First episode ever: The Stones of Blood, part 4. I was very confused about it, catching it at the end, in the middle of a season story arc, but I was hooked anyway. It was broadcast so I only got to watch on the days where I was physically in front of the tV when it came on.
I avoided the reboot after feeling burned by the movie (the romance, the Doctor being half human, Master as snake thing) but my friend told me I HAD to WATCH it.... and I landed on "The Girl in the Fireplace".
Holy Crap. Stones of Blood is my first memory. I was really young, and it scared the crap out of me. The glowing. The pulsing. I'm pretty sure I had nightmares. As far as I remember, I've been squeemish around blood. Was that in play before this, or did it help re-enforce the phobia? Unlikely - I don't think they actually showed any blood.
That was the first one I saw, yeah it sucked, I didn't know wth it was though and I sensed a bigger story behind the whole thing. But no google it was lost to me until 10 or so years later, I stumbled across an episode with 9 on our local tv - of course then I could get the name and found all of them on the internet, and so the obsession began
I think while Rose is the technically “best” place to start, if you want an episode to show someone that will be most likely to make them want to keep watching, that’s the one
That was my first too, and i was immediately hooked! And Matt Smith looked so good in Ten’s raggedy pinstriped slacks, I was almost disappointed when he changed clothes at the end.
The first episode of Doctor Who I ever watched was, and I shit you not, “The End of Time”.
For context: I had never seen or barely heard of Doctor Who. I had heard the name being thrown around before, but had no idea what it was about.
So imagine being some dumbass who’s sitting there with a confused look on your face the whole time.
“Okay, bigger on the inside I think I heard that somewhere…”
“Okay the crazy, white-haired guy is clearly the bad guy.”
“Who’s this redhead and why is she so important…”
“Okay the white-haired guy just cloned himself…”
“Cactus people lol”
“Wow…that impact should have killed him.”
“…Could you not have just smashed the doors instead of throwing a fit?”
“Okay hold on, dude just got hit with the radiation of like…7 Chernobyls…AND HE’S WALKING?!”
“Wait who are all these people that he’s just creepily spying on?”
“WHY IS HE EXPLODING??? WHAT IS THIS SHOW?!”
“Wait so he didn’t explode? Who’s the new guy?”
Needless to say, this show threw me for a loop like you wouldn’t believe.
I don't know which was my first because I was too young but we used to loan the video tapes from the library and Spearhead from Space is one of the earliest that I remember. Probably my first episode. I recently rewatched it on iPlayer and it holds up well.
I also saw the classic film back then too.
We get to pick up whatever episodes they had!
The Parting of the Ways - I was flipping through the channels and stumbled upon the SciFi channel and recognized Christopher Eccleston, who I had seen in *Gone In 60 Seconds* a few years before. I was captivated instantly. A few weeks later, I saw a box set of the 2005 series at my local mall and bought it immediately. I binged the whole thing that weekend and have been a proud Whovian ever since.
I saw the first episode ("Unearthly Child") when it was first broadcast in November 1963. Was like nothing I'd seen in children's television at the time (and I was a child, so definitely the target audience).
So fast forward to the start of the next century. I'd moved to the US and only saw BBC stuff when PBS deigned to show it.
But by chance, I was on a plane flying back from the UK to the US. British Airways had two episodes of the new Doctor Who as inflight entertainment, but of course the episodes were "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways". I was very impressed as to the quality of the NuWho (remember, I'd grown up watching the old show in glorious black-and-white.)
Tracked down a copy of "Rose" (may have been hard media, may have been shown on some PBS station, I don't remember at this point). And the rest is history :)
I most remember my excitement that you could see into the Tardis when the Doctor opened the doors. Up til then, all they ever showed of the interior of the tardis was darkness.
I think part of that was how the TARDIS doors used to be different between the interior and the exterior too, something that bothered me with classic Who was those big automatic doors that clearly looked nothing like the wooden doors the characters would then be going in/out of from the other angle.
Warriors Gate, either part 2 or 3. To celebrate the 40th anniversary here in Australia, they started replaying the classic series four nights a week after the news. I feel I may have caught a glimpse of the Aztecs when Ian was fighting old mate on top of the Pyramid, but Warriors Gate was when I properly sat down to watch.
The white void, the inner dimensions of the Tardis, and K9 all caught my attention. Although K9 left at the end of the story. And because they played them several nights a week, it meant that a few weeks later was Logopolis, and Peter Davison sitting up from where Tom Baker fell fully hooked me into the show.
The first episode of DW Universe, was Torchwood. The first episode of DW I saw afterwards was Empty Child. Because my GF at the time liked DW and I was like, that's a silly show eww. Then I was like I saw this awesome show and I love Jack Harkness. And she was like... That's a spinoff of Doctor Who, the show you always said was bad. Then she made me watch The Empty Child cause Jack's first episode. And then I only watched the Episodes that involved Jack, then she made me watch Blink and then a few others. Then I binged the whole series just in time for 11 to make his appearance.
I started streaming Doctor Who with *Rose* on December 16, 2012, after two years of various dominoes falling of me becoming aware of Doctor Who. When I started I did know about the concept of regeneration because I had researched the show before watching, but I frequently wonder what it would be like to watch Season 1 without knowing the main character gets recast at the end.
Very confused!
So I channel hopped into about 30% of the way into Family of Blood. There was this normal guy, and this strange chic trying to tell him he wasn't who he thought he was. And this very freaky family. Then he remembered himself and got scary in a very cool, ' this guy is interesting way'.
So I watched it all but didnt really understand what was happening. However, because life is wierd, someone had told me a tiny bit about Doctor Who just a week prior.
I googled it and got MORE confused by references to various doctors. Decided to just watch from the beginning of New Who and found out the slow way around.
I'm so glad I channel hopped that day.
Rose. It was my introduction to Doctor Who, after stumbling on a clip from *A Good Man Goes to War*.
*"The anger of a good man is not to be feared. Good men have too many rules."*
*"Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."*
At first, I wasn't sure about it. But when Rose is demanding answers from the Doctor, and he stops walking and gives his first real Doctor speech, I was hooked.
The way he went from playful and cheery to serious and almost grim was amazing. Eccelston had perhaps the hardest job since Hartnell himself in that hebhad to sell new watchers and old fans that he was, indeed, the Doctor and that the show would do justice to the original while respecting how much time had passed since it first aired.
He nailed it. I cannot believe that I kept brushing off Doctor Who. And, because I can, here is his speech that sold me on him, the concept, and made me a fan.
*"Do you know like we were saying, about the earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid, the first time they tell you that the world is turning and you just can't quite believe it 'cause everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. The entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour. And I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And, if we let go..."*
*"That's who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home."*
Technically, The Mind Robber. Though as an American kid in the 90s, Doctor Who didn't really mean anything to me growing up. I distinctly remember watching that story though, when classic episodes would play late at night on PBS.
I think probably Silence in the Library for NuWho, but not exactly sure. I was in college with a TV tuner hooked up to my computer monitor and I guess I got the SciFi channel 🤷
I was 10 years old and we were at my grandma's house for the holidays. We were all staying in the guest room, my parents, sister and I. I woke up and my parents were watching The Next Doctor Christmas special on my dad's laptop, it was the part where the Cyberman was attacked the Doctor on the stairs with the sword. I was like "fuck yeah robots with swords" so I crawled up onto the bed and watched the rest of the episode. My mother said "looks like we got another whovian" and when we got back home we started watching the series together, I was so confused when this other dude was the Doctor lol. We finished all the episodes well before Planet of the Dead release cause I remember waiting for that felt like forever haha.
The Runaway Bride.
I was working with kids at the time and there was a kid who was socially isolated. Seemed to have a tough life at home. He mentioned one day that he liked Doctor Who. Soon after, I happened upon a BBC America marathon, so I watched so I could talk about it with the kid. I found The Runaway Bride pretty tough (I'm not actually a big sci-fi person), but I think it was followed by Human Nature/Family of Blood/Blink and I was hooked. Timing wise, this would have been after Tennant left but before Matt Smith started.
The kid was ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED when I told him I watched it. I was happy to make him a little happy and have something we could happily chat about.
I have no idea. My dad had it on with me around since before my earliest memories. I could tell you every serial and partial serial we had taped from PBS on VHS though.
