Where would The Runaway Bride go? It’s set in 2006, but they also travel to shortly before Earth is formed.
Also, what about episodes that are set outside of time or entirely within the TARDIS (e.g. Time Crash)? Or when all of time sort of happens at once (e.g. The Big Bang, The Wedding of River Song)?
What about false realities (e.g. Amy’s Choice, Extremis)? Bubble universes (e.g. The Doctor’s Wife, Hide)?
And then there’s the matter of the Doctor and River. Do we go in the Doctor’s order, or in River’s order?
What about cliffhangers and cyclic stories?
Absolutely I’d do this, but I’d need a very large corkboard and about a mile of red yarn to figure out the order.
You would need to start on the middle of the episode where they are at the start of the world and go from there. Can’t do episode by episode but could scene by scene
There’s a marvel fan edit like that, pretty wild watch as it jumps from one movie to the other…
And what might that be called if it were to be found?
- Cut all the episodes to have snippets that keep the same timeframe, then watch those in order
- If two clips are supposed to be the same time, splitscreen
- TARDIS scenes would make sense to keep before they arrive to their destination. And TARDIS episodes should be kept in the “”“present”“”
- If the time happens all at once, play all the frames of the clip at once. Preferably stretched to be in the background of all the Chronological Dr. Who Marathon™
- False realities and bubble universe should either be split screen or inserted in between the start and end of that part.
- We go in the time’s order. We don’t care about the love birds.
- If there’s a cliff hanger, just play the next chronological clip
- Cyclic story can be split screened.
I got all wibbly wobbly just reading that.
Or in true timelord fashion, make a compund super episode with all of them playing overlayed on each other simultaniously. Takes less time too, not that it matters.
For the Doctor and River: watch it twice, once for each perspective.
I saw a video once that was from Rivers point of view as she keep meeting the doctor in a reverse order.
I think it was called The Timeline of River Song
Some of your questions can be answered when the episodes are split which would make the idea even more crazy
skip them all, there’s too many anyway
If I’m skipping any, it’ll just be Love & Monsters (a bit rubbish), The Angels Take Manhattan (too sad; can’t watch that one again), and a few (but certainly not all) of Chris Chibnall’s episodes (e.g. The Tsuranga Conundrum; I didn’t enjoy them that much).
Other than that, I’ll take the lot. I might even throw in the Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood, Class, the BBV Productions movies, and those spin-off movies starring Peter Cushing, for good measure.
Stitch runaway bride, what about castrovalva?
How about City of Death, which takes place in 1980s Paris, Renaissance Italy, and billions of years ago when life on Earth began. Where do you put that in the chronology?
(Answer: You watch this episode first regardless because Douglas Adams wrote it.)
Edit: Technically a bunch of other times too because you get glimpses of other fractured selves of Scaroth from other points in human history.
Programmer solution:
Each episode is defined by the earliest point they travel to, excluding that episode’s “present”.
Jam all edge cases at Epoch (1970) or the present if you prefer (2024). Sort these by order of release.
Push to production.
I like it!
It should be easy to figure out, you just order it one storyline at a time:
1 - Unearthly Child - 100,000 BC
4 - Marco Polo - 1289 AD
6 - The Aztecs - Aztec Empire, 1300-1521
3 - Inside the Spaceship - Tardis interior, present.
2 - The Daleks - Far future, unspecified
5 - Keys of Marinus - Far future, unspecified
7 - The Sensorites - Far future, unspecifiedAnd so on…
I imagine the final episode would have to be Utopia, which essentially takes place after the heat death of the universe. That’s a bit of a bummer for an ending though lol.
decade-old spoiler warning:
they also restart the entire universe like a recalcitrant lawn mower several times, which really fucks the timeline.
Is the The Girl Who Died set in Vikings times (700 AD) actually after the Van Gogh episode (1890 AD) because the universe the Vikings exist in is newer than the one van gogh is in, which was destroyed?
Also old spoiler warning
There’s also that episode where 12 is
spoiler
trapped in a castle for about 4 billion years
so you’d presumably have to watch that a few seconds at a time, interspersed with hundreds of years of other adventures.
This is why I really want streaming services to offer user-curated playlists.
One of the biggest perks of pirating junk. I know some services allow its users to create and post collections. It’s fun to find a movie you like and see what user collections that movie was in.
I love the fan edits like Naruto Kai that cuts out all the filler and recaps and junk
That must be the shortest playlist.
