By Adia Miller

Sci-fi’s longest running TV show Doctor Who celebrated its 60th anniversary on the November 23. With fourteen doctors, 37 seasons, dozens of companions, and the infinite amount of stories capable of being told in a show where the characters can travel to any place and any time, it can be a daunting task starting a show this vast.

With input from long-time Whovian Alexis Presnell who started the show when she was six, as well as Doctor Who novice and Bellbrook junior Cecil Dyer who plans to tune in for the love of all things David Tennant, the tenth doctor, this is a compact list of everything you need to know before you start Doctor Who, or watch the 60th anniversary specials.

Doctor Who Basics
1. Plot
Doctor Who is the story of an alien from the planet Gallifrey known as “the Doctor.” Through the many seasons of the show, the character traverses space and time with companions by their side, discovering new beings, meeting well known figures, and fighting wicked forces with the Tardis and Sonic Screwdriver.

2. The Doctor
The Doctor is an alien from the planet Gallifrey that falls into a subset of the Gallifreyan species known as “time lord.” Time lords are immortal or near-immortal beings famed for their advancement of time-traveling technology.

With the ninth Doctor, the first of the modern series, he is still deeply plagued by memories of the Time War, the terrible event culminating in the supposed extinction of both the Gallifreyan and the Dalek species, the Doctor’s greatest enemy.

Largely, the Doctor is a jovial, witty, unpredictable individual who developed a deep sense of responsibility to aid those in turmoil he finds through his travel. Some parts of him remain an enigma, such as his true name, age, and much of his backstory. But his endless compassion and phenomenal adventures have kept viewers entertained for 60 years.

3. The Tardis
The Tardis, a.k.a. Time and Relative Dimension in Space, is the time-and-space traveling vessel that takes our characters to worlds and times both known and unknown. Appearing as a police box colored in “the bluest of blues,” the Tardis was originally supposed to change appearances to fit the settings in which it appeared. But in 1963, the first episode of Doctor Who in which we go back to the time of cavepeople, the Tardis got stuck in it’s now iconic appearance of a blue police box after it’s chameleon circuit broke.

A living creation, the Tardis very much acts as the series secondary protagonist. Though it is altered slightly with each regeneration, it’s also the most constant and comforting presence on the series.

4. Multiple Doctors
On November 23, 1963, the first ever episode of Doctor Who aired. With its 60th anniversary, how can a show with a single central character could last so long? The answer: regeneration.

The Doctor doesn’t “die.” He discorporates and regenerates in a new form, meaning different actors can take on the pivotal characters and the show can last through generations.

This first occurred after William Hartnell, the first Doctor, had to leave the show as his health declined, and Peter Troughton picked up the mantle.

Pressnell cites this as a large draw to the series. “It really helped with the show’s longevity,” she said. “Each actor infuses a new personality aspect into the Doctor, so each turn is different and it never gets repetitive.”

5. 13 Doctors
14 Doctors have been put to screen thanks to their regenerative abilities. They are, in order of appearance:
Classic Who: 1st Doctor: William Hartnell (1963-1966)
2nd Doctor: Peter Troughton (1966-1969)
3rd Doctor:  John Pertwee (1970-1974)
4th Doctor: Tom Baker (1974-1981)
5th Doctor: Peter Davidson (1981-1984)
6th Doctor: Colin Baker (1984-1986)
7th Doctor: Sylvester McCoy (1987-1989)
TV Movie: 8th Doctor: Paul McGann (1996)

Modern Who:
9th Doctor: Christopher Eccleston (2005)
10th Doctor: David Tennant (2005-2010)
11th Doctor: Matt Smith (2010-2013)
12th Doctor: Peter Capaldi (2013-2017)
13rd Doctor: Jodie Whittaker (2017-2019)
14th Doctor: David Tennant (2023)

Every member of the Who fandom has their own favorite Doctor, but the majority of polls put David Tennant in the lead, followed by Smith and Baker.

