Sorry if this has already been done before (I searched and I didn’t see anything that was precisely like this, although my apologies if I missed something). I’m asking what the first episode (I’ll also let it be more of a broad time frame, such as season, Doctor, or era in, in case one doesn’t remember the first episode) you watched when it aired live on TV (or shortly after) or if you’re a newer fan, when it dropped (or very recently dropped) on a streaming service, since that first episode watched live can differ from what one’s first Doctor Who episode was. For instance, although I started watching with a Ninth, Tenth, or Eleventh Doctor episode (for something that’s such a big part of my life, I can not remember what episode was my very first), the first episode that I ever watched as it aired on live tv was “The Return of Doctor Mysterio.” I never thought I’d say this, but please take me back to December 2016.
I’m a pretty new fan, so the first one I watched when it came out was Space Babies. I remember that day there was an Aurora Borealis so I paused it partway through to go stare at the sky. I think that made it more enjoyable.
Spyfall in 2020. Watched it in a theater which is one of my favorite memories of the show
Haven’t been able to catch another episode live until the 60th anniversary.
You got to see Jodie Whittaker in a tuxedo on the big screen…I’m jealous.
Power of the Doctor! While I watched some Doctor Who in 2018/2019, it was mainly just the early Revival, S24 and a few Orphan ones (Five Doctors, the TV Movie). I am not sure why but I think I got interested into the Franchise again around 2022 where I started to slowly catch-up on Episodes I haven’t watched (that catch-up took a long time, actually until early 2024 before I have seen every episode of Who at least once). Anyhow, I thankfully got to see Power the Day it was broadcasted which was lovely, I fangirled out when they showed the past Doctors, lol.
If we are talking Era-wise, I suppose it must be 14/15 then!
I was a wilderness years baby with extremely nerdy parents, so I watched Series 1 live in 2005
My first live episode/episode period was The Eleventh Hour on BBC America.
I was born in 2004, I know I saw all the Christmas specials live but I dont exactly remember them.
I think I would have seen series 4 live as I have strong memories of the Doctor Who Exhibition in Newcastle with the Davros set which i went too in 2009.
The first series I remember definitely seeing live was series 5. I remember seeing the Eleventh Hour live.
So Id say series 5, as its the first one I properly remember.
Seeing other peoples responses makes me really wish I had watched it as a kid. That would literally never have happened though, as of my parents only my mom has even seen doctor who, and that was just reruns on pbs in the 90s.
And even then, they (both trekkies) didn’t show me star trek until I was ten. Admittedly they were justified in that because I was a lame child who didn’t know the meaning of fun and left when the aliens showed up. Majel Barrett as Number One awoke something in me though
I started watching with the ninth doctor on Netflix when I was a kid, and caught up to current releases pretty quick. Series seven was the first one I watched while it aired.
Caught The Empty Child live whilst staying at my granny’s house and it scared the socks off of me! I wanted to see more but was absolutely terrified, so I went back again next week for The Doctor Dances and was hooked for life!
One of the moments from my childhood I treasure most is peaking through the crack in the door to watch Eccleston deliver the “everybody lives!” scene. Been a diehard fan ever since.
I caught The Long Game and The Age Of Steel on first broadcast, but the first full season I watched as it came out was Series 3.
Still mad that the Master’s return was spoiled before it even started, but c’est la vie.
Can’t quite remember but I think it was The Bells of St John
I wonder philosophically what “watching live” means for me in the US, because that was only really an option from Tennant’s first series on, when it started to show on Saturday nights on BBC America the same day it showed in the UK. Eccleston aired on Public Broadcasting first, which was where Doctor Who had always been, but that was a while after it aired in the UK, and I had already, ahem, obtained the series via the internet. The TV Movie I could’ve seen live, and desperately wanted to, but there was some sort of school thing I had to do, I can’t remember, so my dad taped it for me.
But everything before that, with the exception of The Five Doctors, was often on such a long delay from the UK, like the McCoy seasons took about a year to finally play on PBS if I remember rightly, I’d have been reading in detail about Paradise Towers in DWM for so long before I finally saw it, I don’t feel like that’s live, exactly, even if I was watching it air on my TV? So I guess it’s The Five Doctors for me! That’s fun, I’ve never thought about this! That is the only classic era episode that aired in the US before the UK, and it played live on PBS member stations on the actual anniversary. I was four years old but you better believe I remember it!
Thirteen’s era! I didn’t watch The Woman Who Fell to Earth live, but I saw pretty much everything after that when it was broadcast. I have such fond memories of watching the new episodes with my family every Sunday, it felt so magical. 
If we include spin-offs, I grew up watching SJA. I know I watched the tail end of Matt Smith’s era live, but cannot for the life of me remember which episode it started with. The most definite one I have memories of watching is Deep Breath, ie the very start of Capaldi
The first episode I saw go out live was either Part 3 or Part 4 of Remembrance of the Daleks. I can’t remember exactly which because I was tiny but I remember the Dalek ship landing so it could have been cliffhanger to 3 or reprise at start of 4.
Stronger memories of watching Season 26 though. Fell in love with the show just in time for it to head triumphantly into the 1990s.
Oh.
Dont know what episode but some episode during 11th Doctors run.
The first episode I saw live was The End of the World in 2005 (I did see Rose the week before, but my parents taped it first to check there was nothing really scary in it). I was quite an anxious eight year old, and Cassandra freaked me out so much I wouldn’t watch another episode for a few years.
For some reason I decided to give the show another try in 2008 with Partners in Crime, and I’ve been a fan pretty much ever since, with series 4 being the first full series I watched live. Since then, the only series I haven’t watched live is series 12.