I think its time to stop telling people to start watching Doctor Who from Christopher Eccleston and instead treat it more like Classic Who (but not exactly the same). Give people some recommendations of episodes that are well liked, and tell new-commers that if they like a particular doctor or era, to watch from the start of that and go back and watch older stuff later. There are 13 series of this show, that's a little intimidating to get into. For people who want to get into an long series, who don't find it intimidating, sure, they should go back and start from series 1. Same goes for if your watching it with another person, like the advice isn't universal.

I just think "don't skip 9" isn't helpful anymore, series 1, as much as I love it, has aged, and the front half of the series is certainly the weaker half, so I wouldn't blame anyone who was turned off by it. And absolutely, if people get into a later era they should go back and watch it, but saying it's the one and only place to start is going to put a lot of people off.

I've loved doctor who for as long as I can remember, and have been watching it as it comes out since series 6 when I was 8 or 9 (I tried the series before but found the next time trailers to scary), but I stopped rewatching from the beginning years ago, I'm much more likely to watch a random episode I haven't seen for a while, or a particular series or Doctor I like. I don't know how universal that is, if most fans still watch the whole thing on rewatches, but if not, why recommend to a first time viewer that they watch in a way die hard fans don't anymore.

We already do this with Classic, every piece of advice you see says to bounce around, and obviously for very different reasons, until recently you couldn't find it all in one place. I don't see why we should do any differently with the new series, sure, there's not nearly as much of it, but the reason to tell people to skip around with classic is because different eras are different enough that not liking one isn't a guarantee you won't like another (for example I'm not a big fan of the fourth doctors era post key to time, but I love three's run (despite three being probably my least favourite doctor)). We ARE at that point with nu-who, we have three very different eras of the show (arguably four as the Moffatt era does change over time) and we aren't taking advantage of that when recommending the show.

Personally, if I were introducing Doctor Who to someone today, I'd stick on my favourite story for each Doctor (9-13), ask them which one they enjoyed the most, and watch from their first episode. (The one exception to this might be Tennant, as there's only one series before Christmas Invasion, and his run relies on the previous Doctors a lot more than most)

s8e8 mummy on the orient express

Autism & Doctor Who

so as a basis like the doctor is autistic; from hand movements and other stims to the way he interacts with others with a really singular focus on what he is interested in.

i’m currently rewatching and trying to get through the clara seasons which have always been my least favourite and i think i have kind of figured it out after watching s8e8 “mummy on the orient express“

this episode in particular really puts the doctor’s autistic traits on full display, it was especially noticeable for me when clara was trying to have the emotional conversation and he kept trying to talk about science etc.

and i have recently been trying to figure out why i dislike clara as a companion so much and i think that this episode really encapsulated that, clara doesn’t really seem to want to be with the doctor a lot of the time, she seems reluctant etc and she really at her core wants him to be a different person, she hates his autistic traits and the fact that he doesn’t behave like she does and wants to change that

even though im only consciously realizing this now i think as an undiagnosed teen w a lot of trauma around masking for other people i picked up on this in my first watch through the show and that is what gave me such a bad taste about clara