Ask Slashdot: How/Where To Start Watching Dr. Who? 655
stinkfish writes "I am a big fan of science fiction, especially good TV science fiction. For some reason Dr. Who is a show I have watched very little of. My question to Slashdot is, whats the best strategy for enjoying this classic show? Looking at the wikipedia page on Dr. who, I see there are 11 Doctors, so is hard to pick a good starting point. If it was just up to me, I would start watching from the very beginning. But I know my wife would not watch a show that dated, though she is a science fiction fan herself and enjoyed a few seasons of Torchwood. So where do I start? Here's an article on this topic; is there more to say?"
At the risk of my nerd card... (Score:5, Insightful)
You aren't alone. I never got into this show, and I've just never been particularly interested in trying.
And you know what else--I thought "Lord of the Rings" was boring (both in book and movie form), "Babylon 5" was poorly written and acted, and the movie version of "Starship Troopers" was much better than the book. There, I said it.
I assert that being a geek doesn't mean having to like *everything* associated with geek life. And if you have to FORCE yourself to get into it, you're probably going to take all the fun out of it anyway.
Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm in the same boat. I go back and catch up on old series with Netflix. But Dr. Who is just intimidating.
For example, my current series is Smallville. I've done 9 1/2 seasons in about 4 months. I'm going to try and time the finale with the actual shows finale. I did DS9 in 6 months. All of SG-1 in 10.
But Dr. Who has 770 episodes. 770. That's one a day for 2 years.
Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score:5, Insightful)
That is the source of all this confusion. People can't seem to grasp the difference between nerds and geeks.
Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score:5, Insightful)
Even my mother liked firefly. We can't have nice things because the majority of people are fucking stupid, ignorant drones that believe reality TV shows like "Jersey Shore" are the pinnacle of human creation.
Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed. Maybe it's because he was the first Doctor I saw, but I still think he was the best.
In Dr. Who fandom it's commonly said: "You never forget your first Doctor."
I started watching Dr. Who in 1977 (I was eight...) when I spent four months living in an old manor house on the outskirts of Sheffield. So of course for me The Doctor will always be Tom Baker. He could even make K9 tolerable.
Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score:4, Insightful)
No, K9 was tolerable because you were eight. At fourteen K9 was an unforgivable joke but Tom Baker was still the best Doctor.
Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not simply a matter of reality TV shows being more popular... They are really cheap to make. My impression is that they can cancel a typical (non-reality) television show, and replace it with a reality show, and still be more profitable even if the reality show gets less viewers.
The free market has many strengths, but it doesn't necessarily promote the best of the arts.
Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You Never Forget Your First Doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
One minute the Doctor is all serious, then he's all giggling and babbling with this totally forced, maniacal grin. It seemed like there was nothing in between. If anyone acted like that in real life, their friends would be urging them to seek mental help.
I think that was the point. He'd been responsible for the destruction of his entire species in the Great Time War and then had spent a lot of time alone. He was pretty unhinged, and certainly suffering from post traumatic stress problems. One of the major plot points for the new series has been that he needs to have humans with him to keep him approximately sane.
Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not simply a matter of reality TV shows being more popular... They are really cheap to make. My impression is that they can cancel a typical (non-reality) television show, and replace it with a reality show, and still be more profitable even if the reality show gets less viewers.
This. Low paid participants who don't need any acting skills, simple camera work and almost no retakes just broadcast whatever happens. Take something like Paradise Hotel. Rent a luxury hotel, find a few good-looking guys and girls and give them skimpy swimwear and free booze. That's pretty much all the props you need for the entire season, the rest is just gossip and intrigue.
Even if you just compare it to some drama series you still need fairly known actors, script, clothing, props, scenery, you need to do many takes per scene and so on . There's just no doubt that reality shows is much, much cheaper to produce. I once saw some numbers but I've completely forgotten, the difference was stunning though.
Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score:4, Insightful)
you have GOT to have a better way of doing things than walking around with a future-pistol. I mean the energy and technology that's got to be available....
Somewhere on this planet is there's a naked kid scrounging through the mud for some fish to eat. His mom works for $0.25 an hour on an assembly line painting details onto plastic gewgaws that'll sell for fifty times that to some (relatively) astronomically rich Florida tourist on some other part of the planet she can't even dream of seeing for herself. His dad was hacked to death by angry guys with machetes and a different political opinion. When he goes home, he might wash himself off with dirty water heated up on a beat-up pot over an open flame.
But that can't be. There have GOT to be better ways of living than that. I mean seriously, we have nuclear reactors, hot and cold running water, machine guns and ICBMs, and specialized advanced fishing equipment with built-in radars and GPS....