Top 5: ‘Doctor Who’ episodes that will get your friends hooked too!
If you are a Doctor Who aficionado but know people who just don’t “get it”, you could be excused for seriously wondering how you could change their minds. Are they simply lost causes? Will they never understand the appeal of the Time Lord that some of us have enjoyed even for decades? Not so fast! Don’t let that despondency set in; instead, show them these episodes and watch as the eyes of your previously non-believing friends light up in astonishment.
An Unearthly Child
Should people completely new to Doctor Who really start right from the beginning, with the first episode originally aired in 1963? It might initially seem an overly obvious suggestion, but – hey – it works. One big reason is that, theoretically, viewers won’t miss any references, says CultBox. The story starts innocuously, with a schoolgirl who, when heading home, makes her way to a junkyard with her teachers in pursuit. What’s in that junkyard? Something called the TARDIS…
New Earth
This 2006 episode comes recommended by Doctor Who TV guest writer Jordan Isaac Goodier, who hails the “classic set-up for Doctor Who”. It’s quite a simple one, but – as Goodier phrases it – largely summarises the thrust of the show: “The Doctor takes his companion to see the future.” While the episode is rather scant in emotional content, it focuses on the show’s core essentials – about an elderly man who, in his machine dubbed the TARDIS, journeys through time and space
Rose
Whovians were inclined to compare this episode to a kiss from a rose on the grey – ba-dum-tsh – because it welcomed the Doctor into the twenty-first century in a truly literal way. It screened in 2005 as the first episode of the show’s revived incarnation; the Time Lord hadn’t been on TV in serial form since 1989. Russell T Davies seemingly wrote the episode in such a way that catching up on the show’s legendary past is easy – it even explains what “TARDIS” means!
The Eleventh Hour
It seems an aptly-named episode for someone to watch if they have joined the Doctor Who party this late. However, ironically, the narrative does help to justify the lack of urgency with which many people can pick up on the Doctor Who franchise. In case you haven’t guessed it yet, we are referring to regeneration – the mechanism by which the Doctor can self-refresh. The regeneration in this story is a beauty, too…
The Girl in the Fireplace
Key to the enduring appeal of Doctor Who is the show’s variety. After all, the Doctor can take his companion – and us – to the far future, distant past and everywhere in-between. Therefore, a history-themed episode can make a good addition to the palette of a Whovian-in-training. This episode is particularly genius for letting its viewers see the past and future seamlessly meshed together.
______
That kind of creativity is the beauty of Doctor Who – a beauty that has been replicated in a wide range of Doctor Who merchandise too.
