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I'm a Doctor Who virgin, but watched seasons 1 & 2 of Torchwood. I tend to cringe at poor special effects (I can barely handle Star Trek TOS), so I don't think the oldest iterations will work for me. Anyway, what should I start with?

I started watching with season the new series. Worked perfectly fine for me. The special effects could be better, especially in the beginning, but it got better.

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I watched it from the beginning. The latest seasons have better special effects but story-wise they can't hold a candle to the originals.

But, I enjoy 1950's sci-fi serials like Rocky Jones - Space Ranger

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I started with the Tom Baker era and when it was made available on VHS I decided to watch it from the beginning. Effects in the classic series are ropey to non-existent, in the black and white era sometimes the scenery wobbles and you get a fair amount of fluffed lines, but you have to keep in mind that it was made in a tiny studio on a shoestring budget and was recorded "as live" without breaks for costume and set changes if possible. Actually due to time constraints they only did retakes if someone cursed or if a technical error occurred.

I'd recommend you watch it from 2005 onwards and then go back to the beginnings and see how it evolved. The old series is much slower paced but they were taking more risks in the stories they did.

Unfortunately a lot of the episodes with my favourite Doctor (Pat Troughton) are now missing...
Maybe we should pick a favourite story of each era so you can get an idea of what it's all about?

First Doctor: "The Daleks", "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" -- or if you want something more comedic "The Chase"
Second Doctor: from what's still left: "The Invasion", "The Mind Robber" (really weird) or if you want epic "The War Games"
Third Doctor: "Inferno"
Fourth Doctor: "Genesis of the Daleks"
Fifth Doctor: "The Caves of Androzani"
Sixth Doctor: "Vengeance on Varos"
Seventh Doctor: "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy"
Eighth Doctor: there's only the movie
Ninth Doctor: "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" or "Dalek"
Tenth Doctor: "Blink" or "Human Nature/The Family of Blood"
Eleventh Doctor so far: "Vincent and the Doctor" or "The Doctor's Wife"

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views."
-- Doctor Who, The Face of Evil

Thanks for the great info. I think I'll start with 2005 and then go back and watch each of the episodes you've listed so I can decide if I want to watch any of those. We'll see how addicted I am at that point.

I was addicted three episodes in
Caveat: don't watch the Ninth and Tenth Doctor episodes I listed with little kids without reviewing them first. They're serious nightmare stuff.

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views."
-- Doctor Who, The Face of Evil

Must admid.

We started to watch Doctor Who because I found out Torchwood is a spin-off from Doctor Who.
More specefic, Jack Harkness (leader of Torchwood), showed up first in "Doctor Who (2005) - 1x09 - The Empty Child"

I am not from uk, but damn BBC makes good tv shows

I loved the Christopher Eccleston episodes
Really liked the first couple of Tennant series
liked the third Tennant series
Thought the Tennant specials were ok
Didn't really like the first season of the new guy with the odd face
slowly drifted off and stopped watching...

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You don't like the Matt Smith seasons? The David Tennant seasons just seem like silliness after watching those.

I didn't like Matt at first, but he's grown on me. Can't wait for him to get away from Amy/Rory duo and move on to his next companion.

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