Doctor Who Headcanon Reimagined, 1: Doctor Who?

Having been watching Doctor Who on and off but mostly off for the last forty years, I am excited by the current re-re-rebooted series featuring the fourteenth and fifteenth doctors. After a divisive Twelfth Doctor, and a Thirteenth Doctor who was, herself, very interesting and entertaining, but whose overall storyarc was less than satisfying, I'm relieved to be optimistic about the show, even if it still had a couple of clunker episodes.

I've already done a How To Watch Doctor Who project that focuses just on the great episodes, and how to watch them in order for most enjoyment.

This is something different.

If you love continuity, you're going to either want to skip this one or watch it very, very closely. This is Doctor Who told incredibly out of order. Each series will have a theme and/or a complex storyline. Each season will use multiple Doctors and companions, and will rarely (but not never) follow their adventures in such a way that you see a companion's growth as a character.

I did this, not just because I think it's fun to try and experience the series in a new way but I offer this to people who haven't watched Doctor Who, who would like to see some of the old episodes but can't stomach watching the 20th century episodes for several months in order to get to the modern stuff. We start modern and bop around so that you're never stuck in the black and white era or the 4,000 minute long serial era for very long.

The first season is all about learning who The Doctor is. He's a seemingly somewhat immortal time traveler, and when he gets really ill, he regenerates into an entirely different looking/behaving person who tend to have a sort of temporary amnesia. We're going to be introduced to the first thirteen Doctors (except 4) in this season, out of order, usually including their first episodes where they are unsure what kind of person they are and struggle to get a handle on their new personas.

The first 13 doctors, art by @Aaroonio

101. Blink
(10, Martha, Weeping Angels)

Some argue that this a terrible introduction to Doctor Who because The Doctor is hardly in it. That's why I enjoy it as an entryway. This is a fun sci-fi/horror story with a mysterious character who we're soon going to get to know. And there are really imaginative monster antagonists.


​102 & 103. The Family Of Blood / Human Nature
(10, Martha)

Now we find out who The Doctor i---oh, The Doctor has to go into hiding during World War One. His companion is there watching over him but racism is making things difficult. As are aliens.


104. Time Heist
(12, Clara)

An entirely different face of The Doctor and a new companion find themselves in the middle of a bank heist with no memory of how they got involved and what their aims are. They puzzle it out as shenanigans unravel around them.


105. The Woman Who Fell To Earth
(13, Ryan, Yasmin, Graham)

Another another face for The Doctor. This time a woman who acknowledges she was just a raving Scotsman. She meets a new crew of potential companions tracking down a monster who appears to be hunting humans for...teeth?


106. The Invasion (episodes 2, 7 & 8)
(2, Jamie, Zoe, Brigadier, Cybermen)

It's Cybermen vs UNIT (we are meeting both for the first time), as a black and white era Doctor must make military alliances on Earth to keep it from being destroyed.


107. War Games (episodes 1, 9 & 10)
(2, Jamie, Zoe, Timelords)

Yet another face of The Doctor and a couple of his companions find themselves in the midst of a very confusing war. Just as they begin to sort everything out and plot their escape they're taken to The Doctor's home planet where they are separated, and we learn a little bit about how The Doctor's face keeps changing.


108. Spearhead From Space
(3, Brigadier, Liz, Autons)

Picking up from the previous episode for the first time, we meet a new and confused face of The Doctor and see him interact with someone who was familiar with a previous face. We also meet the Autons, an odd race of mannequins.


109. Terror Of The Autons
(3, Brigadier, Jo, Mike, Autons, The Master)

More mannequins! More Brigadier! The introduction of a very important villain who also appears to be a Time Lord.


110. Rose
(9, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Autons)

This is probably the last time we'll see The Autons. It's much further down The Doctor's timeline, and they're targeting London. Once again, there's a new face of The Doctor, and he's trying to get a hold on who he is.


111. The Christmas Invasion
(10, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Harriet Jones)

Oh, hey, we're back to the very first face of The Doctor we met this season. Only, oooh, this is his first adventure. Is it those damned mannequins again? Luckily, we have three companions from the last episode to help a seemingly exhausted Doctor remember who he is and what he should be doing: saving Earth from aliens! 


112. The Eleventh Hour
(12, Amy, Rory)

Another another another face of The Doctor, also confused, lands on Earth and discovers cracks on a young girl's wall. We also see for the first time several of the faces he's already had on this weird journey.


113. & 114. The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood
(12, Amy, Rory, Silurians)

The Doctor's companions from the last adventure join him on a drilling expedition where they go too far beneath The Earth's surface and get involved in interspecies warfare.


115. Vincent & The Doctor
(12, Amy)

After the previous episode's events, The Doctor takes Amy to visit one of Earth's greatest painters.


116 & 117. Silence In The Library / Forest Of The Dead
(10, Donna, River)

Back to our original Doctor. He and a friend are drawn to a library where an expedition has arrived to research why there are no people there. One of the members of the expedition seems to know The Doctor but he has no idea who she is.


118. Time Crash / Castrovalva
(10, 5, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, The Master)

This is a fun, weird continuity floof. Our friend the 10th Doctor runs into a face we haven't met yet (The Fifth Doctor), and they suss each other out. Then we follow The Fifth Doctor into his first adventure where he wakes up surrounded by companions who know him but, as we're becoming accustomed to, he isn't sure who he is or what he should be doing. Oh, and The Master is around, which is annoying.


119. The Enemy Within
(7, 8, The Master)

Two new faces in one! The Seventh Doctor has The Master's remains, and is trying to determine what to do with them when, of course, something goes awry that ends up causing The Doctor to regenerate in America where everything is a teensy bit darker and more violent.


120. The Fugitive Of The Judoon
(13, Yasmin, Ryan, Graham, Judoon, Fugitive)

And now we're back to the Steampunk Doctor. A military alien race has quarantined Earth as they search for a criminal who, you're never going to believe this, turns out to be Another face of The Doctor.


121.  The Two Doctors
(6, 2, Jamie, Peri, Sontarans)

Another multiple Doctor affair sees some Sontarans and some Earthlings and some other rogue aliens teaming up. One of the alien races is always searching for new and more refined culinary experiences and they bring a very silly element to an otherwise grave situation.


122. War Of The Sontarans
(13, Yasmin, Dan, Sontarans)

There's not a silly culinary alien in sight when The Sontarans due to some weird timey-wimey scenario, end up on Earth during World War One and therefore on Earth for the entirety of the 20th and 21st century? Steampunk Doctor must try and correct a very jumbled history. 


123. & 124. The Time Meddler
(1, Vicki, Steve)

Reaching way back into the black and white era, we see The Doctor and his companions have to deal with The Monk, another time traveler who is messing up history by exposing ancient civilizations to twentieth century technology.


125. Heaven Sent
(12)

It's just The Doctor. Trapped in a puzzle, he must figure out not only how to escape but why he's there but every time a mysterious entity reaches him, he is dissolved and has to start the quest over. It's a phenomenal episode and shows exactly who The Doctor is when he's focused and against insurmountable odds.