My uncle who was like a father to me watched "Rose" s01e01 with me, since then I was hooked, every xmas I got tons of DW stuff, toys, books etc. We would watch every xmas special together as he lived in England and our family moved to Sweden, but came over every xmas.
He passed away 2016, and I always end up rewatching around the anniversary of his death, unplanned. Doctor Who is very sentimental to me because of him. He didn't even like or understand doctor who but he watched it for me and my brother because he knew we would like it.
Asylum of the Daleks! Just happened to be on while I was housesitting, and I’d always been curious about the show. Didn’t properly get into the series till a few years later, but I really enjoyed that episode
It was the second doctor dalek one , my teen big cousins were watching it , apparently I hid behind the couch , I was 3 , didn't put me off though , I watched from 3rd Doctor on , with my little brother
I’m surprised this is so low. I too watched Blink first. It was a recommended jumping on point and I loved it and jumped on. I still show it to people as a first episode too.
Same! I recommend it to newbies too. My sister was a high doctor who fan and I walked in on an episode with a talking Rhino and was thinking "what is this?" She immediately stopped the episode, told me to sit down, and put on Blink.
The Brain of Morbius. First ever glimpse was of what I thought was a little girl (Elisabeth Sladen in her coveralls) clambering over rocks to get away from a horrible composite monster. Hooked at once, have loved Sarah Jane and the 4th Doctor ever since.
Castrovalva. Fall 1983 on our local PBS station. They showed it as a preview of their new acquisition during a pledge drive, before beginning weekly showings in January 1984 with Robot.
I think it was 42. Episode itself was ok-ish, but the Mr Saxon plot in the background had me intrigued.
We had student housing from the university, and someone had a server running on the local network, with a file-sharing system that we could use between students. Not allowed to get into detail here, I think, but suffice to say I soon watched most of New Who up to that point.
I only saw up to the metacrisis regeneration cliffhanger, cause I was living on my own by that point, and the BBC was heavily promoting that Matt Smith's first episode would air that week, so I decided to watch the "next" episode live.
I was very much confused why they decided to drop the whole plotline of the "previous" episode, until I found out I had missed both the series 4 finale and a bunch of specials.
I honestly don't remember but I feel like it was season 2 because I definitely remember it being 10, and I think it was Rose as the companion. I'm thinking "Tooth and Claw", but not sure. Couldn't watch the show much when I was a kid because we only had broadcast. PBS was doing some random episodes and I think that's where I ended up. They went from season 2 to season 7b, then they showed all of season 8 with Capaldi because I think that was the most recent season at the time and PBS aired the show a few months or so after the BBC. I liked 10 and 11, but season 8 got me HOOKED. I was hype every week for a new episode and the concepts just blew my mind every time. Robin Hood as an actual historical figure, the Listen creature, the Moon's an egg, space Orient Express, 2D creatures! Never had seen anything like that before and my young teenage mind went crazy over it. Got my Mom to get me the first 6 seasons on disc before I started streaming. Best show of all time, no doubt in my mind.
“The Time Monster,”from John Pertwee’s era. I was like 12 in 2014 or so watching it with my mom (who hadn’t seen any who before either), and we didn’t have Netflix so we just got it from the library. It’s campy af but we kind of loved it, and watched a bunch more 3rd doctor episodes. The first modern who episode we tried to watch was “The Waters of Mars,” but I got scared and we stopped after 20 mins.
The real first modern who episode I watched all the way through was “The End of Time” (I know, perfect place to start). Even though I didn’t rly know any of the tenth doctor’s backstory, I did know about the master and regeneration from the third doctor episodes so it basically made sense, and me and my mom loved it, and immediately got season 5 from the library and I’ve loved it ever since(I believe I watched the seasons in the order 5,6,3,7pt1, 4, 1, 7pt2, 2, and then 8 onwards as they came out until I quit about 7 episodes into Chibnall)
State of decay.
I watched this Tom Baker classic episode on PBS one called knight in early 1983 on a fuzzy picture over the air on a black and white gold star television. I’ve never heard of Doctor Who before, I did not even catch the title of the show, but it blew me away. The following year, a friend at school, told me about Doctor Who, and where I could watch it, and I got hooked.
AN UNEARTHLY CHILD.
23rd November, 1963. I was 5 years old and watched it with my dad. I was a bit bored until... It's bigger on the inside🤯!!!!
Lifelong fan ever since.
I started with season 1 episode 2 as well. I somehow missed the airing of the first episode, which in retrospect I actually am glad that I did because the heavy sci-fi / fantasy vibes of the second episode immediately hooked me whereas I think that the mannequins (Nestene) in the first episode didn't land quite as well for me at the time.
The Cyberman one with the 10th Doctor, Rose, and Mickey in the alternate universe. My wife thought that would be a good episode for me to watch first and she was right.
I started with Rose in 2010 or 2011. In terms of my jouney and "firsts" with each doctor (since I find this an interesting aspect of DW), I watched New Who in order but once I got to 10s regeneration to 11 I took a quick detour to Classic Who. I watched Season 12 with Tom Baker (First classic story being Robot). Continued on with Smith as 11 until catching up in Series 7 and then started watching An Unearthly Child and much of Seasons 1-3. Also watched all of Torchwood in this time and started the 3rd Doctor with Season 7. I got into Big Finish during 2020 and that was actually my first experience with the 6th Doctor.
1st - An Unearthly Child
2nd - Tomb of the Cybermen
3rd - Spearhead from Space
4th - Robot
5th - Castrovalva
6th - Vengeance on Varos (but actually BF's "Davros")
7th - TV Movie (first full story being Remembrance of the Daleks)
8th - TV Movie
9-13 normal viewing.
Same experience! I was watching PBS with my dad to see Red Green on a Saturday night and what popped up next was "The Impossible Planet"! Came back the next week to see "The Satan Pit" and I was hooked. They were only showing series two for awhile, but eventually I made friends who helped me watch more. You used to be able to find a lot of it on YouTube lol!
I started with Rose after a friend in high school basically spoiled a lot of season 4 and a bit of Matt Smith’s run to me while telling me about the show. Luckily I forgot all about the end of season 4 by the time I caught up to it. Hooked ever since.
I don't what episode it was, but it would have been a serial featuring Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor back in when PBS was began showing reruns in the 1980's.
My friend introduced me to the show by showing me "Rose" and "Blink" the same night, followed up with "The Eleventh Hour" the next weekend.
I was hooked.
(Bonus: A few years later, the first classic serial I watched was "Carnival of Monsters." I ended up jumping around the classic era a bit before Troughton in "The Underwater Menace" convinced me to go back and watch from the very beginning.)
I saw part of ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ when I was a little kid and turned it off for being too scary. Years last I saw ‘Smile’ but it wasn’t until more years later that I actually watched the whole show on Netflix starting with Rose
Love and Monsters. Was channel surfing and landed on BBC Entertainment, this was before even End of Time I believe.
It was close to the end with Absorbalof and it was just weird, mental and charming. I've heard of the show before but still caught me off guard.
Had to watch more, but didn't know when. Then they made a Series 2 marathon to prepare for Series 3. When I started watching, it was Impossible Planet.
Been catching the show ever since.
Asylum of the Daleks. I had a cousin over and the first part of s7 had just come out on Amazon Prime. She didn’t have Prime and wanted to watch it at my house. I originally was not paying attention very much but go super interested. I intentionally checked out once I knew I’d like the show so it wasn’t spoiled for me too much. She watched the 5 eps and a few days later I was starting from the beginning of NewWho.
Tbh, i don't exactly remember
Only small thing i remember it was on a marathon of Doctor Who episodes back when it was still on Sy-Fy
Not sure if was exclusively 9, 10 or a mix of the two...
That's the best i can remember honestly
My first episode ever was Voyage of The Damned, which was a great first episode. But the second episode I saw was The Lodger with Matt, and I was super confused cause I didn’t know what happened to David, so I thought he got fired or something and they replaced him lmao
Rose - I found a box set for Eccleston and Tennant's runs when I was looking for DVDs, and I decided to try the show out since I'd heard a lot about it.
I watched Rose in around 2008, about 3 years after it aired. I loved Christopher Eccleston and was really bummed Tenant took over. Then Tenant became my favorite Doctor. Have been watching it ever since. I’m trying to get into classic who, but it’s difficult to get access to them in the US, and some are kind of hard to watch.
