Doctor Who

Possibly controversially: Blink.

It's one of the best ever episodes. It doesn't involve timelord-sonic-magic or the TARDIS and is located on earth.

It's similar to the way Iain M. Banks wrote his first Culture novel from the perspective of an outsider and their situation.

Blink
The Family of Blood
The Empty Child
The Girl in the Fireplace

the first Matt Smith episode shows a good example of what the Doctor is about

Look, Blink, The empty child, Partners in crime and a bunch others are some of my favorites. But the proper entry point should be The eleventh hour.

I don’t think any other episodes explains The Doctor better than this. Is not the best episode but by the end you get a sense of who The Doctor is.

I would try to find the old Doctor Who episode where they land on a marshmallow world and, like, at the end, the marshmallow world melts because it's made out of marshmallow.

Edge of Destruction. You can't beat the best TARDIS-based adventure.

Keys of Marinus

I think the start of series 10 is a good way to discover what it's about and can do 🤔

But I'll try it with a friend who heard of Dr Who but never watched and find out if it actually is a good starter.

bells of st john because im biased and that was my first one too also any ace/seven just because they're amazing

Rose. For better or worse, it definitely feels like all of Doctor Who distilled into a single episode, in addition to being the first New Who episode and establishing the core themes and concepts well. The Doctor being mysterious and charismatic, the feelings of adventure, the great character moments and thought-provoking concepts, and yes, that the show is often incredibly hokey.

I kind sort of just think that Doctor Who isn't for everyone, and I promise I don't mean that in a gatekeeping way. Different eras resonate more than others, and that's awesome, but most of New Who has the same campy DNA. Some people will find the camp and low-budget effects endearing, some will be completely turned off by it and stop watching, and others will be willing to look past it because they're sold on everything else.

There's some good one-shot episodes that probably don't do a good job representing what Doctor Who is, warts and all, or in a ways that establish continuity and theme. I've known quite a few people in my day who were introduced famous self-contained episodes, but then fall off quick after trying to watch the show.

The one with daleks doing butt stuff.