As I’ve probably said, Doctor Who for me started as that show my dad watched as a kid, and I guess into young adulthood, on PBS and had taped most of it. He started when he was 7 in the mid-70s, his first being Terror of the Zygons which scared the crap out of him at the time, but he was hooked. Not much of the first three Doctors, but I think everything from Robot to Survival from PBS (WHYY) and the TV Movie recorded from Fox on original broadcast he had taped. Then when I was I think 5 in 2002 before I turned 6 was when he started with me. Of course I answered Wilderness 2 in the poll, but I was unaware there was anything beyond the show until a lot later. It would also be quite a few years before I’d know a single other person who knew Doctor Who.
2010 for me, we happened to catch The Eleventh Hour on BBC America.
The first poll had around 60 respondents, so I’m going to wait until (hopefully) this has roughly the same sample size and then decide the best way to plot the data! A lot of the work I’m doing at college right now actually involves studying participatory culture, which is kind of just another way of saying studying the phenomenon of fandoms lol. So looking at information like this is always very interesting to me! I’ve loved Doctor Who since childhood, but the show is also very interesting academically speaking, especially due to its longevity.
Started around actively watching in 2022, funnily enough my first Episode to really pay Attention when it got released was Power of the Doctor, which I must admit my Opinion has changed on it drastically over time.
I am not even sure how or why I came back to the Show, it wasn’t bad or anything (although starting out with Time and the Rani and not being suited to this kind of Pacing at the time I did was very much a bad call on my Part 
).
So anyway one could say I started around the Whittaker Time (never really with the Episodes of that Era themselves) but got really hooked by the Show at the End of said Era… by a over 55+ year old serial instead.
No way, that’s exactly the same for me!! Although I had seen a few episodes before, I wasn’t a proper watcher (of any television really, let alone Doctor Who). But I randomly decided to watch The Power of the Doctor a day after it came out, and immediately my autism special interest brain kicked in - I became obsessed with the 13th Doctor, and made my way backwards through the show, which rapidly transformed my obsession to being about the 12th Doctor, then all of New Who, then Big Finish and the 8th doctor, then Classic Who, and various spinoffs and books and so on, in the space of a few months.
It’s ironic that 13 was my ‘first’ doctor (technically I watched a 10th and a 12th doctor episode in 2017, but I became a fan in 13’s era in 2022) because I (completely inaccurately, of course) feel as if I’ve been here much longer. Like anything that came out after say 2010 feels so incredibly modern and recent to me, and I have to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t even here when most of it was coming out!
This part is so real though, because my main focus currently is Romana, it feels as if anything after like 2013 (where I am in gallifrey) just doesn’t exist to me anymore
2005 for me! my parents definitely regretted showing me it (at least i think they were the ones to introduce me to the show, i’ve no way of knowing)
2005 for me too.
I’ve told the story on here before, but I was at uni, I knew about the Classic show because I’d seen clips, but never really watched it. I started watching it with mild interest when it came back, until Dalek which blew me away, and I have been hooked ever since!
And aren’t we all grateful for that. 
Oh, really? How very exciting! Love reading your Journey how you got into the Show! And yeah, I get it, that Episode really made me want to watch the Show properly. Funnily enough, I think I finished all the classic Series first before finishing the revived Shows, I don’t even know why 
.
Yeah same here, although for me, it’s everything starting around 2014 instead of 2010, not sure why but yeah
I think most People secretly regret showing it to others and making them obsessive fans who know the Show even beyond the televised Stuff! That said it’s also fun because of the endless Stories you still have even if you finish all of the Show so I don’t regret starting it (only my wallet regrets it..)
I started watching in 2006. I caught the end of Rise of the Cybermen and I was hooked. It was probably The Impossible Planet that turned me into a full-blown fanboy.
Just realized I never answered this question. I started watching as kid in 2012 after a friend begged me to watch it so she’d have someone to talk to about it. I got caught up during the tail end of the Pond era.
Update! We have fewer responses for this poll than the other one, but I’ll probably go ahead and work with the data we have sometime this weekend! I have been super sick and I’m trying to catch up on schoolwork this week.
I watched a bit in the 1980s as I kid, but without really becoming a fan of the show.
However, I started watching NewWho in October 2023, just on a whim, and was hooked. I’m now enjoying the Classic TV episodes on iPlayer and am thrilled to have found Big Finish. Now I walk everywhere with my headphones on devouring stories!
Quick update: Here’s the raw data. I don’t think this really tells us much unfortunately. A lot of people responded to the first poll and a fair amount responded to the second, but only thirty responded to both. We have a lot more than that on the forum. However, the people who did respond to both are on here a lot, mostly in the top 100 on the leader board, so I guess this tells us a bit about that group specifically. There was no age data for the people who started watching between 1972-1983, but I wanted to note that there were people who jumped on during that time. Same with people who started watching in their early 30s and late 50s. They do exist, but didn’t answer both polls. Might try to make some charts later, but given the small sample size idk if it’s worth the effort, since it’s probably not super representative of the forum overall. Thank you to everyone who participated in either poll!
You could cross-reference with the user age poll we had a while back. Last time I checked, it has at least 60 responses