Can I just pick a series based on the actor?

Yeah. That’s the deal with Doctor Who. Some episodes from the earliest actors to play The Doctor are lost anyway.

The first episode with each new actor is meant to be a starting point for new fans.

Matt Smith’s Doctor is a great choice.

Be aware though, that much like different series of Star Trek have different vibes, different seasons of Doctor Who do, as well.

Matt Smith’s Doctor Who is as often borderline fairytale fantasy as science fiction. (Though with enough extreme patience, and a little bit of generosity, one could argue that most unexplained bits get plausibly explained later.)

• Eccleston’a era is more distopian.
• Tennant’s era has more retro futuristic adventure.
• Smith: Fairy tales in space and time
• Capaldi’s era is rock and roll scifi.
• Whitaker’s era returns to the shows roots of exploring history.
• Gatwa: Fairy tales, again, but sexier

And, because I’m old:

• Peter Cushing (yes. That one.): Scifi Horror
• Hartnell: Exploring history.
• Troughton: Morality Tales in Space and Time.
• Pertwee: Scifi Horror
• Tom Baker: Shakespeare in Space and Time
• Atkinson: Dark Comedy in Space and Time
• Davidson: Hardy Boys Mysteries in Space and Time
• Colin Baker: Rock Opera in Space and Time
• McCoy: The Twilight Zone
• McGann: Shakespeare in Space and Time, revisited, with a touch of rock opera.

Have fun!

just start with the beginning of the reboot, the first season does a wonderful job of onboarding new viewers

Just be aware that as far as Nu Who goes (god, I hate the word ‘nu’), some of the actors runs have better reputations than others. I don’t necessarily agree with them, but I wouldn’t start with Peter Capaldi or Jodie Whittaker. They’re both great actors, and play great doctors, but they’re the weaker of the new runs.

I’d be tempted to either start at the beginning of modern Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston, and watch them all in order, or jump to the newest doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, and see how you like it.

Either way, have fun 😁

Tl;dr starting with matt smith’s first series is fine. So is starting with Cristopher Ecclestons’s or Ncuti Gatwa’s, but you can start pretty much anywhere really.

I don’t know if you know this but doctor who is separated into two shows, “classic who” which was the original one and “nuWho” which is the current one. classic who is separated in 26 seasons, each one is divided in episodes, which are themselves separated into ~2-10 20 minutes parts. NuWho follows a more normal structure of series (and not seasons) divided into 45 min episodes. Finally the latest series (14) has technically been renamed to season 1 (because Disney got rights to the diffusion and wanted to rename it for newer audiences) but that’s confusing since classic who already used seasons so some people (including me) still call it series 14.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend starting with classic who as the episodes are slower and longer (although if you like the older star trek shows it might be a similar rhythm (not sure as I’ve never watched star trek)) also a few of the episodes are missing.

If you’re starting with nuWho, I would recommend starting with series 1 with Christopher Eccleston, as this will allow you to learn the lore of the show without problems. Both Matt Smith’s Series 5 and Ncuti Gatwa’s Series 14 are also good starting points. Note that the latter is also the newest season and is meant to be a jumping point to the show.

With all that said you can still watch most episodes without any prior context, so start with whichever one you want, I would personally recommend “Vincent and the doctor”. Finally don’t listen to the fans too much when they tell you X doctor is bad and you shouldn’t watch them. Try watching what you want and try something else if you didn’t like it.

I’d say go with your impulse and start with Matt Smith’s first season. It’s a great jumping on point, while very much being season 5 of an ongoing show. Viewers were introduced to the new Doctor through a child’s eyes (I’m simplifying here to avoid spoilers), and it gives a new sense of wonder to the drip fed lore references throughout.

Because of the show’s history you could more or less start with any new Doctor, but for new viewers in 2025 I believe the Smith years* are a good starting point.

Others will recommend you begin with the 2005 revival but IMO those first seasons can look a little janky by current standards. There are seminal stories there that you absolutely must watch, but the visuals level up a bit when showrunner Steven Moffat take over and Matt Smith becomes the Doctor.

* or “era” as Who fans somewhat arbitrarily call any actor, writer, and/or producer’s run on the show. Some fans get very uptight about terminology (like insisting that only classic Who has “seasons” and everything post-1989 must be called “series” instead) but don’t pay any serious attention to them 😆

I would also suggest starting at the beginning of nuwho to get the story in the right order, even if it’s indeed possible to jump in pretty much anywhere. If you feel you can’t handle the slow-ish start or think you might need to see some of the best it has to offer before jumping in there are a few “star” episodes that you can watch independently, these are usually recommended when you’re trying to get someone into it. Some options:

• blink
• Vincent and the doctor
• eleventh hour
• family of blood
• Smith and Jones
• The shakespeare code
• the empty child
• the girl in the fireplace

There’s way more but that’s more than enough.

Eleven (Matt Smith) is a great starting point, as is Nine (Christopher Eccleston), but honestly it’s your choice.

Hope you enjoy the show!