When I first started watching Classic Who and facing the huge mountain of the works produced that era, I searched for something to help me decide which serials were best and/or more relevant to New Who. This list is for people like me.
In Classic Who, rather than hour-long single episodes in each series as in New Who (albeit with sometimes two- or three part stories), each season was composed of several serials told over several weekly half-hour episodes or parts, from a minmum of two to a max (in one case only) of ten. Until Serial 9 of Season 3, “The Savages”, each episode had its own unique title in addition to that of the overall serial.
The half-hour or a bit less format for each episode expanded to 45-50 minutes with two episodes per serial for Season 22, but only for that season alone. Spread out, the half-out episodes were a full season long, but when New Who debutd in 2005, the hour-long (more or less) episodes reduced in number to thirteen, and seasons were redubbed as “series”. This is part of why already existing fans of New Who have resisted referring to Series 14 as “Season 1”.
Those below relate to New Who either by telling the origin of opponents or allies, especially companions appearing in the New Who era, or else setting the stage for a story in New Who. I’ve divided them up by Doctor and Season, but only listing those I’m recommending. There are also some I call essential because they allegorize then-current political events or they showcase The Doctor or one of his companions at their best. Also all regeneration episodes and all multi-Doctor episodes.
This list is neither
exhaustive nor exclusive. Many serials I
have seen and enjoyed are not on this list because they do not relate to New
Who, and some of the ones listed are not among much of anyone’s ‘must watch’
list though their content does relate to New Who. I’ve also included attempts to reboot the
series directly or with spinoffs in the ‘Wilderness Era’.
What follows immediately is a bare-bones list of the serials ‘essential’ to New Who for handy reference, with another afterward that explains why each of these serial is ‘essential’.
FIRST DOCTOR
Season 1
Serial 1, “An Unearthly Child”, Episode 1 ‘An Unearthly Child’
Serial 2, “The Daleks”
Season 2
Serial 2, “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”
Serial 4, “The Time Meddler”
Season 3
Serial 7, “The Celestial Toymaker”
Serial 10, “The War Machines”
Season 4
Serial 2, “The Tenth Planet”
SECOND DOCTOR
Season 4
Serial 6, “The Moonbase”
Season 5
Serial 3, “The Ice Warriors”
Serial 5, “The Web of Fear”
Season 6
Serial 7, “The War Games”
Season 7
Serial 2, “Doctor Who and the Silurians”
Season 8
Serial 1, “Terror of the Autons”
Serial 5, “The Daemons”
Season 9
Serial 2, “The Curse of Peladon”
Serial 3, “The Sea Devils”
Season 10
Serial 1, “The Three Doctors”
Serial 5, “The Green Death”
Season 11
Serial 1, “The Time Warrior”
Serial 4, “The Monster of Peladon”
Serial 5, “Planet of the Spiders”
Season 12
Serial 4, “Genesis of the Daleks”
Season 13
Serial 1, “Terror of the Zygons”
Serial 3, “Pyramids of Mars”
Serial 5, “The Brain of Morbius”
Season 14
Serial 2, “The Hand of Fear”
Serial 3, “The Deadly Assassin”
Season 15
Serial 2, “The Invisible Enemy”
Serial 6, “The Invasion of Time”
Season 16: The Key of Time
This season is composed of six connected stories which are all more or less required to make sense, but two stories stand out as ‘most’ essential: Serial 2 and Serial 6, if you want to watch less than the whole arc. They can stand alone, but if so, they’ll wobble.