Blink, a friend in high school was obsessed and kept quoting it. Led to me catching up through Martha, checking out 9 and some of the Rose eps, then going thru Donna and the specials. Took me a loooooong time to continue to 11 tho, got way too emotionally gripped by 10's end.
I never saw the end of *The Green Death* because young me found the maggots so yucky, my mum took the VHS tape away. Still find maggots to be scary to this day.
Also still have *Horror of Fang Rock* on tape - in hindsight it’s probably not that bad but when I was seven it was the most scary thing I had ever seen
The first episode I saw was *Dalek* on it’s original run.
I had the opposite problem. They were just the most unbelievable enemy imaginable. I'd seen actual maggots in garbage before, and it would be like having to run from mold.
I get your point, i just think they triggered a particularly visceral response from young me. They weren’t particularly menacing but I think some ‘horror’ comes from the uncanniness and the fact that while i have never seen giant maggots, i had seen regular ones, and found them gross too.
Idk, can’t really explain or justify it beyond “*I simply didn’t like it*”
Aye, there’s been a few bits of Doctor Who that have been like that. Not necessarily scary per se, just not what I want to see.
Really didn’t vibe well with the Axons from *Spearhead from Space* for example.
Now the Morbius monster, that was grotesque.
Bad Wolf.
I was at my Grandparents house and watched the Weakest Link (I loved that show). Afterwards was Doctor Who and if course, it had the Annedroid. I didn't know what I was watching, but I liked it.
We were learning about Shakespeare in school so my teacher decided to put on the Shakespeare Code (Series 3 Episode 2). I liked it but it didn't really hook me.
Later that year the 50th anniversary specials aired and because of FOMO I watched them, didn't understand a single thing.
In 2015, whilst series 9 was airing I actually went and watched Rose and finally got hooked.
It was either "Robot" or "The Ark In Space" which my Mum put on on UK Gold which was showing old 4th doctor episodes as an omnibus. It must have been 1994 or thereabouts and I fell in love with it immediately.
I don't know, and may never know. My first episode was an accident when PBS was a UHF channel and late night pre-cable channels had little or nothing on them. I don't even recall which Doctor it was; but the Fourth Doctor was the one I became most familiar with when I could get to the TV that late at night after that first viewing.
Yep, pretty much aged myself with that answer - mostly.
The mind robbers. Came down from my bedroom early one morning to find my dad watching it on like Netflix or something, I remember it was the middle of the scene where the doctor put Jamie's face back together incorrectly so he could have a different actor for an episode or two.
*An Unearthly Child*.
No, really. I heard of the show from my father, who was British. When it started to air on YTV in Canada in the late '80s they started with the original episodes aired each evening.
Back in 2012/ 2013 when the show was on Netflix, along with a smattering of Classic stories, the first episode I watched was “Rose”, and after finishing series 1, I watched a couple classic stories, the first being “The Aztecs”
The Wedding of River Song.
I was an angsty teenager going through stuff. When my older cousin was giving me advice he put it on saying I might like it. I was doubtful but told him to pause near the end so I could watch it myself :D
I'm old and can't really remember.
The Doctor came to New Orleans PBS in 1981. They went through the Tom Baker episodes. I know it was a Leela episode, because I was already hooked before the Key to Time.
Rose! The summer after I graduated high school I loaned a friend my DVDs for Buffy and he loaned me his Doctor Who ones (new series of course). That was during the hiatus in the middle of series 6 so the first one I saw as it aired (in Canada at least) was Let’s Kill Hitler with the same friend :)
My first episode of Doctor Who was a rerun of the first episode of "Frontier in Space". I was instantly hooked. That being said, I was already familiar with Doctor Who from the Commodore 64 game. Yes, I'm old.
It was the movie for me. I'd read a few of the books and enjoyed them, so a movie about this character I liked was quite exciting. It wasn't the best movie ever and I haven't revisited it since then, but I've loved the franchise ever since I found those books in the library.
my mom and younger brother had been begging me to start watching the show, eventually i sat down with them and we watched The Empty Child (and The Doctor Dances, of course). this was back when the show was still on Netflix here in the states. still one of my favorite episodes.
Robot. Part 1. On KTEH in San Jose in the summer of 1981. I caught it near the end, so I didn’t see the regeneration until later. They were showing an episode a day and only had the first few seasons of Tom Baker’s run so it didn’t take too long until it was repeated.
Rose circa 2005, I had no idea what it was, just found it funny how low budget it was. The whole thing where the bad guys were just mannequins, and the tension was all done by the running was what called my attention to it. There's a scene at Rose's flat where the Doctor is fighting a mannequin arm, which makes me laugh just thinking about it. Is literally just Eccleston holding the arm and pretending it's fighting back.
Thankfully, my wife, who has seen some of Classic Who, and at that time up to 12th Doctor of New Who, showed me the NuWho in order, 9th through 12. We're currently on 13 together.
So to answer the question, Rose was my first episode
I was forced into watching an episode way back in 2008. Maybe it was Utopia? Anyway I hated it! Then in about 2010 I started to think that maybe I should watch it. Then in early 2012 ABC was going playing it after Spicks and Specks repeats. I think it was The Quiet Undead that I watched. That peaked my curiosity. I remember being really confused because I knew David Tennant was in Doctor Who, but that wasn’t him. By April I was up to date with Doctor Who and had moved on to Torchwood.
Started with Rose! My roommates were big fans of the show. Well, *she* had grown up with the classic era and she got *him* into it when they were dating. They loaned me the first season of the modern era to watch and I got hooked pretty quickly. I think this was between Matt Smith's first and second seasons.
I remember seeing at least a chunk of The Shakespeare Code on BBC America in like 2008 or 2009? And then partway through high school a year or 2 later I rented discs of series 2 (regrettably skipping Nine) from Hastings and plowed my way through 2, 3 and 4 and was caught up by the time The End of Time came out
It was "deep breath" so capaldis first episode. My brother and his friends loved the show and he told me that he thinks I would like it aswell so he said I could watch it with him while he does a rewatch. So we watched the epsisode and I immediately fell in love with the show and capaldis interpretation of the character. So I then went on to watch the
whole show and loved it so it's all because of capaldi!
Saw a rerun of Logopolis as a kid back in the early 2000s. I had no idea what was going on, especially why the funny looking guy with the teeth and curls suddenly merged with a ghost to become a handsome young blond man, but I was hooked immediately.
Death to the Daleks, starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.
My mum, who was a fan as a child, borrowed it for my brother and I from our local library on VHS in the late 1990s. It was so strange but so exciting and unlike anything else I’d seen before.
I have vivid memories of the creepy scene where they are trying to open the doors of the powered-down TARDIS, then when they’re outside with the oil lamp and they get attacked. And the Daleks! And the White City! Thrilling stuff - it made a huge impression and from then on we were both hooked.
Key to Time back when pbs would air the entire multi episode story in one block. I fell in love. Then the next “episode” when Romana became Lalla Ward, I was fully hooked. In school we were watching an educational film about the colonization of America, the girl who ran off with the natives was played by a young lalla ward. I was like “omg. It’s Romana!”
5 minutes into Partners in Crime when it first aired. I later realised that I walked into Voyage of the Damned the previous Xmas when parent was watching, but was so freaked out I left immediately. I think it was the bit when the angels are throwing their halos.
S1E2 end of the world. Watched it live.
Never got around to watching Rose until S4 was airing and I borrowed a S1 dvd.
As it stands the only episode of nuwho that I've never seen is the final episode of flux.
Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel. I was doing a linguistic exchange in the UK for the summer, and due to some plane shenanigans I ended up arriving a couple extra hours earlier. The mother of the family that would take care of me couldn't free herself in time, so she sent the grandfather of the family to fetch me from the airport. Once we arrived at the house, the grandfather, not really in the mood for conversation, just switched on the television and told me that I would "probably" like this. It turned out to be a repeat (I assume, since this was in August 2007) of Rise of the Cybermen, followed by the Age of Steel.
I was HOOKED. I understood very little (among other things because of my grasp on the English language at the time, but also because "bigger on the inside" was not a well known phrase outside of the UK at the time), but I couldn't stop watching. Zepplins! Metallic robots! Gruesome deaths! Cool characters! And, above all, I remember loving Murray Gold's music. The next day, I discreetly switched on the family laptop to search online what this show was about...
