accents? In a nutshell — a blue, police box-shaped nutshell — Doctor Who is about a misfit alien who travels through time and space and has the greatest adventures ever. Granted, the show’s continuity is a little confusing. Anything that has the title of “Longest Running Sci-fi Show” is bound to be a little confusing. Explaining the whole show to a newcomer is like explaining why we need the RH Bill to the holier-than-thou priests in Taguig. It will take too much time and we’ll probably just hate each other in the end. Instead, we’ll let the show explain itself and only offer the simplest advice we can think of: start with season five.
Still with us? Cool. It’s often that when we recommend new shows to people, one of the first things they ask is, “What season is it on?” That lets them know how fast they can catch up to it and in some ways tells them if the show is any good. We’d argue on the reasoning for the latter, and the answer to the first one doesn’t really help get new viewers to jump on. But we will try. So why start with season five? Well, season one isn’t really new-viewer-friendly. We’d be lying if we said that Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor was great. It really wasn’t. It’s hard to prove how awesome a show with aliens and time travel is, if the lead actor seems to be angry every five seconds. Also, that first episode was really weak. A case could be made to start with season two with David Tennant as the Doctor, but that first episode also relies heavily on season-one plots. Better to save Tennant for later. And to recommend any season from decades back is in danger of being seen as dated.
Again, though, why season five? Because it really is set up like season one and because you need to start with Matt Smith’s Doctor. His portrayal of the time-traveling alien is easily the most accessible. He brings a vibrancy and reckless abandon to the role that only his youth can bring. With a show that already has so much sci-fi and fantasy involved, you need an actor who effortlessly makes it all fun. For the ladies, Smith is the most attractive Doctor in years. For the guys, he looks more like your cool (but not too cool) best friend and less like some douche in some lame-ass “indie” band. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that after seeing the first episode of Doctor Who season five, you’ll be thinking that bowties are cool, too.
To strengthen our case for why you should start with season five, we offer the show’s head writer and current show runner: Steven Moffat. His name might not be familiar, but if you loved Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin and the BBC show Sherlock, then thank Steven Moffat. His scripts are some of the sharpest, wittiest, and sometimes darkest on television. If Aaron Sorkin ever had a British sci-fi counterpart, it would be this man. To Moffat’s credit, before becoming the current show runner of Doctor Who, he had written the best episodes of the past two incarnations of Doctor Who. We suggest that when you’re done watching Matt Smith’s first full episode of Doctor Who, you watch an episode from season four called “Blink.” Bonus points: it has Carey Mulligan in it and features some of the scariest monsters ever. Seriously, go watch “Blink” already.
We promised three reasons why you should absolutely start watching Doctor Who with season five. So what’s the third? Two words: Amy. Pond.
* * *
Are you a fan of Doctor Who? Email us at jiggyandjonty@gmail.com and maybe we can plan a Doctor Who party!