It's the longest-running science fiction show on television (and one of the longest-running shows ever, period), and one with a devoted, vocal, and cosplay-friendly fanbase. Normally that would mean that anyone who was inclined to rabidly devour Doctor Who would have already done so by now, but it's also possible that kind of history makes the classic BBC show more daunting than welcoming to newcomers.

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Freaks and GeeksIt shouldn't.

If ever there was a sci-fi show that went out of its way to offer places and episodes for new audiences to jump on, it's Who. (Almost any episode can work as a first episode, although starting with one where a new Doctor debuts is best.) With a steadfastly whimsical take on the world, plenty of catchphrases, and a worryingly gleeful take on creating fake science that works on the premise of "because I said so and the plot demands it," Doctor Who is science fiction for people who don't like science fiction (and those who do, but are prepared to laugh at it anyway).

If you've found yourself curious about the show, but scared off by the fanbase and the many, many years it's been on air, here's some guidance about how to finally take the plunge. You'll be wanting a sonic screwdriver of your own in no time.

Doctor Who

Number of Seasons: 7 (92 Episodes)

(Now, we know what you're thinking. "Seven?" you're saying. "There have been many more than seven seasons of Doctor Who. It started back in 1963!" That's true, but for the purposes of this guide we're only counting episodes after the 2005 revival of the show. Also, for the purposes of this article, we're not including the most recent season, which is ending on Saturday and not yet available on the platforms we'll mention below. Look at it this way: If you end up completely addicted to what's mentioned here, you'll be glad there's more out there.)

Time Requirements: Six weeks, or thereabouts. Think about doing a couple of episodes each night during the week, and three episodes a day during the weekend. Of course, some of those episodes are extra long, but you'll get there in the end.

Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, DVD

Best Character to Follow: Well, the Doctor, obviously. He's the only character that appears in every season of the show (even before the 2005 revival), after all. He's also the most fun character on the show, by virtue of the way the series is constructed. The Doctor is the smartest, funniest, most charming character by design, as well as its moral center. If you don't like the Doctor, then you won't like the show. It's that simple.

Of course, there’s the fact that there are three different Doctors in the course of the run we're discussing here—played by Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt Smith—but the above holds true no matter what. The series always stays remarkably faithful and devoted to its almost-eponymous lead.

Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:

Now, here's the strange thing about Doctor Who. Moreso than the regeneration of Doctors, the hand-off of the series between showrunners drastically changes the show. For seasons 1 through 4, Russell T. Davies is in charge, and from Season 5 onwards, it's Steven Moffat. They are, to put it mildly, interested in different things.

Oh, on the face of it, it's the same show. The concept remains the same: Gentle alien with human female travel through space and time, having madcap adventures and generally saving the world every week. There are plenty of constants throughout each season, too. You'll always see a Dalek, for example, and there will probably be a "Doctor-Light" episode allowing someone else to take the spotlight, and so on. But, underneath, deep down...

During the Davies years, Doctor Who is a show about pop culture and ephemera, a show that's more concerned with eliciting feels than it is any kind of central logic (really, there are many times in which narrative logic is entirely jettisoned in favor of a "cool moment"). As a result, it's a show that can seem painfully dated when viewed even now, less than a decade later. It's also a show that might scare people off if they're not prepared for lots of shouting and references that make little sense to anyone who lived outside of the United Kingdom at the time it was made. For all its heart—and Davies' Who is all about having heart at all times, sometimes painfully so—it's a show that is oddly small and parochial.

When Moffat takes over, everything changes almost immediately: The pop culture references are almost entirely dropped, and replaced with an obsession with the show's own mythology, with the construction of a continuity that requires close attention and multiple viewings. (Spoiler: Even then, there are some things you’ll just have to let go.) The Summer Blockbuster feel of Davies' series is replaced by a magical thinking of sorts, and the show becomes an over-thought fairy tale as much as anything, a series of puzzle boxes powered by high concepts that require both suspension of disbelief and a faith that the writers will manage to make everything make sense in future episodes. Think of it like Lost, but with more slapstick and some aliens.

There are those for whom Steven Moffat is nothing short of a televisual devil, utterly despised for what he's done to the series and its characters; there are others for whom he's just the opposite, instead responsible for saving the show from a puddle of sentiment and nonsense. All of which is to say: Doctor Who seasons 1 through 4 are a very different flavor from Doctor Who season 5 onwards. Whether you like one and not the other, or both for different reasons, is up to you.

All of that said, every season to date has some terrible stinkers in there; episodes far, far below the quality of everything else around it and best left avoided. Here are the worst.

Season 2: Episode 11, "Fear Her" The problem with "Fear Her" isn't necessarily one thing in particular; it's that almost everything about the episode, from concept to execution, is sub-par. The result is an episode that's nonsensical in terms of plot, filled with unconvincing performances and lacks even Who's traditional charm to make things go down easier. Avoid all round.

Season 3: Episodes 4 and 5, "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks" With the perceived need for a new Daleks story every season, it's not surprising that sometimes you get one that just doesn't work. This two-parter is probably the worst to date, thanks to weak writing and some of the worst American accents ever to appear in the show—which, as you'll soon realize after catching a few episodes, is really saying something.

Season 4: Episodes 4 and 5, "The Sontaran Statagem" and "The Poison Sky" One of the worst habits of Russell T. Davies as a writer is his desire to make everyday objects into sci-fi devices as a way of making the plot more easily understandable for a mainstream audience. This two-parter, in which GPS satellite navigation turns out to be an alien invasion plot, easily demonstrates the limits of that idea.