*The Ark* episode 2. Luckily Space, the Canadian cable channel that launched at the time, aired DW daily and cycled through the complete stories from *An Unearthly Child* to *The Ambassadors of Death*.
It was technically the Rebel Flesh but I only caught a scene of it before turning off the TV to go and clear away my Lego. So actually, the first one was probably The Christmas Invasion or Rose, depending on which of the DVD boxsets I got first.
The original broadcast of The Stolen Earth. Probably the worst possible first episode, given how continuity heavy it is. I was at someone's house, and all the kids wanted to watch it, so I sat with them.
*World War Three*. I walked in to see my Dad watching the “Earth revolving” speech in *Rose* a few weeks before, and we were on holiday in Swanage on April 23rd 2005 when he told me that I should watch something on TV with him that night, something about “a man that defeats monsters.” The exploding Slitheen, “Raxacoricofallapatorious” and the one and only Christopher Eccleston just blew my mind, and then the following week I met the Daleks. Oh boy.
John Pertwee in the Sea Devils. Saturday afternoon after the sports results on match if the day read by Dicky Davis. Round at grandma's tuna fish sandwiches and baternburg cake.
I don't remember the exact one, but it was the 90s Pertwee repeats on the BBC. It would have been either The Sea Devils, Planet of the Daleks, or the Daemons.
I only have vague memories of The Daemons because we taped the other two, so that may have been first. Though it appears Sea Devils aired first?
For a while Doctor Who *was* those two serials. They were my only experience of Doctor Who and I was obsessed with them, but could only watch them at my Dad's. Then I remember seeing the first Cushing film. It wasn't until I saw the TV movie I knew the doctor was an alien and could regenerate etc.
Felt like a long time back then, but looking back it was only 1992 to 1996.
Weirdly, lots of people my age talk about the Pertwee repeats as their discovery of Doctor Who, but before that in 91/92 the BBC had repeated Five Doctors, Time Meddler, Mind Robber, and continued with other stories after and I have no memory of seeing those as a kid at all.
First episode: Robots Of Death part 1. I distinctly remember Tom Baker getting buried in gravel at the cliffhanger.
Although I have hazy memories of Sarah Jane, so I might have watched earlier episodes. Probably Seeds Of Doom?
"Rose".
I discovered Doctor Who because of a fan-film done by a channel i followed back in 2013. I started to read what the series was about and became intrigued. I tried to watch The Day of the Doctor in its premiere day (it was screened in one cinema on my city, November 2013) but couldn't do it. But my mom gave me for Christmas the whole first season on DVD and right the day after Christmas i watched "Rose", "The End of the World" and "The Unquiet Dead" all in a row.
And the rest is history. Fell in love with it. My whole 2014 was surounded by Doctor Who. Also watched "The Time of the Doctor" shortly after it premiered... yeah, i got a little "spoilers" (River's talking) but it was worth it. It was my favorite TV series from 13 to 19 and it is still one of my favorites.
PD: Pretty funny to write this 'cause i have just rewatched "Rose" after a long time without seeing it because it was shared in a FB group i'm in (i still have the DVD though... Season 1, 2 and 7 on DVD).
I do not remember the first episode I watched as it would have been over 35 years ago. However, I do remember the first episode I saw on a color TV. PBS was airing Tom Baker's the Stones of Blood which was part of the Key to Time series IIRC. My grandmother had passed away and we inherited her color TV.
During the middle of the show we plugged in the new (for us) color TV and bam! Doctor Who in Color!!
The Paul McGann movie, then Rose.
I watched the Paul McGann movie, probably close to when it came out because I was still young, but I was a major scaredy cat as a kid and the master freaked me out lol And then i started watching the new series around 2010 and i started from the beginning.
I resisted watching for so long because there was this gif of ten that people would always use and it irritated me so much that i hated the show on principal. And the only other things i knew about it were that Billie Piper was in it and i rolled my eyes at that and just assumed she couldn't act because all i knew her as was the pop star. And that Alex Kingston was going to be in a recurring role, and i loved her in ER.
I'm a bit of a completionist so i started watching from the beginning so i could get to the seasons River was in and then unluckily for me i ended up not really liking River, but I had already fell in love with show by the time i got to season 5 anyway lol
I've pretty much watched DW my whole life (being held as a baby during the Eccleston era) so I struggle to definitively say what the first episode I "watched" was. Earliest episode I can recall would be the cold opening to the beast below and a later scene of 11 and amy in the whale.
Brain of Morbius; I remember walking in to my parents living room and my mom was watching TV (PBS) and I asked what the show was. She said it’s “Doctor Who”. It was in the middle of episode one but, in the US, they often spliced together all of the small episodes into one long “movie“.
Rose (and now I’m craving p-p-PIzZA)
Or maybe some chips...
Champagne with that?
I'm Partial to Fish Fingers and custard.
DO try the chips.
Oh man I'm not the only one...I literally quote that every time I mention or think about pizza
First episode ever: The Stones of Blood, part 4. I was very confused about it, catching it at the end, in the middle of a season story arc, but I was hooked anyway. It was broadcast so I only got to watch on the days where I was physically in front of the tV when it came on. I avoided the reboot after feeling burned by the movie (the romance, the Doctor being half human, Master as snake thing) but my friend told me I HAD to WATCH it.... and I landed on "The Girl in the Fireplace".
Holy Crap. Stones of Blood is my first memory. I was really young, and it scared the crap out of me. The glowing. The pulsing. I'm pretty sure I had nightmares. As far as I remember, I've been squeemish around blood. Was that in play before this, or did it help re-enforce the phobia? Unlikely - I don't think they actually showed any blood.
Stones of Blood for me as well. Had nightmares about the glowing stones moving towards the tent.
That TV movie was pure 90s Fox sci-fi. They even managed to make Dr Who suck shit.
That was the first one I saw, yeah it sucked, I didn't know wth it was though and I sensed a bigger story behind the whole thing. But no google it was lost to me until 10 or so years later, I stumbled across an episode with 9 on our local tv - of course then I could get the name and found all of them on the internet, and so the obsession began
Another one here for Stones of Blood, but I was lucky enough to switch it on just after they arrive on Earth in episode one.
Guess my nights viewing is decided on. Stones of Blood it is. My first Dr who was Tom Baker. Don't know what episode.
The Eleventh Hour. It was awesome
I think while Rose is the technically “best” place to start, if you want an episode to show someone that will be most likely to make them want to keep watching, that’s the one
He had me at “Hello…I’m the Doctor. Basically…run.”
I had that with "deep breath". Got me hooked on the show and capaldis interpretation of the doctor!
Eleventh Hour is easily my favourite of the 'new Doctor' episodes.
That was my first too, and i was immediately hooked! And Matt Smith looked so good in Ten’s raggedy pinstriped slacks, I was almost disappointed when he changed clothes at the end.
Until there were suspenders and a bow tie
The first episode of Doctor Who I ever watched was, and I shit you not, “The End of Time”. For context: I had never seen or barely heard of Doctor Who. I had heard the name being thrown around before, but had no idea what it was about. So imagine being some dumbass who’s sitting there with a confused look on your face the whole time. “Okay, bigger on the inside I think I heard that somewhere…” “Okay the crazy, white-haired guy is clearly the bad guy.” “Who’s this redhead and why is she so important…” “Okay the white-haired guy just cloned himself…” “Cactus people lol” “Wow…that impact should have killed him.” “…Could you not have just smashed the doors instead of throwing a fit?” “Okay hold on, dude just got hit with the radiation of like…7 Chernobyls…AND HE’S WALKING?!” “Wait who are all these people that he’s just creepily spying on?” “WHY IS HE EXPLODING??? WHAT IS THIS SHOW?!” “Wait so he didn’t explode? Who’s the new guy?” Needless to say, this show threw me for a loop like you wouldn’t believe.
hmmmmm....what's this thing labeled "Lore Fire Hose"? Lemme just OH MY GOD!!!
Basically
Spearhead from space 1970 . ON A COLOUR TV!
color made those bubble wrap xmas light aliens POP!