That’s another good point. The last one I used had the LoTR cast commentary audio files as options. I was able to req one piece dubbed and the dude who ran it spent like three months adding the dub versions for a show I never got around to watching lol
Also older videos you can’t really find legally online
I went and watched the old first Mutual of Omaha videos and they’re pretty strange. Think it was the first episode that starts with the host, a monkey, and an owl greeting you. The monkey starts swatting at the owl and then the owl freaks out. Older videos are so great because they keep the weirdest shit in that would’ve been cut today
Another Mutual of Omaha video I remember had the crew lassoing a bear from a canoe because idk conservation
I was thinking about how I miss a good old broadcast with a presenter or VJ to talk to you about what’s on in between showings.
Disney+ actually does this to a degree. There’s several categories including chronographically for MCU and Star Wars. But it’s limited to whole movies and shows, not per episodes or part of episodes like how you can intercut between Clone Wars S7E9-12 and EpIII.
Yeah, during Halloween or Christmas they’ll make those lists and hide them inside the search page. I used it to watch every Treehouse of Horror last year
Unless the series was over, it’d be impossible to watch them in that order.
Imagine if they release a new episode where they visit a certain point in history. Would you have to watch all of the episodes chronologically after that one again?
Of course! Would mean I’d never have to watch another show again.
It’s a Dr Who supercut.
Does it make any sense or, you know, work?
The only plotline I can think of that will actually make more sense, watched this way, is the Doctor’s relationship with the Queen of England.
Is there an actual list that has them in chronological order? Or at least the closest you can get to it.
Hi Rin
Hi Rin
I’m a huge sci fi fan, I love Star Wars, Trek, Gate, just about any sci fi movie, etc. I have never been able to get into Dr Who but the rabid fan base makes me feel like I’m missing out. Not sure what it is about the show but I just don’t get it, I guess.
To be fair the first season when it returned with rose is just alright and I almost dropped it as well. The next doctor Tenant really did the role justice and peaked the show for many of us.
I actually liked that season. I very much like Tennant, never understood why people dislike the Eccleston season.
Same, the mannequin episode is one of my favorites. Wish we’d got more Eccleston, although the latest True Detective turned out wildly anticlimactic he’s still excellent.
I did enjoy the manequien episode. Personally I thought his portrayal was fine considering it was a revival as a whole, the season was alright. Hot take, I think rose is one of the lesser sidekicks and I personally didn’t care for how much importance she had to the story and how it came to be. I did really like how tenant acted off of her and the story though.
Granted it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen who, I dropped it after the 12fh doctor cause I didn’t have time to watch but I do intent to pick it back up and I’ll probably do it from the Eccleston season. Maybe I’ll like it better on a second watch.
Take what I say with a grain of salt cause it also took me 3 tries to get past the first 3 episodes of game of thrones, but after I was all in.
didn’t care for how much importance she had
Indeed, for a while it was more like watching “The Rose Tyler Show” instead of Doctor Who, heh.
At the same time, Eccleston was my favorite Doctor for a long time. My only complaint was that he was only there for one season!
I recall him saying he never watched who and wasn’t much interested. Which is why he only decided to do one season.
So if I started with the Tenant seasons would I even know what’s going on?
Start with Blink. It’s a very famous and popular episode with Tenant and it’s basically a standalone. It’s an especially good entry point as the Doctor is barely in it.
You might get lost a bit with some story threads. If you really have no intention on watching the previous doctor I would watch a season recap video online. That way you’re familiar with the important bits of lore and story lines and whose who but it shouldn’t be too bad. They don’t really delve too much into all the old doctors lores and stories, and when they do they refresh your memory, so at most it’s one season of stuff before tenants.
Appreciate the tip, I think I’ll give it another go at some point!
That’s where I started and still really enjoyed it a lot. Definitely a character here or there that they assumed I knew but for the most part it all made sense.
How do you start watching Doctor Who? Should I watch original series first?
Browse the wikis a bit and find a doctor you like. Watch some episodes from that Doctor until you’re bored. Repeat. You can watch them in any order you like.
Starting with the 2005 reboot is probably easiest and most accessible. Watch for callbacks to previous adventures. If those stories sound interesting dive into the back story.
Everybody has their favorite Doctor. Some like the leather clad skinhead. Some like the guy with the scarf and the Jelly Babies. Some weirdos like the guy with the celery stalk in his pocket. My favorite is the first Doctor. He’s in black and white, he’s witty, he’s grumpy and sometimes mean, and he lies. If you want to know about the origins of the Daleks you’ll need to find his episodes. The library is probably the best place to find these. I think there is always Doctor Who streaming or being broadcast somewhere at practically all times. I’m pretty sure I can search for Doctor Who on Plex and find some random episode streaming at any time.
