Best age to start watching Doctor Who?

[intrinsical]

I have a young nephew who's currently 4 years old and I kinda view it as my sacred duty to hook him on scifi as his parents are not interested in scifi.

I figured I'll introduce him to Doctor Who first as its aimed at children. He's probably still too young, but what's the best age to start introducing him to The Doctor? Also, which series should I start with (I'm thinking Eleventh Hour would be a good place)?

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

If he's old enough to enjoy watching television then he's probably okay to start watching Doctor Who. The Eleventh Hour is the best one to start with because Matt's Doctor is the most silly and child-like. All the kiddies loved him!

 

[Volpone]

I first started when I was 8. I know this because Wiki tells me that's the year "Battle of the Planets," the American edit of "Gatchaman" came out. And one of them started 10 minutes after school let out (in the days before VCRs), so every day I'd furiously pedal my Huffy Evel Knievel bike home to watch G-Force defeat Zoltar and then the Doctor and Sarah defeat Morbius and Dr. Solon.

So 8 is not too early, for what that's worth.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

My now six-year-old girl was able to watch a number of Matt Smith episodes with me as they aired... She watched some Capaldi, and does like his Doctor, but the monsters (and their presentation) are just too scary for her. We went to the DW Experience in Cardiff this summer, and she loved "piloting" the TARDIS with the Doctor as well as aiding him in his search for clues, but was too scared when encountering the Daleks and Weeping Angels "live". Despite this, she loves her talking red Dalek plushie.

Perhaps she's into a more skittish phase now, but hand mines, eyeless Doctor ghosts, and Christmas facehuggers are too nightmare-inducing than she can bear for now. I'm hoping that this year's Christmas special is light-hearted enough that she can join her mom and me...

Mark

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't think you should watch Doctor Who until you're old enough to get your heart broken at the end of "Doomsday."

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Any age is suitable. Some of my earliest non-cartoon television memories are Reading Rainbow, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Doctor Who, particularly The Fourth and Seventh Doctors. If he's old enough to understand an adventure is going on, then he's old enough to be swept away by Doctor Who.

I don't think you should watch Doctor Who until you're old enough to get your heart broken at the end of "Doomsday."

That's only the smallest, remotest aspect of Doctor Who. 52 years of the show shouldn't be cast aside simply because you're not "old enough to get your heart broken." What rubbish.

 

[Starkers]

I still can't be old enough to get my heart broken by the end of Doomsday

I'd be vaguely tempted to start to start with the Sarah Jane Adventures. 4 does seem a little young for the parent show (then again my earliest Who memory is probably a snippet of Planet of the Spiders, which means I was about 3). Kids are strange though, a child might be fine with Weeping Angels but be terrified of the Adipose

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

^ The Weeping Angels will haunt me for eternity. I'll never get that image out of my head.

 

[intrinsical]

You know what? I think I might get him Sarah Jane Adventures now, save Doctor Who for a couple years down the road.

 

[auntiehill]

I think 8 -12 is the perfect age to start Doctor Who. You're old enough not to be scared silly by it, or totally confused, and just old enough to get how cool it is.

 

[intrinsical]

I think 8 -12 is the perfect age to start Doctor Who. You're old enough not to be scared silly by it, or totally confused, and just old enough to get how cool it is.

I'm not sure that's true. I saw one or two episodes of Pertwee when I was around 10. It confused me so much that even to this day I have very vivid memories of how confused I was. A old man that spoke English but nothing that came out of his mouth made sense. Driving a yellow vintage car that suddenly could fly? It was amazing, confusing but amazing.

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't think you should watch Doctor Who until you're old enough to get your heart broken at the end of "Doomsday."

That's only the smallest, remotest aspect of Doctor Who. 52 years of the show shouldn't be cast aside simply because you're not "old enough to get your heart broken." What rubbish.

Take things a little less seriously, please.

 

[Stevil2001]

Back in the early 2000s, I showed classic Doctor Who to the kids I babysat: The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, The Curse of Fenric, I forget what else. They were like 5 and 6 or so, and I created fans for life. (They're in college now; I hope they tell their friends they liked it long before it was cool.)

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Closing the loop on my daughter's experience, we all watched the special last night and she largely enjoyed it. She got scared when the big bad went all monologuey, but then I told her it was just like a big mean Baymax she calmed down.

Mark

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

^ The robot so reminded me of Baymax!

 

[Volpone]

HA! I didn't know who Baymax was, so I Googled it and at least one hit was "What was Baymax doing in Dr. Who?" with side by side comparison photos.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

That's why the robot looked so familiar! I couldn't put my finger on it.

 

[intrinsical]

Of all the stumbling blocks, I never expected that my nephew's family does not own a DVD or Blue-ray player. Which is funny because his father works in the software industry and he has a pretty good media setup with a karaoke player, a huge tv, cable tv and a sizable set of speakers. Or maybe I should go mobile, find a way to let my little nephew watch shows on his parent's iPhones?

 

[Ithekro]

It freaked me out at age 4 or 5 (first part of Seeds of Doom. People changing into plants was a fear.). It seemed dumb as a teenager (though I think I kept seeing one of the bad Dalek episodes, as that's all I remember, not being able to take them seriously. I don't even know which Doctor it was, could have been Peter Cushing for all I know) Then got into it recently by managing to see good episode and then working back in time.

 

[Overgeeked]

If they're that young, start with either Rose or Partners in Crime. Moffat's era isn't quite what I'd call kid friendly. Davies' era is much easier to start with, and much more kid friendly.