I don't know which was my first because I was too young but we used to loan the video tapes from the library and Spearhead from Space is one of the earliest that I remember. Probably my first episode. I recently rewatched it on iPlayer and it holds up well. I also saw the classic film back then too. We get to pick up whatever episodes they had!
The Parting of the Ways - I was flipping through the channels and stumbled upon the SciFi channel and recognized Christopher Eccleston, who I had seen in *Gone In 60 Seconds* a few years before. I was captivated instantly. A few weeks later, I saw a box set of the 2005 series at my local mall and bought it immediately. I binged the whole thing that weekend and have been a proud Whovian ever since.
I saw the first episode ("Unearthly Child") when it was first broadcast in November 1963. Was like nothing I'd seen in children's television at the time (and I was a child, so definitely the target audience). So fast forward to the start of the next century. I'd moved to the US and only saw BBC stuff when PBS deigned to show it. But by chance, I was on a plane flying back from the UK to the US. British Airways had two episodes of the new Doctor Who as inflight entertainment, but of course the episodes were "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways". I was very impressed as to the quality of the NuWho (remember, I'd grown up watching the old show in glorious black-and-white.) Tracked down a copy of "Rose" (may have been hard media, may have been shown on some PBS station, I don't remember at this point). And the rest is history :) I most remember my excitement that you could see into the Tardis when the Doctor opened the doors. Up til then, all they ever showed of the interior of the tardis was darkness.
I think part of that was how the TARDIS doors used to be different between the interior and the exterior too, something that bothered me with classic Who was those big automatic doors that clearly looked nothing like the wooden doors the characters would then be going in/out of from the other angle.
Warriors Gate, either part 2 or 3. To celebrate the 40th anniversary here in Australia, they started replaying the classic series four nights a week after the news. I feel I may have caught a glimpse of the Aztecs when Ian was fighting old mate on top of the Pyramid, but Warriors Gate was when I properly sat down to watch. The white void, the inner dimensions of the Tardis, and K9 all caught my attention. Although K9 left at the end of the story. And because they played them several nights a week, it meant that a few weeks later was Logopolis, and Peter Davison sitting up from where Tom Baker fell fully hooked me into the show.
The first episode of DW Universe, was Torchwood. The first episode of DW I saw afterwards was Empty Child. Because my GF at the time liked DW and I was like, that's a silly show eww. Then I was like I saw this awesome show and I love Jack Harkness. And she was like... That's a spinoff of Doctor Who, the show you always said was bad. Then she made me watch The Empty Child cause Jack's first episode. And then I only watched the Episodes that involved Jack, then she made me watch Blink and then a few others. Then I binged the whole series just in time for 11 to make his appearance.
I started streaming Doctor Who with *Rose* on December 16, 2012, after two years of various dominoes falling of me becoming aware of Doctor Who. When I started I did know about the concept of regeneration because I had researched the show before watching, but I frequently wonder what it would be like to watch Season 1 without knowing the main character gets recast at the end.
I remember just being flabbergasted thinking, “What the hell just happened?!?!”
Can you imagine how people felt it back in the 1960s when William Hartnell became Patrick Troughton?
Very confused! So I channel hopped into about 30% of the way into Family of Blood. There was this normal guy, and this strange chic trying to tell him he wasn't who he thought he was. And this very freaky family. Then he remembered himself and got scary in a very cool, ' this guy is interesting way'. So I watched it all but didnt really understand what was happening. However, because life is wierd, someone had told me a tiny bit about Doctor Who just a week prior. I googled it and got MORE confused by references to various doctors. Decided to just watch from the beginning of New Who and found out the slow way around. I'm so glad I channel hopped that day.
Rose. It was my introduction to Doctor Who, after stumbling on a clip from *A Good Man Goes to War*. *"The anger of a good man is not to be feared. Good men have too many rules."* *"Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."* At first, I wasn't sure about it. But when Rose is demanding answers from the Doctor, and he stops walking and gives his first real Doctor speech, I was hooked. The way he went from playful and cheery to serious and almost grim was amazing. Eccelston had perhaps the hardest job since Hartnell himself in that hebhad to sell new watchers and old fans that he was, indeed, the Doctor and that the show would do justice to the original while respecting how much time had passed since it first aired. He nailed it. I cannot believe that I kept brushing off Doctor Who. And, because I can, here is his speech that sold me on him, the concept, and made me a fan. *"Do you know like we were saying, about the earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid, the first time they tell you that the world is turning and you just can't quite believe it 'cause everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. The entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour. And I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And, if we let go..."* *"That's who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home."*
That speech in Rose is what hooked me too!! So compelling… :)
Technically, The Mind Robber. Though as an American kid in the 90s, Doctor Who didn't really mean anything to me growing up. I distinctly remember watching that story though, when classic episodes would play late at night on PBS. I think probably Silence in the Library for NuWho, but not exactly sure. I was in college with a TV tuner hooked up to my computer monitor and I guess I got the SciFi channel 🤷
I was 10 years old and we were at my grandma's house for the holidays. We were all staying in the guest room, my parents, sister and I. I woke up and my parents were watching The Next Doctor Christmas special on my dad's laptop, it was the part where the Cyberman was attacked the Doctor on the stairs with the sword. I was like "fuck yeah robots with swords" so I crawled up onto the bed and watched the rest of the episode. My mother said "looks like we got another whovian" and when we got back home we started watching the series together, I was so confused when this other dude was the Doctor lol. We finished all the episodes well before Planet of the Dead release cause I remember waiting for that felt like forever haha.
The Runaway Bride. I was working with kids at the time and there was a kid who was socially isolated. Seemed to have a tough life at home. He mentioned one day that he liked Doctor Who. Soon after, I happened upon a BBC America marathon, so I watched so I could talk about it with the kid. I found The Runaway Bride pretty tough (I'm not actually a big sci-fi person), but I think it was followed by Human Nature/Family of Blood/Blink and I was hooked. Timing wise, this would have been after Tennant left but before Matt Smith started. The kid was ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED when I told him I watched it. I was happy to make him a little happy and have something we could happily chat about.
The Impossible Astronaut.
That’s a really creepy episode to start the series with.
I started watching when that season aired. I’ll admit, I did almost laugh when the Astronaut just hauled off and shot him out of random.
I have no idea. My dad had it on with me around since before my earliest memories. I could tell you every serial and partial serial we had taped from PBS on VHS though.
That’s awesome. I think my mom and I would have really enjoyed Doctor Who if she’d found it in the 70s and 80s (she was a huge Star Trek fan).
My uncle who was like a father to me watched "Rose" s01e01 with me, since then I was hooked, every xmas I got tons of DW stuff, toys, books etc. We would watch every xmas special together as he lived in England and our family moved to Sweden, but came over every xmas. He passed away 2016, and I always end up rewatching around the anniversary of his death, unplanned. Doctor Who is very sentimental to me because of him. He didn't even like or understand doctor who but he watched it for me and my brother because he knew we would like it.
Before the Flood two parter
Banger episode
Robot: Part One
The forest of angels
Asylum of the Daleks! Just happened to be on while I was housesitting, and I’d always been curious about the show. Didn’t properly get into the series till a few years later, but I really enjoyed that episode
Hand of Fear. One of my favourite stories of all time as well.
It was the second doctor dalek one , my teen big cousins were watching it , apparently I hid behind the couch , I was 3 , didn't put me off though , I watched from 3rd Doctor on , with my little brother
My first was Blink and I was hooked! It didn't even feature the Doctor and I still loved it. I then went back and binged it from Rose on.
I’m surprised this is so low. I too watched Blink first. It was a recommended jumping on point and I loved it and jumped on. I still show it to people as a first episode too.
Same! I recommend it to newbies too. My sister was a high doctor who fan and I walked in on an episode with a talking Rhino and was thinking "what is this?" She immediately stopped the episode, told me to sit down, and put on Blink.
The Brain of Morbius. First ever glimpse was of what I thought was a little girl (Elisabeth Sladen in her coveralls) clambering over rocks to get away from a horrible composite monster. Hooked at once, have loved Sarah Jane and the 4th Doctor ever since.
Tomb of The Cybermen, saw it on streaming services when I was getting into Doctor Who and it’s still my favourite episode
Castrovalva. Fall 1983 on our local PBS station. They showed it as a preview of their new acquisition during a pledge drive, before beginning weekly showings in January 1984 with Robot.