Serial 1, “The Ribos
Operation”
Serial 2, “The Pirate
Planet”
Serial 3, “The Stories of
Blood”
Serial 4, “The Androids
of Tara”
Serial 5, “The Power of
Kroll”
Serial 6, “The Armaggedon
Factor”
Season 17
Serial 1, “Destiny of the Daleks”
Serial 2, “City of Death”
Serial 6, “Shada” (2013 version)
Season 18
Serial 6, “The Keeper of Traken”
Serial 7, “Logopolis”
K9 and Company
Pilot: “A Girl’s Best Friend”
FIFTH DOCTOR
Season 19
Serial 1, “Castrovalva”
Serial 5, “Black Orchid”
Serial 6, “Earthshock”
Season 20
Serial 3, “Mawdryn Undead”
Serial 4, “Terminus”
Serial 5, “Enlightenment”
Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (stand-alone movie)
Season 21
Serial 1, “Warriors of the Deep”
Serial 4, “Resurrection of the Daleks”
Serial 6, “The Caves of Androzani”
SIXTH DOCTOR
Season 22
Serial 2, “Vengeance of Varos”
Serial 4, “The Two Doctors”
Serial 6, “The Revelation of the Daleks”
Season 23: The Trial of a Time Lord
Like Season 16: The Key of Time, this season is one arc of stories, only this time so closely connected they cannot easily be separated and still make sense. When broadcast, the serials were not even named, and all fourteen episodes were numbered 1-14 in a single sequence. But if you want to watch just one serial, “Terror of the Vervoids” is one of the top on the whole Classic Era.
Serial 1, “The Mysterious
Planet”
Serial 2, “Mindwarp”
Serial 3, “Terror of the
Vervoids”
Serial 4, “The Ultimate
Foe”
SEVENTH DOCTOR
Season 24
Serial 4, “Dragonfire”
Season 25
Serial 1, “Remembrance of the Daleks”
Serial 3, “Silver Nemesis”
Season 26
Serial 3, “The Curse of Fenric
Serial 4, “Survival”
WILDERNESS ERA
This was the period between the end of Classic Who in 1989 and the beginning of New Who in 2005.
Dimensions in Time
Downtime
EIGHTH DOCTOR
Doctor Who: The Television Movie
Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor
THE WARRIOR (aka the War Doctor)
Doctor Who: The Last Day
The Final Battle (aka Leela vs. the Time War)
SHALKA DOCTOR
Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka
* * * * *
FIRST DOCTOR
Season 1
The Doctor’s companions this season and at the beginning of the next are his 15-year-old granddaughter, Susan Foreman, and two of her teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. The Doctor and Susan are trapped on Earth because the TARDIS’s scanner is broken and they have come to Earth seeking the help of the BBC to fix it, only to have found the latter too secretive to be much good (that was supposed to be revealed in Serial 5, “The Keys of Marinus”, but was cut from the script). The two live at 76 Trotter Lane in London and Susan attends Coal Hill School.
This season begins with the serial “An Unearthly Child”. Although this serial is a four-parter, the only thing you need to see is the first episode, also titled ‘An Unearthly Child’, so you’ll know how it all began. The ensuing story is not one of the better ones. It is worth noting that this begins a journey that does not return to Earth in the 1960s until the close of Season 6.
The second serial is worth watching all of, however, being the first about The Doctor’s most hateful foe, the Daleks. The seven-parter is called “The Daleks” (seems a bit obvious in hindsight, but before the first episode of this serial, no one had ever heard of a Dalek, not even The Doctor).
Season 2
We begin Season 2 with the same companions.
The first recommended serial this season is the second, “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”, which takes place in the year 2150 CE at a point in which the Daleks have conquered most of the planet. Besides being a good serial, this is granddaughter Susan’s last episode, as she elects to stay behind with the human resistance fighter with whom she has fallen in love.
The season’s four-part ninth and final serial, “The Time Meddler”, takes place in 1066 CE in England, where The Monk, a rogue Time Lord, is attempting to thwart the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest. The Doctor’s companions now are Vicki Pallister and Steven Taylor.
(It is important to note that while The Monk is indeed a Time Lord, complete with his own TARDIS that looks like an altar, his and The Doctor’s species is not named until the final serial of Season 6, “The War Games”. )
Season 3
The first serial I’d recommend as “essential” from this season is its four-part seventh serial, “The Celestial Toymaker”, for the obvious reason that the character appeared in last of the three 60th Anniversary episodes of the Fourteenth Doctor (“The Giggle”), and it is the only Classic Who serial in which he is featured. The rub here is that the first three episodes are missing, replaced with animation to the original audio. The Doctor’s companions in this episode are Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet.
Many other early episodes of the early years of Classic Who are also missing, even some entire serials, because some doofus at BBC thought it’d be more efficient to destroy them than store them.
