Your Doctor Who Homework is Due by Next Saturday
You are aware of the internet so, no doubt, you've already heard everyone raving about the new mini-episode going round the web as a prequel to the November 23rd Doctor Who special. Perhaps you've even watched it and thought to yourself, "Trevor (assuming you call yourself 'Trevor,') I don't see what the big deal is..." Well, here's how you can figure out what said big deal actually is:
The mini-episode starts off with one of the very small handful of races in the galaxy who actually stood up to the Timelords back in the day. Fans who grew up remembering The Brain of Morbius will recall with great enthusiasm just how much awesome was packed into that story. Among the awesome, a planet where ships always seem to crash, on which an old cult of ladies who dislike Timelords go about their business. The Doctor visited them once before. They didn't hit it off well, but he did manage to help them out. So, the first thing you'll want to watch is The Brain of Morbius.
Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a legal way for you to stream this story and I'm not going to upload my old pre-dvd release bootleg. So, you'll have to find some way to watch it on your own. Chances are, you can order it off of Amazon and get it shipped to you in the course of the next week. Barring that, there may be some illegitimate means of streaming it out there, but I wouldn't know what that is.
So, that will give you the backstory you need on the Sisterhood. Next, you'll want to be introduced to the Eighth Doctor. Lucky for you, you're not burdened with an overwhelming abundance of choices in this endeavor. Look for either Doctor Who: The Movie or Doctor Who: The Enemy Within. These are both the same thing, released under different titles over the years. As with the previous story, there doesn't seem to be a legitimate source for streaming video on this one. As with the previous story, I had a bootleg before the dvd was released. As before, I'm not going to share it online somewhere. There is probably an illegitimate source for this video somewhere, but I wouldn't know what to call it or how to link it.
Since you haven't seen it before and you're not a walking repository of Doctor Who canonicity (because, if you had and you were, you wouldn't be here looking for a guide; you'd have already figured this out on your own,) you probably won't be bothered by some of the more severe departures this one-time attempt at Americanizing the Doctor's adventures takes. If you do raise an eyebrow or two, though, just try to reason your way around the weirdness and enjoy the story: For example, perhaps the Daleks were just having an off day. The Master wasn't a space slug, he stole a space slug's body the same way he once stole a Trakenite's. The Doctor isn't actually half human, but he is frequently a liar.
At any rate, it's either watch The Enemy Within or listen to a bunch of the Eighth Doctor audios, so do that. Then you're ready to watch the six minute prequel to next week's special.
And I'll assume that you don't need any background on the Time War, or any of that other new series stuff, because I assume you wouldn't be here asking about Doctor Who if you weren't already somewhat familiar with it.