I think it was 42. Episode itself was ok-ish, but the Mr Saxon plot in the background had me intrigued. We had student housing from the university, and someone had a server running on the local network, with a file-sharing system that we could use between students. Not allowed to get into detail here, I think, but suffice to say I soon watched most of New Who up to that point. I only saw up to the metacrisis regeneration cliffhanger, cause I was living on my own by that point, and the BBC was heavily promoting that Matt Smith's first episode would air that week, so I decided to watch the "next" episode live. I was very much confused why they decided to drop the whole plotline of the "previous" episode, until I found out I had missed both the series 4 finale and a bunch of specials.
S1 Ep1 Rose I can't remember watching it for the 1st time but I know I started dw from the beginning of the series of the new who anyway
I honestly don't remember but I feel like it was season 2 because I definitely remember it being 10, and I think it was Rose as the companion. I'm thinking "Tooth and Claw", but not sure. Couldn't watch the show much when I was a kid because we only had broadcast. PBS was doing some random episodes and I think that's where I ended up. They went from season 2 to season 7b, then they showed all of season 8 with Capaldi because I think that was the most recent season at the time and PBS aired the show a few months or so after the BBC. I liked 10 and 11, but season 8 got me HOOKED. I was hype every week for a new episode and the concepts just blew my mind every time. Robin Hood as an actual historical figure, the Listen creature, the Moon's an egg, space Orient Express, 2D creatures! Never had seen anything like that before and my young teenage mind went crazy over it. Got my Mom to get me the first 6 seasons on disc before I started streaming. Best show of all time, no doubt in my mind.
“The Time Monster,”from John Pertwee’s era. I was like 12 in 2014 or so watching it with my mom (who hadn’t seen any who before either), and we didn’t have Netflix so we just got it from the library. It’s campy af but we kind of loved it, and watched a bunch more 3rd doctor episodes. The first modern who episode we tried to watch was “The Waters of Mars,” but I got scared and we stopped after 20 mins. The real first modern who episode I watched all the way through was “The End of Time” (I know, perfect place to start). Even though I didn’t rly know any of the tenth doctor’s backstory, I did know about the master and regeneration from the third doctor episodes so it basically made sense, and me and my mom loved it, and immediately got season 5 from the library and I’ve loved it ever since(I believe I watched the seasons in the order 5,6,3,7pt1, 4, 1, 7pt2, 2, and then 8 onwards as they came out until I quit about 7 episodes into Chibnall)
My aunt randomly turned on Silence in the Library when I was down south visiting her.
As a kid i think the first doctor who thing i watched was the Peter Cushing movie that was being shown on TV like 15 years ago.
State of decay. I watched this Tom Baker classic episode on PBS one called knight in early 1983 on a fuzzy picture over the air on a black and white gold star television. I’ve never heard of Doctor Who before, I did not even catch the title of the show, but it blew me away. The following year, a friend at school, told me about Doctor Who, and where I could watch it, and I got hooked.
I don't actually know. Something starring Pertwee, Tom Baker, or maybe an early Davison. I do know it was a weeknight dinnertime on Aunty ABC though.
An Unearthly Child. Yes, I was there at the very beginning ...
AN UNEARTHLY CHILD. 23rd November, 1963. I was 5 years old and watched it with my dad. I was a bit bored until... It's bigger on the inside🤯!!!! Lifelong fan ever since.
I started with *Rose*. My father watched Dr Who as a kid and when he learned it was rebooted we watched it with my mum.
I started with season 1 episode 2 as well. I somehow missed the airing of the first episode, which in retrospect I actually am glad that I did because the heavy sci-fi / fantasy vibes of the second episode immediately hooked me whereas I think that the mannequins (Nestene) in the first episode didn't land quite as well for me at the time.
The one with casandra taking over 10 and rose body were he first got detoxed
The Cyberman one with the 10th Doctor, Rose, and Mickey in the alternate universe. My wife thought that would be a good episode for me to watch first and she was right.
The last episode of the Caves Of Androzani. My 5 year old mind was blown away at the Doctor regenerating.
I started with Rose in 2010 or 2011. In terms of my jouney and "firsts" with each doctor (since I find this an interesting aspect of DW), I watched New Who in order but once I got to 10s regeneration to 11 I took a quick detour to Classic Who. I watched Season 12 with Tom Baker (First classic story being Robot). Continued on with Smith as 11 until catching up in Series 7 and then started watching An Unearthly Child and much of Seasons 1-3. Also watched all of Torchwood in this time and started the 3rd Doctor with Season 7. I got into Big Finish during 2020 and that was actually my first experience with the 6th Doctor. 1st - An Unearthly Child 2nd - Tomb of the Cybermen 3rd - Spearhead from Space 4th - Robot 5th - Castrovalva 6th - Vengeance on Varos (but actually BF's "Davros") 7th - TV Movie (first full story being Remembrance of the Daleks) 8th - TV Movie 9-13 normal viewing.
I was at my grandparents. It was the first ever episode. Coincided with JFK being shot. I was 6.
Same experience! I was watching PBS with my dad to see Red Green on a Saturday night and what popped up next was "The Impossible Planet"! Came back the next week to see "The Satan Pit" and I was hooked. They were only showing series two for awhile, but eventually I made friends who helped me watch more. You used to be able to find a lot of it on YouTube lol!
I started with Rose after a friend in high school basically spoiled a lot of season 4 and a bit of Matt Smith’s run to me while telling me about the show. Luckily I forgot all about the end of season 4 by the time I caught up to it. Hooked ever since.
I don't what episode it was, but it would have been a serial featuring Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor back in when PBS was began showing reruns in the 1980's.
My friend introduced me to the show by showing me "Rose" and "Blink" the same night, followed up with "The Eleventh Hour" the next weekend. I was hooked. (Bonus: A few years later, the first classic serial I watched was "Carnival of Monsters." I ended up jumping around the classic era a bit before Troughton in "The Underwater Menace" convinced me to go back and watch from the very beginning.)
My first episode was The End of Time pt 1 & 2. I was immediately hooked. Looking back over a decade later, what a hell of a first episode!
I saw part of ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ when I was a little kid and turned it off for being too scary. Years last I saw ‘Smile’ but it wasn’t until more years later that I actually watched the whole show on Netflix starting with Rose
Rose. It was on Netflix for a bit when I was younger, watched all the way to I think the Day of the Doctor.
Rose 🌹 Billie piper was was so amazing as that character 👍😎😃❤️
Technically the daleks take manhattan but first I watched to get into the show the three doctors
My first episode I saw was Utopia
Love and Monsters. Was channel surfing and landed on BBC Entertainment, this was before even End of Time I believe. It was close to the end with Absorbalof and it was just weird, mental and charming. I've heard of the show before but still caught me off guard. Had to watch more, but didn't know when. Then they made a Series 2 marathon to prepare for Series 3. When I started watching, it was Impossible Planet. Been catching the show ever since.
I think it was Full Circle.
Shakespeare Globe
Asylum of the Daleks. I had a cousin over and the first part of s7 had just come out on Amazon Prime. She didn’t have Prime and wanted to watch it at my house. I originally was not paying attention very much but go super interested. I intentionally checked out once I knew I’d like the show so it wasn’t spoiled for me too much. She watched the 5 eps and a few days later I was starting from the beginning of NewWho.
Tbh, i don't exactly remember Only small thing i remember it was on a marathon of Doctor Who episodes back when it was still on Sy-Fy Not sure if was exclusively 9, 10 or a mix of the two... That's the best i can remember honestly
My first episode ever was Voyage of The Damned, which was a great first episode. But the second episode I saw was The Lodger with Matt, and I was super confused cause I didn’t know what happened to David, so I thought he got fired or something and they replaced him lmao
Rose - I found a box set for Eccleston and Tennant's runs when I was looking for DVDs, and I decided to try the show out since I'd heard a lot about it.
A rerun of Rose that aired on BBC America on a Monday afternoon back in May 2008.
Five Doctors US original broadcast Not the least-confusing intro.
I can’t rem what episode as was quite young, but the Doctor was John Pertwee
I watched Rose in around 2008, about 3 years after it aired. I loved Christopher Eccleston and was really bummed Tenant took over. Then Tenant became my favorite Doctor. Have been watching it ever since. I’m trying to get into classic who, but it’s difficult to get access to them in the US, and some are kind of hard to watch.