The other serial I’d recommend from this season is its four-part tenth and final story, “The War Machines”, which takes place in 1960s London and sees the introduction of Royal Navy sailor Ben Jackson and Polly Wright as well as the farewell of Dodo Chaplet (Steven left in an earlier serial).
Season 4
The first essential serial this season is the four-part second story, “The Tenth Planet”, with the Doctor and companions Ben Jackson and Polly Wright. There are two reasons this serial is essential: 1) it introduces the Cybermen, and 2) it shows the first regeneration, of the First Doctor into the Second.
SECOND DOCTOR
This other essential serial from Season 4, now with the Second Doctor along Ben and Polly, is its four-part sixth story, “The Moonbase”, another Cybermen serial in the show’s first story taking place on Luna. Episodes 1 and 3 of the four-part serial are animated with the original audio. The Doctor’s companions in this episode are Ben, Polly, and 18th century Highlander Jamie McCrimmon.
(Jamie’s debut story, “The Highlanders”, is unfortunately lost. Only three of its four episodes have been animated, though the audio exists for the other, with still photos from the shoot. It’s worth noting next time you watch New Who Series 2’s “Tooth and Claw” (Episode 2), that the Tenth Doctor introduces himself to Queen Victoria as ‘Dr. James McCrimmon’.)
Season 5
The first essential serial in this season is its six-part third story, “The Ice Warriors”, which introduces the species later seen in a few Classic Who serials and even more prominently in New Who’s “Empress of Mars”. The companions in this serial are Jamie and Victoria Waterfield.
The other essential serial of this season is its six-part fifth story, “The Web of Fear”. This six-parter takes place mostly in the London Underground and introduces (then) Col. Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart with bringing back the Yeti and the Great Intelligence originally seen in this season’s second serial, “The Abominable Snowmen”. The Great Intelligence later appears in three episodes of New Who’s Series 7.
Season 6
The only serial I call essential from this season is its ten-part seventh and final one, “The War Games”. Here we first meet the Time Lords, the Doctor’s people, and witness the forced regeneration of The Doctor into the Third Doctor. The chief villain in the story is a renegade Time Lord called the War Chief. The Second Doctor’s companions, Jamie and Zoe Herriot, are returned by the Time Lords to their own place and time with their memories of their time with the Doctor erased, while the new Third Doctor is exiled to Earth without the ability to use the TARDIS, ending the journey that began at the end of the first episode of the first serial of Season 1.
If the extreme length of this serial is too taxing, you can instead watch the colourized and heavily redacted version released in 2024 which is a mere hour-and-a-half in length compared to about five hours total.
THIRD DOCTOR
Season 7
The only essential serial this season (during the entirety of which the Doctor is exiled to Earth) relative to New Who is its seven-part second story, “Doctor Who and the Silurians”, which introduces the latter. The Doctor’s ‘official’ companion this season is Liz Shaw, though functionally the now Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT is one also.
Season 8
The entire season, with the Doctor still grounded on Earth, forms a very loose arc, with The Master as the villain of each serial, none of which are connected to another except for that, leaving only two serials which can be called essential. The companion this season is Jo Grant, along with members of UNIT Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Sgt. John Benton, and Capt. Mike Alexander Raymond Yates.
The four-part first serial, “Terror of the Autons”, not only introduces the Master, but the Autons seen in the New Who premier episode “Rose”.
The other essential serial this season is the fifth and final one, the five-part, “The Daemons”, which closes out (sort of) the season-length almost arc and is also Jo’s best serial.
Season 9
The Doctor, still exiled on Earth, has the same companions.
The first serial I consider essential, although not relevant to New Who, is its four-part second one, “The Curse of Peladon”, because it is one of the show’s more direct political allegories, this time over the then contemporary issue of whether the UK should join what was then the European Economic Community (later the European Union). It is highly relevant again in the wake of Brexit and its economic and socially destructive aftermath, with the current UK government (at this time Starmer’s Tory-lite Labour) about to bollox things up again.
The other essential serial of this season is its third one, the six-part “The Sea Devils”, introducing the species reintroduced to New Who in the Thirteenth Doctor’s 2022 Easter Special, “The Legend of the Sea Devils”.
