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It is for sure. I started watching the new shows with the 9th with my sisters and it's great. I have only seen a few of the old ones. Great joke.

Watch a couple episodes from the second season of the new series (with David Tenant as the 10th doctor) to see if you enjoy it. The first season (to most people I've talked to) is noticeably lesser quality than the subsequent seasons. If you like what you see, then go back and start with the 9th doctor.

I'm in the minority, but I enjoyed the first season. I rate Eccleston higher on my list of Doctors than Smith with the exception of the River Song storyline.

Speaking of old TV shows, I was going through my old DVDs of my all-time favorite TV show The Pretender when I came across this joke from Sydney, a character on the show who is a Psychologist:

I enjoyed that show as well, but Hulu didn't have all the episodes...I still haven't seen how they wrapped up the series.

I started watching with the Eleventh Doctor, but have since gone and caught up on the entire new run. I've only seen a few of the older episodes. My family enjoys the show, and you don't have to be an expert on the old series to watch the new one. (My wife prefers the Tenth Doctor, and my favorite character is River Song. If you watch the NCIS episode Alex Kingston was on, she basically plays River in modern day DC.)

There's no need to see the old series to watch the modern series.  If you don't really know what's going on, it will feel dated and slow.

The first episode of the new series does a fairly good job of explaining what one needs to know for the series.  I agree that the production quality of the first season is weak, but things improve quickly.  The only problem I see with skipping to season two is that it starts with some unexplained time lord mythos.

I'd just start with the beginning of the modern series, as it appear most did (myself included), knowing things will be a little cheesy but will improve.  If you start to lose interest after a couple episodes, skip ahead to season two.

I just recently got into Doctor Who because some friends of mine are really into the show.  I have become quite addicted to it.  I really enjoyed the first doctor from the new series (actually the ninth doctor) and was really disappointed when he left.  I think his performance as the eccentric doctor was magnificent.  I didn't initially like the tenth doctor, but there was an episode where he was really able to let his emotions shine through, and I really began to respect him after that.  I just started watching fifth season of the new parts (so the start of the eleventh doctor) and, so far, I really enjoy his performance.  I think it is definitely starting better than the tenth doctor.

I would say that if you want to start watching Doctor Who?, I would (and did) start with the first of the new seasons.  I did think that the special effects were kind of cheesy to start, but it does get better.  Something that does bother me a bit (although doesn't seem to be new in the showbiz area) is the prevalence of non-Christian values (although I think the spinoff of this show, Torchwood, is worse).  Also, as fair warning, the show is somewhat scary at times, so depending on the age of the kids watching, I might not recommend it.  I know I get the creeps sometimes, but to be fair, I've always been fairly jumpy.  It's mostly the suspense, however, since most of the violence that I can remember is more in the form of laser beams that electrocute or something.  There isn't really any gore or anything that bad that I can think of.

All in all, though, the show is great and I really enjoy the plot for it.  I totally agree with some of the others, I'm really enjoying the River Song aspect to the show, since I just saw some episodes with her in it.  I really enjoy her character.

Doctor Who is like math. It's a lot of fun, but you're going to get turned off and never like it if you start with the boring stuff.

Start with season 2 (David Tennant as the 10th doctor.)

Even adults don't look at stone statues of angels the same anymore

Yeah, I'm afraid to look away from them....

Even though Tennant is my favorite Doctor, I wish Eccleston had at least one more season.

Billie Piper was the real problem with those early episodes.  Eccleston was hurt by proxy.

Really? I much preferred Piper in season one than two. She was adventurous with Eccleston, but when Tennant showed up and became whiny and her character development degraded to "lovesick puppy".

So.....

I gather that it would be okay to start with the 2005 series that begins the ninth doctor. Since there was apparently a 15-year hiatus before it, do they explain the basic premise in the first episode? Or do I need to put the "beginnings" disc from 1963 in my Netflix queue?

I'm picky about not reading reviews or watching trailers for anything that I intend to watch. I have even been skipping many of the posts in this thread that I fear may give something away. I just want to know where to start as someone who knows nothing about Dr. Who, but has to rely on Netflix for viewing. Right now the 2005 series is on streaming, so it would be nice to start there, if it will make sense.

I started where you are, knowing nothing about the series, with watching the beginning of the reboot (2005).

It helped that my roommate had seen much more and could give fuller explanations, but what they tell you in the beginning is enough to keep you informed (though not completely informed as mystery is part of the show ).

They have actually lost many episodes of the first Doctor so I would NOT recommend starting with the original series as it would probably just be more confusing.

Thanks for all your help guys!