‘Doctor Who’ Classic Episodes Now Streaming on Tubi

Doctor Who fans in the USA and Canada can now travel back in time to the earliest days of the series – for free. Tubi has just added over 600 episodes of the classic series to its streaming library.

With the return of the long-running series imminent, in the form of three specials reuniting David Tennant with Catherine Tate, viewers can go back to the beginning of the series on Tubi. Over 600 episodes of the series will be available, from the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and his black-and-white adventures, through Tom Baker’s iconic stint as the Fourth Doctor, to the series’ conclusion in 1989, with the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy). The episodes will be organized by Doctor, and Tubi will also provide a “New to Who” collection for new viewers to ease themselves into the intimidating back catalog of the gallivanting Gallifreyan. All of Tubi’s Doctor Who episodes are now available to watch for free on the ad-supported streamer.

What Is Classic ‘Doctor Who’?

First airing in 1963 on the BBC, Doctor Who centered around the humanoid alien Doctor and his companions, who traveled through time and space in the TARDIS, a time machine shaped like a British police box. The series proved enormously popular, especially when its second serial introduced the Daleks, the shrieking cyborgs who proved to be some of the Doctor’s most persistent, and most marketable, enemies. The series was presented with a dilemma when original star William Hartnell wished to retire; the show’s producers came up with “regeneration”, in which a member of the Doctor’s species would transform into a different individual upon their death. This allowed them to recast the lead role, which they proceeded to do multiple times over the series’ long run. Doctor Who ran for decades, becoming part of the UK’s cultural firmament and attracting a cult audience internationally, as well. Ultimately, however, owing to falling ratings and a distaste for the show from BBC executives, the series was canceled in 1989. There were various attempts to revive it over the years, but Russell T. Davies succeeded in 2005, creating a series that succeeded in the UK and abroad, and continues to this day.

Not every episode is available, of course. Many classic Doctor Who episodes were erased from the BBC archives decades ago, as a short-sighted way of reusing videotapes. However, many of those have been recreated using original audio from the episodes coupled with animation recreating the on-screen action; those will also be available on Tubi as Classic Doctor Who: The Animated Lost Stories. Tubi also does not currently have Doctor Who: The Movie, the 1996 TV movie that was part of an aborted American attempt at a new Doctor Who series, starring Paul McGann as the Doctor and Eric Roberts as his nemesis, the Master. It is currently missing the series’ first-ever serial, “An Unearthly Child”, apparently owing to a legal dispute with the son of its original writer.

600 episodes of classic Doctor Who are now streaming on Tubi. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Doctor Who

The adventures in time and space of the Doctor, a Time Lord who changes appearance and personality by regenerating when near death, and is joined by companions in battles against aliens and other megalomaniacs.

Release Date March 17, 2006

Cast Jodie Whittaker, Peter Capaldi, pearl mackie, Matt Smith

Main Genre Sci-Fi

Genres Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Rating TV-PG

Seasons 14

Studio BBC America