I brought The Long Song to sing in my vocal lesson today and learned that my teacher has never seen a single episode of Doctor Who! Shock and horror, I know. However, she liked the song and told me to give her two episodes to watch during a flight she has soon as an introduction to the series.
I was thinking of telling her to watch The Rings of Akhaten since she liked the song, and Midnight as a fantastic episode that needs no prier knowledge.
I know a lot of people recommend Blink, but personally I think it’s a bit too different from the rest of the show to be a good intro.
What would you all recommend as a good episode or two to introduce someone to the series?
My go-tos to show people are usually The Eleventh Hour, Partners in Crime or The Pilot to start someone at the beginning of a series. For claasic, I usually go to Robots of Death, Pyramids of Mars, or Remembrance of the Daleks. It’s tricky with someone very new to it because you need to give them a sense that DW is both brilliant and very silly
Terror of the Zygons is a good gateway drug. Showed it to 11 year olds before the new series returned (inspired by a DWM article where they did the same) and ended up with three fans who got letters published in DWM.
My vote would be The Eleventh Hour. Maybe even Church on Ruby Road do they could then jump into the upcoming series. For Classic, I’d almost suggest City of Death with the caveat that the show isn’t always this good.
Whilst Rose is the best starting point, because I think all of new Who requires knowledge of Rose as she’s so important all the way though the 50th Anniversary and even into The Star Beast (how else will you understand where Rose Noble chose her name from?), I agree the special effects can be off putting.
I have a feeling The Church on Ruby Road will soon become a great starting point, but until there is a follow-on series it’s a bit weird to say “watch this and then if you love it, wait a few months til it’s on again”
I’d definitely avoid something like Blink as its rather atypical, you want to show how the show often is, pretty much any season opener should work, Rose or Eleventh Hour are probably the best. For second episode I mean both second episodes of those seasons are pretty good so its not a terrible idea to continue on from there.
Smith and Jones also isn’t a terrible starting place though then I’d say you’d want a different followup episode, perhaps Dalek?
I HARD disagree with this. The Goblin Song is just as likely to turn people off as it is to turn people on, IMO.
Someone mentioned Rose upthread, and frankly, apart from Eleventh Hour, it’s the best answer.
I want to throttle anyone who suggest Blink as a jumping on point. “Let’s try and on-board a new person to the show with a notoriously confusing format screw episode that barely features either of our main protagonists.” is not at ALL good, especially because you then have to follow that up with “Almost, if not over half, of the rest of the show, is nowhere near as cool or stylish as that.” Imagine showing someone Blink and then Mickey The Bin Monster.
+1 for The Eleventh Hour. It’s the perfect middle ground between Rose and the current modern iteration, and it perfectly introduces the concept of Doctor Who as a whole.
Couldn’t be more glad it was the start of my Doctor Who journey.
