Doctor Who is one of the most prolific television franchises of all time, with its core series boasting nearly 900 episodes in total. There’s a tremendous archive of stories for fans to dig into, but outside of the UK, where they are consolidated on the BBC iPlayer, those stories are split across multiple streaming platforms. If you’re a completionist, watching everything may require some bouncing around, but we’ve done most of the homework for you.
Here’s how American viewers can explore the entire Whoniverse from their couch.
Most of classic Doctor Who is on Tubi
The majority of the original run of Doctor Who, which aired from 1963 to 1989 and featured the first seven incarnations of the beloved Time Lord, is available to stream for free outside of the UK on Tubi. Tubi began streaming classic Who in 2023 in commemoration of the show’s 60th birthday, offering episodes on-demand, as well as hosting a channel that streams the show 24 hours a day.
Tubi’s library even includes a number of animated episodes created by the BBC over the past few decades to replace chapters that have seen the original footage go missing. A sizable chunk of the 1960s run was lost shortly after broadcast due to BBC’s then-commonplace practice of erasing and reusing tapes of old programs that they imagined no one would miss. Some episodes are still missing, but thanks to decades of work by archivists, animators, and fans, nearly the entire missing portion of Patrick Troughton’s tenure as the Second Doctor can be seen once again, albeit in a different form than its producers had imagined.
However, there are some curious gaps in Tubi’s archive that can be filled on a different streaming service…
Stream Doctor Who on Tubi.
BritBox has Doctor Who episodes that Tubi doesn’t
BritBox is the BBC and iTV’s international subscription streaming service, offering a deep library of new and old British TV shows, including classic Doctor Who. BritBox’s Who archive is actually smaller than the one available for Tubi for free. BritBox, for example, is missing most of the reconstructed animated episodes, making its offering of Second Doctor stories anemic by comparison.
However, Tubi is missing the very first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child, likely due to a rights dispute between the BBC and the estate of the episode’s writer, Anthony Coburn. However, for reasons unknown, all four episodes of The Unearthly Child are streaming on BritBox.
Doctor Who is streaming on BritBox.
Doctor Who Series 5 is spread across two different services
Series 5 of the classic Doctor Who series, starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, consists of seven stories spread across 40 episodes. Of those 40 episodes, 18 are “lost,” but 15 have been recreated using new animation and recovered audio recordings. Because these animated episodes were created by different companies at different times, their streaming rights are apparently managed separately.
The animated recreations of The Abominable Snowman and Fury from the Deep (a cumulative 16 episodes) are available on Tubi, but not on BritBox.
Meanwhile, BritBox includes the six-part stories The Web of Fear and The Wheel in Space, with the incomplete chapters being presented using still images to fill in for missing footage. All 12 of these episodes are missing from Tubi.
The Ice Warriors, which was completed via animation in 2013, is on neither service.
More lost episodes can be found elsewhere
Over the course of decades, fans and archivists have compiled audio recordings from every lost episode of Doctor Who. The BBC has collected the audio from missing episodes and repackaged them as audio dramas, adding narration to describe the physical action. These audio collections, Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes, are available wherever you stream audiobooks.
These audio adaptations may soon be obsolete, as the BBC continues to commission more animated productions using the recovered audio. As of this writing, 15 “lost” stories have gotten the cartoon treatment, with no signs of slowing down despite the shrinking home video market. Whether or not further restorations will be added to the streaming libraries on Tubi or BritBox remains to be seen.
You can stream Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes at the Internet Archive.
Doctor Who: The TV Movie isn’t streaming anywhere
At the time of this writing, the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie produced in the U.S. and starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor isn’t legally available to stream anywhere. It can still be purchased on Blu-ray and DVD.
The 2000s Doctor Who revival is all on Max
Doctor Who returned to television in 2005, retaining its continuity, but offering a clean jumping-on point for a new generation of viewers. In the 21st century, when someone says they’re a fan of Doctor Who, this is typically the show they’re talking about, and the most natural place to start. Every episode of the revived Doctor Who is currently streaming on Max, with the Christmas specials or other event episodes integrated seamlessly into the play order.
This version of the series continued until 2022, running for 13 seasons and featuring Doctors Nine through Thirteen (plus a few extra incarnations for good measure). This version of the series continues directly into the next, which you’ll need a different streaming subscription to watch in the U.S.
Stream the Doctor Who revival on Max.
The new new Doctor Who is on Disney+
Beginning in 2023, Doctor Who found a new home outside of the UK on Disney+. This run of stories begins with four 60th anniversary specials: The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder, The Giggle, and The Church on Ruby Road, which bridge the gap between the previous run and the new one. Fans who are new to Doctor Who will likely want to start with The Church on Ruby Road, the first full story featuring the franchise’s new standard-bearer, Ncuti Gatwa, as the Fifteenth Doctor. Season 1 of the new series began in May 2024.
Perhaps one day, all f15 doctors and their companions will have a single streaming home outside of the U.K., allowing die-hards and curious newcomers alike to watch the entire series straight through. Still, compared to tunneling through time and space, flipping between a few streaming services isn’t so much work. Allons-y!
The new season of Doctor Who is streaming on Disney+.
