A Conversation for The h2g2 Doctor Who Group
Selling the series to a newbie. Your choice?
Bright Blue Shorts Started conversation Dec 14, 2008
A few weeks ago, I had a foreign friend come to visit who had never seen Doctor Who. Shocking, I know. I wanted to show her this great love of ours, but time was limited and I wanted to find an episode that would be representative, engaging, understandable, need little explanation; yet get her hooked.
You can pick any episode for the show's entire history, but only an episode. (Despite the fact that you could fit an old story into the the time of the TV movie; you still only get one episode whether it be old 25-minuter, modern 45 mins, 1-hour Christmas special or 90-min TV movie)
Which one do you go for?
Selling the series to a newbie. Your choice?
U168592 Posted Dec 14, 2008
Blink.
No contest.
Introduces the Doctor in a way that makes you interested in finding out more, and is an excellent piece of screenwriting.
Selling the series to a newbie. Your choice?
Galaxy Babe - eclectic editor Posted Dec 14, 2008
End Of The World
Awesome (even with the Britney soundtrack)
Selling the series to a newbie. Your choice?
eloisa Posted Dec 15, 2008
Damn. I was torn between Genesis of the Daleks and Brain of Morbius, then I spotted the time restriction!
We could just start watching and see how far we get. 
Selling the series to a newbie. Your choice?
kipperonthefloor - Make sense? What fun is there in Making sense? Posted Oct 22, 2009
Rememberance of the daleks
a mind blowing story
Selling the series to a newbie. Your choice?
kipperonthefloor - Make sense? What fun is there in Making sense? Posted Oct 22, 2009
just epidode one
Selling the series to a newbie. Your choice?
Galigan Posted Oct 24, 2009
Silence in the library, because then they just have to go and watch forest of the dead as well.
Selling the series to a newbie. Your choice?
Smij - Formerly Jimster Posted Oct 27, 2009
It would depend on the friend, really. If they were open to black-and-white films or older TV, I'd start with 'An Unearthly Child' as I know from experience that it gets a good reaction and is genuinely one of the greatest openers of any series.
If this was their first chance to see an episode, but they were likely to go back home and watch the rest, I'd start with 'Rose', because it's just so economical in introducing the concepts.
Otherwise I'd show them Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD.
It's an interesting one, because if it had been one complete story, I'd pick 'Carnival of Monsters' simply because it's one story that has almost every single element the series offers. It wouldn't make sense to show the very best story - whichever you might think that is, because then it'd be downhill from there. Nor do I think it'd make sense showing someone any episode in the middle of a companion's run. In the New Series, there's only 'Rose' and 'Smith & Jones' where you get a clean reboot of the series. In the old series you get 'An Unearthly Child', then 'Spearhead from Space' reboots the show to make it an almost clean start.
For more reasons than I could explain, I wouldn't show 'The TV Movie' to anyone who I'd call a friend. Ever.
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Selling the series to a newbie. Your choice?
- 1: Bright Blue Shorts (Dec 14, 2008)
- 2: U168592 (Dec 14, 2008)
- 3: Galaxy Babe - eclectic editor (Dec 14, 2008)
- 4: eloisa (Dec 15, 2008)
- 5: kipperonthefloor - Make sense? What fun is there in Making sense? (Oct 22, 2009)
- 6: kipperonthefloor - Make sense? What fun is there in Making sense? (Oct 22, 2009)
- 7: Galigan (Oct 24, 2009)
- 8: Smij - Formerly Jimster (Oct 27, 2009)
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