A Beginner’s Guide to Doctor Who: Everything You Need to Know to Jump In with Series 7

Doctor Who is an international phenomenon. It’s the longest-running genre series in television history (2013 is its 50^th anniversary) with a rabid fan base and, since its return in 2005, fairly wide-spread critical acclaim. With such a long history, it would be easy to feel intimidated or unable to jump in, but Doctor Who constantly reinvents itself, providing any number of valid jumping in points. With series seven beginning this Saturday, Sept. 1^st on BBC America, now’s as good a time as any to check it out and see what all the buzz is about. For those who still want some backstory, here are some basics about each of the main characters, and make sure to check out the Doctor Who season premiere this Saturday!

The Madman: The Doctor is a Time Lord, an alien from a planet called Gallifrey whose people were masters of time and space. Time Lords look human, but differ in a few significant ways. They have two hearts, one on each side, they experience time differently, being able to sense which moments are malleable and which are Fixed Points in Time which must not change, lest time unravel, and they regenerate. Regeneration is a process of cheating death that saves them when mortally wounded. Instead of dying, each cell in their body changes, healing the Time Lord, but while the memories of the previous regenerations remain, the personality and body of the earlier regeneration are replaced by a new incarnation.

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