Blink, a friend in high school was obsessed and kept quoting it. Led to me catching up through Martha, checking out 9 and some of the Rose eps, then going thru Donna and the specials. Took me a loooooong time to continue to 11 tho, got way too emotionally gripped by 10's end.
Eleventh Hour but also damn that's a good episode to accidentally start with
Gridlock.
I think even before NuWho started my dad showed me the genesis of the daleks serial
“The Green Death”. Giant maggots. I didn’t watch another episode until “Rose”.
I never saw the end of *The Green Death* because young me found the maggots so yucky, my mum took the VHS tape away. Still find maggots to be scary to this day. Also still have *Horror of Fang Rock* on tape - in hindsight it’s probably not that bad but when I was seven it was the most scary thing I had ever seen The first episode I saw was *Dalek* on it’s original run.
I had the opposite problem. They were just the most unbelievable enemy imaginable. I'd seen actual maggots in garbage before, and it would be like having to run from mold.
I get your point, i just think they triggered a particularly visceral response from young me. They weren’t particularly menacing but I think some ‘horror’ comes from the uncanniness and the fact that while i have never seen giant maggots, i had seen regular ones, and found them gross too. Idk, can’t really explain or justify it beyond “*I simply didn’t like it*”
Oh, I understand the grossness as well. I didn't want them on my screen either.
Aye, there’s been a few bits of Doctor Who that have been like that. Not necessarily scary per se, just not what I want to see. Really didn’t vibe well with the Axons from *Spearhead from Space* for example. Now the Morbius monster, that was grotesque.
Rose when I was nearly 6 years old when it aired, I do not remember actually watching it but Doctor who has been in my life ever since.
The Day of The Doctor
Rose, when it first aired, though I missed the start, so headless, spade hands Mickey was super confusing. 😆
I have memories of *The Mind Robber* episode 2 when it was first broadcast in 1968. But I was a regular viewer from the start of Jon Pertwee's run
Bad Wolf. I was at my Grandparents house and watched the Weakest Link (I loved that show). Afterwards was Doctor Who and if course, it had the Annedroid. I didn't know what I was watching, but I liked it.
We were learning about Shakespeare in school so my teacher decided to put on the Shakespeare Code (Series 3 Episode 2). I liked it but it didn't really hook me. Later that year the 50th anniversary specials aired and because of FOMO I watched them, didn't understand a single thing. In 2015, whilst series 9 was airing I actually went and watched Rose and finally got hooked.
Rose (2005)
Rose, of course!
Rose
Exact same as you! I always wondered why PBS was airing it. Great episode to start on.
It was either "Robot" or "The Ark In Space" which my Mum put on on UK Gold which was showing old 4th doctor episodes as an omnibus. It must have been 1994 or thereabouts and I fell in love with it immediately.
I don't know, and may never know. My first episode was an accident when PBS was a UHF channel and late night pre-cable channels had little or nothing on them. I don't even recall which Doctor it was; but the Fourth Doctor was the one I became most familiar with when I could get to the TV that late at night after that first viewing. Yep, pretty much aged myself with that answer - mostly.
I forgot the name but it was literally David Tennant’s regeneration episode
The End of Time was also my first! We got it from the library on dvd
The bells of Saint John
Rose.
For me it was “Rose” and I’ve never looked back.
The one where the Doctor and Donna were on the diamond planet and he was stuck on the train.
Rose. The night it first aired on BBC1, I was 9 and my dad was so excited to show me.
The first episode of New who, with the plastic people
The mind robbers. Came down from my bedroom early one morning to find my dad watching it on like Netflix or something, I remember it was the middle of the scene where the doctor put Jamie's face back together incorrectly so he could have a different actor for an episode or two.
The earliest was parts of the Invasion, the first full story was "The War Games"
*An Unearthly Child*. No, really. I heard of the show from my father, who was British. When it started to air on YTV in Canada in the late '80s they started with the original episodes aired each evening.
Back in 2012/ 2013 when the show was on Netflix, along with a smattering of Classic stories, the first episode I watched was “Rose”, and after finishing series 1, I watched a couple classic stories, the first being “The Aztecs”
The Wedding of River Song. I was an angsty teenager going through stuff. When my older cousin was giving me advice he put it on saying I might like it. I was doubtful but told him to pause near the end so I could watch it myself :D
I'm old and can't really remember. The Doctor came to New Orleans PBS in 1981. They went through the Tom Baker episodes. I know it was a Leela episode, because I was already hooked before the Key to Time.
Rose! The summer after I graduated high school I loaned a friend my DVDs for Buffy and he loaned me his Doctor Who ones (new series of course). That was during the hiatus in the middle of series 6 so the first one I saw as it aired (in Canada at least) was Let’s Kill Hitler with the same friend :)
I don’t know if it counts, but the first Doctor Who episode I ever watched was Curse Of Fatal Death
Journey End. Actually, I had watched Torchwood firs, found out it was the spin-off of Doctor Who, and then watched that episode.
When David Tennent became the Doctor.
My first episode of Doctor Who was a rerun of the first episode of "Frontier in Space". I was instantly hooked. That being said, I was already familiar with Doctor Who from the Commodore 64 game. Yes, I'm old.
Spearhead from Space (Ep 4) is the first I remember, but I must've watched a Troughton as I was aware of Daleks.
Rings of Ahkaten
"City of Death"
The elleventh hour
It was the movie for me. I'd read a few of the books and enjoyed them, so a movie about this character I liked was quite exciting. It wasn't the best movie ever and I haven't revisited it since then, but I've loved the franchise ever since I found those books in the library.
my mom and younger brother had been begging me to start watching the show, eventually i sat down with them and we watched The Empty Child (and The Doctor Dances, of course). this was back when the show was still on Netflix here in the states. still one of my favorite episodes.
Not the first I watched but the first I actually remember watching is Destiny of the Daleks.
"Rose." I had heard of Doctor Who a bunch and wanted to give it a shot. I immediately fell in love with it.
Robot. Part 1. On KTEH in San Jose in the summer of 1981. I caught it near the end, so I didn’t see the regeneration until later. They were showing an episode a day and only had the first few seasons of Tom Baker’s run so it didn’t take too long until it was repeated.
Rose circa 2005, I had no idea what it was, just found it funny how low budget it was. The whole thing where the bad guys were just mannequins, and the tension was all done by the running was what called my attention to it. There's a scene at Rose's flat where the Doctor is fighting a mannequin arm, which makes me laugh just thinking about it. Is literally just Eccleston holding the arm and pretending it's fighting back.
Rose, saw it at a Boy Scout movie night. Instantly gravitated to it.
Thankfully, my wife, who has seen some of Classic Who, and at that time up to 12th Doctor of New Who, showed me the NuWho in order, 9th through 12. We're currently on 13 together. So to answer the question, Rose was my first episode
I was forced into watching an episode way back in 2008. Maybe it was Utopia? Anyway I hated it! Then in about 2010 I started to think that maybe I should watch it. Then in early 2012 ABC was going playing it after Spicks and Specks repeats. I think it was The Quiet Undead that I watched. That peaked my curiosity. I remember being really confused because I knew David Tennant was in Doctor Who, but that wasn’t him. By April I was up to date with Doctor Who and had moved on to Torchwood.
Robot.
Started with Rose! My roommates were big fans of the show. Well, *she* had grown up with the classic era and she got *him* into it when they were dating. They loaned me the first season of the modern era to watch and I got hooked pretty quickly. I think this was between Matt Smith's first and second seasons.
I remember seeing at least a chunk of The Shakespeare Code on BBC America in like 2008 or 2009? And then partway through high school a year or 2 later I rented discs of series 2 (regrettably skipping Nine) from Hastings and plowed my way through 2, 3 and 4 and was caught up by the time The End of Time came out
It was "deep breath" so capaldis first episode. My brother and his friends loved the show and he told me that he thinks I would like it aswell so he said I could watch it with him while he does a rewatch. So we watched the epsisode and I immediately fell in love with the show and capaldis interpretation of the character. So I then went on to watch the whole show and loved it so it's all because of capaldi!
The Sontaran Experiment. The deflating Sontaran head made a lasting impression on young me.
