A few years back, those looking for new, decent science fiction on American television didn't have many options. Sure SciFi's Battlestar Galactica was off to its brilliant early start, but other than that, Farscape had recently been canned and UPN was in the process of ditching Star Trek: Enterprise. Then the BBC resurrected the long running Doctor Who in 2005. Despite having been around since 1963, a new adventure hadn't been seen since "Doctor Who: The Movie" which aired on FOX here in the US back in the Summer of 1996.
Doctor Who's return in 2005 was a smash right from the start. The combination of Christoper Eccleston as the latest Doctor and his spunky new companion Rose Tyler (played perfectly by Billie Piper) caused such a stir, SciFi nabbed the rights to re-broadcast these new episodes here in the US. With its lighter tone and sly British humor, Doctor Who was everything Lost or Battlestar wasn't. As a result, it played as a perfect companion piece during Saturday/Sunday catch up sessions of that week's fresh recordings.
Tonight marks the third season of Doctor Who on SciFi. Eccleston and Piper have since left the show (Eccleston can currently be seen on NBC's Heroes), and to be perfectly honest, the new Doctor played by David Tennant hasn't completely won me over yet. Last season's early episodes got off to a pretty slow start and I'd be lying if I said I didn't fall asleep through a few of them, but that was until we got to the Love & Monsters episode - which in my opinion was the best 60 minutes of science fiction in 2006.
Will Season 3 be an improvement? Word from the UK where the season has already ran has been mixed. I'm also not sure how I'll take to Freema Agyeman as new companion, Martha Jones. Regardless, there isn't much else on this Summer, so the timing couldn't be better.
Back to back new episodes of Doctor Who begin tonight at 8PM EST on SciFi.
Doctor Who's return in 2005 was a smash right from the start. The combination of Christoper Eccleston as the latest Doctor and his spunky new companion Rose Tyler (played perfectly by Billie Piper) caused such a stir, SciFi nabbed the rights to re-broadcast these new episodes here in the US. With its lighter tone and sly British humor, Doctor Who was everything Lost or Battlestar wasn't. As a result, it played as a perfect companion piece during Saturday/Sunday catch up sessions of that week's fresh recordings.
Tonight marks the third season of Doctor Who on SciFi. Eccleston and Piper have since left the show (Eccleston can currently be seen on NBC's Heroes), and to be perfectly honest, the new Doctor played by David Tennant hasn't completely won me over yet. Last season's early episodes got off to a pretty slow start and I'd be lying if I said I didn't fall asleep through a few of them, but that was until we got to the Love & Monsters episode - which in my opinion was the best 60 minutes of science fiction in 2006.
Will Season 3 be an improvement? Word from the UK where the season has already ran has been mixed. I'm also not sure how I'll take to Freema Agyeman as new companion, Martha Jones. Regardless, there isn't much else on this Summer, so the timing couldn't be better.
Back to back new episodes of Doctor Who begin tonight at 8PM EST on SciFi.
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