Doctor Who, recommended watch order

still working on this but

You'll notice I've colour-coded it by Doctor.

The numbers indicate the following.
Ranking, Notes, Doctor, Season

The Ranking comes from a ranking of the top 200 episodes by Doctor Who Magazine. Newer episodes have been slotted in based on IMDB ratings on a sliding scale using the most and least popular modern series episodes on the list of 200, and those numbers are in italics.

Notes are mostly used to signify regenerations, but also point out the introduction, and what the most recent episode is.

Doctor is the number (or name) of the Doctor.

Season is what season it was in; note that I count on from the old series, meaning the movie is season 27, and "series 1" is season 28, and so on.


I've also included the mini-episode Night of the Doctor, given that it (according to what I can find) is canon, and, shows a regeneration.


I've tried to balance the list.
Rose is the first episode. It is designed as a re-introduction to Doctor Who for the newer series. Spearhead from Space is next; it is from the old series, but it is (sort of) related to Rose. An Unearthly Child is next, it is the first ever episode of Doctor Who.

By doing it this way you get introduced to Doctor Who, and the idea of multiple Doctors. You start with a new episode, with modern pacing, followed by a historic episode, in colour, with 70's sensibilities, and mentions of regeneration, followed by the first episode ever. After this, you are introduced to what has been ranked the #1 episode of all time, which includes a regeneration. Next is an episode from the current Doctor, followed by* Blink, the 2nd most popular episode.

After this, there are 3 episodes all from the same season, and same Doctor. This is to ease you into the "regular TV show" nature of Doctor Who, as you follow the same Doctor and Companion around for a few adventures. After this, you get introduced to the 11th Doctor, and following that, the Daleks.

Thus begins a wild ride of 9 Dalek episodes, with nearly every Doctor featuring at some point during the run. By the time you reach the 20th episode on the list, the Movie, you have now seen every Doctor. You are also eased into the idea of missing episodes with one fully animated missing episode.

The list is designed to have at least 3 stories from each Doctor, and to contain as many of the top 20 episodes as possible, and, to contain as many of the top episodes from each Doctor as possible.
As such the middle 10 is a combo of episodes considered in the top 20, and strong episodes containing Doctors who do not have as many top-20 appearances, and a "series" of episodes from the Cybermen, leading into episodes containing multiple Doctors.

The final 20 is also structured to include every Doctor. This is a hodgepodge of different episodes from different Doctors to give you a fuller idea of what the series itself is like, and differentiate the different time periods in it. The bottom 4 all suffer from missing episodes to varying degrees, while the 5th last is the final episode of the original run. By this point you'll have seen 45 episodes, and if you don't think you could handle the missing episodes, you will know if you want to skip them or not. You'll also now have a clear understanding of what Doctors you like, and possibly which ones you dislike, and as such, don't need me to tell you what the 51st episode you should watch is; by this point, you will know yourself where you want to go, and can take it from there.



*Blink will be replaced with an episode from the 13th Doctor when one is hired, and the episode slotted in where Turn Left currently is, to strengthen the final 20. I'm also debating replacing Vincent and the Doctor with The War Games. The Day of the Doctor is technically a 11th doctor story, though I've coloured it here as a War Doctor story, and so you'll still get to meet all of the Doctors in the first 20, but you'll see real Troughton before animated Troughton.



Also note that while I've seen reviews of the following episodes:
An Unearthly Child
Marco Polo
Galaxy 4
Mission To The Unknown
The Myth Makers
The Daleks' Master Plan
The Massacre
The Celestial Toymaker
The Savages
The Smugglers
The Tenth Planet
Power of the Daleks
The Highlanders
The Underwater Menace
The Moonbase
The Macra Terror
The Faceless Ones
Evil of the Daleks
Tomb of the Cybermen
The Abominable Snowmen
The Ice Warriors
The Enemy of the World
The Web of Fear
Fury From The Deep
The Wheel In Space
The Invasion
The Space Pirates
The War Games
Inferno
The Three Doctors
The Green Death
The Ark In Space
The Sontaran Experiment
Genesis of the Daleks
The Seeds of Doom
The Face of Evil
The Visitation
The King's Demons
The Twin Dilemma
Battlefield
Rose
The End of the World
Dalek
Father's Day
The Empty Child
The Doctor Dances
Bad Wolf
The Parting of the Ways
The Girl in the Fireplace
Love and Monsters
Fear Her
Gridlock
Daleks in Manhattan
Evolution of the Daleks
Human Nature
The Family of Blood
Blink
Silence in the Library
Forest of the Dead
The End of Time 1
The End of Time 2
The Eleventh Hour
Vincent and the Doctor
The Doctor's Wife
Asylum of the Daleks
The Day of the Doctor
The Time of the Doctor



I've only actually "watched" a small number myself. Within the past week I've seen or re-watched the Movie, Night of the Doctor, Rose, Survival, An Unearthly Child, and The Day of the Doctor.

Previously I've also seen The Time of the Doctor, as well as Deep Breath.

On Christmas 2015, I watched a string of Doctor Who episodes from the 9th series ("season 36") including The Husband of River Song, Hell Bent, Heaven Sent, Face of the Raven, Sleep No More, The Zygon Inversion, The Zygon Invasion, and apparently also The Woman Who Lived, The Girl Who Died, Before the Flood, Under the Lake, and The Witch's Familiar. I say apparently, as, I was partly or mostly drunk for this time, and only remember parts of those episodes, and larger parts of the other ones.

As such, my current plan is to actually watch all the episodes (excluding ones seen in the past week) in the order I've suggested to see how well that actually works out in practise.