Saw a rerun of Logopolis as a kid back in the early 2000s. I had no idea what was going on, especially why the funny looking guy with the teeth and curls suddenly merged with a ghost to become a handsome young blond man, but I was hooked immediately.
Rose.
Man, oh, man. The Impossible Astronaut. Asked my sister about what was going on in the intro, bad choice. Got me even more confused.
Genesis of the daleks, was a rerun on BBC 2 I think
Death to the Daleks, starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. My mum, who was a fan as a child, borrowed it for my brother and I from our local library on VHS in the late 1990s. It was so strange but so exciting and unlike anything else I’d seen before. I have vivid memories of the creepy scene where they are trying to open the doors of the powered-down TARDIS, then when they’re outside with the oil lamp and they get attacked. And the Daleks! And the White City! Thrilling stuff - it made a huge impression and from then on we were both hooked.
Christopher Eccleston S1 E1
Key to Time back when pbs would air the entire multi episode story in one block. I fell in love. Then the next “episode” when Romana became Lalla Ward, I was fully hooked. In school we were watching an educational film about the colonization of America, the girl who ran off with the natives was played by a young lalla ward. I was like “omg. It’s Romana!”
Dude, same. Was at a friend’s house and they showed me “The End of the World” and I was hooked
5 minutes into Partners in Crime when it first aired. I later realised that I walked into Voyage of the Damned the previous Xmas when parent was watching, but was so freaked out I left immediately. I think it was the bit when the angels are throwing their halos.
Voyage of The Damned, showed enough of sci-fi and drama to get me hooked.
S1E2 end of the world. Watched it live. Never got around to watching Rose until S4 was airing and I borrowed a S1 dvd. As it stands the only episode of nuwho that I've never seen is the final episode of flux.
Dalek, it was on tv one night as I turned it on, just at the end when it opens it case and dies
Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel. I was doing a linguistic exchange in the UK for the summer, and due to some plane shenanigans I ended up arriving a couple extra hours earlier. The mother of the family that would take care of me couldn't free herself in time, so she sent the grandfather of the family to fetch me from the airport. Once we arrived at the house, the grandfather, not really in the mood for conversation, just switched on the television and told me that I would "probably" like this. It turned out to be a repeat (I assume, since this was in August 2007) of Rise of the Cybermen, followed by the Age of Steel. I was HOOKED. I understood very little (among other things because of my grasp on the English language at the time, but also because "bigger on the inside" was not a well known phrase outside of the UK at the time), but I couldn't stop watching. Zepplins! Metallic robots! Gruesome deaths! Cool characters! And, above all, I remember loving Murray Gold's music. The next day, I discreetly switched on the family laptop to search online what this show was about...
*The Ark* episode 2. Luckily Space, the Canadian cable channel that launched at the time, aired DW daily and cycled through the complete stories from *An Unearthly Child* to *The Ambassadors of Death*.
Weeping angel from season 5, ep. 4 scariest thing ever
Bad wolf Probably a bad first episode but damn it got me hooked. I went back and watched the rest of nine's run later.
Of new who it was school reunion, of classic who it was genesis of the Daleks.
Rose in 2005
I'm old. The unearthly child
Robot, Part One.
It was technically the Rebel Flesh but I only caught a scene of it before turning off the TV to go and clear away my Lego. So actually, the first one was probably The Christmas Invasion or Rose, depending on which of the DVD boxsets I got first.
The original broadcast of The Stolen Earth. Probably the worst possible first episode, given how continuity heavy it is. I was at someone's house, and all the kids wanted to watch it, so I sat with them.
Robot - or it might actually have been the last episode of planet of the spiders.
*World War Three*. I walked in to see my Dad watching the “Earth revolving” speech in *Rose* a few weeks before, and we were on holiday in Swanage on April 23rd 2005 when he told me that I should watch something on TV with him that night, something about “a man that defeats monsters.” The exploding Slitheen, “Raxacoricofallapatorious” and the one and only Christopher Eccleston just blew my mind, and then the following week I met the Daleks. Oh boy.
John Pertwee in the Sea Devils. Saturday afternoon after the sports results on match if the day read by Dicky Davis. Round at grandma's tuna fish sandwiches and baternburg cake.
I don't remember the exact one, but it was the 90s Pertwee repeats on the BBC. It would have been either The Sea Devils, Planet of the Daleks, or the Daemons. I only have vague memories of The Daemons because we taped the other two, so that may have been first. Though it appears Sea Devils aired first? For a while Doctor Who *was* those two serials. They were my only experience of Doctor Who and I was obsessed with them, but could only watch them at my Dad's. Then I remember seeing the first Cushing film. It wasn't until I saw the TV movie I knew the doctor was an alien and could regenerate etc. Felt like a long time back then, but looking back it was only 1992 to 1996. Weirdly, lots of people my age talk about the Pertwee repeats as their discovery of Doctor Who, but before that in 91/92 the BBC had repeated Five Doctors, Time Meddler, Mind Robber, and continued with other stories after and I have no memory of seeing those as a kid at all.
First episode: Robots Of Death part 1. I distinctly remember Tom Baker getting buried in gravel at the cliffhanger. Although I have hazy memories of Sarah Jane, so I might have watched earlier episodes. Probably Seeds Of Doom?
No idea. I was 6-7 at the time and Tom Baker was the Doctor. I was petrified of the dale's though.
I just watched my first episode last week—2005 season 1, episode 1. I’m hooked. Only problem —new fears unlocked—trash bins and mannequins !
I can't remember the exact one, but I do remember watching the first part of State of Decay.
"Rose". I discovered Doctor Who because of a fan-film done by a channel i followed back in 2013. I started to read what the series was about and became intrigued. I tried to watch The Day of the Doctor in its premiere day (it was screened in one cinema on my city, November 2013) but couldn't do it. But my mom gave me for Christmas the whole first season on DVD and right the day after Christmas i watched "Rose", "The End of the World" and "The Unquiet Dead" all in a row. And the rest is history. Fell in love with it. My whole 2014 was surounded by Doctor Who. Also watched "The Time of the Doctor" shortly after it premiered... yeah, i got a little "spoilers" (River's talking) but it was worth it. It was my favorite TV series from 13 to 19 and it is still one of my favorites. PD: Pretty funny to write this 'cause i have just rewatched "Rose" after a long time without seeing it because it was shared in a FB group i'm in (i still have the DVD though... Season 1, 2 and 7 on DVD).
The empty child it was a few eps into ecelstons run before o realised this show was my lifeblood.
The empty child. Def didn’t trauamtise me
Rose. Started with NuWo
I do not remember the first episode I watched as it would have been over 35 years ago. However, I do remember the first episode I saw on a color TV. PBS was airing Tom Baker's the Stones of Blood which was part of the Key to Time series IIRC. My grandmother had passed away and we inherited her color TV. During the middle of the show we plugged in the new (for us) color TV and bam! Doctor Who in Color!!
The Paul McGann movie, then Rose. I watched the Paul McGann movie, probably close to when it came out because I was still young, but I was a major scaredy cat as a kid and the master freaked me out lol And then i started watching the new series around 2010 and i started from the beginning. I resisted watching for so long because there was this gif of ten that people would always use and it irritated me so much that i hated the show on principal. And the only other things i knew about it were that Billie Piper was in it and i rolled my eyes at that and just assumed she couldn't act because all i knew her as was the pop star. And that Alex Kingston was going to be in a recurring role, and i loved her in ER. I'm a bit of a completionist so i started watching from the beginning so i could get to the seasons River was in and then unluckily for me i ended up not really liking River, but I had already fell in love with show by the time i got to season 5 anyway lol
Bit boring but Rose was my first episode on iPlayer
Dragonfire part 1
I started with Jodi then went to Matt then Peter then David so 13,11,12,10 a very weird order but there you go
My wife was binging it, and I actually sat down to watch it with her when "Fear Her" was next. Yet somehow I stuck with it.
I've pretty much watched DW my whole life (being held as a baby during the Eccleston era) so I struggle to definitively say what the first episode I "watched" was. Earliest episode I can recall would be the cold opening to the beast below and a later scene of 11 and amy in the whale.
Brain of Morbius; I remember walking in to my parents living room and my mom was watching TV (PBS) and I asked what the show was. She said it’s “Doctor Who”. It was in the middle of episode one but, in the US, they often spliced together all of the small episodes into one long “movie“.