Season 10
This season the Doctor starts with the same companions, and the first essential serial the four-part first story, “The Three Doctors”, which is the Doctor Who 10th Anniversary Special. It stars the First, Second, and Third Doctors along with companion Jo Grant. At the end of the serial, the Time Lords grant the Third Doctor his release from exile on Earth, which he leaves behind along with the members of UNIT who have also been his close associates, taking Jo along with him as his companion.
The other essential serial is the fifth and final one, the six-part story “The Green Death”, which brings back Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT and sees the departure of Jo Grant, who is getting married to environmental scientist Prof. Clifford Jones. The story centers on a megalomaniac supercomputer cakked BOSS who is intentionally infecting a lake with a toxic substance.
Season 11
The first essential serial this season is its first, the four-part story, “The Time Warrior”, introducing a new companion, the reporter Sarah Jane Smith, as well as the Sontarans.
The next essential serial is its fourth, the six-part story “The Monster of Peladon”, taking place fifty years later and is another political allegory, this time of the 1972 Miners’ Strike, which broke out in the last weeks of the broadcast of “The Curse of Peladon”.
The last essential serial of this season is its fifth and final six-part story, “Planet of the Spiders”, at the end of which the Doctor regenerates. It also introduces Harry Sullivan, who joins Sarah Jane as a companion the next season.
FOURTH DOCTOR
Season 12
This season forms a loose arc dealing with a single problematic journey of the TARDIS, but its only truly essential serial is the six-part fourth story “Genesis of the Daleks”, in which the Time Lords send the Doctor and companions Sarah Jane and Harry back to Skaro just before Davos turns the Kaleds into Daleks with instructions to wipe them out (he doesn’t). This attempted genocide led to the Time War (according to Russell T. Davis).
Season 13
The first essential serial this season is the four-part first story, “Terror of the Zygons”, which introduces the species who later play major parts in several episodes and arcs of New Who. It also sees Harry depart, leaving Sarah Jane as sole companion.
The next essential serial this season is the four-part third story, “Pyramids of Mars”, which introduces Sutekh, whose presence dominates New Who’s Series 14/Season 1, though it is not revealed until the last episode.
The last essential serial this season the the four-part fifth story, “The Brain of Morbius”, featuring a mindbending contest between the Fourth Doctor and Morbius in which eight of the Doctor’s previous incarnations, unknown to him, are revealed.
Season 14
This season’s first essential serial is its four-part second story, “The Hand of Fear”, important primarily because it’s Sarah Jane last.
The other essential serial this season is it four-part third story “The Deadly Assassin”. It is the only story in Classic Who to feature The Doctor without a companion. It features Gallifrey, the Time Lords, and the Master, and introduces the robes and headgear of the Time Lords, the Matrix, and the six Chapters of the High Council, along with Borusa and Rassilon.
Season 15
The first essential serial of this season is its four-part second story, “The Invisible Enemy”, which introduces the robot ‘dog’ K9 (later K9 Mark I), who joins Leela of the Sevateem as companion of the Doctor.
The other essential serial this season is its six-part sixth and final story, “The Invasion of Time”, in which the Doctor returns to Gallifrey to become its president. It also sees the departure of Leela to stay on Gallifrey with K9 Mark I, intending to marry Andred, Commander of the Chancellary Guard.
Season 16 (‘The Key to Time’)
This season forms a single arc of a six-serial story in which the Doctor and his companions, the Time Lady Romana (I) and K9 Mark II, find one part of the Key of Time in the final episode of each serial. These, all in four parts except for the last which has six, are: “The Ribos Operation”, “The Pirate Planet”, “The Stories of Blood”, “The Androids of Tara”, “The Power of Kroll”, and “The Armageddon Factor”.
However, it is loosely structured enough that if you like, you can focus on just two serials: its second story, “The Pirate Planet”, which is considered the best episode for K9, and its sixth and final story, “The Armageddon Factor”, which closes he arc and also introduces the Black Guardian, later seen in the B’lack Guardian Trilogy’ of Season 20.
