The Whoniverse

The first episode of Doctor Who aired on November 23, 1963. The show ran for a total of 26 seasons (until 1989).

Attempting to reboot the series the BBC co-produced a made for television movie simply titled Doctor Who that was released in 1996, which followed the same continuity as the previous series.

New episodes of Doctor Who would not be seen on television until the series was revived in 2005.

Anything that was released before the 2005 revival is considered “Classic” Doctor Who. This list is concerned with Doctor Who and its spin-offs in the “New Who” era (i.e. 2005 and after).

New Who

Since the Doctor Who revival kicked off in 2005, it has ran for over 10 full television seasons, as well as spawned four spin-offs. (All of these shows are in the same continuity as the Classic era.)

While there are many different adventures that one can experience in the Doctor Who universe, not all of the shows are recommended for all ages. A quick description of each of the shows and recommended age group/target audience follows.

Doctor Who

“The Doctor, in the TARDIS. Next stop: Everywhere.” River Song, “Forest of the Dead”

Doctor Who follows the adventures of the Doctor and their companion(s) as they travel through all of space and time in the Doctor’s TARDIS.

While there may be some scary monsters that the Doctor encounters, Doctor Who is appropriate for all ages.

Torchwood

“Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, arming the human race against the future. The twenty-first century is when everything changes. And you’ve got to be ready.” Capt. Jack Harkness, Torchwood opening

Located in Cardiff, the Torchwood team defends the earth against alien threats.

Torchwood is only for mature audiences and is not at all appropriate for children.

Torchwood does have direct crossovers with Doctor Who.

The Sarah Jane Adventures

“I saw amazing things, out there in space–but there is strangeness to be found, wherever you turn. Life on Earth can be an adventure too… you just need to know where to look!” Sarah Jane Smith, “Invasion of the Bane”

Sarah Jane Smith traveled with the Doctor in the ’70’s, and after helping the Doctor defeat an alien threat in 2007, starts defending the earth with new friends from her home on Bannerman Road.

The Sarah Jane Adventures‘ target audience is children, but one shouldn’t discount the show due to that because exciting adventures for everyone lie ahead, including direct crossovers with Doctor Who.

K9

“This unit does not appreciate the term ‘dog,’ ‘boy,’ or ‘heel.'” K-9, “Regeneration”

K-9 is a robot dog who was a companion of the Doctor’s. In this spin-off produced by an Australian company, K-9 is transported to a dystopian 2050’s London, where he meets new friends and alien threats.

Like The Sarah Jane Adventures, K9‘s target audience is children.

There are many fun adventures for K-9 and his friends, but they remain largely independent of the events of the other shows.

Class

“Your brain, Miss Quill. Best weapon there is. Look at you! What an amazing team! You’ll be able to handle anything that Time throws at you. Oh, come on! Cheer up! It’s not that hard. It’s no harder than all these exams that you have to take these days. Except for Media Studies. It’s going to be harder than that.” The Doctor, “For Tonight We Might Die”

Seeing as Coal Hill School has been in the Doctor Who universe since the very first episode, the students there have seen a fair share of alien activity. Class follows the students at Coal Hill as they learn to face alien threats on their own, without being able to travel through space and time at will.

Class is for young adult audiences. While there may not be as many mature situations as one encounters in Torchwood, the show is certainly not for children.

Class does have a Doctor Who crossover.

Where to start?

With so many things to watch(/read/listen to as it turns out), it can be difficult to experience everything in an order, especially when there are crossovers between the shows.

In doing a re-watch of everything myself, I have set out to come up with a suggested viewing order for everything set in the Doctor Who universe (“Whoniverse”) starting with the first episode of the new series (“Rose”) through the present, including webcasts, special releases, and everything in-between (including some things that may not be considered canon, but are fun to watch nonetheless).

“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually — from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint — it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly… timey-wimey… stuff.” The Doctor, “Blink”

An attempt has been made to keep everything in roughly story order, without interrupting story arcs.

Multi-part episodes are generally listed in the same number with slashes in between the parts (e.g. “Aliens of London”/”World War Three”). In cases where titles of multi-part episodes are simply titled with numbered parts, the episodes are listed under the primary title (e.g. “The End of Time (Part One)” and “The End of Time (Part Two)” are listed as “The End of Time”).

Per the BBC convention in the 21st century, each “season” is listed as a “series.”

For things that are free and available to the public, links have been provided as they could be found from official sources.

(Assembling this list would have been nigh impossible if not for the TARDIS Data Core: The Doctor Who Wiki, a wonderful resource which I truly cherish and refer to often (but watch out for SPOILERS! if you do).)

Updated 5 September 2020