As others have mentioned, several large chunks of the original series are missing, so be prepared for that disappointment.
The revival-era show soft-reboots every time there’s a new Doctor, to intentionally make it a good spot for new viewers to jump on; the basics are all subtly reintroduced as the story progresses. If you find yourself intrigued by one Doctor or another, you can just start with that Doctor’s first episode. (Not the one in which the regeneration happens and the new Doctor is introduced at the end, but the one following that in which they’re the Doctor as it starts.)
No in fact a good chunk of the early episodes are missing. The show changes a lot based on who is playing the Doctor and who the showrunner and head writer are.
Best bet is pick a Doctor and watch the first episode or two. If you don’t like it try another.
Old run Tom Baker and John Pertwee are good choices. Baker had Douglas Adams as head writer for the early seasons and Pertwee has two of the best companions.
Latter original run had a show runner who did not want the job and it shows.
New Who I would recommend trying Christopher Eccleston or Peter Capald. Lots of people love David Tenant but I find him annoyingly hyperactive.
Gotta come to bat for my boy Matt Smith, imo his first episode is the best of any in the modern era
I like Matt Smith a lot as well. I was trying to keep it to two Doctors per era.
Understandable, Capaldi was outstanding as the Doctor, and Smith definitely has some weaker episodes. Purely on first episode alone though I do think nothing compares to Eleventh Hour
You can pick anywhere and honestly it’s fine. Lots of people started with modern Who, so that lines up with the average experience, and there are long-running plot arcs you might stumble over if you don’t, but most episodes are fairly self-contained.
Old Who is a different show. Somewhat akin to the original Star Trek, it requires a certain ability to ignore the experience and budget constraints and pick out the charm. But some of the old Doctors remain fan favorites like Tom Baker, the 4th and longest-running generation.
I would suggest watching starting with the 2005 rebirth of the series. They made it expecting you to not have watched the original series.
From then on there is a lot of overlap and continuation, some more subtle than others, so you could just watch one of the doctors, but part of what makes it special is the wealth of possible collisions so you may not need to have seen the reason why such-and-such character perks up when they hear the Doctor coming, but it’s what made me appreciate the show.
It very much depends on you. I personally think most people should start with New Who, because it’s much faster paced and The Doctor starts out a lot more likable. I personally started with New Who, then started mixing in Old Who during Capaldi’s first season. Which turned out rather nicely, because early Capaldi actually resembles the First Doctor in many ways, and it was interesting to see how elements of the show unfolded.
For reference, Old Who starts with An Unearthly Child (1963.) New Who starts with Rose (2005.)
Look up a list of the top 10 best episodes. Watch those. Take note of which ones you like more, and which actor is playing the doctor in that episode. Use that to pick your favourite doctor. Then watch all the episodes starring your favourite doctor in order.
If you don’t know anything about the show this sounds like a batshit way to figure out not only if you like a show, but which parts of the show you like.
It starts and ends with Tom Baker.
Weird way to spell David Tennant
I appreciate people may have differing opinions regardless of how wrong they may be. Lol
Jokes aside, Tenant is so good. I just grew up with Tom Baker so that’s where my heart is.
So good he regenerated twice
No more
Here’s my personal ‘recommendation’ list. The list comprises stories which are good while not being part of any major developments in the show’s timeline. So, if someone wanted to watch Doctor Who with me, I’d pick one of these. Feel free to criticize or add to this list.
S Tier:
- Inferno (3rd Doctor, 7 episodes, 1970)
- City of Death (4th Doctor, 4 episodes, 1979)
- Vengeance on Varos (6th Doctor, 2 episodes, 1985)
- Vincent and the Doctor (11th Doctor, 1 episode, 2010)
A Tier:
- The Aztecs (1st Doctor, 4 episodes, 1967)
- The Enemy of the World (2nd Doctor, 6 episodes, 1967)
Sadly this means you’ll never see “The Edge of Destruction” a.k.a. “Inside the Spaceship,” as the whole thing takes place in the TARDIS it’s outside time entirely and therefore impossible to put into any objective chronological order with the others. Other stories like “The Celestial Toymaker” or “The Mind Robber” take place in freaky realities which are similarly difficult to contextualize in the timeline.
Source: I wasted far too much of my precious human life debating this shit on fandom wiki talk pages.
Noobie question. What’s that screenshot from? What social media / website?
Tumblr, I think
a site best enjoyed from a distance
I watched the seasons in reverse. So I started at season 10 watched in order and then went to season 9. And so on.
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