Season 5: Episodes 8 and 9, "The Hungry Earth" and "Cold Blood" The nadir of what is otherwise an impressively strong season, "The Hungry Earth" and "Cold Blood" suffer from having too little story to stretch across two episodes, and what looks to be mid-season exhaustion from everyone on the screen. No one really seems to want to be there, and the two episodes suffer dramatically as a result. It's a shame, because not only does something major happen at the end of the story (don't worry, you'll be able to pick it up from the next episode anyway), but the episode theoretically introduces concepts that'll later be used for one of the show's most fun supporting characters, Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh).

Season 7: Episode 8, "Cold War" When trying to create a high-stakes episode centering around the return of a monster from the classic series on board a Russian nuclear submarine, there are certain things you'd think one would avoid. For example, the monster looking ... well, pretty goofy, really. Or dialogue that does all but yell "Do you understand the uncomplicated political metaphors we're trying to point out?" at the viewer for an hour. This episode does not avoid those things.

Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:

Season 1: Episode 6, "Dalek" The highlight of the first year of the show's revival was this episode, which brought back the Doctor's most popular enemies in such a way that it flipped the show's morality on its head for a second, giving a welcome glimpse of something darker under the hero's skin. For full effect, just ignore the retconning of events that soon followed.

Season 2: Episode 4, "The Girl in the Fireplace" This was one of the first episodes of the revived Who to really dig into the time travel aspect beyond How did our heroes get here this week? It also offered up a stronger emotional hook than usual and also some wonderfully creepy villains. Probably the best episode of what's otherwise a relatively weak sophomore season.

Season 3: Episodes 8 and 9, "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" Adapted from a Doctor Who spin-off novel by the novel's author Paul Cornell, these two episodes strip the Doctor of everything—his memory, his alien DNA and, most importantly, his personality—as he tries to hide from an alien family seeking to harvest his life force to power their own immortality. The resulting story just emphasizes what makes the Doctor such a compelling character, and Doctor Who such a unique show.

Season 3: Episode 10, "Blink" Spooky, smart, and playful, "Blink" might be in the running for the best Doctor Who episode to date ... and the Doctor is hardly in it. Luckily, Carey Mulligan (just before she made it big in the movies) is there to replace him and help give you a brand new fear of statues.

Season 5: Episode 1, "The Eleventh Hour" For the third time since the revival began, a new actor has to introduce himself to the audience as the Doctor, and the result is incredibly charming. Launching Steven Moffat's time as showrunner, this is very much a makeover for the show as a whole and a re-statement of intent. It's also a success in almost every way (excusing the dodgy CGI).

Season 5: Episode 11, "The Lodger" In what is almost the flipside of Season 3's "Human Nature," the Doctor tries to go undercover to find out what's threatening contemporary London. Let's just say that it turns out that the Doctor is very, very bad at going undercover. The show's attempts at outright comedy are hit-and-miss at best, but this one gets everything right, and James Corden shines as the out-of-his-depth Craig Owens, temporary companion.

Season 5: Episodes 12 and 13, "The Pandorica Opens" and "The Big Bang" The big finale of the fifth season manages to successfully trick viewers by building up an epic threat in its first half, before telling an almost entirely different story in its second, and yet somehow it comes together. Also, the second half features some of the show's most fun time travel hijinks, clearly inspired by Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (no, really), which also helps gain it some points.

Season 6: Episode 11, "The God Complex" One of the hallmarks of the Moffat era of the show is a turn towards the creepy, exemplified by this unsettling, off-kilter bottle episode that asks what everyone is most scared of, and then twists the knife. Comparing this episode and any episode from the Davies era visually is fascinating to do, as well; it emphasizes how much the series has changed throughout the years.

"The Day of the Doctor" Last year's mammoth 50th anniversary celebration not only teamed the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors (a pairing so good you find yourself wishing that it could've been done a few more times), but also explores the darkness present throughout the entire rebooted series and addresses what makes the Doctor different from almost every other sci-fi hero. The rare anniversary episode that makes you as excited about what's to come as it does nostalgic for the past.

Why You Should Binge:

Doctor Who, in whatever incarnation, is a show that's kind, funny, and exciting. It's a show that shamelessly seeks to entertain, occasionally educate—or, at least, ask questions you might not be expecting—and isn't above being sentimental when necessary (or even when not). Most of all, it's fun, which is all you really want from your science fiction television really, right?

Best Scene—A Big Ball of Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey Stuff:

In this scene from "Blink" the Doctor explains the nature of time travel. Kind of. Also, he does it from a DVD extra, which is both pretty impressive and a weird moment when we all have to remember that we used to watch DVDs.

The Takeaway:

Time travel can be dangerous, confusing, and utterly ridiculous—there are aliens whose main characteristic is that they fart a lot when disguised as humans, which, come on—but it'll never be boring, and almost always be a delightful time. Also, it turns out that a change can do you good.

If You Liked Doctor Who You'll Love:

There were a couple of Doctor Who spin-offs there for awhile: The Sarah Jane Adventures, aimed specifically at kids, and Torchwood, ostensibly aimed at adults. (It's more realistically aimed at excitable teenagers, as you'll find out yourself if you check it out. If you do, go for the third season, Torchwood: Children of Earth).

Other alternatives include Sherlock and Jekyll, both of which feature Steven Moffat in lead-writing roles, and something far less easy to track down but more than worth the effort: The Second Coming, in which Russell T. Davies worked with Christopher Eccleston (the short-lived, often-overlooked Ninth Doctor that launched the 2005 revival) and created a story about the second coming of Jesus that really isn't what you'd expect. Davies' 2005 Casanova, starring David Tennant, is worth a look as well.