Even Dyer, who has never seen the show before, said that they will be tuning in just to see Tennant on the screen following his phenomenal performance as Crowley in Good Omens season 2. “I’ve seen clips from his turn as the Doctor, and he carries the same charisma he has in all his other roles. It’s no wonder [the showrunners] wanted him back.”

6. Companions
Nobody likes to be alone, not even a time traveling alien with an intermittent god complex. Because of this, the Doctor is almost, if not always, accompanied by those we know as his companions.

These are individuals, most often humans, he “chooses carefully” to come along on his many adventures. It’s often because of his companions that the Doctor does the right thing, makes sacrifices, and gains proper perspective.

Though the Doctor insists through the years that he is alone, he continues to pick up companions, often improving his way of life, as well as theirs. They are his friends and family. In the end, though, as an immortal being, he loses them all. But he always treasures the time they spend together.

Companions rarely last for single episodes, and can even extend past Doctor’s regenerations, like Rose Tyler for the ninth and tenth Doctor and Clara Oswald for the eleventh and twelfth.

7. Villains
There are too many villains to list who appear in the Doctor Who series, not to mention the comics. While new Whovians will be most familiar with images of Daleks, Cyberman, and the Weeping Angels, the latter of which most caught the attention of Dyer for their haunting medusa-like powers and disturbing appearance, it’s the more episodic villains that fill up most of the show.

“You have your overarching story with one villain that culminates in the season finale,” Pressnell said. “But in between that you have your ‘creature features.’ Things get crazy in those episodes with the writers’ imaginations running wild, and they are never boring.

My favorite villain is this weird kind of transparent sheet of skin named Cassandra who’s actually the last human. She appears three or four times in the entire show and doesn’t really impact the actual events, but it’s always a nice little surprise when she pops up.”

The Anniversary
1. Three Parts
The 60th anniversary as well as 14th’s run will last for three episodes airing on Disney+, starting on November 25. Each episode is contained into a story of its own, so while 14’s run will only last for those three episodes, it’s not a three-part episode.

2. 10/14
In the finale of season 13, Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor degenerates and regenerates in the familiar face, and teeth, of David Tennant’s 10.

It is not new for Doctors to come back. Doctor Who is a very close knit series, and it seems every actor who has appeared on the show enjoyed the experience immensely, so it’s no shock that when they’re asked back, they come happily.

Significant anniversaries are often celebrated with three Doctors reuniting in a succinct story, but never has an actor become the Doctor twice over. With that knowledge, and given how beloved Tennant’s iteration is, it’s no wonder that the regeneration scene broke the internet.

3. Donna Noble
Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate, was a companion of Ten, and one of the most beloved to ever appear on the long-running series with her larger than life and often abrasive personality.

Unfortunately, in the season four finale in which the Doctor and Donna find themselves facing off against the Daleks and their wicked creator Davros, Donna ends up absorbing excess regeneration energy making her part time lord. An effect that could prove potentially fatal and unwilling to risk the life of perhaps the greatest friend he has ever had, the doctor removes Donna’s memories of him, warning that if she starts to remember again, it could kill her.

Why should you watch the series?
There’s always the inherent nostalgia of a series so old that’s been beloved by generations for regenerations. Pressnell was introduced to it by her mother and father, and Dyer’s mother has seen every episode at least once.

The show has come a long way from being just another BBC program with a 5 pm time slot, cementing itself in pop culture across multiple countries. There’s also some parts of the series shrouded in mystery, including the fact that 97 episodes of the original series remain lost, and in the actual story there’s many questions still left unanswered, including if the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan survived the time war and what happened during Captain Jack’s two missing years?

Pressnell says that she kept up with the series after all these years because of the way it tells the stories. “If you skip seasons, you end up missing out on all these fun and quirky things,” she said. “You can really tell that all the writers who contribute to it, be it Russell T. Davis who really made the 2005 series, or Neil Gaiman who just pops up randomly, are genuine fans of the show.

Because all through the seasons you get callbacks to things that happened back in the Eccleston era, or even back to the days of Baker and Hartnell. It can be broken apart or viewed as a whole, but it’s always in its essence Doctor Who.”