Starting with the 2005 "series". And stick with it as it gets better as it goes, although you will have to put up with some awfulness (farting aliens) along the way. The pilot isn't all that great either.
For 2005 onwards I would recommend selecting some of the better episodes maybe to get a feel before diving fully in. For the Christopher Ecceleston year I'd check out Dalek and The Parting of the Ways two parter. For Tennant I'd check out these episodes plus the End of Time two poarter. Finally, for the latest Doctor, Matt Smith, I'd check out episodes called Vincent and The Doctor and The Doctor's Wife.
It was this 11th Doctor that sucked me in, I can go back and appreciate the 9th and 10th, there were definitely some gems, but I find the tone that Alan Moffat has set to be quite superior. Tennant's Doctor was a bit too campy, IMHO. Speaking of Moffat, Tex check out the modern reimagining of Sherlock Holmes that he did, simply titled Sherlock, it's only a few episodes and I think you'd like it. The new ones come out in 2012 I think.
Start with "Rose." I did. I've gone back and watched some of the really old ones since then, but it's not really necessary.
Seen just about every one since Unearthly Child. Some were great, some sucked, most were okay, ie. worth watching.
I would say start with the 11th Doctor. Series 5 introduced a new Doctor, new companion, and a new tone to the show. The only real backstory you need to know is that the 10th Doctor has just seconds before "died" and regenerated into this new version.
You have to at least see the Tenth Doctor's episodes Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead before you start watching the 11th Doctor. It makes the River Song stuff more interesting to have seen those.
[?=Comments on "The God Complex"]Dude said 'There's a room here for everyone', I immediately thought of Hilbert's Hotel Anyway, pretty good episode. And theeerre is the follow-through on the theme of these past few episodes. How long it will last, I don't know, but there it is.[/?]
[?=Pfft]Rory got wiped clean off of the fabric of space and time last season and TPTB brought him back. Retrieving a few people from a house in the suburbs or whatever will pose no problem. (Although they may need a crowbar to tear Rory away from his new toy. ) They'll probably do a few episodes with the Doctor going solo and then contrive a way to get A&R back by the end of the season. (KatyJane agrees!)[/?]
I dunno, they do a good job of explaining the situation with River when she first crops up in series 5, and in a way I can see it being better if you see the Tennant episodes afterwards. Spoilers for Silence in the Library follow: Really, if you are going to watch any Tennant episode before starting with Series 5 I would say make it Blink. It is a fantastic standalone episode that requires no understanding of Doctor Who to enjoy, and also establishes the Weeping Angels at their creepiest.
They better hurry then, there are only two episodes left. On, and for those who really wish to know: [?=Fate of Rory and Amy]Rory and Amy will DEFINITELY be back as Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan are signed for Series 7 as well.[/?]
[?= Yes, but]Yes, but the question is will they be regular companions every ep or will they be more sporadic appearances.[/?]
In the season 5 opener, and then again in "The Girl Who Waited", it specifically showed this Doctor rather vehemently expressing his dislike of apples... but in this episode, he reached right into the bowl/vase thing and ate one. Bad script direction (or whatever the equivalent is across episodes), or has something happened to the Doctor?
Wasn't there a line in the episode that said something along the line of the hotel looking, but not being physicaly like what it actually was meant to be?
Here's something else. If the final episode is back with the Doctor dying in Utah and that is now 'our' doctor, ie the doctor we've been following through this series then from where did he get all those extra years? In the Impossible Astronaut he was something like 200 years older than he should have been so have those years already been added during a disappearance (he picked Amy and Rory up again in Let's Kill Hitler having been searching for Melody) or do they get added in or between the next two episodes?
Hey PGT, according to the plot synopsis on Wikipedia (I know, I know)... [?=200 Hundred Years]This upcoming Saturday's episode takes place after The Doctor has been traveling on his own for two hundred years after dropping off Rory and Amy.[/?]
I assumed that it actually happened during the mid season break. But either way, it was hardly difficult to work out. Frankly it was the most obvious plot point ever. The question, of course, is whether or not he reverts back to the 900 year old Doctor at the end of the season, or the older one finds a way to survive. If the latter then that would make Smith's version the longest incarnation since Hartnell since I believe Troughton's version was already around 700 years old.
^^^ The only time we hear an age associated with Troughton is in Tomb of the Cybermen and he claims to be 450 years old.
I noticed that, too, but assumed that, in the opener, 1. the Doctor's taste buds were still settling down and 2. possibly apples just weren't giving him the nutrients his body needed to finish the regeneration process. But I don't remember anything about apples in "The Girl Who Waited". (Maybe there was a fruit bowl on a table?) So if he spat out a piece of apple then, that would tend to shoot my explanation to bits. El Chup makes a good point, though, so one way or another it's not necessarily a continuity error.
Tom Baker has at least one break in Companion continuity. He drops Sarah off before doing "The Deadly Assassin" as a solo adventure. In the next adventure, "Face of Evil", he picks up Leela from a planet he has visited: 1) In his 4th Doctor body 2) Long enough ago in real time that his is a god to the people and 3) Long enough ago in his travels that he's forgotten going there. I think there's also a break after he drops Leela off as well. Yes, he has K-9, but since K-9 is a robot, he could've been mucking off for a number of years before being recruited to track down the Key to Time. The 4th Doctor is around 750 years old, if I remember my lore correctly--although I forget the first time he makes that claim--to Romana, maybe?
As far as his age...remember rule #1: The Doctor Lies. Two claimed to be 450. Three claimed "several thousand years" in the Silurian episode. Four claimed to be 749 but Romana corrected him and said he was 759 Six claimed to be 900 in Revelation of the Daleks Time and The Rani has Seven claiming to be 953 the same age as Rani. Nine claims to be 900. Uh-huh. The truth, I imagine, is that he doesn't know anymore. Once released from a linear existence and if your body doesn't age "properly" how would you realistically keep track? Why would you really need/want to?