My family and I have been watching the new series of Doctor Who every Friday night for many years now. We are currently at the beginning of Peter Capaldi’s era as The Doctor and this is at least our fourth round through the entire thing.
Watching the series over and over and over again gives me a new perspective on each episode every time I watch them. My love for the best episodes deepen, and my irritation at stories I didn’t like the first time around tend to flatten. And I’m constantly noticing things I didn’t notice before.
So it is interesting to read this review of Series Seven all these years later (I originally wrote it in 2013). I apparently wasn’t so keen on it back then (at least not the second half). I’ve come ’round to Clara Oswald a great deal since then and find most of the episodes to be quite good. Strangely, I didn’t mention Amy and Rory’s final episode in the review (other than noting I was sad to see them go) and it is now one of my least favorite episodes of their tenure as companions.
Anyway, you can read my thoughts here.
themidnightcafe.org 
I was a big Dr Who fan back when it was being repeated from the BBC at our local Public TV station…but this was maybe 80-early 90’s?)…When I was finally able to source them, I bought a LOT of VERY expensive DVD’s of released Who’s, specifically the Tom Baker years. When it resurfaced from its dormancy I was into other stuff and since I would have had to start with “new Who’s” there was a “why bother” mindset by then….so I just “boo-Who’d” and went on with Life. People have suggested I should visit the new iterations, especially now since I can actually find them. When the new series came out initially they were on cable and streaming and all those other modern ways of bleeding money, and I just had better things to do with my disposable income than constantly “rent” from “services” (like who’s serving who, really? I dwell too much on that subject to go into it here). All to say that Matt’s review history looks like a go-to way for me to dive into the parts of the series I never even experienced the first time! Thanks Matt!
In America classic Doctor Who started airing on PBS stations in the early 1980s I think. It started with the Tom Baker years. I remember watching a few of those as a kid, but they aired late on Saturday Nights and I was usually told to go to bed before then.
I do remember watching one story (with the Daleks) and it scared me so bad I had to ask mom to come lay down with me for a bit so I could sleep. I was probably 13 or so at the time so old enough that I was embarrassed to ask, but not so old that I just powered through it 🙂
My wife was a pretty good fan of those old stories so she was excited when New Who came about. But do to various circumstances she never got a chance to watch very many of them. I can remember her catching it sometimes and scoffing at it because it looked so silly.
But then we had a baby. That limited our traveling and gallivanting so we stayed home a lot and binge watched TV. One day I decided to put on Doctor Who and we started with the very first Christopher Eccleston episode. It took me a few episodes to get hooked but once it got its claws into me it never let go.
I do think New Who is very much worth watching. There are highs and lows of course, but overall it is a very entertaining series. It is all now available to stream on Disney + or you can purchase the DVD/Blu-rays fairly cheaply.
I love Classic Who as well. That’s streaming on Britbox here in the States and they have been releasing complete seasons on Blu-ray for a relatively decent price.