Season 17
The first serial of this season, the four-part story “Destiny of the Daleks”, is a sequel to “Genesis of the Daleks”, and features companion Romana II, after Romana I regenerated, along with K9 Mark II.
The next essential serial this season is the four-part second story, “City of Death”, which rivals “Genesis of the Daleks” as the most popular episode for the Fourth Doctor. It was filmed entirely in Paris.
The last essential serial is one I’ve put on the list because of its history; it is the season’s sixth and final story,“Shada”. It went unfinished in 1979 due to a strike in UK. Its six intended parts were broadcast as a single TV movie, with original cast with the filmed live action plus animation to fill in the missing parts, in 2018. On 1 November 2023, a re-edited version of that broadcast in 2018 was released on BBC iPlayer in the originally intended six parts.
Season 18
The two essential serials in this season are the first two serials of The Master Trilogy (or New Beginnings Trilogy): the sixth, “The Keeper of Traken”, and the seventh, “Logopolis”, each with four parts. The second of these is a regeneration episode, which makes it essential, which makes the other two in the trilogy also essential even were they not invariably among the top-rated episodes of the Classic era. The Doctor’s only companion at the start of the trilogy is Adric, with Tegan Jovanka and Nyssa of Traken, who first appeared in the previous serial, added in “Logopolis”.
K9 and Company
Pilot: “A Girl’s Best Friend”
This was a pilot for a spin-off that never made it off the drawing table, but it explains how Sarah Jane ended up with a K9 unit. It feature Third and Fourth Doctor companion Sarah Jane Smith and K9 Mark III, who plays a big part in the New Who era Sarah Jane Adventures.
FIFTH DOCTOR
Season 19
The first essential serial of this season is its four-part first story, “Castrovalva”, which concludes The Master Trilogy
The next essential serial this season is its two-part fifth story, “Black Orchid”, which deserves inclusion because it is the highest rated for serial for the Fifth Doctor.
The last essential serial this season is its four-part sixth story, “Earthshock”, which features the Cybermen, as well as the shocking death of Adric.
Season 20
The three essential episodes this season are its third, fourth, and fifth stories, each of four-parts, which make up the Black Guardian Trilogy, these being third serial “Mawdryn Undead”, fourth serial “Terminus”, and fifth serial “Enlightenment”. Vislor Turlough joins Tegan and Nyssa as a companion of the Fifth Doctor at the beginning of the trilogy. This is generally held to be Tegan’s best episode.
Doctor Who: The Five Doctors
This stand-alone 20th Anniversary Special featured the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Doctors along with companions Sarah Jane Smith, Tegan Jovanka, Susan Foreman, Brigadier Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart, and K9 Mark III.
Season 21
The first essential serial this season is its four-part first story, “Warriors of the Deep”, that features both ancient Earth species, the Silurians and the Sea Devils, which seems relevant in light of the upcoming miniseries, The War Between the Land and the Sea. The Doctor’s companions on this outing are Tegan, Nyssa, and shape-changing android Kamelion.
The next essential serial this season is its two-part (45 minutes each, an exception due to scheduling in this case) fourth story, “Resurrection of the Daleks”, included here because it is one of the better stories about the Daleks, about their schism into the ‘Imperials’ and the ‘Renegades’. It was also Tegan’s last trip, remaining on Earth as the TARDIS takes off with Nyssa and Turlough.
The last essential serial this season is its four-part sixth story, “The Caves of Androzani”, essential if for no other reasons than it is a regeneration episode. It is also, however, one of the highest-rated serials of the entire Classic era.
SIXTH DOCTOR
Season 22
This season marked the one and only during which episodes were a full hour rather than a half-hour long. The Doctor’s companion is Peri Brown.
The first essential serial this season is its two-part second story “Vengeance on Varos”, considered the best for the Sixth Doctor.
The next essential serial this season is its three-part fourth story, “The Two Doctors”, these being the Sixth and the Second, with companion Jamie McCrimmon joining Peri Brown.
The last essential serial this season is its two-part sixth story, “Revelation of the Daleks”, a sequel to “Resurrection of the Daleks”.
