ahahaha, yeah, that...that will happen. the embarrassment. there are significant chunks I've just never watched all the way through, not even once.
honestly to watch Eleven, you just need a quick plot summary of the intervening years in the most general terms. The new showrunner is pretty blatantly trying to reinvent it for himself; there's only three episodes from the previous new-Who seasons that are directly referenced. Let me attempt to provide that quick summary:
Ten grows steadily more full of himself and emotionally messed up; two companions are forced to leave in painful circumstances (one of them being a woman he has to memory-wipe to keep her from dying) and one is driven away by the crappy way he treats her; two of those three (not the same two) get sexually or romantically attached to him and that all ends terribly for everyone involved; he goes actualfax insane with hubris, then confronts his psycho ex-boyfriend whom he thought was dead(after their last confrontation in season three of the new series), then said psycho ex dies again. Then Ten dies and regenerates, and season 5 picks up literally seconds later. That is seriously all you need to know. More than you need to know, really.
(The three episodes that are actually required viewing for season 5 are "Blink" from s3 and "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" from s4.)
no subject
honestly to watch Eleven, you just need a quick plot summary of the intervening years in the most general terms. The new showrunner is pretty blatantly trying to reinvent it for himself; there's only three episodes from the previous new-Who seasons that are directly referenced. Let me attempt to provide that quick summary:
Ten grows steadily more full of himself and emotionally messed up; two companions are forced to leave in painful circumstances (one of them being a woman he has to memory-wipe to keep her from dying) and one is driven away by the crappy way he treats her; two of those three (not the same two) get sexually or romantically attached to him and that all ends terribly for everyone involved; he goes actualfax insane with hubris, then confronts his psycho ex-boyfriend whom he thought was dead(after their last confrontation in season three of the new series), then said psycho ex dies again. Then Ten dies and regenerates, and season 5 picks up literally seconds later. That is seriously all you need to know. More than you need to know, really.
(The three episodes that are actually required viewing for season 5 are "Blink" from s3 and "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" from s4.)