Season 23 (‘The Trial of a Time Lord’)
This season, which reverts to the format of half-hour episodes, is one continuing tight arc of three four-part serials, ending with a two-part serial, about the Sixth Doctor being on trial in a court presided over by the Inquisitor in a case prosecuted by the Valeyard, who, according to The Master, is The Doctor’s penultimate incarnation. The four serials (the titles of which were not broadcast, though they were written in the script) are presented as the evidence at the trial. The first story is “The Mysterious Planet”; the second story, “Mindwarp”; the third story is “Terror of the Vervoids”; and the fourth and last story is “The Ultimate Foe”. Peri continues as The Doctor’s companion thru “Mindwarp”, with Melanie Bush joining him in “Terror of the Vervoids”, considered her finest. Besides being the conclusion of the trial, “The Ultimate Foe” is a regeneration episode.
SEVENTH DOCTOR
Season 24
The only essential serial this season is its three-part fourth and final story, “Dragonfire”, which sees the departure of Mel and the coming aboard of Dorothy Gale McShane, who goes simply by ‘Ace’.
Season 25
The first essential story this season is its four-part first story, “Remembrance of the Daleks”, which sees the conclusion of the schism between the Imperials and the Renegades begun in “Resurrection of the Daleks” and continued in “Revelation of the Daleks”.
The other essential story this season is its three-part third story, “Silver Nemesis”, which marks the show’s 25th Anniversary.
Season 26
The first essential serial this season is its four-part third story, “The Curse of Fenric”, included because it is almost universally considered the best for both The Doctor and Ace.
The other essential serial this season is its three-part fourth and last story, “Survival”, which is not one of the more popular but is nonetheless the very last story of Classic Who.
WILDERNESS ERA
This was the period between the end of Classic Who in 1989 and the beginning of New Who in 2005.
Dimensions in Time
Two-part Children in Need Special for the Doctor Who 30th anniversary featuring the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors along with companions Sarah Jane Smith, Ace, K9, Melanie Bush, Peri Brown, Nyssa, Romana, Leela, Mike Yates, Liz Shaw, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Victoria Waterfield, and Susan Foreman facing off against The Rani, with help from several of the EastEnders.
Downtime (TV spin-off pilot)
Features Sarah Jane Smith, Victoria Waterfield, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Professor Edward Travers (from “The Abominable Snowmen” and “The Web of Fear”)
Daemos Rising
This 2004 direct-to-DVD sequel to Downtime and to the Third Doctor serial ‘The Daemons’ featured Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Douglas Cavandish of UNIT.
EIGHTH DOCTOR
Doctor Who: The Television Movie
This 1996 movie, broadcast on UK’s BBC, Canada’s CITV, and
USA’s Fox TV, was intended to be an American-based reboot of Doctor Who, but no
one picked it up. It is the one and only
full-length story to feature the Eighth Doctor.
Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor
In this seven-minute TV minisode, the Eight Doctor visits
the Sisterhood of Karn on Gallifrey during the Time War and is forcibly
regenerated into The Warrior.
THE WARRIOR, aka the War Doctor
The War Doctor (never so-called in the TV show) was especially brought into existence to end the Last Great Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks. His face is seen in a mirror after the regeneration of the Eighth Doctor in The Night of the Doctor. He later appears in alongside the Eleventh Doctor and the Tenth Doctor in the 2013 Autumn Special (25 November) Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor.
Doctor Who: The Last Day
This short TV minisode, three minutes, shows the Fall of
Arcadia thru the eyes of a Gallifreyan soldier.
The Final Battle (aka Leela
vs. the Time War)
This three-minute webcast minisode was released directly on
the BBC Studios website to show what happened to Leela as the Time War ended.
SHALKA DOCTOR
Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka
This six-part 2003 webcast animated miniseries served as the Doctor Who 40th Anniversary Special. It featured the ‘Alternative Ninth’, or Shalka, Doctor with companions Alison Cheney and the ‘Alternative’ Master. The Shalka Doctor was made canon by the appearance of the image of the actor who voiced the role, Richard Grant, during the review of the Fifteenth Doctor’s past lives in Series 14/Season 1’s “Rogue”. However, it is unclear just where he belongs in The Doctor’s timeline.
